The ancient
Indian society had provided special status and immunity to Brahmin Varna so
that they remained free to think, study, learn new things, theorize their
findings and pass on the knowledge gained to all concerned for their benefit as
well as for the benefit of the entire society. Even the kings were supposed to
seek their guidance, on a regular basis, in the matters of governance and
taking care of the people in their kingdoms. The Brahmins were respected
because they helped the entire society by making the knowledge gained by them
available to different Varnas according their needs and to guide them
for performing their duties towards themselves as well as towards the entire
society.
The
time changed, and the physical power gained by the kings as well as the
availability of greater knowledge of how to multiply that power made the kings
more selfish and despotic and less concerned about the welfare of the people
they ruled. They did not need instructions from the Brahmins as to how
to look after the people, any more. They started using the Brahmins for
educating their children, seeking their advice only when it was needed and for
performing the religious rites for them. Since the Brahmins were paid
well by the kings for the services rendered by them, they reconciled themselves
with the new order. The Vaishyas, who had to constantly strive for
multiplying their wealth for their business, needed special protection from the
kings. They were generally of much help to the kings by providing monetary
support to the kingdom when the need arose. With changing times they also
became less interested in the welfare of all and focused their efforts for
amassing wealth for themselves and for keeping the kings pleased for this
purpose. In a nutshell, the system that was actually envisaged for the entire
society was put to use for serving the ruling class consisting of Kshatriyas,
Brahmins and Vaishyas, in that order.
The situation worsened when the kings started
disregarding their duties and became highly concerned about their comfort and
luxurious lifestyles. They began fighting with each other to gain more power
and wealth. Since the population of the warrior class, Kshatriya, was
limited, many belonging to the Shoodra class had to be recruited for the
battles. The new warriors, who were basically mercenaries, were not only
untrained in fighting skills, but also lacked the traditional ethics of the
warrior class. However, many of them demonstrated unusual bravery and
commitment to win the battle they fought. In appreciation of their exemplary
services, the kings offered them high posts in the hierarchy of their
courtiers. The new courtiers hated their background of having been born in a Shoodra
family. To disassociate themselves from their own background, they started
misusing their power and high positions
in the ruling class, and, started treating the people of their own class as
their personal servants and, sometimes, even as slaves. The new order made many
of the ruling class lead a life of luxury that demanded many servants doing
many kinds of lowly menial jobs with no opportunity to utilize their
traditional skills of producing things of utility for the society. In addition
to this, the repeated invasions and rules of the outsiders worsened the things
for the Shoodra class. Needless to say that Varna Dharma, as
envisaged by ancient Indian philosophers for creating a social order to benefit
the human society underwent a sea change as the time passed.
While it will not be appropriate to question or doubt
the intentions of ancient Indian philosophers, it will, perhaps, be correct to
conclude, on the basis of what our history has established that the thought of unconditionally
planting the science of genetic imprints to structure the human society could
not pass the test of the time. Perhaps, that is why Mahatma Gandhi opined, “Let
us leave the matter of importance of genetic imprints as a subject of more
research, and create a social order where there is only one Varna, the
Shoodra Varna, and let all of us have only one duty, the duty to serve.”
The next important thing is to decide if the job of
rectifying a defect in social structuring, particularly, when the defect
relates to discriminatory treatment of different social wings, can be left entirely
in the hands of the people who rule or are keen to rule in a democratic system
or it must be handled by the competent people who are capable of and are keen
to implement necessary social reforms? There is no doubt that the matters of
creating a new social order or rectifying the existing ones must be handled
objectively, not subjectively.
No social evil can ever be eradicated by depending on
political solutions only. All political systems employ short term solutions for
long term problems, because people like ‘seeing’ the things happening. After
independence, year after year, reservations according to castes have been
‘happening’, but whatever social equality between the lowest among the lower
castes and the upper castes we have been actually able to achieve is because of
more people having been educated and not because of caste based reservations.
Reservations have helped only those who were strong enough to take advantage of
reservations, but rarely otherwise. The fact is that the weakest and the
poorest have hardly been able to elevate themselves in a non-ideal democratic
society with the help of some kind of political intervention alone. On the
contrary, what we have achieved is creating a few classes that are in a better
position than others to raise their economic status. The ideal democracy
depends on need based and proper representation of the people in the bodies
that make the policies and implement them. But, does it happen? The answer is,
“No. it doesn’t.” That is why the theories of communism as well as those
suggested by Mahatma Gandhi focus on the poorest among the poor and the weakest
among the weak. The poor and the weak do not have the strength to influence a
political system; they need social as well as political support till they
develop enough strength to look after themselves. The Indian political system
has been thriving of caste discrimination; pretentiously, making much noise
condemning the caste system. But the fact that the Indian religious psyche
favors Advait or oneness of all, can support a massive reform initiative;
that is where we must direct our efforts to.
The evil of caste discrimination cannot be eradicated
with political intervention alone. A strong social reform initiative on the
principles of nonviolence and non-hatred has to take charge and must continue
to act till evils of the caste system are uprooted. To strengthen the work done
by reform initiative a political system working on the principles of equity and
equality must be in simultaneous operation.
PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA
[The writer
of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively
Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]
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