The Hindu society is famous for its watertight five boxes of people, four Varnas and one Antyaja. These are five straight hierarchical strata with no overlapping in between. There are clear-cut four Varnas only and Varna-Sankars are outlawed. We need to recall that an individual is born in an endogamous Jati with his inherited Varna, inherited occupation, an inherited social status, inherited disabilities and inherited privileges; all are said to be divine. One is born in a Jati; he marries within Jati and dies within Jati. The caste or Jati is social and emotional world in which one lives. The people from other castes are outsider to him; with them he interacts only on the basis of caste protocol of unequal social status; and economic needs; no permanent relationship bonds them and there is no possibility of that. His all relatives and father and forefathers are from the same Jati only. It is only a dharmic way of living or righteous way of living - separate and unequal from birth till death. Instances of social distance are not known for their scarcity - instead it is a way of life.
An individual in his lifetime has no chances of upward mobility in the group based caste system that does not really recognize any individual. Any individual is recognizable only through his heredity group or caste. Any Hindu man is fused with his caste and its purity or impurity. These cannot be taken apart in the traditional India. Without knowing the caste of a person one cannot really place him in the Hindu social, religious, economic and temporal power structure. It has been mentioned earlier that in the Hindu society, implicitly, the man and his heredity job are the same. The knowledge about his caste helps others in showing appropriate behavior towards him. An individual has to behave according to his caste and the castes of others; he has no really individual behavior or personality; his behavior is always relative. His behavior is based on the caste protocol. A person becomes mentally or physically meek or aggressive depending upon his caste in relation to others' castes. The caste of a man molds his life - as we know there is a caste effect - and an individual can only follow a limited set of predefined courses of actions, nothing else. Or else? The grisly system would get him. The caste enforces the social, economic and power structure around him in a direct or indirect way. An individual is a derivative of his caste; you can derive a man from his caste because they are the same. The caste system endows the Untouchables and the Shudras with the lowly paid birth-attached jobs, which is unable to fulfill their bellies. It awards them penury out of sheared altruism.
In the vertically stratified society of five strata, an individual is higher than some and lower than some. Some individual may not accept their heredity social ranking in the caste system and may claim that he is superior to those above him. To be effective the claim of an individual for upward mobility in the caste system has to be approved (ratified?) by the collective might of traditional social groups; the power of Brahmans underlies it. A Vaisya may claim that he is superior to Brahmans. However, this claim is without any effect until tacitly ratified by the people belonging to other Varnas, though in an indirect way, which should be seen in the changed behavior towards him. There is no proper procedure prescribed for such ratification. One always needed the permission of society or its guides. For their own welfare, people would not recognize any such claim. It is necessary for moving up on social scale that all other people agree to it, behave accordingly and provide him with all the privileges available to his now raised caste or Varna. The higher Varnas would not appreciate it; the lower Varnas would not recognize it. If they were to do so then their own social ranking would be adversely affected. No required privileges would be extended to him in the absence of which his mobility is meaningless. Nobody would change his behavior in response to such an assertion of gaining increased social status. So, he remains where he was, simple. Even the almighty (?) God with his unlimited power cannot raise and change a born scavenger into a Brahman and make the society to accept him as such. God may propose it but society may dispose - sheer show of strength – the winner takes all. The lawmakers have disabled the almighty God through the Karma hypothesis. It was a master stroke. A disabled God is contradiction of terms. However, it is a reality in the Hindu framework. Really wonderful, mind-boggling and amazing, is it not? God cannot help the people from the low castes in raising themselves; they have to do it themselves. Has HE granted them these disabilities deliberately? A biased God! Anyway, there is no ritual prescribed in the scriptures to raise the Varna of a man. It was not the horrible intention of the honorable, pious and unimpeachable lawmakers having undoubted integrity to make it available to lower strata; any such provision would have undermined their sacred ritual monopoly in society and religion and that would have adversely affected benefits attached to such a position. No Ghure (garbage dump) Lal or Kachara (garbage) Mull was supposed to make the laws; one needed the purity of blood for such sacred purpose. Of course, the inherent indirect cruelty was also a necessary requirement. And they are not nefarious at all. Indeed, they are not. Born-respected, they are!
It is necessary to know the social opinion about a caste group to know its real position. Any enquiry which is limited to the caste in question would yield unrealistic results which would not match with reality because each caste would boast to be better than any other caste. And that is not possible. Anyway, the social scientists in India gather the opinions only of the caste in question and churn out their theories.
A man interested in raising his status in the traditional Hindu society creates a whole lot of problems. Where this man and his offspring would marry? With whom he would dine? With whom he would socialize? What should be his occupation? What should be his place in the power structure? Then all the comforts of this Maya (earthly comforts) or illusion (this world) should be unnecessarily made available to him cutting into the comforts of the high caste people. Maya is to be made available to him!!! It is a gross insult to Dharma. How gross can you get? Such a man threatens the existing social structure based on the caste groups, and its beneficiaries. This threat itself is a compelling influence to maintain the purity of society. It would be desirable to ostracize these types of men and women to avoid the problems that transgress upon the Varna Dharma or the cosmic order. These heathen dreamers unreasonably think that they can disturb the cosmic order! Such an ostracization would result in avoidance of an introduction of filthy impurities in the pure areas of the society. For example, for a Shudra to become Brahman, it is essential to teach him Vedas; he should be eligible to teach Vedas to higher Varnas; he should be able to marry a Brahman girl; all the Kshatriyas should pay him respect by touching his feet or accept their secondary position to him; he should receive the same respectful treatment from Vaisyas and other section of society without any questions. He should get all the donations and the land grants. It is near impossible to find even one person from any of the Varna who agrees to treat him as such. The possibility keeps on drastically reducing as one adds more people, more castes and more Varnas. Thus in the total absence of extension of such facilities (or maintaining the caste effect) which are available to the born Brahmans, the Shudra in question remains where he was. The insurmountable questions, as enumerated above, are raised in the process - the questions which do not have any solutions within the Varna Dharma.
However, the downward mobility was automatically implied in the ostracization process that created the outcastes. Automatically, all the outcastes, who were without any ceremonial, social and property rights, became the members of the fifth stratum.
The caste system does show some flexibility when it comes to movement of a full Jati because it automatically solves the main problems of marriage and inter-dining. The castes have been increasing in number and these castes, beyond a point, can come only from the existing castes but they have to remain in the four Varnas. The additional high caste will come from high castes and the additional low castes will come from the low castes. The caste dynamics in Hindu society is a very slow process and happens rarely. Due to change in production process, new occupational activities may come up. There may be no caste having it as its heredity occupation. There may be no caste laying its claim over it. The Hindu Dharma allows for a temporary change in occupation in case of need or emergency (Aapaadkalin Dharma) so such a small change in occupation by few people in the beginning does not affect their caste. A portion of caste A may be attracted towards this occupation. In the beginning, this portion may intermarry with the rest of portion but as the number of people increases, this portion may cease to intermarry with the rest of the caste portion and became a separate caste C. If a portion of caste B is also attracted towards this activity they would form caste D in due course of time. Both C and D would now be known as sub caste of new occupational caste but they would not marry into each other. As the caste effect persist the new high value occupational castes may only come from the existing high caste and the new low value occupational castes only from the existing low castes. There may be some exceptions like the current kayasthas who are not the kayasthas of pre-Muslim Period.
The development of new castes is difficult in the traditional India because it is averse to any change in traditional technology or methods of learning or teaching; in it the time stands still. Still the development beyond its control can gave rise to new castes.
One more way to mobility of caste is to break the conditions of demilitarization and take up the arms. This is possible in absence of strong ruler in the area. Break the Dharma, take up the arms without bothering about the caste, form a kingdom with the help of mercenary soldiers (of your caste or lower castes than yours; if you can) and then bribe the Brahmans to come back in dharmic order at a higher level. One can leave those people of earlier caste who did not dare to take up the arms. But save the Dharma and the Brahmans when you have everything in control. And you have acquired a raise. What an aDharmic way! Break the Dharma to join it again!
A group moving up can always marry within the same group. Thus, the bloodlines and purity of other groups or Jatis are not affected. The upward movement of a Jati is an extremely slow process but it does happen. One way for this to happen is the learning of new higher-level occupational skills by some members of caste due to the reasons which are beyond the control of anybody. Thus, two occupational groups in the same caste are created. The number of such newly skilled people in a new occupation keeps on growing. After a considerable gap of about six or more generations the number of people having new skills grows considerably. The people belonging to new group start intermarrying and leave out the people still following the old lower level occupation. This process is carried forward in time until the new group becomes totally endogamous and separates. This causes a new endogamous occupational Jati to emerge. For an example, some Chamars may learn a new occupation of weaving due to reasons beyond the control of anybody. The reason may be the wiping out of weaver community in that area due to any epidemic leaving nobody to weave. Or it may be due to foreign invasion that caused the weaving community to migrate totally to some other area. Or because the foreigners have created a new power structure which has created a new class of religious converts willing to employ the skinners as weavers. As long as new skinner-weavers are few in number, they continue to align themselves with their skinner caste. As the time goes by these skinner-weavers grow large into numbers. They start intermarrying and a time comes when these skinner weavers become an endogamous Jati in their own right. Then they cut off all the links with their previous skinner caste and separate. Then a new weaving Jati comes into existence. The weaving occupation becomes their heredity occupation. In due course of time, say five or six generations, society also starts identifying them by their new endogamous occupational group at a relatively higher social status.
There is another way in which an endogamous Jati can move up. This also includes a change to higher-level occupation along with a solution to problems of marriage and inter-dining. In this, the whole Jati moves up the social scale. The Kayasthas have moved a long way from being near to Untouchables to be near to twice born. It has been a long difficult and arduous journey achieved with the help of the Muslim invaders. The Kayasthas were the court musicians and dancers. The women and girls, danced and sang, for the ruler and his courtiers. The men played the musical instruments while their women danced and entertained. Not having their own means to survive they had to depend on the mercy of the court and courtiers. It was an occupation of utmost subordination. It was an exploited community of dancing girls and male musicians where the girls were more important than the boys. Their women were more important as the skills of men were secondary to that of dancing. The men held secondary position. Their women danced and sang to please. They were also the targets of exploitation. This exploitation passed from generation to generation. It was not one of the grandly respected occupations especially with the open exploitation of women that went with it. In the ancient purity based society, their social status was almost insulting. There was no purity to be maintained. Then came the Muslim invaders and everything changed for them. At the same time, Dharma hid itself in unknown places under the onslaught of the Muslim invaders. The Muslim rule was god-sent opportunity for them. The heaven changed its mood for the Kayasthas; it became benevolent in the form of the Muslim rulers. After all, the Muslim rulers controlled the resources of the kingdom. The pillars, which crushed Dharma, provided solid and strong support to the Kayasthas. The Kayasthas progressed while Dharma suffered under the rulership of the idol breaker Muslims. Whose fault was it anyway? The lowly court musicians surviving on their dancing women were destined to become high-rise under the Muslim rule.
As it happened, the rulers were predisposed to ruling the people only but somebody was required to do the administrative work. The Muslim rulers wanted all the records to be kept in Persian; the language was not known to people here. One had to know the Persian to gain employment with the rulers. High caste Hindus were generally averse to do the work for Muslim rulers because Dharma was suffering. They were also not used to being subordinates. Thus, by and large they avoided working for foreign rulers; they ran to interiors. They could not fight with them - it was hardly possible to fight with the help of a demilitarized and disparagingly disunited society. They left for interior places. Unlike the earlier foreign rulers, who were assimilated, the Muslims were not interested in accepting cultural hegemony and superiority of the Brahmans. They believed that worshiping idols was meant for the heathen people since idols did not have any real powers. Thus, they were disinclined to accept the superiority of the heathen people. However, they ran short of people to run the administrative. The Brahmans and other high castes were not coming forward to learn the Persian and take up the court work. The lowly Kayasthas grabbed the opportunity with both the hands. They learnt the Persian and took up the court work. The study of Persian spread in the community of the Kayasthas and with that the employment with the rulers. They handled the court records first then the land records. The land record work was very heavy; heavy enough to give a significant number of Kayasthas work with the court. Then slowly they were elevated to the ministerial jobs which was as good as being Brahmans in the Varna Dharma. This opportunity could have never been provided to them by the time tested ancient Varna Dharma. For such an aspiration, the Varna Dharma could have killed them but it was hidden in the unknown places with tail tucked inside; it did not get the chance. When the British colonizers came, the Kayasthas got the land Zamindari under their rule - it pays to be on the side of rulers - Dharma be damned. Then they acquired the modern education and got plum jobs with the British rulers. Now they are as good as twice born. Some even claim Kshatriya status and get accepted as such. The divine retribution was dancing on one leg! It should not remind you of Gita, the esteemed and unlying.
Another example of the upward caste mobility, are the Jatts of upper northern India. The Jatts are hardy farmers. At present they are landowning people in the rural areas but they were not like this earlier. In 8th and 9th centuries they were treated as near Untouchables. By 12th century C.E. they came to acquire Shudra status. This was also the time of Delhi Sultanate, the Muslim rule in north India. With the advent of Muslim religion, a significant number of Jatts got converted to the Muslim religion. It gave a real boost to Muslim religion, and to the Jatts also in the form of occupation of soldiers with the Muslim rulers; and also a tiller status with them. It looks like that they really disliked their Shudra status. Instead of improving their status by working with Muslims, they chose a direct path of becoming Muslims outright. Even when the Jatts got into Muslim armies they remained at a lower level, barring few exceptions, they remained the foot soldiers while the cavalry was in the hands of the Turks or Afghans. Now the Jatts are dominating community in the Muslim state of Pakistan.
In the 8th century the Jatts, in Sindh, were ordered by the Brahman king (the Brahmans could wield the weapons and rule to save Dharma) of Sindh to go barefoot and follow all other things applicable to the Untouchables. This would have reduced the nomadic Jatts to the level of Untouchables. Still in many villages, implicitly full of innocence, the Untouchables are required to go barefoot. This was an indication of the hovering near the Untouchable status. Had the situation prevailed for a long time say about hundred years or so; the now proud Jatts would have become permanently Untouchables. As we know the lawmakers were the lawmakers. But fortunately for them the descent to fifth stratum was prevented by an event which originated from outside of the Sanatana Dharma. This event is much despised by the Hindus. The Muslims invaded the India for the first time. A young Muslim boy attacked the king of Sindh on the instruction of his king. There he defeated and killed the Brahman king. This was the king who gave the orders to Jatts to go barefoot thus reducing them to the Untouchable level. However, after the death of this Brahman king, the Sindh was ruled by the Muslims and the Jatts were avoided the ignominy of going barefoot. They also joined the Muslim army and fought against the Brahman king. Had this Brahman dynasty continued for one hundred years, the Jatts would have become the permanent Untouchables! But the Muslim political interference stopped the logical course of action within a short period of time. The Jatts were free again, back to their nomadic ways.
The Jatts were most probably the Scythian who entered India sometime after 7th century C.E. The Jatts, when they entered India, were a pastoral people. They were not the agriculturists as they are now. They were poor pastoral people who moved from place to place in search for the greener pastures. They kept mainly camels, cows and buffalos in their cattle stock. Until the advent of modern medicine system from the West, they were the best vets and breeders. They sold milk and dairy products they got from their cattle stock. Occupation wise they were equivalent to Ahirs. However, they also did engage in the pursuit of plundering and robbing, and thus creating law and order problems for the local rulers. Though they did not lack quality of bravery but they did lack the capacity to organize on a sustainable basis. Their organized defenses or the resistance to big armies never lasted long enough and they always capitulated to strong rulers. They were occasional source of local troubles to rulers. However, by 10th century they also took up cultivation on temporary basis and came to be classified as the low level Shudras. They lived a pastoral life and moved from here to there in search of greener pastures. They also plundered and robbed the people; this reminds one of the Rig Vedic Aryans who were pastoral as well as the plunderers. Both of them took to agriculture. However, like the Kayasthas their rise is also linked with the rise of the Muslim rulers. Here again we find no help from within the Hindu framework - that is to be noted; the Hindu framework, in this regard, is worthless and rubbish. The Sanatani framework is good at rubbishing people under the false veil of divine order and the false Karma hypothesis. The lowly people took the help of the adharmic invaders. The Jatts joined the Muslim armies in large numbers as foot soldiers. The cavalry was still in charge of the Afghans and the Turks. However, other Jatts with their robbing and plundering ways were a constant source of trouble to the Muslim rulers. However, this trouble was converted into asset by giving these poor, landless, ostracized but brave people jobs in the Muslim army infantry and also by making them cultivators or tillers. Notwithstanding all the claims to Jatts' opposition to Muslims one finds that the largest conversions took place among the Jatts; they appear as cultivators only during Muslim rule; they formed the big groups under the Muslim rulers; their bravado was recognized only by the Muslim rulers; afterward by the British. Still one can see that there was no help from within the Hindu framework. The Jatts proved to be efficient tillers but not more than that. Whatever they produced was taken away by the landlords leaving them barely with enough food to survive. However, they were in a better position than the Untouchables because the Untouchables could at most be casual labor but not the tillers. The landlords exploited them. The Rajputs who in Rajasthan were the landlords, forcible took away their womenfolk frequently - not really a surprise from the cultured elites of the Hindu society. In Rajasthan, many disabilities were imposed on them not long ago. However, the converted Jatts maintained for a long time intermarrying into Hindu Jatts, smoking and inter dining with them. They probably became a favored group with Muslim rulers. Thus, the Kayasthas did clerking and administrative jobs along with maintaining land records for Muslim rulers and the Jatts on the other hand did the tilling and army infantry jobs for them. Even after becoming tillers, they were rarely able to accumulate anything in their entire lifetime. A Jatt was supposed to be a person who could toil on others' land all his lifetime without really hoping to get anything in return. All his sweat or bravery was not sufficient to raise his social status; he was bound to remain an impure Shudra. But he had become higher than the Untouchables. They had relatively stable source of income through tilling and the jobs in army. The Jatts unlike the Rajputs were unable to make a forced entry into higher strata of Hindu society. Under the Muslim rule, they were upgraded to Shudra level. After the Mughal rule decayed they formed armed groups around the region of Agra; attacking the weak Mughal armies. At that time, they established some small, kingdoms like Bharatpur and others. However, they never got the status of Kshatriyas, and were branded as unruly plunderers and bandits, by the Kshatriyas and the Brahmans. The Jatts and the Brahmans have traditionally ignored each other. The British classified them as martial race and gave them jobs in the army. This helped them further financially. Here, joining the army as infantry indicates bravery as well poverty. They mainly did the tilling and joined the army until the independence. After the independence, the land reforms took place and the tillers became the owners of the land. Here was the real jump, they had become resource owners and highest among Shudras. Now, they have the land and muscle power with them in rural upper north India but still have not acquired the status of the Kshatriyas. They are still regarded as uncultured by the cultured elites of the Hindu society. Though they have traveled a long up the social scale they are still regarded as Shudras; only the highest level Shudras. They never got the credibility among the Hindu elites who are incredibly credible.
The Marathas of Maharashtra have also risen on the social scale in the Hindu society. They did it by breaking the Dharma, by becoming militarized on the caste basis by serving in the armies of nearby Muslim rulers. But after getting sufficient powers they turned to Dharma by undertaking to save the Brahmans, the Dharma and the holy cow. They bribed the Brahmans, as has been the trend in the history. In their case, it was newly developed warrior skills, in the armies of nearby Muslim rulers, which enabled them to acquire the higher status starting from the Shudras status. We know the Shudra kings were granted the Kshatriya status provided they agreed with the Vedic culture of accepting the superiority of Brahmans. This has been the trend since the times of Krishna and Kansa. The Marathas required the ritual patronage of the Brahmans. In this regard, it might be noted that the warring skills were learned by the Maratha king under the people of his caste who were employed by the Muslim ruler of the region. The son whose father was employed by the Muslim went the separate way after learning the warring skills and crafted a small kingdom; the Muslim influence is evident here also. The Brahmans of Maharashtra refused to coronate the Maratha warrior as king on the grounds that he was not a Kshatriyas; the same pious and other worldly Maharashtrian Brahmans were later to usurp his throne and form the Peshawa raj. However, when the Maratha warrior was refused coronation by the simple, innocent, pure, pious and dharmic Brahmans in his area, then his courtiers arranged for a poor Brahman from Kashi who agreed to do the coronation for some consideration – same old story, all over India. This consideration came handy for the lord Rama in the Ramayana also. The fables were created to assign the Kshatriya origin to the Maratha warrior and he was coroneted as king. Then the similar assimilative pattern followed which had been followed through the Vedic history; the Shudra kings came to be the defenders of the Brahmans forgetting their own people; the Vedic religion spread along with the Varna Dharma. With this the Marathas acquired the Kshatriya status (they had armies of Marathas only and gave their caste people the land etc.; in short they moved together as caste and moved ahead) and became a land owning caste and acquired jobs in the army. However, the Brahmans raised themselves to the status of demigod; they came to be known as Bhu-dev or Brahmandev. Extremely unworldly people - deeply interested in spiritual matters!
The upward movement limit for whole caste mobility is set by the Brahmans. Whatever the Kayasthas, the Jatts and the Marathas do; they can never be equal to Brahmans; let alone becoming superior to them.
Then there are Nadars and Ezhavas of south India who have also moved up the social hierarchy but only a little. The Nadars have also not received any help from inside the Hindu society. They had to take large scale help from the Christian missions to rise up with their funds and education. Even now, the caste ties are very strong in Nadar community. The marriage across religion within the same caste are preferable than the marriages outside the caste. The Ezhavas of Kerala have also been dependent on the British plantation jobs and the education of a foreign system to rise up. Here again no help was received from inside. Then gulf money has also funded their slow movement up the social scale. The external critical factors are always evident.
More examples of the upward caste mobility are found in 8th and 9th centuries C.E. and onward. At that time, there was no big ruler in the northern India. This led to rise of uncertain conditions in the north India. Many new local rulers arrived on the scene; each claiming suzerainty over a small area. These were, by and large, small kings of obscure origin – they adopted the aDharmic route to rise in status – anyway there is no other route. The flouted the Dharma, took up the arms became small sovereigns with the help of their caste men and the mercenary soldiers and formed small kingdoms and bribed the Brahmans to come back at a higher level – the only route is of violence and bribery – no corruption at all. As usually, these small kings did not have popular acceptance and neither the divine nor the social right to rule. They required acquiring of the Kshatriya status which could have made them as the divinely ordained rulers. They badly needed the Brahmans. The Brahmans, the ritual monopolists, could only provide this. Thus, exchange of favors among the new rulers and the Brahmans took place; these new rulers were granted the Kshatriya status by the Brahmans in lieu of patronage and acceptance of the Brahmanical superiority. And the administrative jobs for Brahmans with these new kings were assured or reserved. It was an unchallenged affirmative action or reservation system. The reservations have lasted and lasted since long, long ago. The reservations are as old as the Sanatana Dharma is, in the Hindu society.
However, in relation to upward mobility, the downward mobility of individual was the norm. All the outcastes descended to fifth stratum so that the purity of society could be maintained; the dastardly and ghastly caste Panchayat institution was the tool for this. The Hindu society contains an inordinately large numbers of Untouchables. Every fifth Hindu is Untouchable, graciously. All the Untouchables are supposed to provide the unclean goods and services to rest of society. There have been but slow degradations in the Hindu society. One of the degradation was the degradation of the occupations of agriculture and cattle rearing. It may be because of handling of excreta which got mixed with earth. These occupations were degraded from the Vaisya level to the Shudra level thus degrading a very large number of people. Or the Shudras in new Vedic areas engaged in these jobs were not upgraded. The function of cattle rearing and tilling lost out to functions of god invocating and function of ruling society. The caste supremacy reigned.
There was one ritual available to Shudra Kings to get raised to higher level of Kshatriya but his caste people remained the same there was no change in their status. There have been attempt by some kings to raise the social level of some of their favorite people but they were successful in raising the level of a few individuals and most probably, these people went back to their earlier social level after the demise of the king in question. The Patels' of Gujarat rose in social status when one Solanki king granted them the land rights. But they became land holding Shudras only - the proper Kshatriyahood avoided them.
An individual in his lifetime has no chances of upward mobility in the group based caste system that does not really recognize any individual. Any individual is recognizable only through his heredity group or caste. Any Hindu man is fused with his caste and its purity or impurity. These cannot be taken apart in the traditional India. Without knowing the caste of a person one cannot really place him in the Hindu social, religious, economic and temporal power structure. It has been mentioned earlier that in the Hindu society, implicitly, the man and his heredity job are the same. The knowledge about his caste helps others in showing appropriate behavior towards him. An individual has to behave according to his caste and the castes of others; he has no really individual behavior or personality; his behavior is always relative. His behavior is based on the caste protocol. A person becomes mentally or physically meek or aggressive depending upon his caste in relation to others' castes. The caste of a man molds his life - as we know there is a caste effect - and an individual can only follow a limited set of predefined courses of actions, nothing else. Or else? The grisly system would get him. The caste enforces the social, economic and power structure around him in a direct or indirect way. An individual is a derivative of his caste; you can derive a man from his caste because they are the same. The caste system endows the Untouchables and the Shudras with the lowly paid birth-attached jobs, which is unable to fulfill their bellies. It awards them penury out of sheared altruism.
In the vertically stratified society of five strata, an individual is higher than some and lower than some. Some individual may not accept their heredity social ranking in the caste system and may claim that he is superior to those above him. To be effective the claim of an individual for upward mobility in the caste system has to be approved (ratified?) by the collective might of traditional social groups; the power of Brahmans underlies it. A Vaisya may claim that he is superior to Brahmans. However, this claim is without any effect until tacitly ratified by the people belonging to other Varnas, though in an indirect way, which should be seen in the changed behavior towards him. There is no proper procedure prescribed for such ratification. One always needed the permission of society or its guides. For their own welfare, people would not recognize any such claim. It is necessary for moving up on social scale that all other people agree to it, behave accordingly and provide him with all the privileges available to his now raised caste or Varna. The higher Varnas would not appreciate it; the lower Varnas would not recognize it. If they were to do so then their own social ranking would be adversely affected. No required privileges would be extended to him in the absence of which his mobility is meaningless. Nobody would change his behavior in response to such an assertion of gaining increased social status. So, he remains where he was, simple. Even the almighty (?) God with his unlimited power cannot raise and change a born scavenger into a Brahman and make the society to accept him as such. God may propose it but society may dispose - sheer show of strength – the winner takes all. The lawmakers have disabled the almighty God through the Karma hypothesis. It was a master stroke. A disabled God is contradiction of terms. However, it is a reality in the Hindu framework. Really wonderful, mind-boggling and amazing, is it not? God cannot help the people from the low castes in raising themselves; they have to do it themselves. Has HE granted them these disabilities deliberately? A biased God! Anyway, there is no ritual prescribed in the scriptures to raise the Varna of a man. It was not the horrible intention of the honorable, pious and unimpeachable lawmakers having undoubted integrity to make it available to lower strata; any such provision would have undermined their sacred ritual monopoly in society and religion and that would have adversely affected benefits attached to such a position. No Ghure (garbage dump) Lal or Kachara (garbage) Mull was supposed to make the laws; one needed the purity of blood for such sacred purpose. Of course, the inherent indirect cruelty was also a necessary requirement. And they are not nefarious at all. Indeed, they are not. Born-respected, they are!
It is necessary to know the social opinion about a caste group to know its real position. Any enquiry which is limited to the caste in question would yield unrealistic results which would not match with reality because each caste would boast to be better than any other caste. And that is not possible. Anyway, the social scientists in India gather the opinions only of the caste in question and churn out their theories.
A man interested in raising his status in the traditional Hindu society creates a whole lot of problems. Where this man and his offspring would marry? With whom he would dine? With whom he would socialize? What should be his occupation? What should be his place in the power structure? Then all the comforts of this Maya (earthly comforts) or illusion (this world) should be unnecessarily made available to him cutting into the comforts of the high caste people. Maya is to be made available to him!!! It is a gross insult to Dharma. How gross can you get? Such a man threatens the existing social structure based on the caste groups, and its beneficiaries. This threat itself is a compelling influence to maintain the purity of society. It would be desirable to ostracize these types of men and women to avoid the problems that transgress upon the Varna Dharma or the cosmic order. These heathen dreamers unreasonably think that they can disturb the cosmic order! Such an ostracization would result in avoidance of an introduction of filthy impurities in the pure areas of the society. For example, for a Shudra to become Brahman, it is essential to teach him Vedas; he should be eligible to teach Vedas to higher Varnas; he should be able to marry a Brahman girl; all the Kshatriyas should pay him respect by touching his feet or accept their secondary position to him; he should receive the same respectful treatment from Vaisyas and other section of society without any questions. He should get all the donations and the land grants. It is near impossible to find even one person from any of the Varna who agrees to treat him as such. The possibility keeps on drastically reducing as one adds more people, more castes and more Varnas. Thus in the total absence of extension of such facilities (or maintaining the caste effect) which are available to the born Brahmans, the Shudra in question remains where he was. The insurmountable questions, as enumerated above, are raised in the process - the questions which do not have any solutions within the Varna Dharma.
However, the downward mobility was automatically implied in the ostracization process that created the outcastes. Automatically, all the outcastes, who were without any ceremonial, social and property rights, became the members of the fifth stratum.
The caste system does show some flexibility when it comes to movement of a full Jati because it automatically solves the main problems of marriage and inter-dining. The castes have been increasing in number and these castes, beyond a point, can come only from the existing castes but they have to remain in the four Varnas. The additional high caste will come from high castes and the additional low castes will come from the low castes. The caste dynamics in Hindu society is a very slow process and happens rarely. Due to change in production process, new occupational activities may come up. There may be no caste having it as its heredity occupation. There may be no caste laying its claim over it. The Hindu Dharma allows for a temporary change in occupation in case of need or emergency (Aapaadkalin Dharma) so such a small change in occupation by few people in the beginning does not affect their caste. A portion of caste A may be attracted towards this occupation. In the beginning, this portion may intermarry with the rest of portion but as the number of people increases, this portion may cease to intermarry with the rest of the caste portion and became a separate caste C. If a portion of caste B is also attracted towards this activity they would form caste D in due course of time. Both C and D would now be known as sub caste of new occupational caste but they would not marry into each other. As the caste effect persist the new high value occupational castes may only come from the existing high caste and the new low value occupational castes only from the existing low castes. There may be some exceptions like the current kayasthas who are not the kayasthas of pre-Muslim Period.
The development of new castes is difficult in the traditional India because it is averse to any change in traditional technology or methods of learning or teaching; in it the time stands still. Still the development beyond its control can gave rise to new castes.
One more way to mobility of caste is to break the conditions of demilitarization and take up the arms. This is possible in absence of strong ruler in the area. Break the Dharma, take up the arms without bothering about the caste, form a kingdom with the help of mercenary soldiers (of your caste or lower castes than yours; if you can) and then bribe the Brahmans to come back in dharmic order at a higher level. One can leave those people of earlier caste who did not dare to take up the arms. But save the Dharma and the Brahmans when you have everything in control. And you have acquired a raise. What an aDharmic way! Break the Dharma to join it again!
A group moving up can always marry within the same group. Thus, the bloodlines and purity of other groups or Jatis are not affected. The upward movement of a Jati is an extremely slow process but it does happen. One way for this to happen is the learning of new higher-level occupational skills by some members of caste due to the reasons which are beyond the control of anybody. Thus, two occupational groups in the same caste are created. The number of such newly skilled people in a new occupation keeps on growing. After a considerable gap of about six or more generations the number of people having new skills grows considerably. The people belonging to new group start intermarrying and leave out the people still following the old lower level occupation. This process is carried forward in time until the new group becomes totally endogamous and separates. This causes a new endogamous occupational Jati to emerge. For an example, some Chamars may learn a new occupation of weaving due to reasons beyond the control of anybody. The reason may be the wiping out of weaver community in that area due to any epidemic leaving nobody to weave. Or it may be due to foreign invasion that caused the weaving community to migrate totally to some other area. Or because the foreigners have created a new power structure which has created a new class of religious converts willing to employ the skinners as weavers. As long as new skinner-weavers are few in number, they continue to align themselves with their skinner caste. As the time goes by these skinner-weavers grow large into numbers. They start intermarrying and a time comes when these skinner weavers become an endogamous Jati in their own right. Then they cut off all the links with their previous skinner caste and separate. Then a new weaving Jati comes into existence. The weaving occupation becomes their heredity occupation. In due course of time, say five or six generations, society also starts identifying them by their new endogamous occupational group at a relatively higher social status.
There is another way in which an endogamous Jati can move up. This also includes a change to higher-level occupation along with a solution to problems of marriage and inter-dining. In this, the whole Jati moves up the social scale. The Kayasthas have moved a long way from being near to Untouchables to be near to twice born. It has been a long difficult and arduous journey achieved with the help of the Muslim invaders. The Kayasthas were the court musicians and dancers. The women and girls, danced and sang, for the ruler and his courtiers. The men played the musical instruments while their women danced and entertained. Not having their own means to survive they had to depend on the mercy of the court and courtiers. It was an occupation of utmost subordination. It was an exploited community of dancing girls and male musicians where the girls were more important than the boys. Their women were more important as the skills of men were secondary to that of dancing. The men held secondary position. Their women danced and sang to please. They were also the targets of exploitation. This exploitation passed from generation to generation. It was not one of the grandly respected occupations especially with the open exploitation of women that went with it. In the ancient purity based society, their social status was almost insulting. There was no purity to be maintained. Then came the Muslim invaders and everything changed for them. At the same time, Dharma hid itself in unknown places under the onslaught of the Muslim invaders. The Muslim rule was god-sent opportunity for them. The heaven changed its mood for the Kayasthas; it became benevolent in the form of the Muslim rulers. After all, the Muslim rulers controlled the resources of the kingdom. The pillars, which crushed Dharma, provided solid and strong support to the Kayasthas. The Kayasthas progressed while Dharma suffered under the rulership of the idol breaker Muslims. Whose fault was it anyway? The lowly court musicians surviving on their dancing women were destined to become high-rise under the Muslim rule.
As it happened, the rulers were predisposed to ruling the people only but somebody was required to do the administrative work. The Muslim rulers wanted all the records to be kept in Persian; the language was not known to people here. One had to know the Persian to gain employment with the rulers. High caste Hindus were generally averse to do the work for Muslim rulers because Dharma was suffering. They were also not used to being subordinates. Thus, by and large they avoided working for foreign rulers; they ran to interiors. They could not fight with them - it was hardly possible to fight with the help of a demilitarized and disparagingly disunited society. They left for interior places. Unlike the earlier foreign rulers, who were assimilated, the Muslims were not interested in accepting cultural hegemony and superiority of the Brahmans. They believed that worshiping idols was meant for the heathen people since idols did not have any real powers. Thus, they were disinclined to accept the superiority of the heathen people. However, they ran short of people to run the administrative. The Brahmans and other high castes were not coming forward to learn the Persian and take up the court work. The lowly Kayasthas grabbed the opportunity with both the hands. They learnt the Persian and took up the court work. The study of Persian spread in the community of the Kayasthas and with that the employment with the rulers. They handled the court records first then the land records. The land record work was very heavy; heavy enough to give a significant number of Kayasthas work with the court. Then slowly they were elevated to the ministerial jobs which was as good as being Brahmans in the Varna Dharma. This opportunity could have never been provided to them by the time tested ancient Varna Dharma. For such an aspiration, the Varna Dharma could have killed them but it was hidden in the unknown places with tail tucked inside; it did not get the chance. When the British colonizers came, the Kayasthas got the land Zamindari under their rule - it pays to be on the side of rulers - Dharma be damned. Then they acquired the modern education and got plum jobs with the British rulers. Now they are as good as twice born. Some even claim Kshatriya status and get accepted as such. The divine retribution was dancing on one leg! It should not remind you of Gita, the esteemed and unlying.
Another example of the upward caste mobility, are the Jatts of upper northern India. The Jatts are hardy farmers. At present they are landowning people in the rural areas but they were not like this earlier. In 8th and 9th centuries they were treated as near Untouchables. By 12th century C.E. they came to acquire Shudra status. This was also the time of Delhi Sultanate, the Muslim rule in north India. With the advent of Muslim religion, a significant number of Jatts got converted to the Muslim religion. It gave a real boost to Muslim religion, and to the Jatts also in the form of occupation of soldiers with the Muslim rulers; and also a tiller status with them. It looks like that they really disliked their Shudra status. Instead of improving their status by working with Muslims, they chose a direct path of becoming Muslims outright. Even when the Jatts got into Muslim armies they remained at a lower level, barring few exceptions, they remained the foot soldiers while the cavalry was in the hands of the Turks or Afghans. Now the Jatts are dominating community in the Muslim state of Pakistan.
In the 8th century the Jatts, in Sindh, were ordered by the Brahman king (the Brahmans could wield the weapons and rule to save Dharma) of Sindh to go barefoot and follow all other things applicable to the Untouchables. This would have reduced the nomadic Jatts to the level of Untouchables. Still in many villages, implicitly full of innocence, the Untouchables are required to go barefoot. This was an indication of the hovering near the Untouchable status. Had the situation prevailed for a long time say about hundred years or so; the now proud Jatts would have become permanently Untouchables. As we know the lawmakers were the lawmakers. But fortunately for them the descent to fifth stratum was prevented by an event which originated from outside of the Sanatana Dharma. This event is much despised by the Hindus. The Muslims invaded the India for the first time. A young Muslim boy attacked the king of Sindh on the instruction of his king. There he defeated and killed the Brahman king. This was the king who gave the orders to Jatts to go barefoot thus reducing them to the Untouchable level. However, after the death of this Brahman king, the Sindh was ruled by the Muslims and the Jatts were avoided the ignominy of going barefoot. They also joined the Muslim army and fought against the Brahman king. Had this Brahman dynasty continued for one hundred years, the Jatts would have become the permanent Untouchables! But the Muslim political interference stopped the logical course of action within a short period of time. The Jatts were free again, back to their nomadic ways.
The Jatts were most probably the Scythian who entered India sometime after 7th century C.E. The Jatts, when they entered India, were a pastoral people. They were not the agriculturists as they are now. They were poor pastoral people who moved from place to place in search for the greener pastures. They kept mainly camels, cows and buffalos in their cattle stock. Until the advent of modern medicine system from the West, they were the best vets and breeders. They sold milk and dairy products they got from their cattle stock. Occupation wise they were equivalent to Ahirs. However, they also did engage in the pursuit of plundering and robbing, and thus creating law and order problems for the local rulers. Though they did not lack quality of bravery but they did lack the capacity to organize on a sustainable basis. Their organized defenses or the resistance to big armies never lasted long enough and they always capitulated to strong rulers. They were occasional source of local troubles to rulers. However, by 10th century they also took up cultivation on temporary basis and came to be classified as the low level Shudras. They lived a pastoral life and moved from here to there in search of greener pastures. They also plundered and robbed the people; this reminds one of the Rig Vedic Aryans who were pastoral as well as the plunderers. Both of them took to agriculture. However, like the Kayasthas their rise is also linked with the rise of the Muslim rulers. Here again we find no help from within the Hindu framework - that is to be noted; the Hindu framework, in this regard, is worthless and rubbish. The Sanatani framework is good at rubbishing people under the false veil of divine order and the false Karma hypothesis. The lowly people took the help of the adharmic invaders. The Jatts joined the Muslim armies in large numbers as foot soldiers. The cavalry was still in charge of the Afghans and the Turks. However, other Jatts with their robbing and plundering ways were a constant source of trouble to the Muslim rulers. However, this trouble was converted into asset by giving these poor, landless, ostracized but brave people jobs in the Muslim army infantry and also by making them cultivators or tillers. Notwithstanding all the claims to Jatts' opposition to Muslims one finds that the largest conversions took place among the Jatts; they appear as cultivators only during Muslim rule; they formed the big groups under the Muslim rulers; their bravado was recognized only by the Muslim rulers; afterward by the British. Still one can see that there was no help from within the Hindu framework. The Jatts proved to be efficient tillers but not more than that. Whatever they produced was taken away by the landlords leaving them barely with enough food to survive. However, they were in a better position than the Untouchables because the Untouchables could at most be casual labor but not the tillers. The landlords exploited them. The Rajputs who in Rajasthan were the landlords, forcible took away their womenfolk frequently - not really a surprise from the cultured elites of the Hindu society. In Rajasthan, many disabilities were imposed on them not long ago. However, the converted Jatts maintained for a long time intermarrying into Hindu Jatts, smoking and inter dining with them. They probably became a favored group with Muslim rulers. Thus, the Kayasthas did clerking and administrative jobs along with maintaining land records for Muslim rulers and the Jatts on the other hand did the tilling and army infantry jobs for them. Even after becoming tillers, they were rarely able to accumulate anything in their entire lifetime. A Jatt was supposed to be a person who could toil on others' land all his lifetime without really hoping to get anything in return. All his sweat or bravery was not sufficient to raise his social status; he was bound to remain an impure Shudra. But he had become higher than the Untouchables. They had relatively stable source of income through tilling and the jobs in army. The Jatts unlike the Rajputs were unable to make a forced entry into higher strata of Hindu society. Under the Muslim rule, they were upgraded to Shudra level. After the Mughal rule decayed they formed armed groups around the region of Agra; attacking the weak Mughal armies. At that time, they established some small, kingdoms like Bharatpur and others. However, they never got the status of Kshatriyas, and were branded as unruly plunderers and bandits, by the Kshatriyas and the Brahmans. The Jatts and the Brahmans have traditionally ignored each other. The British classified them as martial race and gave them jobs in the army. This helped them further financially. Here, joining the army as infantry indicates bravery as well poverty. They mainly did the tilling and joined the army until the independence. After the independence, the land reforms took place and the tillers became the owners of the land. Here was the real jump, they had become resource owners and highest among Shudras. Now, they have the land and muscle power with them in rural upper north India but still have not acquired the status of the Kshatriyas. They are still regarded as uncultured by the cultured elites of the Hindu society. Though they have traveled a long up the social scale they are still regarded as Shudras; only the highest level Shudras. They never got the credibility among the Hindu elites who are incredibly credible.
The Marathas of Maharashtra have also risen on the social scale in the Hindu society. They did it by breaking the Dharma, by becoming militarized on the caste basis by serving in the armies of nearby Muslim rulers. But after getting sufficient powers they turned to Dharma by undertaking to save the Brahmans, the Dharma and the holy cow. They bribed the Brahmans, as has been the trend in the history. In their case, it was newly developed warrior skills, in the armies of nearby Muslim rulers, which enabled them to acquire the higher status starting from the Shudras status. We know the Shudra kings were granted the Kshatriya status provided they agreed with the Vedic culture of accepting the superiority of Brahmans. This has been the trend since the times of Krishna and Kansa. The Marathas required the ritual patronage of the Brahmans. In this regard, it might be noted that the warring skills were learned by the Maratha king under the people of his caste who were employed by the Muslim ruler of the region. The son whose father was employed by the Muslim went the separate way after learning the warring skills and crafted a small kingdom; the Muslim influence is evident here also. The Brahmans of Maharashtra refused to coronate the Maratha warrior as king on the grounds that he was not a Kshatriyas; the same pious and other worldly Maharashtrian Brahmans were later to usurp his throne and form the Peshawa raj. However, when the Maratha warrior was refused coronation by the simple, innocent, pure, pious and dharmic Brahmans in his area, then his courtiers arranged for a poor Brahman from Kashi who agreed to do the coronation for some consideration – same old story, all over India. This consideration came handy for the lord Rama in the Ramayana also. The fables were created to assign the Kshatriya origin to the Maratha warrior and he was coroneted as king. Then the similar assimilative pattern followed which had been followed through the Vedic history; the Shudra kings came to be the defenders of the Brahmans forgetting their own people; the Vedic religion spread along with the Varna Dharma. With this the Marathas acquired the Kshatriya status (they had armies of Marathas only and gave their caste people the land etc.; in short they moved together as caste and moved ahead) and became a land owning caste and acquired jobs in the army. However, the Brahmans raised themselves to the status of demigod; they came to be known as Bhu-dev or Brahmandev. Extremely unworldly people - deeply interested in spiritual matters!
The upward movement limit for whole caste mobility is set by the Brahmans. Whatever the Kayasthas, the Jatts and the Marathas do; they can never be equal to Brahmans; let alone becoming superior to them.
Then there are Nadars and Ezhavas of south India who have also moved up the social hierarchy but only a little. The Nadars have also not received any help from inside the Hindu society. They had to take large scale help from the Christian missions to rise up with their funds and education. Even now, the caste ties are very strong in Nadar community. The marriage across religion within the same caste are preferable than the marriages outside the caste. The Ezhavas of Kerala have also been dependent on the British plantation jobs and the education of a foreign system to rise up. Here again no help was received from inside. Then gulf money has also funded their slow movement up the social scale. The external critical factors are always evident.
More examples of the upward caste mobility are found in 8th and 9th centuries C.E. and onward. At that time, there was no big ruler in the northern India. This led to rise of uncertain conditions in the north India. Many new local rulers arrived on the scene; each claiming suzerainty over a small area. These were, by and large, small kings of obscure origin – they adopted the aDharmic route to rise in status – anyway there is no other route. The flouted the Dharma, took up the arms became small sovereigns with the help of their caste men and the mercenary soldiers and formed small kingdoms and bribed the Brahmans to come back at a higher level – the only route is of violence and bribery – no corruption at all. As usually, these small kings did not have popular acceptance and neither the divine nor the social right to rule. They required acquiring of the Kshatriya status which could have made them as the divinely ordained rulers. They badly needed the Brahmans. The Brahmans, the ritual monopolists, could only provide this. Thus, exchange of favors among the new rulers and the Brahmans took place; these new rulers were granted the Kshatriya status by the Brahmans in lieu of patronage and acceptance of the Brahmanical superiority. And the administrative jobs for Brahmans with these new kings were assured or reserved. It was an unchallenged affirmative action or reservation system. The reservations have lasted and lasted since long, long ago. The reservations are as old as the Sanatana Dharma is, in the Hindu society.
However, in relation to upward mobility, the downward mobility of individual was the norm. All the outcastes descended to fifth stratum so that the purity of society could be maintained; the dastardly and ghastly caste Panchayat institution was the tool for this. The Hindu society contains an inordinately large numbers of Untouchables. Every fifth Hindu is Untouchable, graciously. All the Untouchables are supposed to provide the unclean goods and services to rest of society. There have been but slow degradations in the Hindu society. One of the degradation was the degradation of the occupations of agriculture and cattle rearing. It may be because of handling of excreta which got mixed with earth. These occupations were degraded from the Vaisya level to the Shudra level thus degrading a very large number of people. Or the Shudras in new Vedic areas engaged in these jobs were not upgraded. The function of cattle rearing and tilling lost out to functions of god invocating and function of ruling society. The caste supremacy reigned.
There was one ritual available to Shudra Kings to get raised to higher level of Kshatriya but his caste people remained the same there was no change in their status. There have been attempt by some kings to raise the social level of some of their favorite people but they were successful in raising the level of a few individuals and most probably, these people went back to their earlier social level after the demise of the king in question. The Patels' of Gujarat rose in social status when one Solanki king granted them the land rights. But they became land holding Shudras only - the proper Kshatriyahood avoided them.
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