Castes in India

beach

There have been numerous myths about the caste systems in India. Even though it doesn’t affect the foreign tourists, it has been always a point of curiosity.

The western world is trained to think and explore things in separate packages. People believe that various India aspects like the spirituality, the yoga, the ayurveda, the customs and traditions, the religion and caste etc are all mutually exclusive institutions. Probably this is the easy way to explain things in a simple way. But the actual picture is perfect only in a long distance view of all these aspects on the same big canvas.

Caste in ancient India
Caste has been in existence in India for over 40 centuries! Torrid flow of time has continuously modified the society to suit its requirement. Such a requirement had created and modified the caste system also.

On the first place why did the ancient Indian society require castes?

To answer the question I need to explain a bit of its geography. Indian subcontinent is a huge landmass with natural barriers all-round. The south, west and east are oceans. And at north stands the formidable Himalayas as a wall to the continent. The northwest narrow corner acted like the opening to this ‘continental trap’. Anything entered through this was caught in side the net with no way out!

So the migrations of cultures and races never passed through India. It simply ended there and spread within it. Well, we are talking about flow of race anywhere from Arabia to central Asia to Europe for about 4000 plus years.

India never had a safety valve mechanism to cope up with this never-ending inflow. It simply didn’t have a way out for the burgeoning migration and vent the steam. But still the civilizations within India were enjoying relative peace and harmony among themselves. Even though there was so much in common, each bloc maintained its identity.

This point finger to the social compartmentalization evolved in those times. Social classes were created based on the professions. The communities were interdependent on each other. The communities doing ‘superior’ professions become higher castes and that of lower become the lower caste. It’s akin to the present day logic of how say a scientific community is ‘superior’ to say the taxi driver bloc. Ones group is defined by the kind of education and training. In the olden days it was decided based on the community in which he/she was born.

The new communities came in find suitable professions according the its sophistications and settled. This was the society’s way division of labor and discipline. Invariably they needed to interact for the social transactions. Rules evolved to preserve these institutions. People never married across the caste barrier. They never shared the common well not dine together.

There were broadly four classes in the society. The BHARAMINS were in the profession of teachings or priests. This was the elitist of all the classes. They were the custodians of the entire ancient knowledge and teachings. It was transferred from one generation to the other. They mastered the philosophy. The second in the classes were the KSHATRIA . They were the warrior class, the kings or the landlords. They owned the countries and defended it. The third was the VYSIA class. They were principally the trading community. SHUDRA, the fourth were the labor class. The goldsmiths, weavers, carpenters, fishermen …all belonged to this class. The last sections, the lowest of all, were the casteles groups. The trials, bushmen, those lived in the margins of the society all belonged in this ‘untouchable’ section.

This social hierarchy survived 4000 years. It was anyway not as simple as explained above. Within each class there were thousands of castes, each again with a relative status in the society. In other words each country had its warrior class, trader class, artisan class etc. Many of the castes continuously upgraded their status with time. Thus there existed a flex within the caste system itself.

Caste concept was so powerful that any society migrated to India had to divide its own society on caste lines. Islam never had caste as one of its institution. But the Muslim races came to India eventually adopted this and institutionalized various castes within. So was the Hindu’s who adopted Christianity. You will find the higher caste Christians and lower caste Christians in India.

One of the Jesus Christ’s disciples, Saint Thomas, who brought Christianity in the first century, had a noble aim. He wanted to spread the Christianity in the maximum effective way. He converted the elitist families into Christianity, believing that they would intern spread it to other lower castes. But this never happened. They kept the newfound knowledge as another secret! They added their own Hindu customs and created a new version of Christianity. 1500 years later the western Christians came to India. They were amused by the Indian Christian’s customs called them the Orthodox Christians!

Caste in the modern India.
It has been one of the stickiest subjects in the postcolonial India. Thousands of arguments were made about the relevance of caste in a modern society. Everyone argue against it but no one wants to get out of the caste and become casteless. This is a fact about the Indian psyche, both rich and poor alike.

People see this as a social menace in its concept of equality. Another section argues for the caste as the very fabric of this diverse society.

The divisions of labor are no more based on castes. The old customs may be followed at certain class of jobs. For example the Hindu priests still belongs to the Brahmin classes. Teachers are no more the exclusive profession of Brahmins. Business no way belongs to the Vysias. But still you can see the ‘ghost’ of this system in the modern Indian society.

In the present India it is easier to find the urban rural divide that the lower-higher caste divide. The urban class is more or less casteless in public transactions. The rural India still boasts its caste legacy. An even the ‘separate well’ concept is practiced in certain deep rural villages.

The hotspot of the controversy being the integration of the erstwhile untouchable class into the mainstream society and polity.

History has its own logic. The once weak castes play a decisive part of the modern Indian politics. Gandhi’s primary aim was the uplift of this class. Constitution grants special status for these castes (the government called them the Scheduled castes). Special quotas are reserved in the academic institutions, government jobs, legislative councils etc.

Practically people of any caste can do any job. You can easily find a Brahmin trader and a Vysia solder. But when it comes to institutions of marriage and the likes, caste comes into the front seat. This shows the place of castes in the Indian society.

It is an extremely sensitive subject than the religion. Indians wear their caste over their religion. People don’t mind revealing their religions, but may be a bit shy with the caste. Never ask anybody’s cast in a public situation. It could be embarrassing. The boss could be of ‘lower’ caste than the ‘higher caste’ subordinate. They know it and may act as if they don’t know. Many of the surnames invariably tell the caste of the person.

Even food habits also have the caste influence. A host of the castes are vegetarian.

beach

Tomi

Hi beach.

I agree to a first approximation with your statement that caste systems don't affect the tourist. But there surely have to be a number of aspects of tourist India, some we like and some we don't, that are influenced by, if not the direct result of, the caste system.

I immediately thought of one: the scarcity of good eateries; I'll explain and let me know if you agree.

Since traditionally castes do not eat food prepared by other castes, this has led to the relatively poor quality and choice of restaurants in India, despite its magnificent cuisine. People simply do not eat out and the best food is eaten at home. In some towns in Rajasthan I found only restaurants frequented by either tourists or local bachelors.

Here's why I'm not sure of my point: there are other parts of the world with good food and without a strong restaurant tradition that do not have these caste restrictions. I can think of Sicily, for instance (Siracusa excepted), especially when compared with the rest of Italy. Whereas Mexico and Thailand, which have more of the notion of castes than Sicily (many upper class Mexicans are squeamish about how clean the food prepared by common people is), have fourishing eatery traditions.

Merchant

Caste does affect Indian restaurants, I'm sure--but isn't their paucity more the result of the fact that India does not have an "eat out" culture? Why pay for food, when your wife, mother, grandmother, ayah, etc. is the best cook anyone has ever seen?

That, and the fact that few women are employed as cooks in restaurants. They are invariably men, who are inherently uncomfortable around food. I'm always amazed at how dreadful even the Indian waiters (men) are, with the simplest of tasks. It's as if the whole food-sphere is an alien landscape, where they are unsure of their footing.

There is little opportunity for a male chef to do well in India, except in a five-star hotel, and women who work outside the home tend not to be cooks.

Tomi

Merchant, you raise several interesting questions.

Why is it that men in India are uncomfortable around food, even the waiters? In Europe it's mostly men as waiters and cooks, even in simple restaurants, and they are excellent waiters (waiter is a proud profession there).

And why aren't women employed in the food industry? Again, to use Mexico and Thailand, women commonly run soup carts, chicken grills, taco joints, insect fries, etc. Sexism alone is oviously not an answer.

But this is getting away from castes and into gender issues.

Merchant

I have wondered why Indian men and food don't seem to go together. I can only assume that since food is almost entirely the purview of women in the home that men don't feel comfortable with it. Since there isn't much general experience of dining in restaurants (as opposed to canteens), Indian waiters just simply don't know what to do--and they gravitate toward showmanship, which is usually poorly executed. I can't stand the "May I serve you?" routine in which the guy tries to use two spoons in one hand to place rice on your plate.

But I do have good evidence that Indian men can actually cook and prepare food. I spent several days recently aboard a dhow docked in the UAE with a crew from Gujarat--all men, of course. The cook rolled rotis like nobody's business, and the other guys helped out with slicing onions and other tasks. But they're seafarers, who have to be self-relaint, and their world is entirely male.

I'm sure that the lack of women in the food industry reflects bias, some of it caste influenced. There are respectable jobs for women--nurses, teachers, computer programmers--but "cook" isn't one of them. You don't see that in the marriage ads in the papers. Graduates in Catering or Home Sciences, perhaps, but these suggest the girl will be a great cook for the boy--not that she will earn income cooking for someone else.