DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

Ist SEMESTER PROJECT

Subject Sociology

Project Title Caste And Law A Critical Study

MRUDHULA PALTHYA
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Sec. A, Roll No. 2017058

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 CHAPTERISATION

INRODUCTION - 02

GENETIC ANALYSIS - 04

CASTE ETHICS - 07

A GUIDING PRINCIPLE - 07

ENGLISH DELUSIONS - 08

CASTE AND LAW - 10

HISTORICAL ADVANTAGES OF CASTE AND LAW - 11

CASTE ANIMOSITY - 13

CASTE SYSTEM AMONG NON HINDUS - 14

CASTE SYSTEM VS RACISM 15

SUMMARY - 17

CONCLUSION - 18

BIBLIOGRAPHY 20

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 1. INTRODUCTION
The mystery of caste. India, as Dr. John Wilson truly observed, is emphatically the land of mystery.
It has been a land of mystery to distant strangers, to friendly and hostile visitors, and even to its own
inhabitants. The greatest Indian mystery is the institution known to modern Writers as Caste.

The Report displays inadequate recognition of the existence and signicance of that mystery, which is
referred to by mere passing allusions in ve passages only. As Sir Harry Stephen truly observes, how
Responsible Government is to be adapted to Caste the Report does not say.

The passagage speaks of everything that breaks down the barriers between communities, and makes
men regard each other as neighbours and not as the wearers of some caste or creed insignia, hastens on
the day when self-government within the Empire will be attained , betrays an inability to conceive the real
nature of the institution. It would be unreasonable to expect that the authors should be able to master the
inner nature of Indian society, to which theii-European experience offers no parallel.

Nobody even moderately well informed on the subject could use the language quoted, which implies
that caste is contemplated by the authors as a thing external capable of being laid aside. The caste of an
Indian is not to him a matter of insignia to be Worn or doffed at pleasure. It is bone of his bone and esh
of his esh.

CASTE FACTS

Apart from the deciencies of the Report, which are of the kind to be expected, it is absolutely
necessary that politicians who dream of an Indian democracy should at least try to realize what caste
means. Caste is peculiar to India, the analogies or resemblances of institutions in other countries being
faint and remote.

If the politicians fail to recognize the extent to which that peculiar institution stands in their way, they
must fail in their attempt to democratize India, because the facts are so strong that even an Act of
Parliament, or a dozen Acts of Parliament, cannot shake them. The fact of caste must be faced boldly and
Without evasion by every would be reformer.

MAGNITUDE

In the rst place it is essential to visualize the magnitude of the institution. The Indian population
which may be classed fairly as Hindus, bound by the laws of caste, numbers considerably more than 200
millions.

Although nothing could be more inconsistent with the spirit of Islam than is the exclusive caste
system, Indian Muhammadans, numbering about 66% millions, have been so largely infected by their
Hindu environment that, if the majority of them be included, we may afrm with condence that at least
250 millions of people, amounting to about one sixth of the estimated population of the world, are held
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rmly in the trammels of caste.

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VARIOUS CASTES

Those 250 millions are divided into about 3,000 castes, or Water-tight social compartments, without
reckoning innumerable sub-castes. Although the exact number of existing castes cannot be determined,
for reasons too complex for exposition in this place, it is certainly true that in the year 1918 the castes in
existence must be about 3,000, more or less, as estimated by Ketkar. The precise gure does not matter. It
would be a gure of that order, if it could be ascertained. What, then, do We mean by saying that Indian
society is broken up into some 3,000 castes ?

In order to answer that question we must form a clear notion of what we mean by a caste and by the
caste institution .

DEFINITION OF CASTE

The word caste (caste) is Portuguese; the thing is so peculiarly Indian that it separates India from the
rest of the world far more impassably than deserts, seas, or mountains. A good working denition of the
institution is given by Sir Charles Gough, who states that caste may be generally described as the theory
and practice of hereditary social distinctions carried to the extremest limits and conrmed by the
sanctions of religion.

An elementary fact often forgotten is that in India the unit of society is the family, not the individual
as in modern England. Remembering that fundamental proposition, we may dene a caste as being a
group of families internally united by peculiar rules for the hereditary observance of ceremonial purity,
especially in the matters of diet and marriage.

The same rules fence off the group from all other similar groups, each of which is regulated by its
own inherited customs.

New castes. In modern times it is impossible for any person or family to be transferred from one caste
to another.

New castes may and not infrequently do spring up in various ways, but every individual and family
must ordinarily remain in the caste as determined by birth. In the cases where caste is lost by breach of
the rules, the seceders may found a new caste. Hindu opinion, for instance, regards communities of
Christian converts as such new castes. In spite of the eiforts of missionaries, who for many years past
have been almost unanimous in requiring converts to break their old caste, experience shows that it is
usually impossible for converts, whether won individually or by mass movements , to renounce the idea
of caste, which is in their blood. The sentiment continually crops up in one form or another.
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 2. GENETIC ANALYSIS

There have been several studies examining caste members as discrete populations, examining
the hypothesis that their ancestors have different origins. A 2002-03 study by T. Kivisild et al.
concluded that the "Indian tribal and caste populations derive largely from the same genetic
heritage of Pleistocene southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from
external regions since the Holocene.". Studies point to the various Indian caste groups having
similar genetic origins and having negligible genetic input from outside south Asia. However, a
2001 genetic study, led by Michael Bamshad of the University of Utah, found that the affinity of
Indians to Europeans is proportionate to caste rank, the upper castes being most similar to
Europeans. The researchers believe that the Indo-Aryans entered India from the Northwest and
may have established a caste system, in which they placed themselves primarily in higher
castes." Because the Indian samples for this study were taken from a single geographical area, it
remains to be investigated whether its findings can be safely generalized.

An earlier 1995 study by Joanna L. Mountain et al. of Stanford University had concluded that
there was "no clear separation into three genetically distinct groups along caste lines", although
"an inferred tree revealed some clustering according to caste affiliation". A 2006 study by Ismail
Thanseem et al. of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (India) concluded that the "lower
caste groups might have originated with the hierarchical divisions that arose within the tribal
groups with the spread of Neolithic agriculturalists, much earlier than the arrival of Aryan
speakers", and "the Indo-Europeans established themselves as upper castes among this already
developed caste-like class structure within the tribes."

The study indicated that the Indian caste system may have its roots much before the arrival of
the Indo-Aryans; a rudimentary version of the caste system may have emerged with the shift
towards cultivation and settlements, and the divisions may have become more well-defined and
intensified with the arrival of Indo-Aryans.

A 2006 genetic study by the National Institute of Biologicals in India, testing a sample of
men from 32 tribal and 45 caste groups, concluded that the Indians have acquired very few genes
from Indo-European speakers. More recent studies have also debunked the British claims that so-
called "Aryans" and "Dravidians" have a "racial divide".

A study conducted by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2009 (in
collaboration with Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and the Broad
Institute of Harvard and MIT) analyzed half a million genetic markers across the genomes of 132
individuals from 25 ethnic groups from 13 states in India across multiple caste groups. The study
establishes, based on the impossibility of identifying any genetic indicators across caste lines,
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that castes in South Asia grew out of traditional tribal organizations during the formation of
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Indian society, and was not the product of any "Aryan Invasion" and "subjugation" of Dravidian
people.

MUHAMMADAN CASTES

The Indian Muharnmadans, in so far as they are descended from Hindu converts, similarly retain their
ancient caste organization and continue to be saturated with the notions of their remote ancestors. Few
Muslims in India, whatever be their origin, are able to keep themselves quite free from caste prejudices.
For example, they are, as a rule, unwilling to eat with Europeans, as Turks, Persians, and Arabs freely do.

CASTE SPECIES

The Hindus have not any name for the caste institution because they regard it as an essential part of
the divine order of nature. It is out of the question for a Hindu to think of himself otherwise than as a
member of some particular caste or species of Hindu mankind. He calls a caste jzit, which means
species. The families making up the jet are not necessarily descended from a common ancestor, and, in
Northern India at all events, rarely are so descended. Caste Lin the north is not very largely concerned
with race, meaning descent. The castes of the Peninsula, on the other hand, may be generally described as
petried tribes.

Although community of occupation is the basis of some castes, many admit of great occupational
variety. Each caste community becomes in practice a distinct species, whoever the ancestors may have
been, and whether the lawful occupations pursued by its members be few or many. The distinctness of the
species rests upon the effective Operation of its rules for the preservation of ceremonial purity in diet and
marriage.

DOMINANCE OF CASTE

No Indian can escape from the inuence of the caste idea, which is the soul as well as the body of
Hinduism. A Hindu author lays down the propositions, which are true and supported by general opinion,
that it is by means of caste distinctions that the Hindu religion has been so Well preserved; they are the
chief support of that religion, and when they give way there can be no doubt that the Hindu religion will
perish.

Hinduism is primarily an extremely ancient social system based upon and inseparable from the caste
institution, which is regarded as being of divine origin. That system assumes and pre-supposes as a
divinely revealed axiom the congenital and eternal distinction and inequality of the dierent groups.
Whatever may happen, the Brahman must remain at the top of the structure, fed, cherished, protected, and
honoured by his interiors, that is to say, by everybody else, be he prince or peasant.

UNITY OF HINDUISM

Nearly all Hindus agree in venerating Brahinans, in professing obedience to certain sacred scriptures,
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in honouring certain major deities, in respecting the sanctity of cows, in reverenoing the same holy places,
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and so on.
 In that sense Hinduism may be called a religion as well as a social system. The Indian religious
traditions preserved and the modes of worship practised from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin have
suicient features in common to warrant. Hindus in feeling conscious of a considerable degree of
religious unity as against the rest of the world.

NO HINDU CREED

But Hinduism is not a religion in the sense that either Christianity or Islam is. It has no prophet
founder and no creed. It is merely the social and religious expression of the Hindu ideal of duty (dharma)
as developed during the course of several millenniurns.

No Hindu is required to obey any one prophet or to confess to any particular creed. So long as he eats
the diet and marries the woman prescribed by the rules of the caste into which he was born, he may
believe or disbelieve what he pleases.

3. CASTE ETHICS
The text-books, while recognizing certain elementary virtues as binding upon all men, are emphatic in
asserting that each group of castes has special duties and morals of its own. Individual castes often have
each their own standard of duty. What is right for one caste or group of castes may be quite Wrong for
another caste or group.

That principle rests upon the abstract doctrines of Hindu philosophy about rebirth, &c., which cannot
be discussed in this place. The practical result is that Hinduism recognizes many conicting moral
standards or codes of ethics, because the members of each caste or group of kindred castes look to the
public opinion only of their own caste-fellows, which is not necessarily in accordance with the Ten
Commandments or any other statement of universal moral law.

When the special caste conception of duty (dharma) comes into conict with the general moral law,
the caste duty prevails. That is the explanation of Thuggee, temple prostitution, and various other forms
of crime or immorality, organized either on a caste basis or on an analogous system. The Thug stranglers
Were convinced that they Worked with divine sanction under the protection of a goddess, and were never
troubled by remorse because the practices sanctioned by their brotherhood conicted glaringly with
ordinarycmorality.

Ordinary Hindus often acquiesced in that view and were willing and ready to protect the Thugs. Other
examples might be cited. Those observations have a direct bearing upon all attempts to form an Indian
nationality, not to speak of an Indian democracy.

A population broken up into sections differing not only in blood, language, social customs, and creed,
but also in their ideas of morality, does not readily coalesce into a political unity. Such coalescence, if
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ever attained, must be deferred to a distant future.

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 4. A GUIDING PRINCIPLE
Caste interferes, in short, with all the relations and events of life, and with what precedes or follows,
or what is supposed to precede and follow life. It reigns supreme in the innumerable classes and divisions
of the Hindus, whether they originate in family descent, in religious opinions, in civil or sacred
occupations, or in local residence; and it professes to regulate all their interests, aairs, and relationships.
Caste is the guiding principle of each of the classes and divisions of the Hindus viewed in their distinct or
associated capacity (J. Wilson).

Custom, as Mann lays down, is the highest dharma, or transcendent law of duty. Immemorial
custom fortied by revelation is the basis of caste. The institution, with roots fastened securely in the
prehistoric past and accepted as an essential element in the divine ordering of the world, is reverenced
alike by the superiors who command and by the inferiors who obey.

So ineradicable is the idea of caste that the lowest ranks of society, the sweepers, scavengers, and
others who perform the basest offices, and are regarded as standing outside the pale of Hinduism, have
formed caste organizations of their own, quite independent of those recognized by Hindu tradition. Such
outcasts castes , to use an unavoidably paradoxical term, govern themselves by rules of almost
incredible strictness and complexity.

5. ENGLISH DELUSIONS

Half a century ago English people interested in India commonly cherished the belief that caste was
destined to disappear within a measurable period, as the result of secular education combined with
missionary effort. For instance, the able author of the Le Bas prize essay, published in 1858, ventured to
prophesy:

It will die away by degrees, as the people become better educated and more enlightened. The
institution of schools on a liberal plan for the benet of the rising generation in the upper, as well as the
lower ranks of life, will do more probably to removing the prejudices of the natives, in regard to caste and
religion, than direct attempts at conversion.

The perilous delusion that the multiplication of schools, colleges, or other European institutions will
lead to the withering or extinction of caste still survives, and unfortunately disgures the Report. That
delusion underlies the

Treats of the duty of the educated classes to the ryots in terms not to be reconciled with notorious
facts. The authors gravely suggest that representative institutions in India will help to soften the rigidity
of the caste system. They are even sanguine enough to hope that those incidents of it which lead to the
permanent degradation and ostracism of the lowest castes will tend to disappear in proportion to the
acceptance of the ideas on which the new constitution rests.

The stupendous rashness of such phrases, which might be merely startling in a magazine article,
becomes highly dangerous when the phrases are put forth by the Secretary of State and the Governor-
General as justication for their policy and as part of the foundation for an Act of Parliament.
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 Can the authors of the Report seriously believe that the multiplication of elections and ballot boxes
can affect the relative position of the Brahman and the low-caste man ?

If they do believe that they can believe anything. Have they observed that the active working of the
elective system in the Calcutta and Bombay Corporations has softened the rigidity of the rules of caste in
those cities? Certainly nobody else has noted such a phenomenon or dreamt of any connexion between the
two things.

ORIGIN OF THE ILLUSION

The illusion that the caste institution is destined to weaken or disappear Within a comparatively short
period seems to rest chiey upon a vague unreasoning faith that things wished for must happen. So far as
it has any basis of fact the hypothesis seems to have been suggested partly -by the well-known laxity in
certain respects of the few Hindus who visit Europe or America, and partly by observation of the more
general relaxation of certain rules or practices for the sake of convenience.

For example, the necessities of cheap railway travelling compel people to crowd into carriages and
touch one another closely for many hours, regardless of scruples dating from times when railways were
not thought of.

Similarly, the immense practical advantages of a copious supply of good water from stand-pipes in
the larger towns are permitted to outweigh the ceremonial pollution which undoubtedly takes place.
Ingenious pundits are not slow to nd texts or to invent legal ctions in order to justify the deviation from
ancestral custom. Many other cases of a like kind might be cited, as may be read in Ketkars book.

SUPERFICIAL MODIFICATIONS.

But such merely supercial modications of caste regulations dictated by imperative reasons of
convenience do not touch the essence of the institution or Weaken in the slightest degree the innate,
inherited sentiment of caste exclusiveness.

The Brahman who rides in a third-class carriage or drinks pipe-water does not think any better of his
low-caste neighbour than when he travelled on foot and drank from a dirty well. The caste sentiment, so
far from weakening, grows stronger in the higher castes, because caste and Hinduism are not two things
but one thing, indivisible, and the revival of Hinduism in modied forms during recent years is notorious.
A Hindu revival carries with it the stimulation of the cate sentiment essential to Hinduism.

CASTE WILL ENDURE

The foregoing discussion leads inevitably to the conclusion that prophecies or hopes of the weakening
or disappearance of caste within a measurable period are futile. So long as Hindus continue to be Hindus,
caste cannot be destroyed or even materially modied. The deep waters of Hinduism are not easily stirred,
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and ripples on the surface leave the depths unmoved.

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 The caste institution has lasted for three thousand years or more because it suits Hindus and has
become part of their nature. For the same reason in all probability it will still endure for untold centuries.

Nevertheless, it is difcult to contradict the saying of Mr. Archer that caste is a vice which affects
India, all India, and in its extreme development, nothing but India. Its tyranny will have to be broken
before India can become a nation among other modern nations.

Reformers convinced, make the best they can for many generations of an extremely inconvenient
antique institution which accords ill with modern conditions, and is avowedly irreconcilable with the
ideas of equality and fraternity. The Hindu scriptures beyond question exalt the Brahman as the lord of
all classes, and denounce all notions of the brotherhood of man, or equality before the law. The Brahman
will continue to spurn the low caste man, who will continue to submit and to regard the Brahman as a
god.

CASTE AND PATRIOTISM

The reality of the obstacle presented by such facts to the development of a tolerably homogeneous
Indian nation, not to speak of modern democracy, needs no further exposition.

The saying of a French author that a Hindu na pasd autre patrie que la caste if it goes a little beyond
the truth - is not far from it. Another

French writer observes that the caste system permits the juxtaposition of political and social elements,
but does not produce their fusion; they mingle, but they do not combine.

Sir Harry Stephen afrms correctly that the whole idea of politics apart from religion is foreign to
India; religion comes rst and pervades everything, and in all social relations nds expression in the laws
of caste.

6. CASTE AND LAW

In March, 1858, when Sir Colin Campbell nally recovered Lucknow, he found sundry rebel
proclamations, one of which expresses in admirably distinct language the essential opposition between the
British policy of guaranteeing the equality of all men before the law, and the Indian doctrine that
inequality, being of divine appointment, should be recognized by law and accepted as agoverning
principle determining the procedure and decisions of courts. The proclamation states accurately the
practice of the indigenous governments, which was in accordance with the rules of the Hindu law books.
The Words were:

All the Hindus and Mohammedans know that man loves four things most:
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(1) Religion and caste

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(2) Honour
 (3) Own and his kinsmens lives

(4) Property

All these four are well protected under native rulers ; no one interferes with any ones religion ; every
one enjoys his respectability according to his caste and wealth. All the respectable peopleSyed, Shaikh,
Mogul, and Patan, among Mohammedans; and Brahmins, Ohatrees,Bys, and Kaeths, among the Hindus
are respected according to their castes. No low-caste people like chamars, dhanook, and passees [sc'il.
leather-dressers, village watchmen, etc.] can be equal to and address them disrespectfully. No ones life or
property is taken unless for some heinous crime.

The British are quite against these four things they want to spoil every ones caste, and wish both the
Mohammedans and Hindoos to become Christians. Thousands have turned renegades, and many will
become so yet ; both the nobles and low caste are equal in their eyes; they disgrace the nobles in the
presence of the ignoble; they arrest or summon to their courts the gentry, nawabs, and rajahs at the
instance of a chamar, and disgrace them.

The document expresses faithfully the present-day sentiments of all high-caste Indians, not excluding
those who now pose as democrats. It also emphasizes vividly the extent to which Indian
Muhammadanism has been corrupted by the Hindu caste spirit.

7. HISTORICAL ADVANTAGES OF THE CASTE AND LAW

Historically, the caste system offered several advantages to the population of the Indian
subcontinent. While Caste is nowadays seen by instances that render it anachronistic, in its
original form the caste system served as an important instrument of order in a society in which
mutual consent rather than compulsion ruled; where the ritual rights as well as the economic
obligations of members of one caste or sub-caste were strictly circumscribed in relation to those
of any other caste or sub-caste; where one was born into one's caste and retained one's station in
society for life; where merit was inherited, where equality existed within the caste, but inter-caste
relations were unequal and hierarchical. A well-defined system of mutual interdependence
through a division of labour created security within a community.

1. Preservation of order in society through the use of institutional stratification of social groups
.
2. Integration of foreigners and invading forces into Indian culture by assigning a caste to them
(a process that historian Jawaharlal Nehru referred to as "Indianization": India has faced
repeated invasions from outside the region, dating back to the Macedonian invasion by
Alexander the Great. Most invaders were swiftly assimilated into ancient Indian society by
assigning them specific castes. Examples include the Kambojas, believed to be of Indo-
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Scythian descent, who were retroactively assigned a social position in the Manusmriti.
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3. The Varna system, with its normative interpretation as a division of labor, had and continues
to have a heavy bias towards spiritual evolution. The deep religious proclivities and the urge
for spiritual uplift had induced the people to search for simpler and effective ways to achieve
the spiritual goal which led to innovations like the Bhakti movement which had a powerful
impact on the socio-cultural-spiritual life of the people even at mass level without
distinctions of caste or class or other social differences.

It is these deeply run cultural roots which caused an abiding following for Hinduism even
in the face of unrelenting assaults by other religions and had in fact continued to influence
the lives of people even after their conversion to other faiths. Thus, the caste system can be
said to have preserved ancient cultural values in Indian society.

4. The caste system played an influential role in shaping economic activities. The caste system
functioned much like medieval European guilds, ensuring the division of labour, providing
for the training of apprentices and, in some cases, allowing manufacturers to achieve narrow
specialisation. For instance, in certain regions, producing each variety of cloth was the
speciality of a particular sub-caste.

5. Philosophers argue that the majority of people would be comfortable in stratified

endogamous groups and have been in ancient times. Membership in a particular caste, with
its associated narrative, history and genealogy would instill in its members a sense of group
accomplishment and cultural pride. Such sentiments are routinely expressed by the Marathas,
for instance.

BRAHMANS

The most essential feature of the caste organization is the high rank claimed by and generally
conceded to the Brahmans, who number about ten millions. The ancient author of the Institutes of Maw,
whose authority is recognized all over India, lays down the propositions that:

A Brahman, whether learned or unlearned, is a mighty divinity

By his origin alone a Brahman is a deity, even for the gods

The Brahman is the lord of all classes

A saying or syllogism, which has gained universal currency in India , emphasizes and justies
those propositions:

The whole world is under the power of the gods,

The gods are under the power of the mantras (magic formulae),
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The mantras are under the power of the Brahman ; The Brahman is therefore our God (J. Wson, i.
25). We need not be surprised that men who are believed by themselves and others to be superior even to
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the gods should display arrogance towards the members of other castes, and regard the outcaste castes
as hardly human. Brahman arrogance is much more marked in the South than in the North and there leads
to extreme oppression of the untouchable classes, who are, for instance, hindered in the free use of the
public roads lest their shadow should pollute a passing Brahman. Even now the Gheruma cultivators in
Malabar have to assert their right to use the highways, which was denied them under Hindu rule.

In the Travancore State a Pulayan was, and probably still is, forbidden to enter a village. The
regulations required that a Sudra, or common Hindu, should not approach a Nambudri Brahman nearer
than three feet. The distance to be kept by an outcaste might be as much as twenty or thirty paces. The
exact regulations varied in different localities, but the spirit of all was one. Under the British government
the extremities of Brahman oppression have to be restrained, because the law makes no distinction of
persons. The last considerable Brahman government in India, that of the Peshwas, was extremely harsh
both to the outcastes and to the wild tribes like the Bhils.

UNTOUCHABLES

It is no wonder that the eighteen millions of untouchables in the Madras Presidency alone should
seek to escape from their intolerable position by frequently embracing Christianity in large numbers at a
time. Similar mass movements occur in the Punjab, and a like attraction is exercised by Islam in Eastern
Bengal. The addresses presented to Mr. Montagu offer abundant evidence of the terror felt by the non-
Brahman classes at the prospect of the Brahman domination opened up by the suggested constitutional
changes. History justies their fears.

MINORTIES AND MAJORITIES

In the countries of Western Europe protection against the tyranny not infrequently practised by
democracies is required by minorities. Ingenious politicians seek to provide the required protection by
elaborate devices for proportional representation and so forth. Such devices are difcult to work and

notoriously ineffective. The saying that minorities must suer has abundant justification in the facts
of constitutional history.

In India, as the authors of the Report unwillingly acknowledge (e.g. in para. 155 and elsewhere), huge
majorities require protection against the arrogance of a small high caste and chiey Brahman minority
supported, as is believed, by divine sanction.

The facts are incontrovertible and merit far more prominence than they have received in the Report. It
cannot be too often repeated that sonorous phrases and the conventional language of parliamentary
democracy cannot alter the facts, nor will copy-book maxims restrain the passions of mankind.
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 8. CASTE ANIMOSITY

The government nds it nearly as difficult to preserve the peace between the castes as between the
creeds. In the South, especially, where the castes are more distinctly tribal than they are in the North, the
animosity between different castes reaches an almost incredible height. It never dies out, and a feud,
begun perhaps a thousand or two thousand years ago, is still as hot as ever. A curious and unexplained
division of the non-Brahman castes into right-hand and left-hand groups is peculiar to the Peninsula,
and is known to have existed in the eleventh century of the Christian era.

Probably it is many ages older than that. The animosity between the two sets of castes never wanes
and is frequently raised to boiling point by incidents which appear to other people to be absolutely trivial
and insignicant. Such tries suice to provoke violent affrays and to harass the police of the Madras
Presidency with never-ceasing anxiety. An astonishing example of an ancient feud surviving to the
present day is recorded by the Madras Epigraphist, a Hindu scholar, in his Report for 1916-17.

An inscription in the Tinnevelly district dating from A.D. 1452, and referring to a document nearly a
century older, records the decree of the Vellala caste concerning the penalties to be inicted on the
members of a lower caste, the Vellai-Nadar, who had given offence.

The decree of the assembly provided for the immediate execution of three persons, and the killing of
twenty-three others wherever they might be found. No member of the Vellai-Nadar community was to be
allowed to enter a Tamil district, and many other stringent disabilities were imposed.

The learned Epigraphist comments that the natural hatred which the Vallalars of the present day still
entertain for the Nadars or Shanars in the Tinnevelly district could possibly receive some explanation in
the light of the facts of this curious record. The lapse of seven centuries has not been enough to heal a
feud which even at the time of the battle of C-recy probably was of irnmemorial antiquity. Yet the
idealists are sanguine enough to think that futile wishes, solemn admonitions, and contested elections will
do in a few years what seven centuries have failed to effect.

9. CASTE SYSTEM AMONG NON-HINDUS

In some parts of India, the Christians are stratified by sect, location, and the castes of
their predecessors, usually this refers only to the Catholic churches, not the Protestant, and
could be in reference to nasrani who were bestowed caste-like status. Presently in India,
more than 70% of Christians are Dalits, but the higher caste Christians (30% by estimates)
control 90% of the Catholic Church's administrative jobs. Out of the 156 Catholic bishops,
only 6 are from lower castes. Many Dalit Catholics have spoken out against discrimination
against them by the Catholic Church. Christians in Goa are certainly likely to mention their
caste in matrimonial ads. However, things are different in Kerala where the non-catholic
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population tends to be higher in the caste ladder.

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 Units of social stratification, termed as "castes" by many, have developed among
Muslims in some parts of South Asia. Sources indicate that the castes among Muslims
developed as the result of close contact with Hindu culture and Hindu converts to Islam. The
Sachar Committee's report commissioned by the government of India and released in 2006,
documents the continued stratification in Muslim society.

Among Muslims, those who are referred to as Ashrafs are presumed to have a superior
status derived from their foreign Arab ancestry, while the Ajlafs are assumed to be converts
from Hinduism, and have a lower status. In addition, there is also the Arzal caste among
Muslims, who were regarded by anti-caste activists like Babasaheb Ambedkar as the
equivalent of untouchables.

In the Bengal region of India, some Muslims also stratify their society according to
'Quoms'. While many scholars have asserted that the Muslim Castes are not as acute in their
discrimination as that among Hindus, some like Ambedkar argued otherwise, writing that the
social evils in Muslim society were "worse than those seen in Hindu society".

The nastik Buddhists too have a caste system. In Sri Lanka, the Rodis have always been
despised and they might have been out-casted by the Lankan Buddhists due to the absence of
"ahimsa" (non-violence), which Buddhism heavily depends on.

The writer Raghavan notes:

"That a form of worship in which human offerings formed the essential ritual would have
been anathema to the Buddhist way of life goes without saying; and it needs no stretch of
imagination that any class of people in whom the cult prevailed or survived even in an
attenuated form would have been pronounced by the sangha (i.e. the Buddhist clergy) as exiles
from the social order."

Savarkar too believed that the status of the backward castes (e.g. Chamar) that performed
non-violence only worsened. When Ywan Chwang traveled to South India after the period of
the Chalukyan Empire, he noticed that the caste system had existed among the Buddhists and
Jains.

The Jains too have castes in places such as Bihar. For example, in the village of Bundela,
there are several "jaats" (groups) amongst the Jains. A person of one "jaat" cannot
intermingle with a Jain or another "jaat". They also cannot eat with the members of other
"jaats".

The Sikh Gurus criticized the hierarchy in the caste system. Where some castes were
perceived by people as being better or higher than others (e.g. Brahmins being higher than
others) they preached all sections of society were valuable and merit and hard-work were
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essential aspects of life. In Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, out of 140 seats,
twenty are reserved for low caste Sikhs. However, the quota system has attracted much
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criticism due to the lack of meritocracy, where merit is considered the single most important
component of winning a seat.

10. CASTE SYSTEM VS. RACISM

Allegations that caste amounts to race were addressed and rejected by B.R. Ambedkar, an
advocate for Dalit rights and critic of untouchability. He wrote that

"The Brahmin of Punjab is racially of the same stock as the Chamar (Dalit) of Punjab. The
Caste system does not demarcate racial division. Caste system is a social division of people of
the same race".

Such allegations have also been rejected by many sociologists such as Andre Bteille, who
writes that treating caste as a form of racism is politically mischievous and worse, "scientifically
nonsensical" since there is no discernible difference in the racial characteristics between
Brahmins and Scheduled Castes. He writes that Every social group cannot be regarded as a race
simply because we want to protect it against prejudice and discrimination.

The Indian government also rejects the claims of equivalency between Caste and Racial
discrimination, pointing out that the caste issues as essentially intra-racial and intra-cultural.
Indian Attorney General Soli Sorabjee insisted that "the only reason India wants caste
discrimination kept off the agenda is that it will distract participants from the main topic: racism.
Caste discrimination in India is undeniable but caste and race are entirely distinct".

Many scholars dispute the claim that casteism is akin to racism. The view of the caste system
as "static and unchanging" has been disputed. Sociologists describe how the perception of the
caste system as a static and textual stratification has given way to the perception of the caste
system as a more processual, empirical and contextual stratification. Others have applied
theoretical models to explain mobility and flexibility in the caste system in India. According to
these scholars, groups of lower-caste individuals could seek to elevate the status of their caste by
attempting to emulate the practices of higher castes.

Sociologist M. N. Srinivas has also debated the question of rigidity in Caste.

Pakistani-American sociologist Ayesha Jalal also rejects these allegations. In her book,
"Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia", she writes that "As for Hinduism, the
hierarchical principles of the Brahmanical social order have always been contested from within
Hindu society, suggesting that equality has been and continues to be both valued and practiced."

In India, some observers felt that the caste system must be viewed as a system of exploitation
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of poor low-ranking groups by more prosperous high-ranking groups. In many parts of India,
land is largely held by high-ranking property owners of the dominant castes that economically
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exploit low-ranking landless labourers and poor artisans, all the while degrading them with ritual
emphases on their so-called god-given inferior status.

Matt Cherry claims that karma underpins the caste system, and the caste system traditionally
determines the position and role of every member of Hindu society. Caste determines an
individual's place in society, the work he or she may carry out, and who he or she may marry and
meet. According to him, Hindus believe that the karma of previous life will determine the caste
an individual will be (re)born into.

According to Stanford University scholar Oman Jain, there is no caste system currently in
place in India.

On 29 March 2007, the Supreme Court of India, as an interim measure, stayed the law
providing for 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes in educational institutions like
IITs and IIMs. This was done in response to a public interest litigation Ashoka Kumar Thakur
vs. Union of India. The Court held that the 1931 census could not be a determinative factor for
identifying the OBCs for the purpose of providing reservation.

11. SUMMARY
The inquiry has established the propositions that the institution of caste is at least three
thousand years old ; that it is universally believed to be of divine origin; that it concerns 250 millions of
people, more or less ; that it involves the division of the whole Hindu population and a large part of the
Muslim and Christian minority into about 3,000 distinct hereditary castes, without reckoning sub-castes ;
that no Hindu can escape from the dominion of caste; that Hinduism and caste being one and indivisible,
the institution cannot be abolished, and will still last for centuries The supremacy of the Brahman will
continue to be acknowledged; that supercial modications in the details of practice do not a'ect the
caste spirit, which has been strengthened by the Hindu revival.

The doctrine of the equality of all men before the law is opposed to the Hindu scriptures and the
practice of Hindu governments; that caste animosities, which are most bitter in the South, dating back for
a thousand years or more, are as virulent as ever at this day; and that, consequently, peace and order
require for their preservation a strong and impartial executive.

Those propositions state conditions which underlie all projects of constitutional reform, and for that
reason deserve the earnest attention of reformers and of Parliament. No legislation can change them, and
their gradual automatic relaxation must be deferred to a time so distant as to the beyond the vision of
practical politics.
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 12. CONCLUSION

There was a time in Hinduism, those who have crossed high seas going to U.K. were
excommunicated from the caste. Some castes were debased since they failed to observe the
caste system. Some castes lost their prestige since they were very close to British and other
foreigners. Some lower castes even elevated themselves to upper class like Kshatriyas slowly
and methodically.

All these show that caste system in Hinduism, is the most complex system in the world
and it has absolutely, no spiritual value at all. Caste system is a disgrace. If VEDA VYASA
and VALMIKI can be adored throughout India, then given proper education and proper
healthy surroundings, any Hindu can reach the status of those great masters of Hinduism.

A leech in the dirt, will always like to go back to dirt, unless it is shown and taught other
ways to survive. The same ideology goes for human beings, wherever they are in the world.
Whether they are the blacks in U.S.A. or untouchables in India or the native tribes of
Australia.

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 13. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Hein Online
2. SCC Online
3. Kluwer IP Law
4. Lexis Nexis India
5. SCC Online
6. Westlaw India

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