In this chapter we will discuss
- To understand the caste system in ancient Indian society
- To know the difference between caste system in modern and ancient society
- To understand the difference between varna system and caste system
- To recognize the tribal identity in India
- To understand the family system in ancient India
Caste (an ancient institution)
- It has been a part of Indian history and culture for thousands of years.
- 'Caste' is an integral part not only of our past but also of our present
- Institutional characteristics of Hindu society
- It is also prevalent among other religious communities, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs
Literal meaning of caste
- A word denoting the type or lineage of any thing, such as inanimate objects , plants, animals, humans; in Indian languages, caste is used only in the context of the caste institution.
- The word caste originates from the Portuguese word casta ( pure breed) which became the English word caste
Caste System in India
1. Varna system
- The ancient Indian society was divided on the basis of the varna system
- Varna Vyavastha is a 6 thousand years old system. The division of four categories is called Varna. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra
- A large section of the society was kept out of this system ; fifth category, outcastes, foreigners, slaves, people defeated in wars
2. Caste system
- The caste system is a distorted form of the varna system
3. People speaking Indian languages have also started using the English word 'caste'.
- All India Collective Classification of Varna
- Regional or local sub-classifications
Caste System in Vedic Civilization
1. Varna system
- In the early Vedic period
- were not determined by birth
- Not detailed or too rigorous
- relocation normal
2. Caste system
- This system came in the post-Vedic period
- It is determined by birth.
- One is born in the caste of his parents.
- is not a matter of election
- can not change
- Marriages can only take place between members of the group
Caste system rules
- Caste membership also includes rules about eating and sharing food.
- supersessed status of castes
- Segmental organisation
- A person born in a caste could only practice the profession associated with that caste.
- Caste was a very unequal institution.
- While some castes benefited greatly from this system, other castes had to live a subservient life because of it.
- Caste was rigidly determined by birth, and it was thereafter impossible for a person to change his or her life status.
- Whether or not higher caste people deserve a higher status
Theories of caste system
1. DIFFERENCE AND SEPRATION
- Every caste was different from the other caste and hence strictly separated from the other castes.
- Caste rules are designed to prevent the castes from mixing.
- Such as weddings, food and social interaction businesses etc.
2. HEIRARCHY
- Every caste has a specific place in the society as well as a ranking.
- Each caste has a specific place in a hierarchical system.
- Every caste has its own fixed place in the system and that place cannot be given to any other caste.
3. Superseded system ( on religious basis)
I. Pure
- Upper caste
- economic military power
II.Impure
- Lower caste
- vulnerable groups
Colonialism and caste
1. Caste system for British administration
- The current form of caste was shaped by the rapid changes that took place during the colonial period and in independent India.
- What we know as caste today is more a result of colonialism than ancient Indian tradition.
- British administrators began to try to understand the complexities of caste systems in order to learn how to rule the country efficiently.
2. Understanding social structures
- The British had to understand the social structures in India in order to rule India well
- Therefore census was started in India by the British
- The first census attempt was made in the 1860s
- Regular census started being conducted every 10 years from 1881
3. Social hierarchy of caste
- An attempt was made to collect caste related information
- In 1901, under the guidance of Herbert Risley, the position of each caste was determined in a hierarchical order, indicating how higher or lower a caste is socially in which area in comparison to other castes.
- Representatives of castes demanded a higher place for their caste in the social order
- There started to be external interference in the institution of caste and this gave rise to a new life for the caste.
- The Government of India Act of 1935 was passed, which legalised lists or 'schedules' of castes and tribes for special treatment by the state.
Contemporary form of caste
- Ethnic sentiments and bases played a role in garnering support for nationalist movements.
- Efforts to organise the castes considered untouchable had begun in the latter half of the 19th century.
- Mahatma Gandhi and Baba Saheb Ambedkar started the movement for the abolition of untouchability from the 1920s
- The nationalist movement regarded caste as a social evil and a colonial device of division.
State's position in caste abolition
- The state was in a crisis regarding caste abolition. The state was facing two challenges.
1. The state was committed to the abolition of the caste system and this was also clearly mentioned in the Constitution of India.
2. The state was unable and unwilling to bring about those reforms
Role of the state in caste eradication
- The state made some changes in different areas
1. In the industrial sector
- If the state works with closed eyes towards the caste system, then it will lead to the elimination of the caste institution.
- The development activities of the state and the growth of private industry brought about economic changes that indirectly affected the caste institution.
- Urbanisation and collective living conditions in cities reduced caste discrimination.
- Recruitment in industrial jobs was done on the basis of caste. Be it the textile mills of Mumbai or the jute mills of Kolkata, the middlemen employed people of their caste as labourers in the factories.
- Due to which those departments or factories were often dominated by workers of a particular caste
- There was a lot of discrimination against the untouchables
2. Social and cultural
- Caste proved to be strongest in the cultural and domestic spheres.
- The tradition of marrying within one's caste remained largely unaffected by modernization and change.
- Even today most marriages take place within the boundaries of caste
3. Political field
- Democratic politics has been intensely caste-based.
- Caste remains the centre point of electoral politics.
- Caste based political parties also started emerging in the 1980s
- The role of caste brotherhood started becoming decisive in winning elections.
New concepts of change
'dominant caste'
- These were castes which had a large population and were given land rights through land reforms carried out after independence.
- Land reforms had taken away rights from earlier claimants.
Earlier claimants
- There were members of the higher castes who played no role in the agricultural economy other than collecting revenue.
- They usually don't even live in that village
- Now these land rights were passed on to the next level of claimants
- Once they got land rights, they gained considerable economic power.
- Their large numbers also gave them political power in this era of electoral democracy.
- These intermediate castes became dominant castes in the rural areas and began to play a role in regional politics and agricultural economy.
Tribal Communities
- Tribe is a modern term used to describe communities that are very old and are the oldest inhabitants of the subcontinent.
- The tribes were communities that did not follow any religion according to any written scriptures,
- They had no common type of state or political organisation and their communities were not rigidly divided into classes
- They were neither Hindus nor non-Hindus, there was no caste system in this society
- The culture of these people was very different from the rest of society, so there was opposition from these people as well
- As a result, the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were formed
Classification of Tribal Society
1. Permanent adjectives
- The tribal population of India is widely dispersed but is densely populated in certain areas.
- About 85% of the tribal population lives in 'Central India'
- Which extends from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west to West Bengal and Orissa in the east
- Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and some parts of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are located.
- Of the remaining 15% of the tribal population, more than 11% lives in the north-eastern states and a little more than 3% lives in the rest of India.
- Their population is most dense in the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland
Linguistically, tribes have been divided into four categories.
1. Indo-Aryan family
2. Dravidian family
3. Austric family
4. Tibeto-Burmese family
- There is a great deal of variation among tribes in terms of population size,
- The largest tribe has a population of about 7 million while the smallest tribe that lives among the Andaman Islanders probably has less than 100 individuals.
- The largest tribes are the God, Bhil, Santhal, Oraon, Meena, Bodo and Munda,
- The total tribal population, as per the 2001 census, is about 8.2% of the total population of India or about 84 million people.
2. Earned specials
The classification is based on two main criteria.
I. Means of livelihood
- On the basis of livelihood, tribes can be divided into the categories of fishermen, food gatherers and hunters, shifting cultivators, agriculturists and plantation and industrial workers.
II. Their assimilation into Hindu society
- Attitude towards Hindu society is also a major criterion as there is wide variation among the attitudes of tribes - some tribes have a positive inclination towards Hinduism while some tribes resist or oppose it.
Tribe: Biography of a Concept
- In the 1960s, there was debate among scholars about this question
- whether tribes are to be seen as an extension of the caste-based (Hindu) agrarian society or whether they are an altogether different type of community.
1. Some scholars were in favour of expansion
- Tribes are not fundamentally different from caste-based agrarian societies, and ownership of resources is more community-based and less individual-based.
2. The opposing party said
- Tribes are entirely different from castes because they do not have the religious or ritualistic sense of purity and impurity which is the core of the caste system.
Differences between tribe and caste
1. Argument showing the difference between tribe and caste
- Hindu castes that believe in purity and impurity
- The more egalitarian approach was based on perceived cultural differences between tribes.
2. Tribal groups were assimilated into Hindu society. This integration was being done through different processes.
- Sanskritisation After conquest by upper caste Hindus, the conquered were included in the Shudra varnas. Acculturation was assimilated into the caste hierarchy.
National Development vs Tribal Development
1. Habitat of tribal people
- rural setting
- Forest
2. Their habitat has important mineral reserves of the country
3. In the name of development, big dams were built, factories were set up, and mines were dug.
4. Tribal people have paid a disproportionate price for the development of the rest of Indian society
5. The mainstream people benefited at the cost of the tribals. The process of snatching away the lands of the tribal people began.
Conflict
- New tribal states began to emerge
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh got the status of separate states
- The government took harsh measures which fuelled the rebellion and harmed the economy, culture and society of the northeastern states
Contemporary tribal identity
- The forced assimilation of tribal communities into mainstream processes had an impact on tribal culture.
- Tribal identity was slowly fading away as the interaction with the mainstream was not yielding good results for the tribal communities
- Protests started for this and new states were established by the government
- Tribal people are being kept under special laws and their freedom is very limited
- People of northeastern states like Manipur and Nagaland do not have the same rights as other citizens of India.
- These states have been declared as disturbed states. The government has taken strict measures to suppress the rebellions that arise here.
Family and kinship
Every one of us was born into a family
We feel attached to our family members
But sometimes there are disputes between brothers.
1. Types of kinship
- Marriage based kinship - brother-in-law and sister-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law
- Blood relations - mother, father, brother, sister
2. Joint family
- In most of the families in India, people of more than one generation live together, such families are called joint families.
3. Nuclear family
- A family in which only husband, wife and children live
Watch chapter video
