The "Caste System" Under The Light Of Hindutva

garry420

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The topic of caste is one which has attracted a huge amount of interest (and a proportional amount of hatred) throughout the world, and across socio-cultural and religious divisions. Indeed, it has come to the point whereby any discussion on Hindutva necessitates at least touching on the caste system. The caste system has become, in many such discussions, a way of degrading Hindutva, and has come to be used as a method of "proving" what is seen by many as the inhumanity, cruelness, barbarity and inequality of Hindutva. It is important, therefore, that Hindus themselves examine this system and investigate its true meaning. As one step towards this, I propose here to examine the origins of the system and its intended application, as well as touching briefly on its latter-day social corruption.
The caste system is, of course, generally thought of as that socio-cultural institution, currently prevalent throughout the sub-continent, on the basis of which society is divided up into various "castes", or groups, defined on the basis of birth, and given certain status on the grounds of the specific caste. Whilst this is indeed the nature of the caste system today, this is, as shall be seen in due course, not the true, original concept of the system as proposed by Hindutva.

The origins of today's caste system are to be found in the "Varnashram Vyavastha", the ideal Hindu social model. There are two parts to this - firstly, there is the "Varna Vyavastha", and secondly there is the "Ashram Vyavastha". The former is the part that directly relates to caste, whilst the latter part deals with progressive stages of life, which, indirectly, has a bearing on the application of the Varna Vyavastha.

The Varna Vyavastha itself can be explained with reference to its three forms - Jati Vyavastha, Karma Vyavastha and Guna Vyavastha.

The Jati Vyavastha was the lowest and most crude form of the Varna Vyavastha, and could be termed the Tamsik form of the system. According to this system, each individual was assigned a Varna according to birth. This form of the system was intended for use by hunter-gatherer civilisation, as, in such a civilisation, categorisation by birth was not only the accepted norm, but was, arguably, necessary for the maintenance of intra-Varna loyalties and inter-Varna interaction, giving the smoothest possible running of the society. In the hunter-gatherer civilisation, of course, children inevitably followed in the footsteps of their parents, and marriage (or the equivalent) was, without exception, an intra-Varna affair, so there were no practical problems with following this system. Thus, the teachers were the Brahmins; the fighters the Kshatriyas; the tradesmen the Vaishyas and the workers the Shudras.

The next form was the Karma Vyavastha, which can be thought of as the Rajsik form of the system. According to the Karma Vyavastha, the categorisation of Varna was based on profession, or career, choice. Thus, the intellectuals, academics, teachers, doctors, etc. were classed as Brahmins; the rulers, warriors, law-enforcers, etc. were classed as Kshatriyas; merchants, traders, businessmen, etc. were classed as Vaishyas; and manual labourers were classed as Shudras. In this way, the Karma Vyavastha was able to act as a kind of Trade Union system, which allowed members of each 'trade' to have a common forum, providing security and support.

The highest form was then the Guna Vyavastha, the Sattvik form of the system, under which, classification was to be made on the basis of the individual's Guna, or predominant qualitative make-up. Hence, society could be split into those in whom the Sattvik Guna was predominant, i.e. the Brahmins; those in whom there was a balance of Sattvik and Rajsik, i.e. the Kshatriyas; those in whom there was a balance of Rajsik and Tamsik, i.e. the Vaishyas; and those in whom the Tamsik was foremost, i.e. the Shudras.

Hence, it was intended that, as man's (i.e. society's) general spiritual and mental development progressed from Tamsik to Rajsik to Sattvik, there would be a corresponding shift from the Jati, to Karma, to Guna, Vyavastha. Hence, whilst in earlier times (i.e. hunter-gatherer civilisation), it was right and proper for the Jati Vyavastha to be in place, in the current socio-evolutionary environment, it would be appropriate to follow the Karma Vyavastha. Similarly, in a climate of "Rama Rajya" (which, of course, refers not only to a political system, but to a utopian social, political and cultural environment), the Guna Vyavastha would be the ideal system.

Not only is there this kind of interpretation regarding the transition from Jati through to Guna Vyavastha, but there is also another one. This is where the Ashram Vyavastha begins to have an impact on the application of the Varna Vyavastha.

Just as the Varna Vyavastha deals with the four sections of society, the Ashram Vyavastha deals with the four stages of life. First of all is student life, or "Brahmachaari"; second is married life, or "Grihastha"; third is retired life, or "Vanaspratha"; and finally is renunciation, or "Sannyasa".

Clearly, whilst the individual is studying, mental and spiritual development has not yet fully occured. The Brahmachaari has not fully developed their character, nor has he adopted a career choice. Essentially, the student is still under the influence and guidance of his parents (and guru), and as such maintains his Varna as that of his parents. Thus, in the early stage of life, the individual follows the Jati Vyavastha.

During the next stage of life, the individual takes on a career path and enters into married life. In this stage, since the individual is still primarily concerned with external interests (career, marriage, etc.), their qualitative make-up is unexplored and undefined. Since the individual's life mainly revolves aroun the career in this stage of life, this is what then determines the Varna, and so the individual follows the Karma Varna. It is evident from study of society that it is common (and generally more desirable) for both partners in a marriage to follow the same kind of career, as this adds an element of common interest, which is extremely healthy for the relationship, and so both partners will ideally be of the same Varna according to the Karma Vyavastha.

In the retirement stage of life, the individual is expected to have completed his mental and spiritual development, and should leave his personal work, becoming active in working for the society. Here, the individual has had opportunity to learn about himself and explore his own nature, becoming fully self-aware. Thus, it is possible, at this stage, to make the transition to following Guna Vyavastha.

Finally, once the individual decides to take Sannyasa, he renounces all worldy attachments. Of these attachments, one is the attachment to society and a social structure. Having renounced the world, the Sannyasa has no need for social divisions or classifications. He strives in this stage to attain self-realisation, and with true self-realisation will come the understanding of that fundamental Oneness that is Anuswara.

Having explained the background to the Varna Vyavastha, it is now appropriate to examine its social corruption and transformation into what we know today as the caste system.

First of all, it is poignant to note that the term "caste" is derived from a Portuguese word, and has no basis within Hindutva itself. The origin of the word is from the Portuguese "casta", a word whose direct English translation is difficult to find, but is generally accepted to be approximately synonymous with "breed". This Portuguese terminology for the system arose due to a corrupted translation of "Varna" itself. Whilst the true meaning of the word in this context is "To choose", it is also possible to translate "Varna" as "race" or "colour".

Combined with this external corruption, there came some internal corruption also. Since the responsibility for education and intellectual advancement was placed, for the most part, in the hands of the Brahmins, it was considerably easy for them to appeal to past precedent (i.e. the use of the Jati Vyavastha uptil then), as well as making use of the high esteem in which they were held, to persuade the public that the Jati Vyavastha was the only form of the Varna Vyavastha, and so they were able, by doing this, to maintain a hereditary grip on power. This led to corruption of the system even before the arrival of the Portuguese.

The net result of this corruption of the system has been that, whilst society's nature today is essentially Rajsik, the social order that is being followed is Tamsik. This imbalance leads to what has been termed by Plato as "injustice". Hence, the culprit is not the system itself, but the "injustice" caused by its inappropriate and incorrect application. The answer, therefore, lies not in scrapping the system, as is generally advocated by those who profess a social conscience, but in correcting its application, thus restoring, in Plato's terminology, "justice".
 

garry420

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Another misunderstood aspect of the Varna Vyavastha is the superiority/inferiority aspect of it. An oft-quoted example is the explanation of the Varnas as being like the different parts of the body, with Brahmins the head, Kshatriyas the arms, Vaishyas the stomach and Shudras the feet, of Brahman. However, whilst this is certainly an explanation of these Varnas, this does not imply that Brahmins are the head and Shudras are the feet. Essentially, this is meant as a model of the man - each and every individual has all four Varnas within him to a greater or lesser extent, and the classification of an individual on the basis of Varna is merely based on the predominant Varna attribute of that individual. Thus, the feet of each individual carry out his Shudra activities (as they bear the weight of the body), the stomach (i.e. what Plato would refer to as "Appetite") is behind the Vaishya activities, the arms are responsible for defence, the Kshatriya attribute and the head is where the Brahmin functions are carried out (in the mind). As regards status, all are regarded as being equal, as Hinduism regards all humans as "children of immortal bliss". Regardless of our Varna, as Swami Vivekananda points out, "Each soul is potentially divine".

As regards the reference here to Plato, this also has relevance in the discussion of the caste system. The author of "The Republic", Plato was, of course, the student of Socrates, and his interests tended to lie in the same areas as those of Socrates. Like his teacher, Plato believed in some kind of fundamental goodness, which he saw as the highest reality. He believed that there was indeed a moral goodness, and that it was the same for all. He also believed that the way to know this goodness was through rational, logical, and philosophical thought and contemplation. This then formed the basic underlying principle or moral doctrine behind Plato's thought.

Through his contact with the Pythagoreans, in Sicily and South Italy, Plato was able to learn their philosophical method, consisting of application of algebraic and geometric method to philosophy. Thus, Plato was able to integrate Socratic ideology and Pythagorean method to develop his ideas much further than Socrates ever could.

These two aspects then form Plato's immediate influences. However, the actual origins of both the ideology and methodology of Platonic philosophy are to be found in Hindutva.

As early as 700 BCE, and possibly before, there existed in North-East India a great University, in Takshashila. The students of this University came from India itself, as well as places as far off as Babylon, Syria, China, Arabia and Greece. Amongst many other subjects taught at this University was philosophy, based on the teachings from the Darshan Shastras, the philosophy of the Hindus. This scripture made use of logical, reasoned argument in order to demonstrate a number of the teachings found in the Vedas, and other Hindu texts. One of the ideas propounded by the Darshan Shastras was that there were three "qualities" of the mind, and that these related not only to different aspects of the individual, but also to different levels within society, which compares to Plato's idea that the three parts of the soul are analogous to his tripartite theory of the State. There is good evidence to suggest that the ideology of Socrates and Plato originated from these teachings.

The Pythagorean element also can be traced to the Indian subcontinent. The basic principle underlying Pythagorean thought was that the soul is a fallen God, trapped in the human body, and the ultimate aim is to escape that entrapment and the associated cycle of birth and death, and return to the divine plane. This is extremely reminiscent of Hindu ideology, which suggests that the soul is divine and part of God, and the ultimate aim, called "moksha" is to escape its entrapment in the material body and the endless cycle of reincarnation, and rejoin with God. As for Pythagorean methodology, as well as their profound interest in mathematics, this can be traced to the Indian mathematician Baudhayana, who had a great influence, partly direct, but mainly via the Orphic movement (who were strongly influenced by Takshashila also), on the thinking of both Pythagoras himself, and also many later Pythagoreans, such as the father of modern geometry, Euclid (who in fact enunciated the famous Pythagoras' Theorem, itself taken from Baudhayana's works, but then, in typical Pythagorean style, attributed it to Pythagoras himself).

Hence, both Plato's ideology and methodology can be traced to Hindu philosophy, and it is from there that he obtained his ideas of the tripartite structure of the "soul" and of society (derived, of course, from the Hindu Traita-vada philosophy). However, whilst Plato agreed with the Hindu idea of the tripartite mind, he equated this to a tripartite social model, thus slightly differing from the Hindu idea of a four-tier social system. These differences form, for some, the major areas of difficulty with the Platonic social model.

Firstly, Plato's "Guardians" were described by him as being the intellectuals and philosophers, and also the rulers. The Hindu, on the other hand, would argue that those engaged in philosophical thought and study would not have either the time, nor the will to carry out the duties of a ruler. Hindu philosophy thus placed the philosophers, and other intellectuals in a separate class of their own.

Also, Hindu philosophy placed the ruler class and the law-enforcement agencies and armed forces together, since, it argued, the roles of both these groups are based around the running of the country, and national concerns. Hindu teachings agree with Plato about the traders having a separate class, but, in the lack of any kind of slavery system, the manual laborers etc. are given their own separate class. In Plato's civilisation, of course, the slaves were not classed as citizens, but as property, and so were ignored in his social system. Hindus, on the other hand, have never practised slavery, and as such, differed in that regard.

Essentially, it can be seen that the original system was indeed an extremely flexible syetm, which allowed the individual full freedom to choose their own Varna. As with every aspect of Hindutva, there is no restrictiveness in the Hindu system. Not only is it extremely practical, but it is versatile and applicable to any socio-cultural and political environment. It is heavily influenced by, indeed almost dependent on, individual preference and suitability. The answer to the current casteism problems, therefore, can be clearly seen to lie not in total abandonment of Hindu culture and teachings, and not in scrapping a system which has served Hindu society well for well over six millenia, but in ridding ourselves of the corruption that has come into the beliefs, and reverting to the true origins of our own system. As is clearly demonstrated by Plato, this system is one which not only Hindus, but the whole world could and should use as the blueprint for its social order.

Via: Nation of Hindutva
 
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