Now, why do all the Shudras who themselves are considered as impure, practice untouchability against the people ranked below them? These people do so even after being very poor and landless themselves. Some of them have recently got the land after India became independent. Therefore, it is basically poor against poor. It is antagonism between the poor; the poor are made of different blood separated caste groups; the poor most and the poor little less, - and the concept of unproven purity creates insurmountable barriers between them. Long live the wretched caste system and the worthless paradigm of imaginary purity!
One reason for them to practice the untouchability is status seeking which we will explain in the Appendix. The social, religious and economic combination produce this rational behavior - the central to which is the unproven concept of embedded or innate relative purity which is not found in all the castes in equal measure. One of the reasons for such a situation to exist is the traditional belief in the Varna or Jati system. The most impure are ranged against the polluted and polluting people. There are differences among poor. Not all of them are of the same kind - the Sanatana Dharma scores over every other system in this respect. The second reason is that they themselves are very poor and depend upon the high castes for the livelihood. The land owning castes are in a position to adversely affect their means to livelihood. If higher castes are displeased then the sources for sustenance for these people may dry up. Thus, if a Shudra intermixes with the Untouchables, and it comes to the knowledge of the ethical and moral upper castes, then the concerned Shudra receives a polite indirect warning to desist from such practice or face action. Normally this is sufficient to restore the traditional dharmic practice and harmony. Even otherwise, the concerned Shudra has to agree to their dharmic advice because his economic sustenance is at stake. The dependent people cannot take independent action. The rest is taken care of by the traditions. Thus, for his economic sustenance he has to behave like low caste against the higher castes and like high caste against the lower castes.
Another reason is the fear of losing his social status when mixing with the still lower category people. A Shudra considers him as superior to the Untouchables and does not intermix with them on his own. Then there is always a threat hanging over his head of excommunication from his own caste people who also fear the loss of status through such an adharmic acts - the heavens would be very angry. His caste people control his conjugal bliss; he may have to remain unmarried if he has to go against their wishes; this is the traditional India. If he has children then they may have to remain unmarried. Also there would be no agreement on intermixing with the Untouchables within his Jati.
As it happens, their acceptance/approval among higher castes is a very valuable factor because it sustains their superiority over the still lower Jatis. The people have been dancing on one leg to gain the acceptance from the Brahmans. The acceptance is not to be treated as equal but as near equal. Nobody can be equal to higher castes. It is the acceptance to be treated as fit enough to enter into a social discourse with the Brahmans without being made to feel inferior. If Brahmans talk to somebody without any element of disrespect then it is sufficient. Even if there is an element of disrespect, it remains sufficiently hidden, not really observable to an inattentive observer. And there are many of them.
Now let us consider that why the land owning Shudras should practice the untouchability? The category of the land owning Shudras emerged strongly after the independence in India. Before independence when the British ruled India, the land was mostly held by the twice-born people or the pseudo-kshatriyas. The rulers had, most of the time, nothing to do with the tillers and casual agriculture labor and they dealt with only revenue collectors who were mainly the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas. Sometimes the rulers dealt directly with the high caste (the pseudo-Kshatriyas in south India - relatively speaking where there were no Kshatriyas or Vaishyas) large tillers holding large tracts of land who gave it in turn to others for tilling. The people who worked on the land were more inferior Shudras and the Untouchables. The Shudras were mainly tillers and the Untouchables mainly the casual laborers. The Shudra tillers got a share of crop at the time of reaping the crop.
The landless casual laborers who were mainly Untouchables got payment in kind on daily basis on the day they got the work otherwise it was hunger all the way, hardly matters; they get their just gruel. The Untouchables worked from field to field on irregular basis while the tillers worked on a given piece of land on more or less permanent basis. The Untouchables were rarely the tillers since tilling was a relatively higher-level job and could not be given to them since it would have meant that the fifth stratum was better off than the fourth stratum - to each caste according to its status. To each according to his caste is one of the principles of Dharma. The caste effect was at work. It would have been aDharmic. It would have been the travesty of Dharma - Dharma says to each according to his Varna. This violated the Varna Dharma. Then one more factor was that the landed upper castes did not want to come into direct contact with the Untouchables and thus avoided becoming contaminated. Going around with the contaminated Dharma is not a nice thing! Therefore, the Shudras were kept between the upper castes and the Untouchables. The divinely ordained order could not be contravened. Thus, the Shudras having a relatively higher status got the higher-level tilling job which assured them a regular income. Their income was pittance but more than what the Untouchable casual workers got. The Untouchables did not enjoy the status of tillers because being the poorest they were not in a position to supply the agriculture equipments like plough and animals like bullocks to work as tiller on the fields. It was the result of Varna Dharma forces which aimed at keeping the Untouchables in the most pathetic conditions bereft of any resources - cruelty has many faces - Hinduism is very compassionate, clearly! One can see the fine mechanism of caste system here. The caste effect is, clearly, at work here.
However, this system entirely in tune with Dharma was considered as unequal and exploitative by the people, who had acquired the moderns education courtesy British, and, not attached to land for their sustenance. Please, watch the non-traditional effect that was foreign and non-Hindu. The landed gentry were not in the good books of the freedom fighters as they sided with the foreign rulers. Thus, the land reforms took place after the independence. The aim of the land reform was to redistribute the agricultural land to remove the associated inequalities within such a spiritual and exploitative dharmic system. Another aim was to weaken the landlords politically by snatching away their resources. With their influence and musclemen in the rural areas, the landlords were in a position to change the political fortunes position in country. Their musclemen could have been used for booth-capturing and forcing fake voting for all the voters in the favor of their candidates. Clearly, the people who did not participate in independence movement could not be handed political powers so easily. Somebody had to disarm them. An individual land ceiling was mooted for the agricultural land and the surplus land was redistributed freely among the Shudra tillers after paying the compensation to upper caste landlords. The guiding principle of the land reforms was the land to the tiller. This looks quite egalitarian in nature but this overlooked the existence of the still poor landless Untouchables who worked as casual laborers on the fields for their sustenance. This meant that the beneficiaries of the land reforms did not come from the bottom of the heap though they were related to the land through their daily casual labor.
The Untouchables were in a position to offer their labor only. After all, the dharmic and spiritual society allowed them to have their bodies as their whole sole possession only; out of divine compassion flowing in upper castes' heart and blooming on their faces. Only relatively well off Shudras could afford to own the majestic plough and a smart pair of bullocks which enabled them to get the job of a tiller without any right to land. The Varna Dharma ruled but the grain produce by the labor of Untouchables never became polluting because the dry grain is classified as unpollutable in Dharma Shastras - a stroke of genius by the lawmakers. Nobody can accuse the lawmakers of foolishness or being sly; it was all clear cut. Also, they cannot be accused of not having the sense of discriminating between pollutable standing water and unpollutable dry grains; or between the pollutable standing water and the unpollutable running water. Both of them are necessities of life. One of them, the grain, is the reason for living of high castes, touching it by an Untouchable causes no pollution; no question of aDharma arises -beautiful, clap man clap. The other one, the standing water, if touched by an Untouchable may cause mayhem, the holy violence - merely a common contradictory occurrence designed to save the Dharma. Anybody can take up violence to save Dharma. Indeed, any atrocity is a holy violence that targets the people who are unable to retaliate.
Before the independence, the Shudras were the tillers of land for the upper castes without any land rights. Even the landlord did not own the land they were the agents of the state who collected the land revenue on the behalf of rulers but they enjoyed unlimited powers in choosing their tillers. They were the middlemen between state and tillers, with both state and tillers being dependent on them. The state hardly bothered about the people who actually labored on the land. The tilling Shudras were under the obligation to landlords for their survival since they had no right on the land. The landlords could ask them not to come on the other season if displeased. It was as simple as that. This was sufficient to make the tiller shudder with cold in winter as well as in the scorching summer. How he was going to feed his family? The tillers could be changed according to the wish of the landholders. Therefore, these Shudras kept themselves attached to their landholders owners as firmly as possible; using all the humility they could muster. To please them they also doubled up as musclemen of the upper castes to fix the recalcitrant Untouchables whenever needed. This obviated any need of the high caste people to move out of their houses to fix the Untouchables. They had their tillers to do that. They could always enjoy the serenity of their large houses. They could get the heads of the Untouchables broken with heavy bamboo sticks without moving a finger. The Shudras could not use the arms but a bamboo stick is not a weapon though it can be used with devastating affect against the famished people. They were utilized to quell any voice of dissent from the Untouchable cluster. With the piercing of dharmic innocence (?) and peace (?) of the villages with the entry of railway steam engines, such protesting voices had started to emerge out of the Untouchable mud hut clusters.
Actually, it was the innocence of Untouchables that was destroyed not the thick, impenetrable, insensitive, exploitative, merciless, sly, cruel and deeply ruthless psyche of the higher Varnas or castes. They disliked it since it interfered with their permanent exploitation of the lower strata. It pierced the ears and psyches of upper castes to listen to the voices of assertion from the fifth stratum. To protect their interests and to keep their lives beautiful it was necessary to suppress these polluting voices of Untouchable dissent on an enduring basis. So the means used for this purpose had to be such that they had an enduring effect. The acts of merely scolding, rebuking and infrequent violence were not enough. The frequency had to be increased. The atrocities, tortures, murders, deaths and rapes were more enduring in their effects, to name a few. These weapons were used earlier also but now the frequency and intensity increased. Thus, these weapons were used for the holy purpose of maintaining the Varna Dharma.
The Shudra tillers had the highest status among the Shudras because they were connected with land and enjoyed the proximity with the local level ruling class. However, they still got only pittance. Any Shudra with a fully filled belly was considered as a grave danger to upper castes or Dharma. Thus, the question of leaving enough food with them did not arise. Their sole possession was the body they were born with. No addition to that with any skill or knowledge was considered dharmic or pure or pious - any such addition, could send Dharma in a fuming anger and there could be fire.
The result of the policy of land to the tiller was that the Shudra tillers were given the land rights free and the Untouchables landless laborers were left standing. May be it had to do something with the mentality of policy makers or there was not enough land to go round. The Untouchables were compensated in the form of reservations in the government jobs and the education. The twice-born people whose land had been taken after giving them due compensation moved to cities and the landed Shudras became the land owning castes in villages. They became the dominant castes in the countryside. The different castes were dominant in different areas. These different landowning castes did not become a class after their relative rise in status. They maintained their caste identities and endogamous nature, and continue to keep their dining separate from others. But, now they were the new overlords in the rural areas though not as big as the earlier ones. The non-land owning Shudras continued to be in their same wretched conditions without the benefit of the free land or the job reservations. However, the new land owning Shudras behaved in an exemplary way to justify their newly acquired status. Their past of utter poverty and servility was soon forgotten. The human memory is very short but the history cannot be wiped out. They continued with the atrocities on Untouchables; this time on their own behalf. The oppressors changed but not the oppression and neither did the dharmic philosophy behind the oppression of defenseless Untouchables.
One reason for them to practice the untouchability is status seeking which we will explain in the Appendix. The social, religious and economic combination produce this rational behavior - the central to which is the unproven concept of embedded or innate relative purity which is not found in all the castes in equal measure. One of the reasons for such a situation to exist is the traditional belief in the Varna or Jati system. The most impure are ranged against the polluted and polluting people. There are differences among poor. Not all of them are of the same kind - the Sanatana Dharma scores over every other system in this respect. The second reason is that they themselves are very poor and depend upon the high castes for the livelihood. The land owning castes are in a position to adversely affect their means to livelihood. If higher castes are displeased then the sources for sustenance for these people may dry up. Thus, if a Shudra intermixes with the Untouchables, and it comes to the knowledge of the ethical and moral upper castes, then the concerned Shudra receives a polite indirect warning to desist from such practice or face action. Normally this is sufficient to restore the traditional dharmic practice and harmony. Even otherwise, the concerned Shudra has to agree to their dharmic advice because his economic sustenance is at stake. The dependent people cannot take independent action. The rest is taken care of by the traditions. Thus, for his economic sustenance he has to behave like low caste against the higher castes and like high caste against the lower castes.
Another reason is the fear of losing his social status when mixing with the still lower category people. A Shudra considers him as superior to the Untouchables and does not intermix with them on his own. Then there is always a threat hanging over his head of excommunication from his own caste people who also fear the loss of status through such an adharmic acts - the heavens would be very angry. His caste people control his conjugal bliss; he may have to remain unmarried if he has to go against their wishes; this is the traditional India. If he has children then they may have to remain unmarried. Also there would be no agreement on intermixing with the Untouchables within his Jati.
As it happens, their acceptance/approval among higher castes is a very valuable factor because it sustains their superiority over the still lower Jatis. The people have been dancing on one leg to gain the acceptance from the Brahmans. The acceptance is not to be treated as equal but as near equal. Nobody can be equal to higher castes. It is the acceptance to be treated as fit enough to enter into a social discourse with the Brahmans without being made to feel inferior. If Brahmans talk to somebody without any element of disrespect then it is sufficient. Even if there is an element of disrespect, it remains sufficiently hidden, not really observable to an inattentive observer. And there are many of them.
Now let us consider that why the land owning Shudras should practice the untouchability? The category of the land owning Shudras emerged strongly after the independence in India. Before independence when the British ruled India, the land was mostly held by the twice-born people or the pseudo-kshatriyas. The rulers had, most of the time, nothing to do with the tillers and casual agriculture labor and they dealt with only revenue collectors who were mainly the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas. Sometimes the rulers dealt directly with the high caste (the pseudo-Kshatriyas in south India - relatively speaking where there were no Kshatriyas or Vaishyas) large tillers holding large tracts of land who gave it in turn to others for tilling. The people who worked on the land were more inferior Shudras and the Untouchables. The Shudras were mainly tillers and the Untouchables mainly the casual laborers. The Shudra tillers got a share of crop at the time of reaping the crop.
The landless casual laborers who were mainly Untouchables got payment in kind on daily basis on the day they got the work otherwise it was hunger all the way, hardly matters; they get their just gruel. The Untouchables worked from field to field on irregular basis while the tillers worked on a given piece of land on more or less permanent basis. The Untouchables were rarely the tillers since tilling was a relatively higher-level job and could not be given to them since it would have meant that the fifth stratum was better off than the fourth stratum - to each caste according to its status. To each according to his caste is one of the principles of Dharma. The caste effect was at work. It would have been aDharmic. It would have been the travesty of Dharma - Dharma says to each according to his Varna. This violated the Varna Dharma. Then one more factor was that the landed upper castes did not want to come into direct contact with the Untouchables and thus avoided becoming contaminated. Going around with the contaminated Dharma is not a nice thing! Therefore, the Shudras were kept between the upper castes and the Untouchables. The divinely ordained order could not be contravened. Thus, the Shudras having a relatively higher status got the higher-level tilling job which assured them a regular income. Their income was pittance but more than what the Untouchable casual workers got. The Untouchables did not enjoy the status of tillers because being the poorest they were not in a position to supply the agriculture equipments like plough and animals like bullocks to work as tiller on the fields. It was the result of Varna Dharma forces which aimed at keeping the Untouchables in the most pathetic conditions bereft of any resources - cruelty has many faces - Hinduism is very compassionate, clearly! One can see the fine mechanism of caste system here. The caste effect is, clearly, at work here.
However, this system entirely in tune with Dharma was considered as unequal and exploitative by the people, who had acquired the moderns education courtesy British, and, not attached to land for their sustenance. Please, watch the non-traditional effect that was foreign and non-Hindu. The landed gentry were not in the good books of the freedom fighters as they sided with the foreign rulers. Thus, the land reforms took place after the independence. The aim of the land reform was to redistribute the agricultural land to remove the associated inequalities within such a spiritual and exploitative dharmic system. Another aim was to weaken the landlords politically by snatching away their resources. With their influence and musclemen in the rural areas, the landlords were in a position to change the political fortunes position in country. Their musclemen could have been used for booth-capturing and forcing fake voting for all the voters in the favor of their candidates. Clearly, the people who did not participate in independence movement could not be handed political powers so easily. Somebody had to disarm them. An individual land ceiling was mooted for the agricultural land and the surplus land was redistributed freely among the Shudra tillers after paying the compensation to upper caste landlords. The guiding principle of the land reforms was the land to the tiller. This looks quite egalitarian in nature but this overlooked the existence of the still poor landless Untouchables who worked as casual laborers on the fields for their sustenance. This meant that the beneficiaries of the land reforms did not come from the bottom of the heap though they were related to the land through their daily casual labor.
The Untouchables were in a position to offer their labor only. After all, the dharmic and spiritual society allowed them to have their bodies as their whole sole possession only; out of divine compassion flowing in upper castes' heart and blooming on their faces. Only relatively well off Shudras could afford to own the majestic plough and a smart pair of bullocks which enabled them to get the job of a tiller without any right to land. The Varna Dharma ruled but the grain produce by the labor of Untouchables never became polluting because the dry grain is classified as unpollutable in Dharma Shastras - a stroke of genius by the lawmakers. Nobody can accuse the lawmakers of foolishness or being sly; it was all clear cut. Also, they cannot be accused of not having the sense of discriminating between pollutable standing water and unpollutable dry grains; or between the pollutable standing water and the unpollutable running water. Both of them are necessities of life. One of them, the grain, is the reason for living of high castes, touching it by an Untouchable causes no pollution; no question of aDharma arises -beautiful, clap man clap. The other one, the standing water, if touched by an Untouchable may cause mayhem, the holy violence - merely a common contradictory occurrence designed to save the Dharma. Anybody can take up violence to save Dharma. Indeed, any atrocity is a holy violence that targets the people who are unable to retaliate.
Before the independence, the Shudras were the tillers of land for the upper castes without any land rights. Even the landlord did not own the land they were the agents of the state who collected the land revenue on the behalf of rulers but they enjoyed unlimited powers in choosing their tillers. They were the middlemen between state and tillers, with both state and tillers being dependent on them. The state hardly bothered about the people who actually labored on the land. The tilling Shudras were under the obligation to landlords for their survival since they had no right on the land. The landlords could ask them not to come on the other season if displeased. It was as simple as that. This was sufficient to make the tiller shudder with cold in winter as well as in the scorching summer. How he was going to feed his family? The tillers could be changed according to the wish of the landholders. Therefore, these Shudras kept themselves attached to their landholders owners as firmly as possible; using all the humility they could muster. To please them they also doubled up as musclemen of the upper castes to fix the recalcitrant Untouchables whenever needed. This obviated any need of the high caste people to move out of their houses to fix the Untouchables. They had their tillers to do that. They could always enjoy the serenity of their large houses. They could get the heads of the Untouchables broken with heavy bamboo sticks without moving a finger. The Shudras could not use the arms but a bamboo stick is not a weapon though it can be used with devastating affect against the famished people. They were utilized to quell any voice of dissent from the Untouchable cluster. With the piercing of dharmic innocence (?) and peace (?) of the villages with the entry of railway steam engines, such protesting voices had started to emerge out of the Untouchable mud hut clusters.
Actually, it was the innocence of Untouchables that was destroyed not the thick, impenetrable, insensitive, exploitative, merciless, sly, cruel and deeply ruthless psyche of the higher Varnas or castes. They disliked it since it interfered with their permanent exploitation of the lower strata. It pierced the ears and psyches of upper castes to listen to the voices of assertion from the fifth stratum. To protect their interests and to keep their lives beautiful it was necessary to suppress these polluting voices of Untouchable dissent on an enduring basis. So the means used for this purpose had to be such that they had an enduring effect. The acts of merely scolding, rebuking and infrequent violence were not enough. The frequency had to be increased. The atrocities, tortures, murders, deaths and rapes were more enduring in their effects, to name a few. These weapons were used earlier also but now the frequency and intensity increased. Thus, these weapons were used for the holy purpose of maintaining the Varna Dharma.
The Shudra tillers had the highest status among the Shudras because they were connected with land and enjoyed the proximity with the local level ruling class. However, they still got only pittance. Any Shudra with a fully filled belly was considered as a grave danger to upper castes or Dharma. Thus, the question of leaving enough food with them did not arise. Their sole possession was the body they were born with. No addition to that with any skill or knowledge was considered dharmic or pure or pious - any such addition, could send Dharma in a fuming anger and there could be fire.
The result of the policy of land to the tiller was that the Shudra tillers were given the land rights free and the Untouchables landless laborers were left standing. May be it had to do something with the mentality of policy makers or there was not enough land to go round. The Untouchables were compensated in the form of reservations in the government jobs and the education. The twice-born people whose land had been taken after giving them due compensation moved to cities and the landed Shudras became the land owning castes in villages. They became the dominant castes in the countryside. The different castes were dominant in different areas. These different landowning castes did not become a class after their relative rise in status. They maintained their caste identities and endogamous nature, and continue to keep their dining separate from others. But, now they were the new overlords in the rural areas though not as big as the earlier ones. The non-land owning Shudras continued to be in their same wretched conditions without the benefit of the free land or the job reservations. However, the new land owning Shudras behaved in an exemplary way to justify their newly acquired status. Their past of utter poverty and servility was soon forgotten. The human memory is very short but the history cannot be wiped out. They continued with the atrocities on Untouchables; this time on their own behalf. The oppressors changed but not the oppression and neither did the dharmic philosophy behind the oppression of defenseless Untouchables.
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