Caste System of India, a Hoax

Notes From Underground
6 min readMay 19, 2016

--

Caste System of India, a Hoax

The problem is with your thinking & ignorance not spectacles. Answers to what you see wearing Hindu spectacle with insight to reality and history -

1) Suddenly people gets divided into four Verna ie Brahmin,Kshatriya,Shudra and Vaishya
How is that Possible ? I have no problem with Brahmin varna but I do have problem With Kshatriya and , vaishya and Shudra varna , if you have one of the three spectacle on your eyes, things look differently .

2) Existence of caste like Gardner , shoe shiner — oh wait are spectacles broken How can one become gardener by birth and get reservation on that basis , isn’t it a shame to humankind ? and look what >>there are up to 60% reservations in India like this , the whole world must be laughing at this point > one becomes gardener by birth and then he gets reservation too , What!! ,I
It is unbelievable — Nobody would believe this but its true

Answer has complete history of castesim -

Around some 1500 BC the society was divided into four groups according to work they performed. There was not high-low caste or untouchables.(As per Vedas)
— The varna of Brahmans, commonly identified with priests and the learned class
— The varna of Kshatriya, associated with rulers and warriors including property owners.
— The varna of Vaishya, associated with commercial livelihoods (i.e. traders)
— The varna of Shudra, the servile laborers

So if some one took work of learning or teaching he became Brahmin, if some one did hard labor stuff & farming he became Sudra but it was based on choice of individual not inborn. Even a Sudhra could change his mind and become a Kshatriya and a king. Mahapadma Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya were rulers of India and Sudhras initially.

But the problem came after foreign invasions during medieval. People forgot about origins of caste system and there was sort of “our caste is best” kind of issues and castes became rigid (Children of Sudhra remained Sudhra not by choice but rather imposed and was forced to do a set of permitted activities). Brahmins and Kshatriya had an upper hand in this time who tried their best to dominiate. Similarly some people who didn’t follow Hinduism (Vedic religion) as prescribed by Brahmins were deemed to be unholy, unworthy hence untouchables. This again must have been a propaganda by Brahmins to establish their authority. Kshatriya had power(they were king’s men and wanted to rule) and patronized Brahmins who had self proclaimed authority of Hinduism & knowledge and Vaisyas, the business men had money. So these higher castes exploited other castes and deemed them to be low to rule over them. But again there were good rational people among all castes, saints who were real Hindus who tried to make the caste system that was already forced to become rigid fail miserably and united people. But, they could never assimilate the groups who were called untouchables.

During late medieval religion did not have much saying in people’s day to day life and the strict verna system is not much prevalent. After a lot of bhakti saints enlightened us there were many sub castes which actually were classes/community — Brahmins (who did Puja in temples,teached & preached), Rajputs (soldiers), cobblers, mochis, dhobis(washer-men), mali (gardeners), chasi(farmers), writers(kayasts) and what they had in common was Hindu way of life. There was not much opression among these but each of them tended to consider there community separate race and mingled with in the community. They, whom we call low caste (washer men, gardener etc.), then were not considered low by any one or any religion(Hinduism). So a lot of them enjoyed and continued to be Hindus in their own way, they had own saints. Like, a village would have 5–6 lanes one for each sub caste and brahmin would work in temple, soldier class practiced for wars, dhobis washed clothes for all. They got paid for what they did in terms of food/land granted by kings for their community. Brahmins had an upper hand being priestly/so called learned caste. The untouchables were still oppressed and were considered low life by all and still were forced to do all menial jobs for others which is sad & shameful. Some of people who were badly treated in the name of religion/Hinduism converted to Islam(royally patronized in India then) which propagated equality but irony is that since the class system was independent of religion even Muslims have caste system in India and even after conversion and lot many years till now they still carry that caste though they are no more Hindu. Also many converted to Islam since Non Muslims were taxed heavily and rulers wanted to convert India into Islamic nation.

Colonial British rulers appeased the so called high caste and deemed people of lower caste & untouchables to be unworthy to assert supremacy and rule. They gave more privileges, education, jobs, lands to Kshatriya and Brahmins who they thought could control others including untouchables. So after 200 yrs of colonial rule caste system had become very rigid and 50% of population was oppressed religiously. After Independence castesim was abolished by government(lead by a Brahmin) and reservations were given to underprivileged people/caste so that they can also prosper. Now there are no untouchables really except a minority and caste is history except in few interior rural pockets. Even people who were previously known to be untouchables ruled over, they became president, chief minister etc etc.

No more people are born as a gardener or washer men. This is a myth now. But yes they still enjoy the reservation because it’s kind of compensation for mistreatments there ancestors might have recieved. Now, there is a debate on reducing reservations making it applicable only to people/group who are economically at disadvantage. Hinduism never mandated this, it was a problem with society, people and their perception that has changed with education & money.

3) There is no official cannon of Hinduism . a lot of books , several versions who has that much time. Its simply chaos . You can even Justify “Burning of alive”

“Burning of alive” is a taboo and inhumane for all Hindus and is a crime that is punishable by court of law. Perpetators of such crime would be hanged to death legally. No official cannon — That is what is Hinduism. We are asked to apply our mind and logic to do only that makes sense.(As a software engineer I do my karma/duty which is writing code)

4) Hate comes with this broken spectacle >> you have to hate shudra , if you have these spectacle on , you are hating them for no reason . This religion teaches hate .and you hate each other > no unity
I mean it teaches you to hate your “own people”

Because of some bigoted people’s views we had a lot of invasions, conversions into other religion. No one hates any one in name of caste now. But politicians need to get votes from a particular group so they portray as if that group is in danger and he/she is savior. The fact is that these hate mongers are a minority because of which we all strive and people irrespective of caste are proud Hindus and Indian.

5) Brahmins got Top position by birth — What!! now I know who broke this spectacle : )

They never got nor will get. Some bigoted Brahmin tried to think so and imposed his view on every one. Then some others(some high caste people & colonialists) used these ill views to spread lies, propaganda for their advantage. Currently we have sweepers, toilet cleaners, rickshaw wallas who come from Brahmin families. They don’t have reservations. They never had real power i.e. money or army, they are rather marginalized and poorest. They are most minority group in India (hardly 5%)

So the point is that casteism/untouchablity has almost faded and is no longer part of Hinduism as it never was. 300 million slaves and that by a minority group who have a lot of problems, where, are you kidding??

--

--