Author – Dr Jatinder Singh

The Hindu reformers including political ones like Gandhi have advocated that people of all castes should be treated equally, but none has advocated denouncing of caste per se. Even the educated and elite among Hindus carry caste indicative surnames and marry in their own castes, the things are no different with the Sikhs. Few of us might have tried to dig it a little.

Dr. Ambedkar’s beautiful work “Who were the shudras” sheds a great deal of light on this subject. It is the 10:90 verse of Purusha Sukta in Rig Veda according to which brahmin came out of the mouth of purusha, khshatria out of chest, vaish out of lower abdomen/pelvis, shudra out of feet. Although it is a theory of cosmogony and similar theories are found in the literature of every ancient community.

Vedas were written some three thousand years back, though some Hindu scholars claim them to be 5000 years old, the Shankracharyas would tell us they were not written they came from Sagar Manthan millions of years ago, the modern Sanskrit grammar was given by Panini some 2500 years back (though a crude or Vedic Sanskrit existed some time before it), no Sanskrit texts were found in Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro or Rakhigarhi excavations.

Few simple questions which would come to an ordinary man’s mind are:-

1. If human came out of four parts of that supernatural power, then why it happened for Indian humans only, why caste is not seen in Caucasians, Afro-Americans, Mongols and other geographical subgroups of humans.
2. If there are actually four types of humans coming out of different parts of that supernatural power, then there must be at least some differences among them, maybe one had a limbless or more than the other or at least some subtle differences like length, number of shapes of smallest of bones, ligament insertions on bones, some differences in the distribution of hair at least if nothing else.
3. There is no difference in the finest of anatomy, the nerves, the arteries, the veins have the same course, the fibres in the brain have the same course, even the mitochondrial ribosomes are the same, at least there should be some differences.
4. In spite of nearly two thousand years of caste-based marriage restrictions as guided by Smritis leading to genetic isolations, the members of different castes are still compatible to produce fertile offsprings meaning that there is no reproductive isolation so far. How is it so?

The Shankracharyas and other Hindu scholars and gurus would tell you the ill effects of inter-caste marriages, but the science talks the contrary. The more genetically distant mating takes place within the species the more fit is the offspring, as during crossing over of the chromosomes the healthiest of genetic loci are chosen by nature, so is the case with recessive traits transmission. What they would never tell you is that the whole system is about maintaining hierarchy and keeping some at top and others at the bottom of this step ladder, on which you can fall but can never rise.

The differential rights, duties, punishment codes for different Varna and the rules meant for maintaining successive hierarchy are clearly mentioned in Manu Smriti (written around Christian era, actually there are some twenty Smritis) followed infallibly even during Mughal regimens, only to be variably challenged by lawmakers of British regime who stopped Sati-pratha, the sacrifice of a firstborn child to a Shudra woman to the Ganges, purification of the bride by the Brahmin, gave the right to Shudras to possess wealth, even Brahmins could be given a capital punishment which was forbidden be it for any crime, equality of genders and so on.

And this is not from the perspective of schedules castes only (the scheduled castes don’t fall in either of four varnas, they are avarna or the fifth one).

The Shudras are divided into some 6000 plus castes, it is common to see them fighting socio-politically to prove one above the other. The Jats, Sainis, Yadavs, Gujjars which according to the Varna system fall in Shudra Varna, their divide is much obvious in Haryana at least which I personally observed during the Jat Andolan days in 2016, similarly in Punjab the Jats, Lohbanas, Ramgarhias, Sainis all falling in same Shudra Varna try to prove themselves one above the other, even there are subcastes within the castes with the same competition. Honour killings are not uncommon in Punjab or Haryana.

Many of them might fall in the unreserved category today but the rules mentioned in Smritis and place according to the Rig Veda remains the same and as there are active forces which want the codes of Smritis to be brought in practice, who knows the Aggarwals/Vaish are restricted to only trade someday with no right to education (at most a places they are toppers in academic exams).

Socrates was poisoned for speaking against the idol-worshipping, Galileo was almost killed for saying that earth revolves around the sun as bible points to geocentricity, and his claims were perceived to be in contradiction to the bible.

As educated society members we should develop the capability of questioning each and everything taught to us or carried by customs and traditions, though it sounds different at once but is in the interest of human society.

If we are able to think rationally the possibility of the ground norm of caste that is Purusha Sukta of having any connection to the reality is nil. It is clearly meant to create hierarchical classes. The sooner we understand the better it will be for us and our country as the caste is a major barrier not only in the development of bottom sections of society but also in the development of the whole country as it keeps us deeply divided and thus dissipating our energy over internal caste conflicts. The idea of oneness will always remain a remote one until we carry the caste with us.

The motivation for writing this came from the song ‘Mera ki kasoor (What is my fault) sung by Ranjeet Bawa and the sequence of events following it, the song is beautiful with a deep and obvious message in it.

Author – Dr Jatinder Singh, MBBS, MD (Radiology).
Mohali Diagnostic Centre, Punjab
(currently pursuing LLB.)