As against what I heard in my childhood, that it is the upper caste Hindus such as Brahmins and Kshatriyas that oppress the lower caste, poor Dalits, as an adult I saw certain contradictions that would question this argument. There are ample upper caste poor people and there are ample lower caste rich people. People, especially in villages, do not discriminate on the basis of caste but economic condition, more like rich versus poor. This is not to say that there is no discrimination on the basis of caste.
I decided to pursue my childhood interest of history and social sciences and referred to some books to find out exactly what is the problem here. I found out that the English word ‘caste’ derives from the Spanish and Portuguese casta, which the Oxford English Dictionary quotes John Minsheu’s Spanish dictionary (1599) to mean, “race, lineage or breed.” When the Spanish colonised the New World, they used the word to mean a “clan or lineage.”
But in India, it is not a race or the lineage. The Rig Veda, Purus Sukta or the Manu Smriti, wherein the varna system mentioned, say: “Every society needs four kind of people. First ‘Kshatriya’ which includes administrators, rulers, bureaucrats, army, police etc; second is ‘Brahman’ which includes teachers, saint, scientists, intellectuals, writers, artists etc.; third, ‘Vaishya’ which includes all business class people, farmers, shopkeepers etc. who run the complete economy of the society and the fourth one is ‘Shudra’, the working class people who do jobs under these three classes.”
It was not based on birth but it was purely based on ‘Karma’ i.e. anyone can become kshatriya or brahmin by his karma. Few examples were Valmiki, Surdas, Kabirdas etc. where their forefathers were from different ‘varna’ and yet they adopted new ‘karma’ of Brahmins so people started worshipping them like Brahmins. Similarly, Chandra Gupt Maurya was from a very poor family and Chanakya made him the king. Similarly, Parshuram, a Brahmin by Karma, fought like Kshatriya and beat several Kshatriyas. Several Kshatriyas such as Mahavir Swami, Gautam Buddha or even Ashoka later chose to work as Brahmins and people accepted them. In the whole era of Veda or even later in Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. one will never find the word Dalit.
So, if it was not in our ancient books than who created it? My investigation further brought me to more words such as ‘Jaati’. Now, when we understand the meaning of caste and varna, let us find out what is Jaati?
Britishers and all foolish social sciences writers with colonised mindset confuse people by saying that jaati is caste and varna is also caste. It is the most stupid argument which our new generation social sciences writers have propagated. I do not have any problem with these writers but definitely have a problem that none of them ever investigated these terms. Let me assert here that caste and varna are two different things. Jaati is a wrong pronunciation of the word ‘gyati’. It is similar to ‘gyana’ which is transliterated as “Jnana.” Just as Jnana is actually gyaan, so is Jaati actually gyaati, which means knowledge or mastery of a particular skill set.
India, our Bharat, was known as a Golden Bird and the GDP of India till year 1600 was 24.3 % of the world economy. This was possible only because of our Jaati-s such as Sutar, Lohar, Badhai, Kumhar, Chamar, Bunkar etc. Every village had more than 16 Jaati-s that manufactured product according to their skill and when it was consumed in the village, they all exported it to the outside world. In that way, India got gold from the whole world and because of this India became a Golden Bird during that time.
So the question is: “What happened after that period?”
Important research from Professor Dharampal’s books and Dada Bhai Naoroji’s “Drain of Wealth” theory tells us that Mughal invaded India, converted people, killed people but they started living in India so India’s wealth did not go outside extensively during the Mughal period. But when the Britishers came, they looted Indian wealth from everywhere, from temples to the villages. One can understand the scale of this loot with a small example of Robert Clive, who alone sent 30 ships filled with gold and jewelry from Bengal to Britain. It is well documented in British documents.
Not only this, the Britishers started railways because they wanted to steal the wealth from every part of India. So, they started Indian railways so that they can fill these trains with Gold and send this gold to Britain through Ships. In that way, British looted India for more than 150 years. During this time frame, they destroyed our Gurukul system of education and started McCauley’s English education system; they destroyed our agriculture by imposing taxes on farmers. Similarly, they imposed several taxes on our small scale industries run across villages. Because of this our whole Jaati based economy was destroyed and the Britishers started their own companies and manufactured goods and products wherein these skilled people were employed as labour. This type of exploitation destroyed all business and industries of India and very few people survived this economic onslaught. The gap between the rich and the poor increased during that time.
After the 1857 revolution, the British understood that Indians were getting united and if they do not do something than British Empire cannot survive in India. So, they started working on their “Divide and Rule” policy. According to that policy, they decided to divide Indian citizens on the basis of:
· Arya-Dravid (Demographic division)
· Hindu-Muslim (Religious division)
· Upper Caste - Lower Caste (Inter Hindu Division) etc.
I need not name anyone but all the major leaders from different communities who raise this issue of caste or Pakistan etc. have studied abroad, either in Britain or the USA and one can easily find out how they were/are being trained as a rebellion.
Coming back to our topic of caste, we know how Britishers increased poverty in India by destroying Jaati based industries. When people stated revolting against Britishers, they started arguing: “Those who are rich are upper caste and those who are poor are lower caste and lower caste is poor because of upper caste.”
It is one of the most stupid arguments which were not digestible even at that time. So, they did census and used these terms called SC, ST, General and divided the society on its basis. Britishers also hired people like Wilberforce, MaxMueller etc. to change the Sanskrit text books and religious books. These people had written worst things about SC people and some of the Brahmin people helped them in this because the Britishers praised them. But what the Brahmins did not realise was that the Britishers went to SC people and told them that “because of these Brahmins you are poor.” This is how this politics of caste started.
Later Gandhiji tried to bring in the name ‘Harijan’ and someone further changed it to Dalit. According to Wikipedia, “The word ‘dalit’ is derived from the Sanskrit past participle adjective दलित (dalita), and it means divided or split.”
Post-Independence, communist and other politicians used it for their political gains. Unfortunately, the “Divide and Rule” policy of the British is still dividing the society with the same name. What a shame?
One more fact about lower caste is that “No one is lower caste in India”. I have interviewed one Bhangi (manual scavenger) family and asked about their ancestors. They told me that we are also Kshatriyas. “At the time of Mughals, we lost the battle and at that time Mughals put this condition in front of us that ‘Either we follow Islam or do manual scavenging.’ We did not change our religion so they gave us this punishment of manual scavenging job. Our ancestors thought that we will win our kingdom one day but we did not win and meanwhile, our generations became untouchable for the whole society. We are actually Kshatriyas,” the family told me.
Similarly, ‘Lohar’ (the ironsmith) told me, “We are Rajputs. We are from Mevad and at the time of Akbar, we promised to Maharana Pratap that we will enter in Mevad only when you wins the battle against Akbar. It never happened and we are still roaming all around India.” One ‘Chamar’ family told me chamar in Sanskrit means ‘chamda’ worker, which means a person who makes things with/of leather. He also asked me a question: Can you call Rebook or Adidas CEO a shudra or lower caste? NO. Then why are you calling us lower caste? We are not lower caste, we all Jaatis are ‘Vaishya’, the third Varna i.e. the business class.”
Similarly, I have stories from all SC and ST communities and the common thing that they tell is that they all are descendants of royal families or business class. It is the Britishers who taught us they are lower. They not only destroyed the self-respect of these ‘gyati-s’ but also started reservation system, which again increased hatred amongst two communities of Hindu religion.
Now is the right time to understand this division of our society and high time we not just declared but considered everyone to be of general category. It will increase self-respect in all communities and motivate everyone to work for the nation. The reservation should be given to all poor people, irrespective of caste, creed, colour or religion.
Written by - Shubham Verma
(Also published in Bharat Niti Website - Link = https://www.bharatniti.in/article/jaati-varna-dalit-is-dalit-politics-brainchild-of-the-british/236 )
