Caste? What caste? There is no caste! This is the usual refrain from the mainstream. The academics, the newspapers, the television and other printed media deny the existence of caste while living in the quagmire. Their objectivity is remarkable or just say pious and pure. They do not believe in caste. And the current honor killings in urban India are no proof for them. But upon their word you should believe - pure people do not lie. Caste is a thing of ancient past. It was abolished with a stroke of a pen with the enactment of anti-untouchability law after independence. It disappeared into thin oblivion as soon as the law against came in force. The practice of thousands years disappeared within a second - sheer magic! Thousands years simply disappeared! It needs to be reminded that the anti-untouchability law was not against caste; it was only against untouchability; it does not stop people discriminating on the basis of caste. Now everybody is equal before the law. The discrimination by the state based on caste is prohibited by the law. However, the discrimination in society (the caste effect) is not subject to state law except in case of untouchability. The anti-untouchability law is regarded as the instrument which ends all the related crippling discriminations. The state is silent on the discrimination by individuals against individuals on the basis of caste except untouchability. Caste is a thing of ancient past. Ancient ? How ancient? This ancient is very current.
There should be equality before law. They work strictly on the basis of merit and efficiency. There is no place for the caste in their views. The caste as a matter of grave consideration does not exist. It is a wholly backward concept and they do not believe in it. And neither does anybody else. So people should stop making caste an issue. What is this fuss all about? Since caste is nonexistent, the issues related to it should also be nonexistent. These lower caste people do not know this simple logic. Stop all that crap and no talk about the untouchability, discrimination and casteism and exclusion. And these low castes scum… !
The pangs of their hurt honor are undesirable; their honor gets hurt when they see a filled belly among Untouchables. Anyway, their perfunctory tirade against the caste just goes on and on; as if it would last till eternity. The events happening here and there and all over India are really nonexistent. Adi Sankaracharya also said this world is really nonexistent - so the life really does not exist. What absurd logic filled with purity! Therefore, the atrocities must also be nonexistent except honor, purity, bravery, magnanimity, compassion, sensitivity and pure righteousness of the high castes. Right? Is it not? It is matter of being immaterial with the material things. Are you going to hang our culture over the fate of some grossly irrelevant and expendable people having grossly irrelevant issues? What is new about it, the gates of society were always closed for the Untouchables! Is anything new???? So, caste? What caste? Nothing is new about the untouchability, and it should not make news. Just a way of life! Please, do not disturb us.
No caste - no caste - they talk as if they are in a trance. The trance of transcendental people is self-imposed so it cannot be broken. While in a denial mode, they seem to be in a trance - a clear cut case of self-hypnosis. It is an outward lapse of memory while underneath the caste serenity prevails. The twinkle in their eyes betrays their anti-caste oratory. Wretched low caste man, you must be hallucinating about the caste because there is no caste. You are bothered about your condemned, trivial and expandable lives. You small people are always bothered about some small issues - small people small talk - irrelevant people irrelevant talk -useless people useless talk - foolish people foolish talk. We the high caste people know that you are dumb wit low caste people. You are there to make our lives easy. That is all the purpose for your existence.
Their voices are well orchestrated; in fact, so well orchestrated that they can beat any damn orchestra in the world. Their combination is unbeatable. The web they spin is mind boggling. The thread they make is amazing. The can leave you gasping with amazement. And you are awe struck by their underwhelming resonance which craves to search for imaginary equality in the Hindu society. The people living in slums are avoided in their discussion. Innocent they are; they are living in the quagmire of caste and not believing any iota of it! How innocent they are? How naïve they are? However, it is difficult to deal with their acrimonious innocence and naivety. Their welfare is the result of their hard work and not that of permanent crippling of the major portion of the Hindu society. They have contorted and frowning faces with contrived and convoluted logic to prove their point.
The acrimonious naivety of these people is overwhelming. The garlands await these people in their haloed circles. They are the prime candidates for the Moksha. They will surely not take the birth of jackals, lizards, dogs etc. in their next lives. And they were never dinosaurs in any of their earlier lives. Or maybe they were T. Rex. They always ruled. And the all knowing Vedas and scriptures are silent about T. Rex - very strange considering the belief that the Vedas contain all the knowledge in the world! The all-knowing Vedas are also silent about the internal combustion engine. Anyway, living in air conditioned rooms, riding the vehicles with the internal combustion engine and using electrical gadgets is a strange and dark betrayal of their own pure heritage. The purity has been corrupted by using the technology of heathen people! Honestly speaking, the element of honest faith in their culture and heritage does not exist, but they desperately and dharmically want all benefits which the caste system bestows on them and also the technological benefits of the West! What a combination of old and new wants! No wonder - the past and present exist at the same time in India! Goodies from any sides are desirable. Well, only the goodies…
And what is a goody? That depends on whether it serves your personal interests or not? So, the internal combustion engine serves the self interest and equality does not, for the high castes. Therefore, former is a goody and the later is not.
Their feigned naivety can leave any serious student of Hindu society speechless notwithstanding the awesome convoluted theories and awesome pseudo empirical researches of the high caste Hindu scholars.
The output of overwhelmingly innocent and unimpeachable high caste Hindu scholars and researchers can lead people into forming lofty ideas about the Hindu society. The ingenious facade they present before the world does not contain any idea about the crippled lives of millions of people. The bad and ugly sores are artfully kept hidden, covered, or just plainly ignored with all the sensitivity and compassion imbibed in the high caste people; and please do not forget about their high ethics and high morals. No misery of lower strata can penetrate their ultra sensitive eyes and minds. They see nothing and find nothing. They cannot be accused of being crass. They forget about the lower strata after a single line mention. And this single mention is made with a sinking heart.
Their gullibility is remarkable. Or the guile is remarkable. They can be taken for a ride by an eagerness to present a flowery, spiritual and egalitarian image of the Hindu society. These individuals, full of innocence, with inscrutable faces and minds, do not leave any iotic place for the views of the lower strata. They do it for the benefit of whole society - society that heavily treads, with boots having nails, upon the welfare of millions of people without any guilty feeling. It gives them no rights. The low caste people are not indebted to them; no rights no duties - simple. These heathen people having minuscule stake in society, are kept useless by not permitting them to increase their skills through education; and are branded as worthless, indolent and lazy etc. The sufferings of these insignificant people are insignificant - hardly worth mentioning - merely trivia. Long live the intellectual honesty of the high caste scholars! Wow! If any was there? In this society, the exceptions are rules and the coincidences are proofs, provided these benefit the high castes and show them in a bright light. Anything else is thrown in the dustbin. And the pure river Ganges washes off all their sins, if any. Maybe it does not because there are no sins!
The devastated minds, as a result of watching a well educated Untouchable, go into intense turmoil; and they intensely plan to keep him out of their sanctified world.
The mentality full of sacredness springs forth as a result of rotten adharmic acts of impure people - like looking back into eyes. Making eye contacts with the upper castes is strictly forbidden. Make sure that you do not trample upon the pious egos of upper castes.
They are people with a pure conscience. There should be no doubt about that. The proof of this spreads from here to there and eternity in the form of the caste effect. Beware, the skeptics would be made outcastes!
Any guilty feeling never touches their haloed circles. The impure cries for help are not to be heard. What! You say, one should bother! Any dharmic reasons for this, please?
They are highly altruistic people forcing stinking monopoly of stinking jobs on the Untouchables. Who can offer monopoly to others? Only very highly altruistic people! Any doubts about the absence of altruism in Hindu society should be expunged here with. You ignoble fool, you don't even know this! Always remember, you are dealing with the high caste people! And there is no caste! The institution of caste foolishly faded away with a stroke of legal pen!
In the face of facts, their logic goes into convulsions. Logic goes to pieces. Logic is torn into pieces. Logic is roasted alive. Logic stands on its head. But none of it matters! Any encroachment is looked at by the blazing eyes. Heathen people dare to question their logic?
Their beguiled innocence eats up the existence of casteism. The denunciation of caste, pleasantly, overlooks the caste atrocities, which is a benevolent look at their extended kith and kin, and the people who are following the Dharma's way. The current honor killings in the urban areas are also ignored.
The ignorance of impure people pleases the hearts of pure people, boundlessly. The happiness this ignorance spreads is limitless. The thicker is this ignorance the thicker is the shade of bliss. Stupendous stupidity exists blissfully under an enormous veil of ignorance. Absconding reason rarely makes its absence felt. Needless to say! The people claiming their civilization as the greatest one, do not need this absconding reason. Let it wonder here and there and nowhere. Its calamitous permanent visit can bring down the whole dharmic structure. Absence of reason is a cause for celebration. They know that the absence of reason is good for their awesome superiority.
For the mainstream and civil society the casteism ended with the enactment of anti-untouchability law. How funny! As if the stealing stops with a law against it. As far as this exalted and well considered segment of the population is concerned the caste system ceased to exist with the enactment of this law and provision of fundamental equality under the law. There is no law against the discrimination by society except in the case of untouchability; so all the overt and covert discriminations can take place right under the nose of law in a lawful manner. However, the people who represent the mainstream and civil society belong to the upper castes mainly. They are in the state of constant denial over the existence of casteism. Their astounding amnesia in this regard is remarkable. The preponderance of lying in the Hindu society was never in question. But it still remained unquestioned. Ignorance is bliss; the ignorance of the low castes converts the scriptural lying into traditional facts. And the upper castes occupy the dominating positions in the crucial areas of education, administration and business - all honestly. The elites of Hindu society want to have the best of both the worlds. They want to enjoy the privileges granted by the traditional society and at the same time enjoy the fruits of the Western technology. Therefore, they embrace the latter and maintain the former through various means while issuing constant denials about the caste and the casteism. The Western concepts can go to the dustbin. It is the Maya of the Western world that they want! The Vedanta authors must be developing a strong sense of betrayal but who cares? Honesty is the best policy for which ("honesty") no word/s exists in the Indian languages. It is conspicuous by its divine absence.
The casteist feelings of the upper castes, in the cities, come to fore when any person from any lower caste is not within hearing distance. When the concerned person (untouchable) is not within hearing distance, then all the swearing words are hurled at the whole of his community with faultless surgical impunity. It is a matter of grave and hot discussion that how come such lowly and dirty persons are able to gain entry into the upper caste areas. And when any Untouchable appears near them then suddenly the uneasy calm descends over them. The cloud of gloom accompanies this uneasy calm. This calm suffocates them. The gloom can be avoided by keeping the impure and the pure separate - that is what they want as is evident in their resentment. They need a cleaner air to breathe which is not possible in the presence of any Untouchable. The cloud of gloom does not disappear in the presence of low castes. They do not have the reeking wounds caused by the casteism, instead, they float in the sunny happiness caused by it. And malicious whispers simply smile benignly for the benefit of Dharma. These malicious whispers, not heard by the outsiders, are the reasons that outsiders find it difficult to understand the true implications of birth in the caste system. The defenders of the Varna Dharma try their best to insulate the outsiders from the reeking wounds that Varna/caste system causes on the lowest strata.
The obnoxious people living obnoxious life of enforced penury are objects of hate. Is it inhuman? No, it is divine! The howling of dogs and the Untouchables are no match for deft handling of the hate embedded casteism by the high caste people.
Beyond two kilometers of any metro city, the unofficial law of untouchability shines in its full, unblemished glory. It makes fun of the constant denial by the intelligent civil society. It also asserts the smug domination of higher castes over the hapless Untouchable. It smiles and smiles - cruelly and ruthlessly, the radiance of which reaches the civil society where it transforms into broad grins in private. Still the constant denials go on and on. To justify this constant denial they constantly churn out the convoluted theories and explanations. And these convoluted theories and explanations are supposed to be beyond the understanding of the fifth stratum. And it also seems that they have never heard about the Occam's razor.
Most of them are seriously concerned with the matters of prime importance like the Imperialism, Nationalism, Globalization, Terrorism, Communalism, Colonization, Environment, Global Warming, Secularism, Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, Western hegemony etc. The discourses should always be along these lines where the caste is an outsider and nonexistent. How you can you include anything in any discourse when it does not exist? Or something which is frivolous and trivial? Their angst coils and recoils in their hearts causing unfathomable turbulency. If at all, the caste enters in any of the haloed caste circles, it is treated as unwelcome intruder which has come to insult them, and should be shunned or smugly ignored. Their deep thinking and insight about the problems of Indian society reserve no place for the casteism; as far as they are concerned, the matter is simply irrelevant. Perfunctory, my dear, perfunctory! Their deep and superior thinking bypasses the casteism with acrimonious naivety! Surely, they have to take a long route to bypass it. The caste and casteism do not find any place in their outward scheme of things while flowing deep down. They also have castes - the castes where each has a halo around it. The caste is supposed to be an institute of the past and has no use in the modern society. The case is closed. Period.
The crippled lowest stratum is left to fend for itself under the omnipresent caste effect. Well, the leftovers for the left out.
They are emphatic opponents of caste, linking them with caste actually amounts to defaming them. Sheer contempt, man, sheer contempt! Any discussion on caste is an indication of social backwardness. Anyway, as far as the Untouchables and their problems are concerned, one is met with a stony silence from these exalted sensitive corners. Their deafening and insensitive silence contains enormous and eternal unofficial collective boycott of the Untouchables and the Shudras. The cruel silence is as thick as lard.
They live in a modern world of their own where the presence of lowest strata is not registered. For them the caste does not exist; if it exists then it is a matter of no significance. Therefore, anybody, who is trying to engage them in a discussion about caste and its problems, is simply wasting their time and energy on a useless issue. The issue, which adversely affects 200 million of the people, is of no concern. It is a very insignificant worthless number - thrice the population of the United Kingdom. These millions of worthless, insulted, hungry and expendable people do not need any attention when the mainstream can talk about the exploitative modern culture and business Imperialism, and the hegemony of the Western World etc. We, the high caste people, know that all your issues are trivia and frivia… And low level issues are not fit to be discussed in a civilized society like ours! So out with you and your miseries and sufferings! You low level scum!
And they achieved their high position due to their merit. Merit acquired through birth? What kind of bird is that? There is no such thing as birth-attached merit, you know! There is no earned merit in the traditional India; only the caste-based merits are allowed. But this is modern India. They competed in an open system where caste is immaterial. And they got these crucial and important positions of social dominance without the help from their respective castes. You can add the competition with the rest of the crippled population, if you like. That is another thing that their sensory social network and the lopsided distribution of the resources keep the lower castes out of the fray. Additionally, the selectors are also from the high castes acting to keep the low castes out of their haloed circles. The contamination should not reach their haloed circles in the form of presence of the Untouchables.
Thy name is honor and you reside in the hearts of pure high caste people. And if thy name is insult you are supposed to surround the hearts of the impure people. The Untouchables wait upon the fake promise or the fake consolation of the high castes that the things will change but such a thing has never materialized and they have remained ever insulted. Underneath, it has remained the same; and Dharma bounces back with the full vigor whenever the time is ripe.
However, according to them in their open system, the caste plays no important part. But they would also be hard pressed to deny the role of their well-connected families, which gets translated into caste support through active social networking - and the role of the crippled majority in the form of killed competition. The well-connected families live in the social cocoon provided by the privileging caste system. Their caste, their economic and social resources provided by their caste and the availability of excellent educational opportunities had no role to play in it. The opportunities are distributed according to each caste - to each according to his caste, in the unofficial India that is the motto; the low castes get butchered opportunities. They are the product of their own sole merit in a vacuum. So goes out there the caste; it is another thing that they would never come across the people from the fifth stratum in their lives until forced by the system of reservation. The existence of caste has never affected them adversely, so they cannot feel the insults, the empty bellies and tattered clothes. If caste has done anything to them then it is divinely beneficial. And anything beneficial should be kept intact even if one has to disown to preserve it. Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? Caste is a servant of the high caste people.
The history is largely made up of national freedom movement, the British period, the Muslim period, the middle age, and the ancient period with barely any mention of caste and its impact on society. It is left to be discussed in the Sociology where it is not avoidable. If it were possible, it would have been eliminated from there too.
The intelligentsia's prominent silence is due to its predominantly upper caste character where intellectual honesty is a worthless attribute - traditionally. It is inherent in its structure. The structure is not supposed to oppose itself. The caste is not important to them due to many reasons.
One reason is their belief that they achieved their historical and current position due to their own past and current merit and fairness. In today's context, they have competed in an open system based on their own undiluted merit. It reflects a modern civil society where anybody can achieve anything as an individual irrespective of his origin. Therefore, they are not the product of the caste system. See! The system is open to all and there is no limitation on anybody to compete in society. You see! It is an open society! The low caste scum botch up their chances by being lazy. Our unimpeachable integrity cannot be doubted! See, the history is proof of it.
Secondly, the existence of caste does not affect them adversely. The caste effect is in their favor. It is a never ending source of never ending goodies - being born in a right caste means possession of a key that opens the doors of many gates that lead to controlling positions. A good caste means a good key and a bad caste means a bad key. The bad key does not fit any lock of any of the worthwhile closed gates in this closed gates society. A good key opens the good doors, and a bad key opens the bad door; and the caste is the key. The upper castes reap the society forever like the forever green fields. These fields are full of impure manual workers who are to be kept at a safe distance but there is no problem with the yield. The yield of impure people is scrupulously and scripturally pure - nothing strange about it! No convoluted contradictions about it. See, how simpletons are the pious and pure lawmakers! Nothing unscrupulous about it! No trickery man, it is given in the hallowed scriptures. The only thing that matters is that it helps the high castes; any byproducts of it are merely trivia.
Thirdly, any recognition of caste system and its importance means acknowledgment of injustice heaped on society by their ancestors and their present kith and kin for which they refuse to take the responsibility. They cannot blame themselves and people like them for the ills of society. It has to be the fault of the victims. Remember the spiritual Karma hypothesis. Anyway, they discount the caste by disowning it and relegating it to a distant past but this past exists currently - it is the unofficial India. It is a grandiose strategy that falters at the steps of history and intellectual honesty. But as usual, who cares? In practice, it stands there, stubbornly. They are insensitively moderns and separate from the pre-modern institutes like the caste and therefore it is none of their concern though they walk, talk and eat in environment, which is fully embedded with the inherited casteism, however direct or indirect it may be. They put the modern turtle on its back and everything is all right.
As a proof of their commitment to make the caste irrelevant, the esteemed members of such a casteless civil society do not marry outside their castes and consider themselves innately superior to low castes. The arrogance of high castes is a disparaging show of disparaging disunity in the Hindu society. In addition, they do not like to hire the people of unlikable castes. The state does not say that the individuals cannot discriminate except in the case of untouchability. They create subtle and indirect, vocal and behavioral ways, to insult the people from the lower strata. The hopes of lower castes are honored by the choicest taunts, expletives and crass remarks. Sometime the language is coded with extreme sophistication but the end purpose is the same. All of them are men of principles - of course, they are, no iotic and idiotic doubts about it. All their views run concurrently with the suppression and oppression in India. These are the people with unimpeachable credentials in their own fields and circles. One such member with unimpeachable credentials forwards, his objective and logical opposition to discuss any issue on the caste, rendering it unimportant; the second member agrees; the third member writes an article on it and the fourth one publishes it; hardly any member form the fifth stratum takes part in such an objective and impartial process. The Untouchables cannot take part in it because their presence has been unofficially outlawed in their exalted circles. And of course one should not forget the purity of the circle made up mainly of the high castes - the gates are effectively and firmly closed for the impure and polluting persons though not apparently.
And, on upper caste faces, a smile is a curve which converts itself into a frown at the mere mention of the Untouchables.
Then there is view that a secular and civil society would solve the problems of caste if any or would make it irrelevant. The civil society is thought to be non-discriminating in nature but it is not known that to what an extent the Hindu civil society with closed gates has acquired this character.
There is no hurry, no eagerness to set the things right - well the snail is ok. There is only apathetic attitude toward casteism with an indifferent and feigned commitment to remove it. Anyone, who finds the facts and analyses them, would find it right. Why get rid of something that is beneficial and makes this world beautiful for them? It would be highly irrational to expect them to remove this. Whenever they talk of casteism, the truth becomes a turtle turned on its back.
The perspiration of lower strata for fulfilling their aspirations does not qualify for any appreciation by the pure people because it points toward the aDharmic state of impure minds. These uncouth fellows spoil the mood of pure people.
As long as the upper castes benefit from the caste system, the caste system does not exist. But, the moment it starts affecting them adversely, the presence of harmful, poisonous and divisive caste system, is swiftly recognized with stunning speed. The people suffering from amnesia and short memory suddenly develop the elephantine memory. The presence of caste, which was not there a moment ago now, emerges everywhere, affecting adversely all the aspects of society, economy and religion, and of meritocratic and patriotic India. It can leave you gasping for some breath. The reaction is faster than a rattle viper. Nobody can accuse them to be short on self-interest. Then they change the tune like the deft music wizards. They voice their well-orchestrated intelligent opinions regarding the ugly casteism rearing its divisive serpentine head to the detriment of the whole society. They forget that this divisive serpent is an essential part of the glorious heritage of Hindus. Anyway, they are short on memory and history. They forget that their caste arrogance is a disparaging show of disparaging disunity in the Hindu society! What is meant by whole of society is not made clear. Are the Untouchables and other lower castes are included in it? Anyway, the casteism, which was nonexistent, becomes ugly harmful existing casteism, mercilessly tearing the social fabric of society, which is required to be stopped at any cost. It is the same social fabric that pierces the lives and psyches of lower caste people like thorns and nails. The caste is also branded as an instrument that divides the well-knit society, and they want to bring, the nefarious tendencies of caste, to a grinding halt as a matter of great urgency, importance and for the welfare of the society. This crippling society is cruel enough to brand some people as Untouchables without any reasons and effectively cripple them. However, by society they mean their minority selves forming twenty percent of the Hindu population and positioned permanently at the top of society. They are very patriotic possessing a tunnel vision of India. To each according to his caste – that is their motto.
The presence of an Untouchable among the pure people devours their happiness. Such monsters are these heathen people! They are ever ready to devour the happiness, serenity, peace, solace and tranquility of minds and hearts of the ultra sensitive high caste people! Have they no shame? They desecrate the hallowed sphere of the pure people by their presence! Shameful, utterly shameful of these condemned people. And eating cow dung and drinking urine are used for purification by the pure people; do not laugh, do not smile and do not ask for any explain for such rationalistic activities! Malechhas! What do they know about our culture? Please, don't belittle this great religion by talking about the absence of equality, freedom, honest, sensitivity, sympathy, empathy and fairness etc. if you do so then their solace gets crumpled and tranquility goes into hysteria. Their mental peace goes into a horrible spin. And the harmony as the mean goes haywire. The caring people should not do so. They should calmly and silently watch from the sidelines the cruel behavior toward impure people which is put into effect under the umbrella of divine Karma Hypothesis. They should respect the divinity and walk away. There is no need to feel sad over the worthless impure cries, the worthless impure tears, the dirty impure wounds, the dirty impure sufferings, the trivial polluting suffering, the frivolous deaths - all small things you know; these are hardly worth mentioning. You have to respect the divine justice for which no witness or evidence can be produced and no exact linkage can be found. If you do not like it then bear for some time and you will get used to it. You will make peace with Dharma. You will develop a nature that suits it. That is sure and guaranteed. And accusing the pure people as sadists is pure blasphemy and totally punishable under this law or that law. Yes, I am talking about modern Indian Constitution. There are umpteen laws which can be used to arrest the people raising their voices against atrocious system - Indian Panel Code, IPC 153(A) comes to mind. The reality stinks and it should not come out. If one goes IPC 153 the all the scriptures of the Sanatana Dharma would be banned for degrading majority of people. This cannot happen until this divided majority forms linkages with each other. However, in my personal opinion, these degrading scriptures starting with Rig Veda should not be banned. There should be freedom of expression.
The presence of an Untouchable, in the haloed circles, ensures sly, malicious and vicious whispers aimed at isolating him. Under the overt smiles, a covert, organized and tacit unofficial conspiracy takes place to show him his place, indirectly. And eventually the man in question rediscovers his true place in society. The tranquility is nearly restored.
The holes and patches on their clothes get converted into smiles elsewhere. Their empty bellies are a thing of joy elsewhere. But do not worry about it. It is very compassionate society. It intends to do nothing about it. All the compassion is closed within the closed gates.
The measures of reservations are seen and analyzed in this light to enlighten the whole of society of the ills of casteism. Their analysis takes the form of dissection with profound clinical precision. The reservations are supposed to tear the social fabric and create social tensions. However, the tension overhanging the heads of Untouchables, in the form of the sword of violence, is none of their concern. They are terribly nice to themselves. Further, an alliance between any two lower castes for the purpose for fighting elections is considered as casteist in nature with all its ills.
Any rare discussion about the caste includes people like them; it hardly includes any representative from the fourth or the fifth stratum. They fear the impure demonic voices. The Untouchables are excluded because they are not supposed to possess any scientific perspective and temperament, which are supposedly inherent to high castes and cannot be acquired by the lower castes. These lower grade people are also supposed to lack required intelligence and required talent to discuss such issues. Thus, they are unfit to take part in discussions on the issues concerning them. Only the upper castes are supposed to possess the intelligence, talent, scientific temperament and perspective to pursue seriously anything of academic concern - that is the birth-attached superiority. This is made possible by the closed gates policy. The lower category people are deemed to be fit only for cutting grass in the village fields; or for working as casual and unskilled labor on the construction sites; or working as doorkeepers for their buildings; or for doing their traditional jobs. They are fit only to beg for the leftovers or fight for them. The higher-level things should be left to the higher-level people. It is another thing that they have learned all the higher-level things in the modern world from the cow-eating Westerners; and, especially, courtesy British, with a special mention of Lord Macaulay. But to each according to his caste/Varna!
However, their scientific perspective and temperament has not been able to pinpoint the precise reasons for the persistence of untouchability in India. Their performance is miserable in this regard. May be they will have to take the help of the Westerners. Or maybe it is a useless issue for them, not a matter of prime concern. They are not going to fix the thing, which they are not going suffer from, and the fixing of which, gives them trouble. Any objection to their analysis of caste from the fifth stratum is swiftly classified as useless and worthless. The people from the lowest stratum are supposed to produce the lowest level things. The understanding of twiceborn is always better without citing any reasons thereof. If they allow any place for the Untouchables' point of view in the areas of crucial importance controlled by them, then they run the risk of losing their traditional control over society. All the matters relating to explaining the things are reserved for them. They cannot bear others' interference except that of Westerners. Any objection by the fifth stratum is taken as a serious threat to the stability of the system, and explained in the terms of tearing the social fabric and creation of social unrest in a harmonic plural society.
But they leave all the issues concerning the Shudras and the Untouchables unresolved. The sufferings of the Shudras and the Untouchables are impure and polluting and their sufferings are not their concern; maybe they are the source of pleasure to high castes. It gladdens their hearts. Any objection to upper caste views threatens the stability of just society, on the top of which, they are nicely, dharmically, traditionally and righteously sit. Who can object? None! Have you not heard about the divinely ordained order? Nobody has or will ever have the right to move them from there, especially not the impure people with their low level of intelligence. They should know their level and should stick to it. Do they dare to defy, us, the pure people?
From the top, the twiceborn look down smugly upon the lower strata of the Hindus and deny the existence of caste. It is a matter of grey matter. Only people with highly evolved grey matter can handle the positions they are holding. Therefore, all the Shudras and the Untouchables should keep quiet in the name of stability of the system and take all the crap and injustice heaped on them for the fault of being born in the impure categories. The system, which benefits upper castes, is more important than the Shudras and the wretched Untouchables. The Shudras and the Untouchables should not object to their crippling. The mainstream denies any existence of caste but the dominance of upper castes and the unofficial boycott of Untouchables run clearly in the clear and transparent streams of the mainstream. The lower castes reply by following the policy of sleeping and let sleep - and treating gross ignorance as a much desired attribute.
Apart from the mainstream and the civil society in India, the Communists have their own way of thinking but the end results have been almost the same - the active ignorance of caste. They ignore the caste on the basis of Marxian theory of class struggle whereas this theory has been proven to be untenable in the real world. The Russian failure and Chinese capitalism are two stark examples. But the Indian Communists are in a constant state of denial over these failures. The high caste Indians are very committed; especially when it comes to their self interest; they possess the ultra rationality. The communist world is limited to the economic base and related social super structure. The social structure or super structure is dependent on the economic base. Or there is a dependency of the former on the latter. The economic base is independent. In their world, everything is decided by the structure of the economic base or the ownership of the means of production land, labor and capital. The individual in their scheme of things has no place. Well, empathy and sympathy also have no place. All the space is occupied by the two groups or classes - the exploited and exploiters. They forget that the empathy and sympathy are found abundantly within the ruling classes and that keeps them together. An individual emerges as a member of any of above two classes. The Marxian analysis is a group oriented analysis. Any individual has to belong to either of two classes. These groups are haves and haves not, the exploiters and the exploited, the capitalists and the labor. An individual cannot stand separately as an independent entity. He has to think, act and behave like his class. It is somewhat similar to group oriented nature of the Hindu Varna system, which also ignores the individual as a separate entity.
The views of the Communists in ignoring the caste are entirely in league with the civil society. The civil society cannot see beyond a universal abstract citizen. The Communists cannot see beyond their proletariat for whose welfare they wage their gigantic struggle; the end result is the dictatorship of the politburo or in reality a kind of oligarchy or the dictatorship of one man. Rest of the minnows stand in a line and nod their heads in agreement to their leader's opinions, statements and actions. If they do not nod it then the state coercive power comes into play and makes them to change their minds and fall in line. The actual ownership of the means of productions does not lie with the people collectively but with the politburo. Only the politburo has the right to take any decisions about the means of production and distribution, which makes them de facto owners. The collective ownership is a fable, which is passed around to keep the cadres in a state of tranquil mental disposition. Earlier people were using their labor for the benefit of the ruling classes and still they do it. Only the ruling classes have changed along with the philosophy. The axiom of seeking superiority makes the utopian anarchy difficult to emerge which was supposed to wither away of the state. In these status-seeking conditions, it may not be possible to stop the state from emerging.
The Communists in India do not find it necessary to attack the caste separately which is the basic exploitative structure of the Hindu society. It decides the distribution of power, product and means of production and also the structure of power hierarchy within the Communist party, to each according to his caste. The solution to the problem of caste is supposed to be found within the framework of Marxist theory. The caste belongs to the superstructure (or society) and not to the economic base. The deciding factor is the structure of economic base which decides the structure of society. The people owning land and capital belong to the ruling class and the people owning labor belong to the exploited class. The blood relations play no part here and neither do empathy and sympathy. The liking or binding forces are absent.
However, in the Hindu society the caste structure is an encompassing concept, which unleashes powerful economic, political and social forces to decide the distribution of means of production. We know that the motto which emerges is to each according to caste whether in the agrarian system, in the industrial system or in political system or any other system. It is supposed to be applicable in all the times and all the conditions and that is why it is called the Sanatana or eternal; it works perfectly in any conditions; only the conditions would have to be changed accordingly. It is not a passive structure. Both society's structure and the economic base (property ownership) reinforce each other (Dharma rakshite rakshiti). However, according to Communist thinking an equal redistribution of land would eliminate the caste and its problems. The ensuing economic equalization would lead to social equalization and caste system would collapse. Thus, if any given economic base collapses then its related superstructure must also collapse.
It was a Marxian belief that caste being a part of the superstructure will automatically fall down when the mode of productions changes from Asiatic to industrial but that did not happen. The Indian Communists deliberately believed all this. Or maybe they were happy as such a thought absolves them of their guilt feelings. All the front line Communists in India belonged to the upper castes and hence not very keen on discussing the shameful caste system of their ancestors, and to avoid this they declared themselves as declassed. These so-called declassed people were those from the privileged castes who had given up all material things and totally identified with the proletariat. What an illusion it creates! What a smoke screen! The low caste people are left hallucinating about the grandiose ideals of their leaders. The declassed high caste people have assumed the resources moving positions in communist parties. Hardly illogical! Is it?
These declassed Communists, completely ignored the caste and left the historical forces to eliminate it, and in the process lost the reality of the Indian society. Any deliberations about caste never took place. They waited and waited for the caste system to fall down on its own as predicted by Marx. They, deliberated, waited and waited....and waited....
The caste system did not fall in response to a change in economic base. A growing industry and development of urban areas should have seen the destruction of caste but it did not happen. They forgot the linkages in society and economy along with Marx. The ignoring of caste resulted in a situation where the landless were not ready to support the party of the proletariats. Therefore, in a land of poverty the supposed party of poor (Communist) was without the support of poor.
This kind of non-importance of the caste is a straight inheritance from the disguised Varna Dharma. Here the Varna Dharma is maintained by outwardly denouncing but maintaining its non-inclusive character. Whatever benefits the higher Varnas is normal or depends upon their merit or their supposed superiority. The communist parties being a supporter of the deprived section of society should have developed a strong support among the lowest stratum of Hindus but it did not. These 20 percent people could have made them major players in Indian politics but they are still minor players. The lowest caste cadres in communists set up are seen as the last men in the hierarchy; again, they are first from the bottom; nothing changes for them; it is a kind of Varna system without any overt display of untouchability; to each according to his caste. They get leftovers everywhere. The sole use of Untouchables there is to carry the red flag and take part in the protest rallies. That is where their role ends. Period.
The idea of Communists is to unite everybody in the name of the class struggle. The workers in India come from different castes and thus have different social status and separate bloodlines. How they are going to identify with each other is anybody's guess! Nobody is going to give up the chance to assert the social superiority over others. The maximization of status superiority is a normal propensity. The social difference creates the difference between workers. The higher caste workers have their linkages in the propertied classes which they insist on maintaining and also insist berating their fellow low caste workers. This is a clear-cut case of superstructure (or society) creating fissures in the economic base (among workers). After a long spell of being treated unequally, the Untouchables leave the communists. By no stretch of imagination, the Materialistic interpretation of history can explain the paradigm of purity and practice of untouchability, in a precise manner. Marx also did not bring the mode of production in India within his theory. He classified it as the Asiatic mode of production frozen in time and the Indian Marxists have not gone beyond that. It was a Caste Mode of Production where unpropertied Shudras tilled the land and the unpropertied Untouchables worked as casual labor. The land was held (not really owned because all the land was supposed to be held by the state, the state gave it on lease (pattta) to the high castes) by the higher three Varnas and Brahmans, and temples that had gotten the land grants from kings. The Varna Dharma as a distribution system clearly separates the exploiter from the exploited and the haves from haves not.
The Indian Communists should have read Engels and Gramsci also. If caste, as a social reality, is a part of the superstructure, it is also a part of false conscious. This false conscious has the power to make hellish the lives of millions people. According to Engels, it is the false conscious that prevents the unity among the workers. According to Gramsci, the dominating classes maintain their supremacy by maintaining their cultural hegemony. The caste's presence as a big part of "false conscious" creates fissures in the base (among workers) is due to the cultural hegemony of the Brahmans. This cultural hegemony is responsible for a divide between poor and poor - the different poor have different linkages, which exclude others, in society and economy. This cultural hegemony needed to be attacked by the Communists. But who cares? And no Indian Communist seems to have considered Engels and Gramsci. Why bother!
It may be noted that the Buddhism, Advaitism and the Marxism are dependent on the concept of "false consciousness" or "Avijja” or "Avidya" without which their knowledge cannot hold water. The conclusions of all three are true but people do not recognize them as such. Why? The answer is the spread of ignorance or the false conscious or Avijja or Avidya. That means if you do not agree with them then you are suffering from the ignorance and they are the holder of some master truth. The reasons for that are not given.
However, had the Indian Communists gone according to Gramsci, they would have definitely tackled the caste actively without waiting passively and evasively hoping for it to not to fall down. The Communists of India totally ignore Gramsci whose emphasis on the cultural hegemony would have pointed toward the cultural hegemony of Brahmans. This would have provided the Communists a better target and idea to launch a direct attack on caste. Then who wants to harm himself? Nobody. Or Engels and Gramsci are deliberately ignored! They moved from the Dharma frame to the Marxian frame without losing up anything or without giving up the caste system. Whatever happened, the eternal lowest stratum still got the leftovers. And that is the crux of the matter.
They treat the caste as a social phenomenon to be solved through a change in the economic base. Caste is much more than that, it decides who shall wear sleepers and who shall not. It also decides who shall own property and who shall live by his labor alone. A better exposition of formation of permanent economic base due to heredity is not possible. The Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, the Vaisyas, the pseudo-Kshatriyas and the pseudo-Vaisya castes are the propertied class. The lower two groups, Shudras and Untouchables, have no right to property; they have to live by their labor alone. These condition should make the lower two strata as the exploited and rest as the exploiters. The Indian communists do not think so. They never got the caste system right; doing so would have made holes in their fragile, soft and compassionate conscience. After all their hearts collectively beat for the haves-not, really? What they produce is actually the Varna Dharma in the Indian communist bottle. Both are group oriented. Both are power structure. Both are economic system. And above all, both of them have the upper castes at the top and the Untouchables at the bottom. A smooth transition it is. No guilt and no responsibility, it is all fault of the economic base. The economic base seems to have replaced the Karma hypothesis. The use of the Marxist theory is the same as that of the Karma hypothesis. Both of them are used to absolve the high castes of their abominable acts. The truth is turned turtle and the snail of change is butchered as many times as possible.
However, the caste has maintained itself strongly in the areas where the supposed caste eliminating land reforms have taken place. The same is the case with the purity. This supposed economic equalization has not led to intermixing of bloodlines and neither has it prevented the preferential treatment extended automatically to the upper castes. The economic equality has not led to social equality and by extension the equality in power. One main reason for the non-importance of caste is the absence of lower caste people in the Communist ideologues which seems to be deliberate. The top echelon of Communist power structure is firmly occupied by the upper castes on an enduring basis like the helms of power in the Varna Dharma. They may include one or two leaders from lower strata as a matter of exception. They are also not interested in finding the caste as the culprit because they also do not like to find faults with their esteemed and unimpeachable ancestors and the present kith and kin. All these faults are covered behind the veil of economic base like the veil of Karma Hypothesis. They are not bothered about who made this base and who still maintains it.
Among the defenders of the Varna Dharma, the mainstream, the civil society and the Communists, there is repetitive mention of the vested interest in maintaining the caste system and its rigidity. But there is not even feeble feigning attempt to identify these vested interests and the beneficiaries of the acts of such vested interests, and the duration of maintenance of this system and the extent of exploitation. All the fingers would point to them, their ancestors and, their kith and kin. Therefore, they do not do it.
Now, they have acquired a tongue which stirs also. The malicious tongue which can stir the demonic talks against us, the pure people with high ethics and high morals! Can they not speak any good thing after all the majestic treatment, our way of life has given to them? The ungrateful fellows! And they have started speaking! Trying to develop their own language! They should speak through us only. That is right. They should and must speak through us only. Only we can take their grievances to the government and the world. Anyway, our view is that all their problems have been solved through enacting several laws. Therefore, they should keep quiet; there is no cause of worry; as matter of fact, there never was. The scorn hangs down the blooming pure faces and the insecurity hangs down the sunken impure faces.
The pests of choice, freedom and equality need to be exterminated. Otherwise, the sensitivity of pure people would fall from a cliff. The tender feelings of the pure people are hurt by the voices of dissent which assail their ears. And other senses too would be badly hurt.
The pliancy of lower strata nurtures the good sense of higher strata and maintains the harmony in society. The absence of such pliancy shakes their cool and calm disposition until blows after blows have shaken out the dissent from the bones of the Untouchables.
There should be no doubt about the absence of shrewdness among pure people. They are very simple, not at all sly or crooked or deceptive. Look, how simply they follow Dharma and Karma! Pure simpletons, they are! Any such malicious thoughts about their shrewdness should be expunged from your mind. And they are not at all sly! The slyness does not touch the pure people, by definition.
Accusing the pure people, of everlasting crimes, is demeaning. You see, the Karma is more suitable explanation which absolves them. Surely, they do not take anybody for a ride. They have never done so in the last 3000 years. They are innocent; surely, they are the pure innocence personified.
And then there is stupendous stupidity standing unfazed within the silence of the lower strata. Amazing.
There should be equality before law. They work strictly on the basis of merit and efficiency. There is no place for the caste in their views. The caste as a matter of grave consideration does not exist. It is a wholly backward concept and they do not believe in it. And neither does anybody else. So people should stop making caste an issue. What is this fuss all about? Since caste is nonexistent, the issues related to it should also be nonexistent. These lower caste people do not know this simple logic. Stop all that crap and no talk about the untouchability, discrimination and casteism and exclusion. And these low castes scum… !
The pangs of their hurt honor are undesirable; their honor gets hurt when they see a filled belly among Untouchables. Anyway, their perfunctory tirade against the caste just goes on and on; as if it would last till eternity. The events happening here and there and all over India are really nonexistent. Adi Sankaracharya also said this world is really nonexistent - so the life really does not exist. What absurd logic filled with purity! Therefore, the atrocities must also be nonexistent except honor, purity, bravery, magnanimity, compassion, sensitivity and pure righteousness of the high castes. Right? Is it not? It is matter of being immaterial with the material things. Are you going to hang our culture over the fate of some grossly irrelevant and expendable people having grossly irrelevant issues? What is new about it, the gates of society were always closed for the Untouchables! Is anything new???? So, caste? What caste? Nothing is new about the untouchability, and it should not make news. Just a way of life! Please, do not disturb us.
No caste - no caste - they talk as if they are in a trance. The trance of transcendental people is self-imposed so it cannot be broken. While in a denial mode, they seem to be in a trance - a clear cut case of self-hypnosis. It is an outward lapse of memory while underneath the caste serenity prevails. The twinkle in their eyes betrays their anti-caste oratory. Wretched low caste man, you must be hallucinating about the caste because there is no caste. You are bothered about your condemned, trivial and expandable lives. You small people are always bothered about some small issues - small people small talk - irrelevant people irrelevant talk -useless people useless talk - foolish people foolish talk. We the high caste people know that you are dumb wit low caste people. You are there to make our lives easy. That is all the purpose for your existence.
Their voices are well orchestrated; in fact, so well orchestrated that they can beat any damn orchestra in the world. Their combination is unbeatable. The web they spin is mind boggling. The thread they make is amazing. The can leave you gasping with amazement. And you are awe struck by their underwhelming resonance which craves to search for imaginary equality in the Hindu society. The people living in slums are avoided in their discussion. Innocent they are; they are living in the quagmire of caste and not believing any iota of it! How innocent they are? How naïve they are? However, it is difficult to deal with their acrimonious innocence and naivety. Their welfare is the result of their hard work and not that of permanent crippling of the major portion of the Hindu society. They have contorted and frowning faces with contrived and convoluted logic to prove their point.
The acrimonious naivety of these people is overwhelming. The garlands await these people in their haloed circles. They are the prime candidates for the Moksha. They will surely not take the birth of jackals, lizards, dogs etc. in their next lives. And they were never dinosaurs in any of their earlier lives. Or maybe they were T. Rex. They always ruled. And the all knowing Vedas and scriptures are silent about T. Rex - very strange considering the belief that the Vedas contain all the knowledge in the world! The all-knowing Vedas are also silent about the internal combustion engine. Anyway, living in air conditioned rooms, riding the vehicles with the internal combustion engine and using electrical gadgets is a strange and dark betrayal of their own pure heritage. The purity has been corrupted by using the technology of heathen people! Honestly speaking, the element of honest faith in their culture and heritage does not exist, but they desperately and dharmically want all benefits which the caste system bestows on them and also the technological benefits of the West! What a combination of old and new wants! No wonder - the past and present exist at the same time in India! Goodies from any sides are desirable. Well, only the goodies…
And what is a goody? That depends on whether it serves your personal interests or not? So, the internal combustion engine serves the self interest and equality does not, for the high castes. Therefore, former is a goody and the later is not.
Their feigned naivety can leave any serious student of Hindu society speechless notwithstanding the awesome convoluted theories and awesome pseudo empirical researches of the high caste Hindu scholars.
The output of overwhelmingly innocent and unimpeachable high caste Hindu scholars and researchers can lead people into forming lofty ideas about the Hindu society. The ingenious facade they present before the world does not contain any idea about the crippled lives of millions of people. The bad and ugly sores are artfully kept hidden, covered, or just plainly ignored with all the sensitivity and compassion imbibed in the high caste people; and please do not forget about their high ethics and high morals. No misery of lower strata can penetrate their ultra sensitive eyes and minds. They see nothing and find nothing. They cannot be accused of being crass. They forget about the lower strata after a single line mention. And this single mention is made with a sinking heart.
Their gullibility is remarkable. Or the guile is remarkable. They can be taken for a ride by an eagerness to present a flowery, spiritual and egalitarian image of the Hindu society. These individuals, full of innocence, with inscrutable faces and minds, do not leave any iotic place for the views of the lower strata. They do it for the benefit of whole society - society that heavily treads, with boots having nails, upon the welfare of millions of people without any guilty feeling. It gives them no rights. The low caste people are not indebted to them; no rights no duties - simple. These heathen people having minuscule stake in society, are kept useless by not permitting them to increase their skills through education; and are branded as worthless, indolent and lazy etc. The sufferings of these insignificant people are insignificant - hardly worth mentioning - merely trivia. Long live the intellectual honesty of the high caste scholars! Wow! If any was there? In this society, the exceptions are rules and the coincidences are proofs, provided these benefit the high castes and show them in a bright light. Anything else is thrown in the dustbin. And the pure river Ganges washes off all their sins, if any. Maybe it does not because there are no sins!
The devastated minds, as a result of watching a well educated Untouchable, go into intense turmoil; and they intensely plan to keep him out of their sanctified world.
The mentality full of sacredness springs forth as a result of rotten adharmic acts of impure people - like looking back into eyes. Making eye contacts with the upper castes is strictly forbidden. Make sure that you do not trample upon the pious egos of upper castes.
They are people with a pure conscience. There should be no doubt about that. The proof of this spreads from here to there and eternity in the form of the caste effect. Beware, the skeptics would be made outcastes!
Any guilty feeling never touches their haloed circles. The impure cries for help are not to be heard. What! You say, one should bother! Any dharmic reasons for this, please?
They are highly altruistic people forcing stinking monopoly of stinking jobs on the Untouchables. Who can offer monopoly to others? Only very highly altruistic people! Any doubts about the absence of altruism in Hindu society should be expunged here with. You ignoble fool, you don't even know this! Always remember, you are dealing with the high caste people! And there is no caste! The institution of caste foolishly faded away with a stroke of legal pen!
In the face of facts, their logic goes into convulsions. Logic goes to pieces. Logic is torn into pieces. Logic is roasted alive. Logic stands on its head. But none of it matters! Any encroachment is looked at by the blazing eyes. Heathen people dare to question their logic?
Their beguiled innocence eats up the existence of casteism. The denunciation of caste, pleasantly, overlooks the caste atrocities, which is a benevolent look at their extended kith and kin, and the people who are following the Dharma's way. The current honor killings in the urban areas are also ignored.
The ignorance of impure people pleases the hearts of pure people, boundlessly. The happiness this ignorance spreads is limitless. The thicker is this ignorance the thicker is the shade of bliss. Stupendous stupidity exists blissfully under an enormous veil of ignorance. Absconding reason rarely makes its absence felt. Needless to say! The people claiming their civilization as the greatest one, do not need this absconding reason. Let it wonder here and there and nowhere. Its calamitous permanent visit can bring down the whole dharmic structure. Absence of reason is a cause for celebration. They know that the absence of reason is good for their awesome superiority.
For the mainstream and civil society the casteism ended with the enactment of anti-untouchability law. How funny! As if the stealing stops with a law against it. As far as this exalted and well considered segment of the population is concerned the caste system ceased to exist with the enactment of this law and provision of fundamental equality under the law. There is no law against the discrimination by society except in the case of untouchability; so all the overt and covert discriminations can take place right under the nose of law in a lawful manner. However, the people who represent the mainstream and civil society belong to the upper castes mainly. They are in the state of constant denial over the existence of casteism. Their astounding amnesia in this regard is remarkable. The preponderance of lying in the Hindu society was never in question. But it still remained unquestioned. Ignorance is bliss; the ignorance of the low castes converts the scriptural lying into traditional facts. And the upper castes occupy the dominating positions in the crucial areas of education, administration and business - all honestly. The elites of Hindu society want to have the best of both the worlds. They want to enjoy the privileges granted by the traditional society and at the same time enjoy the fruits of the Western technology. Therefore, they embrace the latter and maintain the former through various means while issuing constant denials about the caste and the casteism. The Western concepts can go to the dustbin. It is the Maya of the Western world that they want! The Vedanta authors must be developing a strong sense of betrayal but who cares? Honesty is the best policy for which ("honesty") no word/s exists in the Indian languages. It is conspicuous by its divine absence.
The casteist feelings of the upper castes, in the cities, come to fore when any person from any lower caste is not within hearing distance. When the concerned person (untouchable) is not within hearing distance, then all the swearing words are hurled at the whole of his community with faultless surgical impunity. It is a matter of grave and hot discussion that how come such lowly and dirty persons are able to gain entry into the upper caste areas. And when any Untouchable appears near them then suddenly the uneasy calm descends over them. The cloud of gloom accompanies this uneasy calm. This calm suffocates them. The gloom can be avoided by keeping the impure and the pure separate - that is what they want as is evident in their resentment. They need a cleaner air to breathe which is not possible in the presence of any Untouchable. The cloud of gloom does not disappear in the presence of low castes. They do not have the reeking wounds caused by the casteism, instead, they float in the sunny happiness caused by it. And malicious whispers simply smile benignly for the benefit of Dharma. These malicious whispers, not heard by the outsiders, are the reasons that outsiders find it difficult to understand the true implications of birth in the caste system. The defenders of the Varna Dharma try their best to insulate the outsiders from the reeking wounds that Varna/caste system causes on the lowest strata.
The obnoxious people living obnoxious life of enforced penury are objects of hate. Is it inhuman? No, it is divine! The howling of dogs and the Untouchables are no match for deft handling of the hate embedded casteism by the high caste people.
Beyond two kilometers of any metro city, the unofficial law of untouchability shines in its full, unblemished glory. It makes fun of the constant denial by the intelligent civil society. It also asserts the smug domination of higher castes over the hapless Untouchable. It smiles and smiles - cruelly and ruthlessly, the radiance of which reaches the civil society where it transforms into broad grins in private. Still the constant denials go on and on. To justify this constant denial they constantly churn out the convoluted theories and explanations. And these convoluted theories and explanations are supposed to be beyond the understanding of the fifth stratum. And it also seems that they have never heard about the Occam's razor.
Most of them are seriously concerned with the matters of prime importance like the Imperialism, Nationalism, Globalization, Terrorism, Communalism, Colonization, Environment, Global Warming, Secularism, Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, Western hegemony etc. The discourses should always be along these lines where the caste is an outsider and nonexistent. How you can you include anything in any discourse when it does not exist? Or something which is frivolous and trivial? Their angst coils and recoils in their hearts causing unfathomable turbulency. If at all, the caste enters in any of the haloed caste circles, it is treated as unwelcome intruder which has come to insult them, and should be shunned or smugly ignored. Their deep thinking and insight about the problems of Indian society reserve no place for the casteism; as far as they are concerned, the matter is simply irrelevant. Perfunctory, my dear, perfunctory! Their deep and superior thinking bypasses the casteism with acrimonious naivety! Surely, they have to take a long route to bypass it. The caste and casteism do not find any place in their outward scheme of things while flowing deep down. They also have castes - the castes where each has a halo around it. The caste is supposed to be an institute of the past and has no use in the modern society. The case is closed. Period.
The crippled lowest stratum is left to fend for itself under the omnipresent caste effect. Well, the leftovers for the left out.
They are emphatic opponents of caste, linking them with caste actually amounts to defaming them. Sheer contempt, man, sheer contempt! Any discussion on caste is an indication of social backwardness. Anyway, as far as the Untouchables and their problems are concerned, one is met with a stony silence from these exalted sensitive corners. Their deafening and insensitive silence contains enormous and eternal unofficial collective boycott of the Untouchables and the Shudras. The cruel silence is as thick as lard.
They live in a modern world of their own where the presence of lowest strata is not registered. For them the caste does not exist; if it exists then it is a matter of no significance. Therefore, anybody, who is trying to engage them in a discussion about caste and its problems, is simply wasting their time and energy on a useless issue. The issue, which adversely affects 200 million of the people, is of no concern. It is a very insignificant worthless number - thrice the population of the United Kingdom. These millions of worthless, insulted, hungry and expendable people do not need any attention when the mainstream can talk about the exploitative modern culture and business Imperialism, and the hegemony of the Western World etc. We, the high caste people, know that all your issues are trivia and frivia… And low level issues are not fit to be discussed in a civilized society like ours! So out with you and your miseries and sufferings! You low level scum!
And they achieved their high position due to their merit. Merit acquired through birth? What kind of bird is that? There is no such thing as birth-attached merit, you know! There is no earned merit in the traditional India; only the caste-based merits are allowed. But this is modern India. They competed in an open system where caste is immaterial. And they got these crucial and important positions of social dominance without the help from their respective castes. You can add the competition with the rest of the crippled population, if you like. That is another thing that their sensory social network and the lopsided distribution of the resources keep the lower castes out of the fray. Additionally, the selectors are also from the high castes acting to keep the low castes out of their haloed circles. The contamination should not reach their haloed circles in the form of presence of the Untouchables.
Thy name is honor and you reside in the hearts of pure high caste people. And if thy name is insult you are supposed to surround the hearts of the impure people. The Untouchables wait upon the fake promise or the fake consolation of the high castes that the things will change but such a thing has never materialized and they have remained ever insulted. Underneath, it has remained the same; and Dharma bounces back with the full vigor whenever the time is ripe.
However, according to them in their open system, the caste plays no important part. But they would also be hard pressed to deny the role of their well-connected families, which gets translated into caste support through active social networking - and the role of the crippled majority in the form of killed competition. The well-connected families live in the social cocoon provided by the privileging caste system. Their caste, their economic and social resources provided by their caste and the availability of excellent educational opportunities had no role to play in it. The opportunities are distributed according to each caste - to each according to his caste, in the unofficial India that is the motto; the low castes get butchered opportunities. They are the product of their own sole merit in a vacuum. So goes out there the caste; it is another thing that they would never come across the people from the fifth stratum in their lives until forced by the system of reservation. The existence of caste has never affected them adversely, so they cannot feel the insults, the empty bellies and tattered clothes. If caste has done anything to them then it is divinely beneficial. And anything beneficial should be kept intact even if one has to disown to preserve it. Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? Caste is a servant of the high caste people.
The history is largely made up of national freedom movement, the British period, the Muslim period, the middle age, and the ancient period with barely any mention of caste and its impact on society. It is left to be discussed in the Sociology where it is not avoidable. If it were possible, it would have been eliminated from there too.
The intelligentsia's prominent silence is due to its predominantly upper caste character where intellectual honesty is a worthless attribute - traditionally. It is inherent in its structure. The structure is not supposed to oppose itself. The caste is not important to them due to many reasons.
One reason is their belief that they achieved their historical and current position due to their own past and current merit and fairness. In today's context, they have competed in an open system based on their own undiluted merit. It reflects a modern civil society where anybody can achieve anything as an individual irrespective of his origin. Therefore, they are not the product of the caste system. See! The system is open to all and there is no limitation on anybody to compete in society. You see! It is an open society! The low caste scum botch up their chances by being lazy. Our unimpeachable integrity cannot be doubted! See, the history is proof of it.
Secondly, the existence of caste does not affect them adversely. The caste effect is in their favor. It is a never ending source of never ending goodies - being born in a right caste means possession of a key that opens the doors of many gates that lead to controlling positions. A good caste means a good key and a bad caste means a bad key. The bad key does not fit any lock of any of the worthwhile closed gates in this closed gates society. A good key opens the good doors, and a bad key opens the bad door; and the caste is the key. The upper castes reap the society forever like the forever green fields. These fields are full of impure manual workers who are to be kept at a safe distance but there is no problem with the yield. The yield of impure people is scrupulously and scripturally pure - nothing strange about it! No convoluted contradictions about it. See, how simpletons are the pious and pure lawmakers! Nothing unscrupulous about it! No trickery man, it is given in the hallowed scriptures. The only thing that matters is that it helps the high castes; any byproducts of it are merely trivia.
Thirdly, any recognition of caste system and its importance means acknowledgment of injustice heaped on society by their ancestors and their present kith and kin for which they refuse to take the responsibility. They cannot blame themselves and people like them for the ills of society. It has to be the fault of the victims. Remember the spiritual Karma hypothesis. Anyway, they discount the caste by disowning it and relegating it to a distant past but this past exists currently - it is the unofficial India. It is a grandiose strategy that falters at the steps of history and intellectual honesty. But as usual, who cares? In practice, it stands there, stubbornly. They are insensitively moderns and separate from the pre-modern institutes like the caste and therefore it is none of their concern though they walk, talk and eat in environment, which is fully embedded with the inherited casteism, however direct or indirect it may be. They put the modern turtle on its back and everything is all right.
As a proof of their commitment to make the caste irrelevant, the esteemed members of such a casteless civil society do not marry outside their castes and consider themselves innately superior to low castes. The arrogance of high castes is a disparaging show of disparaging disunity in the Hindu society. In addition, they do not like to hire the people of unlikable castes. The state does not say that the individuals cannot discriminate except in the case of untouchability. They create subtle and indirect, vocal and behavioral ways, to insult the people from the lower strata. The hopes of lower castes are honored by the choicest taunts, expletives and crass remarks. Sometime the language is coded with extreme sophistication but the end purpose is the same. All of them are men of principles - of course, they are, no iotic and idiotic doubts about it. All their views run concurrently with the suppression and oppression in India. These are the people with unimpeachable credentials in their own fields and circles. One such member with unimpeachable credentials forwards, his objective and logical opposition to discuss any issue on the caste, rendering it unimportant; the second member agrees; the third member writes an article on it and the fourth one publishes it; hardly any member form the fifth stratum takes part in such an objective and impartial process. The Untouchables cannot take part in it because their presence has been unofficially outlawed in their exalted circles. And of course one should not forget the purity of the circle made up mainly of the high castes - the gates are effectively and firmly closed for the impure and polluting persons though not apparently.
And, on upper caste faces, a smile is a curve which converts itself into a frown at the mere mention of the Untouchables.
Then there is view that a secular and civil society would solve the problems of caste if any or would make it irrelevant. The civil society is thought to be non-discriminating in nature but it is not known that to what an extent the Hindu civil society with closed gates has acquired this character.
There is no hurry, no eagerness to set the things right - well the snail is ok. There is only apathetic attitude toward casteism with an indifferent and feigned commitment to remove it. Anyone, who finds the facts and analyses them, would find it right. Why get rid of something that is beneficial and makes this world beautiful for them? It would be highly irrational to expect them to remove this. Whenever they talk of casteism, the truth becomes a turtle turned on its back.
The perspiration of lower strata for fulfilling their aspirations does not qualify for any appreciation by the pure people because it points toward the aDharmic state of impure minds. These uncouth fellows spoil the mood of pure people.
As long as the upper castes benefit from the caste system, the caste system does not exist. But, the moment it starts affecting them adversely, the presence of harmful, poisonous and divisive caste system, is swiftly recognized with stunning speed. The people suffering from amnesia and short memory suddenly develop the elephantine memory. The presence of caste, which was not there a moment ago now, emerges everywhere, affecting adversely all the aspects of society, economy and religion, and of meritocratic and patriotic India. It can leave you gasping for some breath. The reaction is faster than a rattle viper. Nobody can accuse them to be short on self-interest. Then they change the tune like the deft music wizards. They voice their well-orchestrated intelligent opinions regarding the ugly casteism rearing its divisive serpentine head to the detriment of the whole society. They forget that this divisive serpent is an essential part of the glorious heritage of Hindus. Anyway, they are short on memory and history. They forget that their caste arrogance is a disparaging show of disparaging disunity in the Hindu society! What is meant by whole of society is not made clear. Are the Untouchables and other lower castes are included in it? Anyway, the casteism, which was nonexistent, becomes ugly harmful existing casteism, mercilessly tearing the social fabric of society, which is required to be stopped at any cost. It is the same social fabric that pierces the lives and psyches of lower caste people like thorns and nails. The caste is also branded as an instrument that divides the well-knit society, and they want to bring, the nefarious tendencies of caste, to a grinding halt as a matter of great urgency, importance and for the welfare of the society. This crippling society is cruel enough to brand some people as Untouchables without any reasons and effectively cripple them. However, by society they mean their minority selves forming twenty percent of the Hindu population and positioned permanently at the top of society. They are very patriotic possessing a tunnel vision of India. To each according to his caste – that is their motto.
The presence of an Untouchable among the pure people devours their happiness. Such monsters are these heathen people! They are ever ready to devour the happiness, serenity, peace, solace and tranquility of minds and hearts of the ultra sensitive high caste people! Have they no shame? They desecrate the hallowed sphere of the pure people by their presence! Shameful, utterly shameful of these condemned people. And eating cow dung and drinking urine are used for purification by the pure people; do not laugh, do not smile and do not ask for any explain for such rationalistic activities! Malechhas! What do they know about our culture? Please, don't belittle this great religion by talking about the absence of equality, freedom, honest, sensitivity, sympathy, empathy and fairness etc. if you do so then their solace gets crumpled and tranquility goes into hysteria. Their mental peace goes into a horrible spin. And the harmony as the mean goes haywire. The caring people should not do so. They should calmly and silently watch from the sidelines the cruel behavior toward impure people which is put into effect under the umbrella of divine Karma Hypothesis. They should respect the divinity and walk away. There is no need to feel sad over the worthless impure cries, the worthless impure tears, the dirty impure wounds, the dirty impure sufferings, the trivial polluting suffering, the frivolous deaths - all small things you know; these are hardly worth mentioning. You have to respect the divine justice for which no witness or evidence can be produced and no exact linkage can be found. If you do not like it then bear for some time and you will get used to it. You will make peace with Dharma. You will develop a nature that suits it. That is sure and guaranteed. And accusing the pure people as sadists is pure blasphemy and totally punishable under this law or that law. Yes, I am talking about modern Indian Constitution. There are umpteen laws which can be used to arrest the people raising their voices against atrocious system - Indian Panel Code, IPC 153(A) comes to mind. The reality stinks and it should not come out. If one goes IPC 153 the all the scriptures of the Sanatana Dharma would be banned for degrading majority of people. This cannot happen until this divided majority forms linkages with each other. However, in my personal opinion, these degrading scriptures starting with Rig Veda should not be banned. There should be freedom of expression.
The presence of an Untouchable, in the haloed circles, ensures sly, malicious and vicious whispers aimed at isolating him. Under the overt smiles, a covert, organized and tacit unofficial conspiracy takes place to show him his place, indirectly. And eventually the man in question rediscovers his true place in society. The tranquility is nearly restored.
The holes and patches on their clothes get converted into smiles elsewhere. Their empty bellies are a thing of joy elsewhere. But do not worry about it. It is very compassionate society. It intends to do nothing about it. All the compassion is closed within the closed gates.
The measures of reservations are seen and analyzed in this light to enlighten the whole of society of the ills of casteism. Their analysis takes the form of dissection with profound clinical precision. The reservations are supposed to tear the social fabric and create social tensions. However, the tension overhanging the heads of Untouchables, in the form of the sword of violence, is none of their concern. They are terribly nice to themselves. Further, an alliance between any two lower castes for the purpose for fighting elections is considered as casteist in nature with all its ills.
Any rare discussion about the caste includes people like them; it hardly includes any representative from the fourth or the fifth stratum. They fear the impure demonic voices. The Untouchables are excluded because they are not supposed to possess any scientific perspective and temperament, which are supposedly inherent to high castes and cannot be acquired by the lower castes. These lower grade people are also supposed to lack required intelligence and required talent to discuss such issues. Thus, they are unfit to take part in discussions on the issues concerning them. Only the upper castes are supposed to possess the intelligence, talent, scientific temperament and perspective to pursue seriously anything of academic concern - that is the birth-attached superiority. This is made possible by the closed gates policy. The lower category people are deemed to be fit only for cutting grass in the village fields; or for working as casual and unskilled labor on the construction sites; or working as doorkeepers for their buildings; or for doing their traditional jobs. They are fit only to beg for the leftovers or fight for them. The higher-level things should be left to the higher-level people. It is another thing that they have learned all the higher-level things in the modern world from the cow-eating Westerners; and, especially, courtesy British, with a special mention of Lord Macaulay. But to each according to his caste/Varna!
However, their scientific perspective and temperament has not been able to pinpoint the precise reasons for the persistence of untouchability in India. Their performance is miserable in this regard. May be they will have to take the help of the Westerners. Or maybe it is a useless issue for them, not a matter of prime concern. They are not going to fix the thing, which they are not going suffer from, and the fixing of which, gives them trouble. Any objection to their analysis of caste from the fifth stratum is swiftly classified as useless and worthless. The people from the lowest stratum are supposed to produce the lowest level things. The understanding of twiceborn is always better without citing any reasons thereof. If they allow any place for the Untouchables' point of view in the areas of crucial importance controlled by them, then they run the risk of losing their traditional control over society. All the matters relating to explaining the things are reserved for them. They cannot bear others' interference except that of Westerners. Any objection by the fifth stratum is taken as a serious threat to the stability of the system, and explained in the terms of tearing the social fabric and creation of social unrest in a harmonic plural society.
But they leave all the issues concerning the Shudras and the Untouchables unresolved. The sufferings of the Shudras and the Untouchables are impure and polluting and their sufferings are not their concern; maybe they are the source of pleasure to high castes. It gladdens their hearts. Any objection to upper caste views threatens the stability of just society, on the top of which, they are nicely, dharmically, traditionally and righteously sit. Who can object? None! Have you not heard about the divinely ordained order? Nobody has or will ever have the right to move them from there, especially not the impure people with their low level of intelligence. They should know their level and should stick to it. Do they dare to defy, us, the pure people?
From the top, the twiceborn look down smugly upon the lower strata of the Hindus and deny the existence of caste. It is a matter of grey matter. Only people with highly evolved grey matter can handle the positions they are holding. Therefore, all the Shudras and the Untouchables should keep quiet in the name of stability of the system and take all the crap and injustice heaped on them for the fault of being born in the impure categories. The system, which benefits upper castes, is more important than the Shudras and the wretched Untouchables. The Shudras and the Untouchables should not object to their crippling. The mainstream denies any existence of caste but the dominance of upper castes and the unofficial boycott of Untouchables run clearly in the clear and transparent streams of the mainstream. The lower castes reply by following the policy of sleeping and let sleep - and treating gross ignorance as a much desired attribute.
Apart from the mainstream and the civil society in India, the Communists have their own way of thinking but the end results have been almost the same - the active ignorance of caste. They ignore the caste on the basis of Marxian theory of class struggle whereas this theory has been proven to be untenable in the real world. The Russian failure and Chinese capitalism are two stark examples. But the Indian Communists are in a constant state of denial over these failures. The high caste Indians are very committed; especially when it comes to their self interest; they possess the ultra rationality. The communist world is limited to the economic base and related social super structure. The social structure or super structure is dependent on the economic base. Or there is a dependency of the former on the latter. The economic base is independent. In their world, everything is decided by the structure of the economic base or the ownership of the means of production land, labor and capital. The individual in their scheme of things has no place. Well, empathy and sympathy also have no place. All the space is occupied by the two groups or classes - the exploited and exploiters. They forget that the empathy and sympathy are found abundantly within the ruling classes and that keeps them together. An individual emerges as a member of any of above two classes. The Marxian analysis is a group oriented analysis. Any individual has to belong to either of two classes. These groups are haves and haves not, the exploiters and the exploited, the capitalists and the labor. An individual cannot stand separately as an independent entity. He has to think, act and behave like his class. It is somewhat similar to group oriented nature of the Hindu Varna system, which also ignores the individual as a separate entity.
The views of the Communists in ignoring the caste are entirely in league with the civil society. The civil society cannot see beyond a universal abstract citizen. The Communists cannot see beyond their proletariat for whose welfare they wage their gigantic struggle; the end result is the dictatorship of the politburo or in reality a kind of oligarchy or the dictatorship of one man. Rest of the minnows stand in a line and nod their heads in agreement to their leader's opinions, statements and actions. If they do not nod it then the state coercive power comes into play and makes them to change their minds and fall in line. The actual ownership of the means of productions does not lie with the people collectively but with the politburo. Only the politburo has the right to take any decisions about the means of production and distribution, which makes them de facto owners. The collective ownership is a fable, which is passed around to keep the cadres in a state of tranquil mental disposition. Earlier people were using their labor for the benefit of the ruling classes and still they do it. Only the ruling classes have changed along with the philosophy. The axiom of seeking superiority makes the utopian anarchy difficult to emerge which was supposed to wither away of the state. In these status-seeking conditions, it may not be possible to stop the state from emerging.
The Communists in India do not find it necessary to attack the caste separately which is the basic exploitative structure of the Hindu society. It decides the distribution of power, product and means of production and also the structure of power hierarchy within the Communist party, to each according to his caste. The solution to the problem of caste is supposed to be found within the framework of Marxist theory. The caste belongs to the superstructure (or society) and not to the economic base. The deciding factor is the structure of economic base which decides the structure of society. The people owning land and capital belong to the ruling class and the people owning labor belong to the exploited class. The blood relations play no part here and neither do empathy and sympathy. The liking or binding forces are absent.
However, in the Hindu society the caste structure is an encompassing concept, which unleashes powerful economic, political and social forces to decide the distribution of means of production. We know that the motto which emerges is to each according to caste whether in the agrarian system, in the industrial system or in political system or any other system. It is supposed to be applicable in all the times and all the conditions and that is why it is called the Sanatana or eternal; it works perfectly in any conditions; only the conditions would have to be changed accordingly. It is not a passive structure. Both society's structure and the economic base (property ownership) reinforce each other (Dharma rakshite rakshiti). However, according to Communist thinking an equal redistribution of land would eliminate the caste and its problems. The ensuing economic equalization would lead to social equalization and caste system would collapse. Thus, if any given economic base collapses then its related superstructure must also collapse.
It was a Marxian belief that caste being a part of the superstructure will automatically fall down when the mode of productions changes from Asiatic to industrial but that did not happen. The Indian Communists deliberately believed all this. Or maybe they were happy as such a thought absolves them of their guilt feelings. All the front line Communists in India belonged to the upper castes and hence not very keen on discussing the shameful caste system of their ancestors, and to avoid this they declared themselves as declassed. These so-called declassed people were those from the privileged castes who had given up all material things and totally identified with the proletariat. What an illusion it creates! What a smoke screen! The low caste people are left hallucinating about the grandiose ideals of their leaders. The declassed high caste people have assumed the resources moving positions in communist parties. Hardly illogical! Is it?
These declassed Communists, completely ignored the caste and left the historical forces to eliminate it, and in the process lost the reality of the Indian society. Any deliberations about caste never took place. They waited and waited for the caste system to fall down on its own as predicted by Marx. They, deliberated, waited and waited....and waited....
The caste system did not fall in response to a change in economic base. A growing industry and development of urban areas should have seen the destruction of caste but it did not happen. They forgot the linkages in society and economy along with Marx. The ignoring of caste resulted in a situation where the landless were not ready to support the party of the proletariats. Therefore, in a land of poverty the supposed party of poor (Communist) was without the support of poor.
This kind of non-importance of the caste is a straight inheritance from the disguised Varna Dharma. Here the Varna Dharma is maintained by outwardly denouncing but maintaining its non-inclusive character. Whatever benefits the higher Varnas is normal or depends upon their merit or their supposed superiority. The communist parties being a supporter of the deprived section of society should have developed a strong support among the lowest stratum of Hindus but it did not. These 20 percent people could have made them major players in Indian politics but they are still minor players. The lowest caste cadres in communists set up are seen as the last men in the hierarchy; again, they are first from the bottom; nothing changes for them; it is a kind of Varna system without any overt display of untouchability; to each according to his caste. They get leftovers everywhere. The sole use of Untouchables there is to carry the red flag and take part in the protest rallies. That is where their role ends. Period.
The idea of Communists is to unite everybody in the name of the class struggle. The workers in India come from different castes and thus have different social status and separate bloodlines. How they are going to identify with each other is anybody's guess! Nobody is going to give up the chance to assert the social superiority over others. The maximization of status superiority is a normal propensity. The social difference creates the difference between workers. The higher caste workers have their linkages in the propertied classes which they insist on maintaining and also insist berating their fellow low caste workers. This is a clear-cut case of superstructure (or society) creating fissures in the economic base (among workers). After a long spell of being treated unequally, the Untouchables leave the communists. By no stretch of imagination, the Materialistic interpretation of history can explain the paradigm of purity and practice of untouchability, in a precise manner. Marx also did not bring the mode of production in India within his theory. He classified it as the Asiatic mode of production frozen in time and the Indian Marxists have not gone beyond that. It was a Caste Mode of Production where unpropertied Shudras tilled the land and the unpropertied Untouchables worked as casual labor. The land was held (not really owned because all the land was supposed to be held by the state, the state gave it on lease (pattta) to the high castes) by the higher three Varnas and Brahmans, and temples that had gotten the land grants from kings. The Varna Dharma as a distribution system clearly separates the exploiter from the exploited and the haves from haves not.
The Indian Communists should have read Engels and Gramsci also. If caste, as a social reality, is a part of the superstructure, it is also a part of false conscious. This false conscious has the power to make hellish the lives of millions people. According to Engels, it is the false conscious that prevents the unity among the workers. According to Gramsci, the dominating classes maintain their supremacy by maintaining their cultural hegemony. The caste's presence as a big part of "false conscious" creates fissures in the base (among workers) is due to the cultural hegemony of the Brahmans. This cultural hegemony is responsible for a divide between poor and poor - the different poor have different linkages, which exclude others, in society and economy. This cultural hegemony needed to be attacked by the Communists. But who cares? And no Indian Communist seems to have considered Engels and Gramsci. Why bother!
It may be noted that the Buddhism, Advaitism and the Marxism are dependent on the concept of "false consciousness" or "Avijja” or "Avidya" without which their knowledge cannot hold water. The conclusions of all three are true but people do not recognize them as such. Why? The answer is the spread of ignorance or the false conscious or Avijja or Avidya. That means if you do not agree with them then you are suffering from the ignorance and they are the holder of some master truth. The reasons for that are not given.
However, had the Indian Communists gone according to Gramsci, they would have definitely tackled the caste actively without waiting passively and evasively hoping for it to not to fall down. The Communists of India totally ignore Gramsci whose emphasis on the cultural hegemony would have pointed toward the cultural hegemony of Brahmans. This would have provided the Communists a better target and idea to launch a direct attack on caste. Then who wants to harm himself? Nobody. Or Engels and Gramsci are deliberately ignored! They moved from the Dharma frame to the Marxian frame without losing up anything or without giving up the caste system. Whatever happened, the eternal lowest stratum still got the leftovers. And that is the crux of the matter.
They treat the caste as a social phenomenon to be solved through a change in the economic base. Caste is much more than that, it decides who shall wear sleepers and who shall not. It also decides who shall own property and who shall live by his labor alone. A better exposition of formation of permanent economic base due to heredity is not possible. The Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, the Vaisyas, the pseudo-Kshatriyas and the pseudo-Vaisya castes are the propertied class. The lower two groups, Shudras and Untouchables, have no right to property; they have to live by their labor alone. These condition should make the lower two strata as the exploited and rest as the exploiters. The Indian communists do not think so. They never got the caste system right; doing so would have made holes in their fragile, soft and compassionate conscience. After all their hearts collectively beat for the haves-not, really? What they produce is actually the Varna Dharma in the Indian communist bottle. Both are group oriented. Both are power structure. Both are economic system. And above all, both of them have the upper castes at the top and the Untouchables at the bottom. A smooth transition it is. No guilt and no responsibility, it is all fault of the economic base. The economic base seems to have replaced the Karma hypothesis. The use of the Marxist theory is the same as that of the Karma hypothesis. Both of them are used to absolve the high castes of their abominable acts. The truth is turned turtle and the snail of change is butchered as many times as possible.
However, the caste has maintained itself strongly in the areas where the supposed caste eliminating land reforms have taken place. The same is the case with the purity. This supposed economic equalization has not led to intermixing of bloodlines and neither has it prevented the preferential treatment extended automatically to the upper castes. The economic equality has not led to social equality and by extension the equality in power. One main reason for the non-importance of caste is the absence of lower caste people in the Communist ideologues which seems to be deliberate. The top echelon of Communist power structure is firmly occupied by the upper castes on an enduring basis like the helms of power in the Varna Dharma. They may include one or two leaders from lower strata as a matter of exception. They are also not interested in finding the caste as the culprit because they also do not like to find faults with their esteemed and unimpeachable ancestors and the present kith and kin. All these faults are covered behind the veil of economic base like the veil of Karma Hypothesis. They are not bothered about who made this base and who still maintains it.
Among the defenders of the Varna Dharma, the mainstream, the civil society and the Communists, there is repetitive mention of the vested interest in maintaining the caste system and its rigidity. But there is not even feeble feigning attempt to identify these vested interests and the beneficiaries of the acts of such vested interests, and the duration of maintenance of this system and the extent of exploitation. All the fingers would point to them, their ancestors and, their kith and kin. Therefore, they do not do it.
Now, they have acquired a tongue which stirs also. The malicious tongue which can stir the demonic talks against us, the pure people with high ethics and high morals! Can they not speak any good thing after all the majestic treatment, our way of life has given to them? The ungrateful fellows! And they have started speaking! Trying to develop their own language! They should speak through us only. That is right. They should and must speak through us only. Only we can take their grievances to the government and the world. Anyway, our view is that all their problems have been solved through enacting several laws. Therefore, they should keep quiet; there is no cause of worry; as matter of fact, there never was. The scorn hangs down the blooming pure faces and the insecurity hangs down the sunken impure faces.
The pests of choice, freedom and equality need to be exterminated. Otherwise, the sensitivity of pure people would fall from a cliff. The tender feelings of the pure people are hurt by the voices of dissent which assail their ears. And other senses too would be badly hurt.
The pliancy of lower strata nurtures the good sense of higher strata and maintains the harmony in society. The absence of such pliancy shakes their cool and calm disposition until blows after blows have shaken out the dissent from the bones of the Untouchables.
There should be no doubt about the absence of shrewdness among pure people. They are very simple, not at all sly or crooked or deceptive. Look, how simply they follow Dharma and Karma! Pure simpletons, they are! Any such malicious thoughts about their shrewdness should be expunged from your mind. And they are not at all sly! The slyness does not touch the pure people, by definition.
Accusing the pure people, of everlasting crimes, is demeaning. You see, the Karma is more suitable explanation which absolves them. Surely, they do not take anybody for a ride. They have never done so in the last 3000 years. They are innocent; surely, they are the pure innocence personified.
And then there is stupendous stupidity standing unfazed within the silence of the lower strata. Amazing.
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