[Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.]
By Justice
Markandey Katju
It is true that the so called
‘upper castes’ committed great atrocities on the lower castes like the Dalits,
and are often still committing them. But the topic needs a deeper analysis.
The caste system was based on the
feudal occupational division of labor in society, each vocation becoming a
caste. Thus, potter ( kumbhar ), carpenter ( badhai ), ironsmith ( lohar ),
leather workers like cobblers ( chamaar ), etc. became castes. This was not
unique to India. In England even today there are many people with surnames like
Taylor, Mason, Barber, Butcher, Potter, Gardener, Smith, Goldsmith, etc. which
shows that their forefathers belonged to these vocations.
Division of labor leads to great
progress, as the great British economist Adam Smith pointed out in his book
‘The Wealth of Nations’. So, at one time ( in feudal society ), the caste
system was a progressive institution ( though today it is totally evil and
reactionary ).
What may be good earlier may become
bad later.
We may compare it with the
institution of slavery. Today slavery is regarded as a great evil. But it was
not so at one time. Greek and Roman civilizations, which had great achievements,
were based on slavery. No doubt the conditions of slaves in those civilizations
were very bad. But without slavery we would not have had Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle, Archimedes, Homer, Democritus, Greek drama, Herodotus, etc. or the
Roman roads, aqueduct, the Pantheon, Virgil, Roman laws, etc.
As mentioned before, the Brahmins
were at the top of the Hindu social hierarchy.
They were originally priests, but a
small section of them became the intellectuals in society.
In ancient and medieval times there
was no concept of universal education. In fact, in that era the economy, with
its primitive method of production, could not provide the resources for giving
education to all. Nor was a need for that, the main occupation of the people
being agriculture, which does not require literacy ( I am talking of feudal,
not modern, agriculture ).
As mentioned above, ancient and
feudal societies were based on the division of labor. Though most people at
that time did manual labor like agriculture, handicrafts, etc. there was a
small section that did mental work, and these were the Brahmins.
Though most Brahmins in medieval
times were priests, whose job was to keep poor people in ideological bondage
and make them accept their plight as ordained by the gods, there was also a
small section of them who were relatively enlightened. These latter were our
scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, writers, poets, jurists, etc. due to
whom India made great progress.
How will the caste system, which is blocking our progress, be destroyed? It is not by attacking and spreading hatred against Brahmins and Brahminism, as empty-headed people like Arundhati Roy contend. An attack on a particular caste only divides the people, and suits the ‘divide and rule policy’ of our enemies. Unity among our people, transcending caste and religion, is absolutely essential at this historical juncture for our nation.
The caste system can only be destroyed by (1) a united historical people’s struggle led by modern-minded leaders, leading to a revolution, which will change the entire present oppressive political, economic, and social system in India (2) advance of technology, and (3) inter-caste marriages.
Read more
Indians were once leaders in science
Sanskrit as s Language of Science
Caste, Brahminism and J&K: The vacuous ‘Intellectualism’ of Arundhati Roy