Caste System
My two cents on the caste system.
1. Varnasrama
The “caste system” as it exists today is very much a degenerate version of varnasrama – a technical classification of personality types, conceived a couple of thousand years before Carl Jung and his theory of personality archetypes . Varna = variations, variegations, colors, tones, differences, spectrums, categories, classifications. Srama = labor, exertion, training.
Varnasrama was based on ones gunas (tendencies, qualities) and ones karma (actions), unlike the caste system which is based on ones birth or lineage.
चातुर् वर्नयम् मया श्रस्तम गुन कर्म विभागसः |
The four varnas were created by Me in accordance to the distribution of ones qualities and actions.
- Bhagavad Gita, 4.13
ब्राह्मण क्षत्रिय विशां शूद्राणां च परंतप |
कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभाव प्रभवैर् गुनैः ||Brahamana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra;
the duties are distributed according to the qualities inherent in ones innate nature.
- Bhagavad Gita, 18.41
In short, varnasrama is a social classification based on the following four types of workers:
- Brahmin: Those motivated by knowledge, teaching. Carry the higher responsibility of questioning the moral rightness or dharma of every decision or action they take. Predominantly sattvic guna. Strictly speaking people of this varnasrama are those who apply Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras as their way of life.These people enjoy being keepers, seekers, and transmitters of knowledge, including art. A good example of such are researchers, teachers, and artists.
- Kshatriya: Those motivated by power and control; the desire to lead, having leadership and organizational skills. Carry the responsibility of enforcing dharma. Predominantly sattvic-rajasic guna.These people enjoy being leaders, they enjoy decision making, exercise power, and mastery in politics. A good example might be some of the really dynamic managers in your company who thrive on leading.
- Vaishya: Those motivated by being able to “do things” or “make things”. Predominantly rajasic-tamasic guna.These people are workers, in particular “skilled” workers. They produce things, what they do they do to their best. A good example of this might be most of the software developers in your company.
- Sudra: Those who are happy to do any work; they take very little to be motivated. Predominantly tamasic guna.These people are the casual (“unskilled”) workers who are easy to motivate – because they’re happy to do anything you give them.
One might compare varnasrama to Jungian personality types – just that the Hindus came up with the idea about six thousand years ago (not to mention that Jung was a scholar in Sanskrit studies, could he have expropriated the concept?).
Note that things like vegetarianism, cleanliness, successful career, chivalry, artistic talents, combat skills, courteousness, charity, what you wear, skin color, etc. have at the very least only a peripheral bearing (and for the most part no bearing at all) on determining ones varnasrama.
Society cannot function harmoniously when it denies the fact that people are of different varnas. Ideally, a person would make his or her educational and career choices based on their personal temperaments or inclinations. Otherwise there is the risk of taking up (often out of social stigma or pressure) something one is not talented in nor has any interest in. Resulting in feelings of dissatisfaction, loss, and even an inferiority, and as a consequence a detriment to the well being of the society as a whole. This connection between varna and career brings us to the next topic, jaati.
Prakriti
One note before we get into jaati: while varnasrama itself is not established by birth, there is an component which is established at birth and environment: ones prakriti (ones material constituents). It goes beyond chemical make up, all the way down to and beyond the quantum level, where It is the doer. That is, your thoughts and actions largely influenced by your chemical makeup. Those who have attained high states of consciousness realize that they are just the witness, and that the doer is the jiva-atman tainted by prakriti. Note, that prakriti is not genetics. Thus why genetics alone fails to explain how in a family lineage that has traditionally produced kids who have a talent for music can produce a kid who has absolutely no talent for music, but say mathematics (and vice versa). Theories of dominant and recessive traits fail to apply here.
2. Jaati
As we saw, varnasrama is a scientific classification based on personality types. Over time these four varnas differentiated into many, and became equated to not to a personality type, but to profession or jaati
Each person performed the duty as prescribed by his jaati (jaati-dharma). So for example if you say are an engineer – you belong to the engineer jaati/profession. If you are a goldsmith, then you belong to the goldsmith jaati/profession. Though listed here as a one-to-one correspondence to varnasrama, a jaati may actually be composed of multiple varnas of varying proportions.
- Brahmin: teacher, scientist, guru, minister, priest, poet, architect (i.e. most white collar workers)
- Kshatriya: leader, politician, planner, decision maker, governor, kings, generals. (i.e. most white collar workers to upper class blue collar workers)
- Vaishya: businessman, banker, merchant, goldsmith, landlord, etc. (i.e. most middle class blue collar workers)
- Sudras: builder, brick layer, farmer, servant, cleaner, municipal worker, etc. (i.e. most middle to lower class blue collar workers)
The degeneration of jaati may be traced as follows:
First it started with the tradition of families handing down their profession to their children. Successors “to the throne” were groomed for their job, in order to preserve family tradition, speciality, and name – whether it be a doctor, politician, or engineer – people start marrying only within their jaati. This was also very prevalent in many parts of the world as well, to marry within ones own creed. With jaati becoming a family tradition, handed down from generation to generation, came inevitably the idea of “you are born into it”. That is, once born into a royal family you are royal. Once born into a family of goldsmiths, you are by default almost destined to be a goldsmith.
Last but not least, enter politics into the picture to exploit jaati. There is nothing worse than causing divisiveness within people and polarizing them against each other, all for the purpose of creating controllable constituencies for reeling in votes. Along with that, arose the close cousin of politics – power. At this point the idea of “being born into a jaati” becomes enforced through a socio-political structure. That is, not only are you born into a jaati, but the only way to be a particular jaati is that you have to born into it. Thus the royal people remain royal without fear of being challenged by the working people.
Advantages of Jaati
While the caste system warrants no merit whatsoever, the jaati system has some benefits.
Jaati (being based on varnasrama) recognizes that people are different, and produces different levels of education and work opportunities. For example, before the British every province had hundreds of gurukulams – each catering to a level and type of education geared towards people of different qualities and aptitudes (varnas). This system of education was so tailored that no one was left out. With the systematic dismantling of gurukulums by the British, children of different aptitudes and socio-economic backgrounds were forced to compete under the same roof. In fact, I’d say such a system is barbaric. The consequences were tragic. Jaati’s began to actually become backward (as in backward classes).
The concept of jaati also emphasizes that of community over individualism. In a jaati system a person always carrys himself with some dignity, as he belongs to and takes pride in his jaati, in what he does best (regardless of whether it is a white or blue collar job). There is no feeling stigmatized that his job may be “too low” in the ladder.
Another advantage, is that this feeling of oneness or close kinship to ones jaati made it frustrating for Christians and Muslims to attempt to convert them. India is the only country whose 6,000 year culture still remains intact and vibrant despite over 1100 years of Christian and Muslim onslaught and billions of dollars worth of missionary activity vested in India.
Jaati (before it degenerated) is as close to the term “profession” then one might think, just that the name of the profession is not in English (it is in local vernacular), and secondly, it is way outdated for its time. For example, have jaati’s in native dialect, for farmers, goldsmiths, merchants, etc. Today’s jaati’s are for example: software engineer, architect, call-center operator, doctor, project manager.
3. Caste
Though the exploitation based on jaati was prevalent, it was never a “racial” discrimination, for the concept of “race” never existed in India. Nor were there any complexes – no one superior or inferior to other. Each simply carried out his jaati-dharma, no more different than engineers, doctors, scientists, skilled workers, non-skilled workers, etc. do what they do without feeling of superiority/inferiority complex.
But this peaceful cooperative co-existence was destroyed by greed and further exploited and accentuated by the British Empire (by allurement, by introducing the notion of race, breeding mistrust). In their spirit of divide-and-conquer, they pitted one jaati against another. The term “caste” itself was introduced by Portuguese missionaries when they invaded India with extreme brutality, in the early 15th century. The word “caste” comes from the Portuguese word casta – meaning race [which in turn has the Latin roots - casto - meaning pure].
One should note that caste is prevalent in the West as well, as in the USA where people play the caste card with Hispanics, Blacks, the Christian Right, Muslims, gays, the rich and famous, the homeless, white collar workers (IT, businessmen), blue collar workers, immigrants,… For instance, a number of cities are segregated (and hardly get visibility on the radar when it comes to politics). Take Washington D.C. – the whole of South-East D.C. is almost exclusively Black population (newscasters are careful to make the distinction – inner city versus outer city kids for example). Caste system is present in Christian culture, and has been for most of its history: slavery, imperialism, feudalism, and serfdom. The caste system is also present widely in Muslim culture as witnessed by the many groups within Islam that are very intolerant and destructive of one another, and strictly prohibiting marriage outside their caste, etc. The same can be said about Christians (Roman Catholic, Syrian Christian, Protestant, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Adventist, Unitarian, etc.). In fact Indian Christians are not even welcome in many of the churches in the USA.
The caste system continues as a degenerate class structure, mainly kept alive by power struggle, politics, and tribal tradition.
4. Tribalism
There is a fourth element, that operates orthogonally – and that is tribalism.
As if the degeneration of varnasrama, to jaati, and then to caste were not enough, the juxtaposition of caste on otherwise peaceful tribal communities (which was and is most of India), results in a really toxic mixture, that is so far removed from the precursors of caste. That mixed with local politics (binding caste over natural tribal feelings of community), has resulted in clashes and violence that borders on barbarism. As a result of which, for most of India, it is not as much caste clashes, as they are caste clashes fueled by tribal instincts, or simply putting it, tribal clashes. For most of India, the question should not be what’s your caste? but what tribe do you belong to?
It is an important factor as it is a natural instinct that precedes even any concept of varnasrama or jaati. Tribalism is so pervasive that even modern societies have not been untouched by it. However tribalism in the West (for most of their two thousand or so years of history) is based mostly on the most negative of traits, such as racism, prejudice, and feelings of superiority. It is also seen on a grander scale, such as when an entire nations tribal instinct are rallied and taken to go to war on another nation.
Conclusion
Buying into the concept of “caste” (i.e. race/birth based distortion of jaati and varnasrama) was one of the biggest sell out ever. Once a person believes he is “born into” a certain jaati, he takes it for granted, and thus no longer strives to live up to the highest standards set for that jaati (one’s jaati dharma), and that jaati declines. This is a great loss to the society as a whole as well as to that jaati/community, as it causes false-pride – like “I am proud to be a (or call myself a) xxxxx”. The person himself, a poor example of exemplifying his jaati dharma, simply rides upon the coattails of what was already established.
It is a good sign that a number of new generation folks say they don’t believe in caste. But do they really? While the caste system is flawed, caste communities are tight knit, and even people who deny caste associations still become defensive when it comes to criticism of their caste community. If one were to really reject caste, one must be prepared to not only make, but take criticism, without any reservation, of any caste.
Communities based on jaati are important (as highlighted in the Advantages of Jaati section above), provided jaati communities take the rightful form of being based on intrinsic value (career, aptitude, gunas, actions, temperaments, etc) of the person, and not based on a birth-label which may not at all reflect ones temperaments. For example, there could be a person who is naturally inclined to be a musician (i.e. ideally that would be his jaati), but banned outside the community of musicians because he was not “born” into that jaati (i.e. not a member of that caste).
On the positive side, there are many things that are happening at a rapid pace in India, that can purge the society of the caste system: reduction of poverty, rapid economic progress, and upping the standard of living and literacy. And maybe, in some distant future, the recognition of the need for jaati, i.e. the need to recognize that people are different, will make a comeback, restored to its rightful form.
So what’s my varnasrama and jaati?
In the past, when the entire population of India was less than a million, society could afford to have just a few specialized roles. In today’s world one will find one’s varnasrama and jaati to be spread across multiple disciplines, though having a dominant varna-srama and a dominant jaati.
A program manager for example, while mainly kshatriya in varnasrama, should also possess good business inclination (vaishya), and also possess the inclination to think broadly across varied domain areas (brahmin).
I don’t believe in caste, so I don’t even entertain the question as to what “my caste” is. But, I can probably guess what my varnasrama is:
a) mostly brahmin. Today’s genuine thinkers, teachers, philosophers fall into this category.
b) a good amount of vaishya. The bulk of today’s workers (including most IT professionals) fall into this category.
c) a dash of kshatriya. A lot of today’s businessmen, leaders, activists, and politicians fall into this category.
As for my jaati: philosopher? knowledge engineer?