II.

Evolution of the Caste System

All societies throughout history have developed social hierarchies. These hierarchies have almost always derived from occupations and their perceived relative status. As societies evolved from hunter-gatherer existence, through settled agrarian systems, development of trade, and industrialization, new occupations were created and shifts in status occurred. The caste system represents, in essence, a formalised, overtly codified social hierarchy, deriving from and subject to the changing economic and political requirements of evolving societies. While typified by its rigidity in terms of the lack of mobility for the individual, over time, the caste system as a whole has shown shifts associated with just the changes in society outlined above. A unique feature of caste, however, has been its intimate association with religion.

The religious sanction and framework given to the caste system in India have made it a particularly powerful social tool—a rebellion against caste becomes a rebellion against religion, with consequences in this and future lives—and has been a factor in its remarkable endurance to this day. The caste system appears to have evolved some time after the arrival into northern India of the Indo-European peoples known as the Aryans, a nomadic people, around 1500 bc, after the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization. No written records exist of this period (the Aryans had no writing) but it would appear from clues from later sources based on ancient oral tradition that they encountered resistance from indigenous peoples, and were involved in a protracted period of warfare with local peoples before emerging victorious. Aryan society was already split into warriors, priests, and the general populace, an unremarkable form of social organization. On vanquishing the indigenous peoples, who are described as darker skinned and with different features from the Aryans (it is possible that this refers to the Australoid and Negroid characteristics still seen in certain peoples in India), anxiety to maintain the low status of the conquered and to retain racial purity are the most likely reasons for the addition of a fourth group of servants to the social system, made up of the non-Aryan peoples. The racial aspect of caste is clearly indicated in the term that emerged to describe the four groups— varna, the Sanskrit word for colour. The four varnas, in descending order of status, were then the Kshatriyas (the king and warriors), the Brahmins (priests), the Vaishyas (who, with the rise of trade and agriculture, became the farmers and merchants), and the Shudras (servants).

Further changes were to occur before the system ossified. Most importantly, the Brahmins, pointing out their importance in sanctioning the divinity of the monarch, and vesting him with his regal authority, were able to manoeuvre to the top of the scale. As society developed (after the heights reached by Harappan culture, the Aryan period initially represented a considerable step backwards), the area under settled agriculture expanded, and trade and the arts began to flourish, resulting in the slow rise of the Shudras into the roles of cultivators of the land, and skilled artisans. Those who performed the most menial tasks, such as the sweepers, and those who collected waste, were left out of the caste system altogether, becoming outcastes or Chandalas. A system of subcastes, or jatis, evolved, related to each occupation. It is at the level of jatis that the caste system has primarily operated, with individuals of a particular jati constrained in various social aspects, especially marriage, to remain within their jati. As social and economic conditions changed, the relative position of some jatis as a whole has shifted to reflect the changing status of the occupations concerned.

This detailed link with occupation is interesting. Occupations tended to be hereditary, the son learning from the father. It was a small step, then, for caste, related to the status of the individual and their role in society, to become strictly hereditary, thus further assuring the supremacy of the Brahmins. But it is this most insidious aspect of caste that was to trap millions of individuals effectively in an impoverished, uneducated, and stigmatized state for generation after generation.

The religious exposition of this social and political phenomenon is found in the earliest of the sacred texts of Hinduism, the Rig Veda (dating back to about 300 bc but representing a far older oral tradition), which described the division of the primeval Man, Purusha, into four parts, the mouth becoming the Brahmins, the arms, the Kshatriyas, the legs, the Vaishyas, and the feet, the Shudras. The roles of the four varnas were then established as a law of nature. But without offering some hope of salvation for all, no religion can succeed. This was provided, in Brahmin orthodoxy, by the ideas of karma (roughly translatable as “fate”) and rebirth. While, in an individual's earthly life, his or her caste was decided by the caste of the parents, the fact of being born into a particular caste was no accident. It was dependent on one's deeds in past lives. The Bhagavad-Gita stresses the idea of duty. The duty of an individual was dependent on caste. Thus a “good” shudra would improve his karma by a lifetime of devotion to his or her masters. Likewise, charity was part of the duty of the higher castes. Through the carrying out of these caste-defined duties, it was possible to be reborn into a higher caste. The ultimate purpose of all this was moksha, or release from the cycle of life and death, through acquiring a spiritual insight that relied, in traditional interpretations of Hinduism, on being born a Brahmin. Thus all could have hope, and the route to salvation was in doing the duty expected of one's caste.

It is important to stress here a key difference between the workings of caste and socio-economic class. A class system could be said to be, broadly speaking, related to material wealth. This is not so for the caste system. Brahmins, being spiritually superior, were expected to renounce such worldly pleasures. It was, however, the duty of other castes to provide the Brahmins with food and other material requirements. Nevertheless, with education confined chiefly to the higher castes, there has, in effect, been a correlation between caste and class.

Much of the stigma against the lower castes and, in particular, the outcastes, or Chandalas, has been strengthened and justified through the religious concept of “ritual purity”. Manual work was regarded as essentially unclean, and those associated with it could not be allowed to enter into intimate contact with the higher castes, and in particular with the Brahmins, who performed religious ceremonies before which they, too, had to purify themselves by bathing. Thus, in addition to the taboo on intercaste marriage, the Chandalas, in particular, were not to be allowed near the preparation of food for higher castes, or even into temples (especially in South India). Eventually their touch, and even their shadows, were considered to be polluting, resulting in the Chandalas becoming so-called Untouchables and even Unapproachables.

As the system evolved, new subcastes or jatis formed with new occupations, and incoming groups of peoples were given a suitable subcast to fit them into the system, although this did not always prove straightforward.