The ‘Social Evils’ that plague Hinduism- Part 1: Birth Based Caste System
- In Society
- 02:09 PM, Dec 02, 2016
- Sagar Kinhekar
To start a discussion about any society, there is no better way than starting with issues that affect the society. Right from the time when I was in my secondary school I knew of all the ‘social evils’ that the Hindu society suffers from. I was aware of these because in our history and social study books there was sort of a war against these ‘evils’, chapter after chapter and year after year. The same ‘evils’ also regularly pop-up when one reads books and articles written by many intellectuals on Hinduism. As I list these “Hindu social evils” below, I know that none of my readers will read anything new as they are also fed with same information by various sources. So the list of evils goes as written below:
- Caste system and untouchability
- Idolatry and Polytheism
- Gender Bias, including Sati, low social status of widows, female feticide etc.
- Superstitions
Some of them are real evils while many of them are propped up with one or the other agenda. We will examine each one of them as we progress in this series.
If I need to name one single thing which Hindus are really ashamed of and are defensive about, it has to be Caste System. It seemingly makes the society a place where basic humanity cannot survive, because there is no equality of opportunity provided to different castes. No one can or should defend untouchability which is inherent in caste system and it is worth examining this issue in details as to how and why caste system came into the being.
Let’s examine what do scriptures talk about caste system. Arguably Purusha Suktam has oldest reference to the Varna and most have considered it to be denoting the caste system. The following verse is found both in Rigveda and Yajurveda –
Brahmanoasya mukhamasida bahu rajanyakriah
Uru tadasya yadvaishya padabhyam shudro ajayat.
(Rigveda 10.90.12, Yajurveda.31.11).
This says that Brahmin come from the mouth of cosmic man (presumably the God), Kshatriya from arms, Vaishya from naval and Shudra come from feet.
This has been regarded as origination of caste system. This verse is also often used to demonstrate the status of Shudras in Vedic society. It was deduced that since the verse shows Shudra coming out of God’s feet their status was lowly. Although Varna and Castes are not synonymous, we will use “caste” word here for ease of understanding.
While reading the Purusha Suktam, these two obvious questions come to one’s mind –
- Does the part of body which is said to be origination for different castes denote social status?
- How is this division of labor (Varna) evolved into identification of caste by birth?
If one needs to metaphorically symbolize 4 different activities of earning knowledge, fighting wars, earning money and toiling, using human body then which parts of the body will we use? Any logical person will correlate head to the knowledge, arms to the strength (required for war), stomach for money (as it buys you food) and feet for toiling. So the Purush Suktam does the same thing, uses logical symbolism. In our view saying that it shows social status is stretching it too far.
On the second question, the Purusha Suktam does not talk about caste being connected to one’s birth. In fact, if one checks other Hindu scriptures, it is easy to find evidences of caste being based on one’s qualities rather than birth. One such example is from Manu Smruti, which is probably the most controversial and hated Hindu book. The following verse is taken from Manu Smruti –
“Shudro brahmanatameti brahmanashchaiti shudratam.
Kshatriyanjalamevamtu vidyadvaishyattathaiva cha.”(Manusmriti 10/65)
i.e. a Shudra can become a brahmin by acquiring learning, merit, virtuous life and a brahmin lacking in above traits becomes a Shudra. The above principle of merit, action and personality traits (Guna-karma-Swabhava) also holds good for Kshatriya and Vaishya for their upward or downward mobility.
Similarly, in Gita, Krishna says –
chatur-varnyam maya srstam
guna-karma-vibhagasah
tasya kartaram api mam
viddhy akartaram avyayam
This means, according to the qualities and the nature of work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me. And, although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.
In this Krishna talk about Guna and Karma (qualities and work) not Janma (birth).
If one reads Vishnu Smriti, while talking about who should be carrying the last rites it says, “Shudras must never carry out (last rite of) a member of a twice-born caste, even though he be their father”. Doesn’t this mean that a Brahmin’s son could be a shudra? This clearly indicates a time when a Brahmin’s son could be a Shudra, otherwise what was the need for such a statement? So looks like as per scriptures there was no prohibition for a person to move across castes based on his capabilities.
Apart from scriptures there are examples from Hindu tradition where people from one caste have changed their profession and therefore their castes were regarded as changed too. A few examples are as given below –
- Valmiki, adopted by a tribal hunter was bred as a tribal man. Later after learning Vedas from Maharshi Narad, he was declared as Brahmin.
- Vishwamitra was born as Kshatriya and was a king but later he became a Brahmin.
- Rishi Vyasa was born to a fisher woman but has been regarded as one of the greatest sages.
- Rishi Yajnyavalka, one of the first philosopher of history and highly regarded for his Yoga Sutras, is considered in some traditions as son of a blacksmith father and Brahmin mother.
Many such examples can be given from scriptures. However, we know that caste by birth is a reality today. This seems to be a result of human tendency of making sure that the future of their children is safe. Like every doctor wants his or her children to be doctors or every politician makes sure that his children create their own space in politics, some parents wished for their kids to remain in their ‘caste’. Slowly they may have started using unethical ways to keep shudras as shudras and the system of caste by birth would have been solidified.
So the blame for a rigid caste system should be shouldered by some upper caste Hindus who may have indulged in this segregation, but this definitely does not make Hinduism or the Vedic religion itself bad. The tendency to blame scriptures every time caste system is discussed should stop. In fact today’s castes or Jaati do not strictly adhere to Vedic system of Varna. For example, many farming castes in India which could have been under Shudra varna due to type of work they do, have moved up in social ladder, may be due to their financial well-being.
So we saw that today’s birth based caste system has no sanction of Hindu or Vedic religion, the question still remains about untouchability. Does Hinduism not sanction untouchability? We will discuss it in next part of this series.
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