Demerits of the Caste System
The analysis of the structure of the caste system has raised the question of its dysfunctional and functional aspects. The important demerits of the caste system have been described as follows:
- 1. It acts as a barrier to social progress : Durkheim has suggested that the function of division of labour is to give an individual more freedom because it substitutes mechanical economy with an organic economy. The caste system created the division of labour which denied freedom to an individual. In the rigid caste system, occupation was determined by the ascribed status instead of contract, and transition from ascribed status to contract, according to Henry Maine, is an essential feature of political progress. The caste system did not make such transition possible. Some say that in the twentieth century, India has made an industrial progress but it is not because of the caste system; rather it is in spite of the caste system. Industrialization and technological changes are linked with political system, economic system and the value (or caste) system. The caste system was a barrier in our progress and modernization. People followed the crafts and skills transmitted to them by their ancestors. Introducing change was considered a sin. The carpenter would use the age-old adze but not the saw; even in sawing wood, he would use age old methods and not the modern machinery. So was the case with weaver, blacksmith, goldsmith and even cultivator. Caste thus made no compromises (Sherring, Ibid.). P.N. Bose too has pointed out that caste system has acted essentially to impose that attitude of mind needed to raise men from savagery but to stop them half way on the road to progress.
- 2. It thwarts political unity: According to Bougle (Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2, 1958), patriotism for the Hindus consists of attachment to the caste system. Therefore, they are unable to unite except in the very culture pattern that divides them. Why are Hindus attached to caste so much? This is because caste has a religious sanction which prescribes that perfection can only be attained by a man who does not deviate from the duties of caste. In the Gita, it has been emphasized that one’s own duty, though defective, is better than another’s duty well performed. Manu code is that obeyance of custom and performance of duty are transcendent laws. Observance of caste duties is considered as dharma in Hinduism. It is a moral obligation. Thus, the social practices of caste are inextricably tied up with religion and their sanction is reinforced by the doctrine of karma. Sherring (Ibid: 276) has stated: “With many Hindus, the highest form of religious observance is the complete fulfilment of the claims of caste; and most of them conceive breach of caste discipline as a sin rather than violation of moral law. Thus, so long people give more importance to their caste, the national unity is bound to suffer.
- 3. It acts as a screen and justification for persistent anti-social conduct: We have a story in which a fisherman justified his sin against the fish by an appeal to the practice of his caste. In another case, an identical argument is pleaded by a butcher for practising his hereditary trade. Precisely, the same justification has been used by many criminal castes to justify their behaviour towards their fellowmen. For example, the thugs (swindlers) strangled their victims to the honour of their goddess Bhavani as well as to the enrichment of their pockets. They considered that their victims were killed by God, with them as his agents, their appointed job being to kill travellers (Sleeman, J.L., Thug or a Million Murders, 1939). Other criminal castes like Korava (robbers) regard their criminal practices as justified by their membership of the caste to which they belong. According to Abbe Dubois, people of Kallan caste regard their profession of robber, without disguise, as their birth-right and conceive their calling no way discreditable to themselves or their tribe, as having legitimately descended to them by way of inheritance. So, far from shrinking at the appellation, if one of them be asked who he is, he will cooly answer that he is a robber.
- 4. It is responsible for the low status of women: Caste imposes many restrictions on women; for example, on education, on participation in religious discussions, on participation in politics, and so forth. It insists on the marriage of girls before they reach the age of puberty. It also forbids girls’ marriage even if widowed in infancy.
- 5. It is responsible for the low status and unjust treatment of outcastes and lowcaste people: The uppercaste people have deprived the lowcaste people of human rights and privileges. They command servile (like slaves) obedience from all the groups at the bottom and give them subordinate position. In fact, it is in the treatment of the untouchable castes that the working of the caste system is most open to criticism. A cobbler (mochi) or a regar gets the low status only because he tans the leather and deals with the dead body of animals. A toddy-drawer’s low status is due to his dealing with liquor which is banned from use. A sweeper’s low status is because he deals with night-soil and refuse and all those unclean things we throw away. A washerman’s low status is because he washes the dirty clothes. The caste system treats all these castes as outcastes, so much so that even their contact is supposed to involve pollution. Their low position is the result of prejudices and taboos. The number of such exterior castes is 133. 45 million or 15.7 per cent of the country’s total population of 850 million (1991 Census). These people have meekly resigned themselves to their fate. Ross (1968: 412) has said that orthodox Hinduism with its promises of rewards in future births for caste conformity in this birth was truly ‘the opiate of the people’, dulling the senses of the oppressed to their terrible degradation and lulling them into silent acquiescence.
Merits of the Caste System
If India’s caste system has demerits, it has some good consequences too. In fact, an evaluation of the caste system depends entirely on whether we look at it from the standards of a static or of a dynamic society. The important merits of the caste system could be pointed out as under:
- 1. Hindu life was given strong continuity by the religious basis of caste : One of the important characteristics of Hindu culture has been the continuity of joint family system whose customs and traditions are mostly linked with religion and maintained by the Brahmins. For example, the shradh ceremony observed by the Hindu families is sanctified by religious norms and values and the ‘worship’ on this occasion stretches back to three generations of ancestors. Likewise, many mystical customs and traditions and miraculous hymns are preserved and handed down from father to son by word of mouth. Their sanctity depended not merely on their words but on every accent rightly placed. There was need for men who could specialize in the study of the texts, comprehend the symbolic meaning of the ritual and assist in the perpetuation of this tradition. This philosophic literature was thus transmitted orally from father to son for many centuries. This would have been impossible if the specialization had not been made hereditary and given a religious basis. This basis was provided by the caste system which enabled the Hindu thought and learning to survive for fifty centureis.
- 2. Arts and crafts were preserved through father-son apprenticeship: Indians, since beginning, possessed arts and crafts which were considered superior in all respects. Almost every household in the Indus Valley sites had its hand spindles. Archaeologists have ascertained that these people were the first to spin and weave fibre from the real cotton plant. The country’s arts and crafts survived until they were destroyed by the competition of western machine goods in the nineteenth century. It was the caste system which, through occupational endogamy, supplied the number of workers needed in every craft.
- 3. A pattern was provided to numerous competing groups to co-exist side by side with little or no conflict : There have been numerous and diverse races, religions, linguistic groups, etc., in India. The country aced many wars between local kings and acute conflicts between different social groups. Yet the caste system enabled the heterogeneous people to live contentedly side by side with harmonious and stable relationships. The method adopted by the Brahmins (who dominated the caste system after 650 A.D. after overthrowing Buddhism) to accommodate various diverse groups was based on compromise than elimination of groups. The caste system thus prevented strife’s among the numberless groups.
- 4. A firm group solidarity and a sense of responsibility grew up within each caste : All members of the caste and sub-caste helped each other in marriage and funeral rites and on all festivals and solemnities. This brought the members close to one another and developed a stable bond of social relationship amongst them. Besides, the rich members of the caste helped the poor members and provided necessary security to them. Class differences did not affect the caste relations until modern times. Individualism was subordinated to collectivism. The caste loyalty was the result of absence of competition which enabled the strong to exploit the weak. No wonder, Hinduism always exalted the static caste and the welfare of all its conformist members.
- 5. Caste status lessened maladjustment of individuals in the society: The caste system did not permit personal choice of any type to individuals. Their occupation, marriage, and social status was pre-determined. Sons followed their fathers in career aspirations and daughters followed their mothers’ footsteps of ministering to husband and children. Even friends and companions for the individuals were decided by their birth. The caste system thus helped individuals in all respects in their adjustment in society. Since every path of an individual was prefixed, it lessened his maladjustment in different situations and obviated his frustrations, though it hampered his broad personality development.