The Caste System... a perspective

[Guest guest]

This could be a conversation between any Indian and a person living

in the west...

 

A Pluralist's Conversation with a Missionary

 

 

Once, a Southern Baptist missionary was my co-passenger in a flight.

Like every missionary out to seek a convert, he was pleasant. After

learning that I am a Hindu he asked, " Is the caste system going away

in India? " I quipped, " Why should it go away? " He was surprised by

my response and remarked, " You are the first Hindu who responded

this way. Most Hindus agree that caste must go away and say that it

is slowly going away. "

 

I decided to turn the tables on him. I asked him,

 

" What language do the African Americans speak? " He

replied, " English. " I asked, " What did their ancestors speak 500

years ago? " He began to contemplate. I thought that I might have to

wait for eternity like the Christians have waited for the second

coming of their messiah before the missionary would answer, so I

prompted him, " Swahili? Hausa? " He agreed, " Yes. " I asked, " Do the

African Americans worship the animist deities of their ancestors? Do

they wed and bury per their ancestral customs? " The missionary

replied, " No. "

 

I said that one could replace African Americans with any immigrant

group: The Dutch, the Germans, the French or the Latinos. I

added, " What you proudly advertise as the melting pot actually

imposed the language, culture, religion and customs of the dominant

ethnic group on all others. On the other hand, visit even a small

village in India with just 300 families. The chances are that this

population would be made up of 10 different castes and each of them

retains its distinct religious, wedding, funerary, culinary and

dialectic features. This is because, as a truly pluralistic society,

the Hindu India allowed each ethnic group, regardless of how

numerically small it was, to retain its identity. "

 

" So, " I added, " Caste is a result of this spirit of freedom and

pluralism. It is something to be proud of. On the other hand, the so-

called melting pot is actually a result of cultural, and often

physical, extermination of diverse identities by one intolerant and

powerful group. "

 

I continued: " Like every other man made institution, caste too has

been misused. Then, so has been every other man made institution

like democracy or secularism. It was a democratically elected Hitler

who exterminated 6 million Jews, Gypsies and mentally retarded

patients. It was a democratically elected Jefferson who fixed the

worth of every African American child at $ 22.50 and proposed to

forcibly snatch them away from their parents and ship them back to

Africa after ensuring that the adult African American population

does not procreate any further. It was a democratically elected

Roosevelt who declared that the extermination at the hands of the

Whites was the best thing that happened to the Native Americans.

Stalin and Mao were secular but they mercilessly sent millions to

death camps. "

 

I asked him, " Is anyone demanding that democracy or secularism be

abandoned because of a Jefferson, Roosevelt, Hitler, Stalin or Mao?

Why should caste be abandoned just because it was misused? Hindus

have systematically addressed caste inequities over the last 80

years or so. If we assume that we rid our society of all

discriminations in the next 30 years, members of every caste, be it

Brahmin, Kayastha,Maratha or Paraiyah could proudly say that they

follow the millennia old religion, customs and dialects of their

forefathers. Suppose the Christian West similarly resolves racial

discriminations, could an African American, Dutch American or Latino

make similar assertion? "

 

I pointed out that in the casteless Christian West, the minorities

have been forced to abandon their identities and instead have been

made to imitate the dominant group in every aspect of life such as

religion, language, wedding and funeral customs. I cited the words

of Nathan Katz and pointed out how Hindu pluralism, of which caste

is an integral part, actually preserved minority customs. Katz,

while discussing how the Jewish people flourished for centuries

amidst the Hindus, writes: " A crucial distinction between India and

the rest of the Diaspora, however, is that in India acculturation is

not paid for in the currency of assimilation. By acculturation I

mean fitting comfortably into a society while retaining one's own

identity, whereas by assimilation I mean that the loss of that

identity is a perceived condition for acceptance. The study of

Indian Jewish communities demonstrates that in Indian culture an

immigrant group gains status precisely by maintaining its own

identity. Such is the experience not only of India's Jews, but also

of local Christians, Zoroastrians, and recently, TibetanBuddhists.

This striking feature of Indian civilization is reflected by each of

these immigrant groups. Now let us forget the Southern Baptist

missionary and ask the Hindus: Would this preservation have been

possible without the spirit of pluralism, which was ensured by the

caste system? Are the Hindus going to repeat the missionary

propaganda and deny the strengths of their own civilization or are

they going to understand the institution of caste dispassionately?

The missionary and the imperialist know that the institution of

caste must be obliterated if the Hindu society were to be weakened

and converted. A Hindu should critically analyze his traditions

instead of uncritically absorbing propaganda.