Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
The Caste Vanity.
As celebrations of caste vanity and their equal resistance by opponents take central stage the so called intellectuals and thinkers should calmly ponder over whether their concern for humanity should be limited along sectarian lines.
There is nothing wrong with caste system if it is viewed as segregation of society in line with the profession of particular sections of people who are traditionally engaged in, and without any attribute of hierarchical gradation of inter- say superiority or inferiority of sections, as it was originally formed. In that case , people of a caste section can take genuine pride in themselves with a sense of belonging together as a homogeneous group traditionally practicing one profession.
But carrying such pride to the nefarious extent of attributing superiority or inferiority between the caste at once makes the castes antagonistic to each other. But that is precisely what happened to the Varna or caste system in later stages to which the Brahmanical hegemony was responsible to a large extent. This led to oppression of the castes, the brunt of which was born by what was regarded as the lowest.
Such a corruption set in the Varna system made those who were branded as the lowest turn their sense of belonging together in to one also of antagonism towards their oppressors.
We see that this situation developed to its worst during the British rule because the Britishers saw internecine caste hostility as an instrument for their divide and rule strategy and did everything to augment it. The classical instance of one such act was the erection of an obelisk at Koregaon village in Maharashtra to commemorate the success of a small British- Indian regiment consisting a majority of Mahar caste in resisting a much larger contingent of Maratha Peshwa army for a night till dawn, when the Marathas themselves withdrew in anticipation of imminent arrival of a bigger British reinforcement, during Bhima Koregaon battle of 1818. Britishers encouraged Marvas to view the memorial as one for celebrating their victory over their oppressors, Peshwas, whose army comprised of Brahmans (among others, including Arabs). The class war victory of the oppressed over the oppressors!
Consistent with the intense caste antagonism of the times, the Marvas were inveigled easily in to celebrating the event annually at Koregaon, a practice performed recently too which led to eruption of Maratha-Mahar confrontation which took center stage in the political controversies. A section of the so called human rightists who have their political agenda and the Opposition jumped in to the fray taking the side of the Marvas to make instant political capital out of the incident blowing up the flames. If British with their divide and rule mantra have gone with the wind ,there are now these neo-liberals cohorting with the paranoiac Opposition to chant the mantra at the slightest opportunity in their strategy of polarizing the people and derive political mileage!
The Caste Vanity.
As celebrations of caste vanity and their equal resistance by opponents take central stage the so called intellectuals and thinkers should calmly ponder over whether their concern for humanity should be limited along sectarian lines.
There is nothing wrong with caste system if it is viewed as segregation of society in line with the profession of particular sections of people who are traditionally engaged in, and without any attribute of hierarchical gradation of inter- say superiority or inferiority of sections, as it was originally formed. In that case , people of a caste section can take genuine pride in themselves with a sense of belonging together as a homogeneous group traditionally practicing one profession.
But carrying such pride to the nefarious extent of attributing superiority or inferiority between the caste at once makes the castes antagonistic to each other. But that is precisely what happened to the Varna or caste system in later stages to which the Brahmanical hegemony was responsible to a large extent. This led to oppression of the castes, the brunt of which was born by what was regarded as the lowest.
Such a corruption set in the Varna system made those who were branded as the lowest turn their sense of belonging together in to one also of antagonism towards their oppressors.
We see that this situation developed to its worst during the British rule because the Britishers saw internecine caste hostility as an instrument for their divide and rule strategy and did everything to augment it. The classical instance of one such act was the erection of an obelisk at Koregaon village in Maharashtra to commemorate the success of a small British- Indian regiment consisting a majority of Mahar caste in resisting a much larger contingent of Maratha Peshwa army for a night till dawn, when the Marathas themselves withdrew in anticipation of imminent arrival of a bigger British reinforcement, during Bhima Koregaon battle of 1818. Britishers encouraged Marvas to view the memorial as one for celebrating their victory over their oppressors, Peshwas, whose army comprised of Brahmans (among others, including Arabs). The class war victory of the oppressed over the oppressors!
Consistent with the intense caste antagonism of the times, the Marvas were inveigled easily in to celebrating the event annually at Koregaon, a practice performed recently too which led to eruption of Maratha-Mahar confrontation which took center stage in the political controversies. A section of the so called human rightists who have their political agenda and the Opposition jumped in to the fray taking the side of the Marvas to make instant political capital out of the incident blowing up the flames. If British with their divide and rule mantra have gone with the wind ,there are now these neo-liberals cohorting with the paranoiac Opposition to chant the mantra at the slightest opportunity in their strategy of polarizing the people and derive political mileage!
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