India's Caste System. From Ancient to Modern

Term Paper (Advanced seminar) , 2017 , 15 Pages , Grade: MA

Sociology - Individual, Groups, Society

This paper analyses India's caste system from Ancient to modern. During the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, many countries of the East developed along the path of modernization of social, political, and socio-economic life. In some states, this process was interrupted by social explosions, which led to a rollback to the past. Others appeared capable of finding a viable balance between traditional and modern values. In both cases, specific political systems emerged, which are characterized by the coexistence of Western democratic principles and traditional social institutions. Thus, in India, on the one hand, the involvement of the caste in political life led to some transformation of this ancient social structure and retained its position in modern society; on the other, it created such a phenomenon as "democracy of the castes".

Castes/jati are formed on the basis of a related self-organization; they have a different origin, but most of them go back to archaic tribes and tribal fragments; they are characterized by endogamy, hereditary profession, originality of culture. Ideological substantiations of the caste mode of communication are directly related to the fundamental concepts of Hinduism, dharma, karma, and sansara, which describe Indian ideas about the laws of the existence of the Universe and nature.

Modern Indian society is distinguished by its phenomenal mosaic composition. Numerous and diverse linguistic, ethnic, confessional, caste groups not only coexist, but they are intertwined in the fabric of a social organism. Indians' identity is usually vague; its different variants come to the fore in different contexts; they overlap and complement each other. Entire communities do not have an unambiguous scientific nomination.

India caste system: from Ancient to modern

During the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, many countries of the East developed along the path of modernization of social, political, and socio-economic life. In some states, this process was interrupted by social explosions, which led to a rollback to the past. Others appeared capable of finding a viable balance between traditional and modern values. In both cases, specific political systems emerged, which are characterized by the coexistence of Western democratic principles and traditional social institutions. Thus, in India, on the one hand, the involvement of the caste in political life led to some transformation of this ancient social structure and retained its position in modern society; on the other, it created such a phenomenon as "democracy of the castes" (Ahmad 20).

Castes/jati are formed on the basis of a related self-organization; they have a different origin, but most of them go back to archaic tribes and tribal fragments; they are characterized by endogamy, hereditary profession, originality of culture. Ideological substantiations of the caste mode of communication are directly related to the fundamental concepts of Hinduism, dharma, karma, and sansara, which describe Indian ideas about the laws of the existence of the Universe and nature.

Modern Indian society is distinguished by its phenomenal mosaic composition. Numerous and diverse linguistic, ethnic, confessional, caste groups not only coexist, but they are intertwined in the fabric of a social organism. Indians' identity is usually vague; its different variants come to the fore in different contexts; they overlap and complement each other. Entire communities do not have an unambiguous scientific nomination (Hutton 8-24). This picture is a consequence of the preservation of traditional forms of social organization. The most stable and universal of them is the caste, which has dominated by historical priority and the scale of influence on public consciousness and social practice since antiquity and has not lost its fundamental importance today. The Indian traditional culture does not know the term "caste" borrowed from European languages, but, namely, the macro-social model developed in India is the reference "caste society" characterized by a uniquely fractional social division of labor and the encapsulation of its constituent components. Relative self-organization acts here as a unified system principle, and the status ranking of social groups is the basis of interaction (Beteille 161).

The complex and finely worked out system of building regulated and often ritualized contacts between castes and between divisions of individual castes determines the specifics of the process of social reproduction, the nature of the division of labor, and living standards in caste society. These traditions of social life, despite the hopes of European observers and Indian progressives, do not show signs of extinction, although, in modern conditions, they have somewhat eroded.

The American documentary Meet the Patel (2014), filmed by brother and sister Geeta and Ravi Patel, demonstrates another sign of caste, which Indian society prefers to ignore. The film shows how 30-year-old Ravi decides to leave his European girlfriend and do what his parents expect him - marry a girl from his caste (this is about a small caste of Patel, small landowners, where everyone has the same last name) (Patel and Patel 2014). Ravi lives in America; he assimilated and seemingly long gone from the conventions of traditional Indian society. However, the pressure of this society is so strong that he is ready to give up everything that is dear to him, and obediently look for a "suitable" wife. He travels to special meetings where young Patels - boys and girls - can get to know each other. He lets his parents to arrange dates for him. He even goes to the astrologers, and not for a minute wonders by what right parents require all this from him. The film vividly explains how adherence to the caste system is passed on from generation to generation, how a caste without the slightest coercion - simply on fear of disappointing parents - reproduces itself even far from India.

The Indian caste system has shown very high resilience and the ability to adapt to changing social, economic, and political realities. This made it one of the key features of the historical path of India as a state and society as a whole. The essential detail, which is actualized in a more in-depth analysis of the foundations of the caste system, is the rooting of discriminatory norms that cause social exclusion and the formation of rigid hierarchical endogamous ethno-caste communities. An extreme manifestation of such sociocultural specificity is the presence of marginal groups that are at the bottom of the social space of India and are called "untouchables" or "Dalits" (Patel 222-231).

In the modern sociocultural situation, the study of the transformations of the "untouchables" castes and the possibilities of their integration into the sociocultural whole takes on particular urgency for several reasons. First, the phenomenon of "untouchability" as characteristic of the caste system of India, goes beyond the local history and acquires global significance, since the modern world economy is based on a high degree of division of labor and specialization of individual regions of the world. Already now, this situation leads to the consolidation of distinct positions in various societies and regions in the global social space. Lagging regions falling out of global relations are turning into an analogue of "untouchable" castes in the eyes of the world community. The study of the social, economic, cultural, ethno-psychological bases of discrimination of such communities can become a theoretical foundation in solving the problems of their integration and development.

Secondly, at present, India is carrying out a rapid modernization of all spheres of its existence. The availability of such remnants of the traditional social order is a serious obstacle to the construction of a new type of society. Practice has shown that the political and legal way of solving this problem, which was consistently implemented in the second half of the 20th century, was not a success (Sen 36-48). The integration of Dalit communities was successful only in cases when it was based on a fundamental transformation of the socio-economic and socio-cultural contours of their existence, and the latter can only be modified by taking into account the peculiarities of the historical path of each particular "untouchable" caste and the nature of its relations, integrating it both in a local social space and in a cultural whole (Metcalf 215-221).

The formation of the Varna-caste system is traditionally associated with the Indo-Aryan invasion to the northern India in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC (Singh 2012, 7). In the early stages of the development of this cultural and historical community in the Indus Basin, a rigid system of exploitation and oppression of the local population was built. It was expressed in the formation of closed social groups of conquerors who usurped the most prestigious and significant forms of activity for traditional society (accumulation of the knowledge system, political management, worship, and military affairs) (Flood 16-18).

In the context of the formation of Hinduism, these communities became known as varnas and received 'sacred' status, justified through the concept of ritual purity, which restricted all kinds of contacts from household to cultural and which suggested endogamy. The local population, initially, turned out to be outside the varn. Over time, the expansion of contacts with the Dravidian tribes led to the infusion of a part of the indigenous population into the system of the varna order, where they were given the lower level - the status of "Shudra" (Singh 2012, 12-40).

The spiritual and intellectual elite of Indian society - the Brahmanian priesthood - supported the reproduction of the caste system in a series of centuries and generations, since it saw in it an effective mechanism of power and the preservation of inequality. The stability of the caste organization of Indian society is also connected with the fact that it provides people with universal employment and guaranteed sale of the products of labor, providing them with the means of subsistence according to the status of the caste. A mode of life of a numerous, complex, heterogeneous society living in the conditions of an aggressive tropical climate, overpopulation, all sorts of shortages, forced to constantly look for answers to external challenges, has been established. The conceptualization of the life experience of this society gave effective ideologies of Hinduism, "responsible" for the caste specificity of the Indian traditional social organization (Singh 2009, 11-19).

One of the results of the functioning of the caste hierarchy in India over the centuries has been the creation of a pervasive social system that allowed the Brahmins to exploit other castes, especially, the lower ones. The British colonial authorities also tried to take advantage of this social-religious phenomenon. Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) contributed to the development of ideology and politics in India. Highly appreciating the historical past of this country, Macaulay, however, argued that the British conquest of India was a great blessing for its peoples. In search of new methods of colonial exploitation of India, responding to the "spirit of the times," Macaulay came to the conclusion that a small privileged part of the Indian population could be brought to the side of the colonialists, which could become a conduit for their influence among the majority of the inhabitants of this country. At the same time, he believed that there was no need to "enlighten" the broad masses, but it was necessary to ensure that a narrow group of "enlightened and trained" Indians faithfully served the English colonialists (Dirks 60-64).

In the colonial era, the most noticeable changes in the Hindu castes and the relations between them took place both as a result of the reformist movements and in the course of the national liberation struggle. Adopted in 1833 by the colonial administration of the East India Company, the appropriate code provided for formal equality in employment, regardless of religion, place of birth, origin, or skin color. However, already in 1844, the British authorities officially announced that when applying for public service, preference would be given to those who received education in English. Although access to education and employment was allegedly open to representatives of all castes and religions, in fact, mainly, members of higher castes, primarily, brahmans, could use these opportunities until the early 20th century. As they developed, other castes began to demand social, and then economic equality. The struggle for social justice had its specific characteristics depending on the conditions in specific regions (Metcalf 1-27).

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• College: Oregon State University
• Grade: MA
• Author: Nadiia Kudriashova (Author)
• Publication Year: 2017
• Pages: 15
• Catalog Number: V500552
• ISBN (eBook): 9783346036834
• ISBN (Book): 9783346036841
• Language: English
• Tags: Indian caste, sociocultural