Navsarjan Trust, an Ahmedabad-based NGO, and RF Kennedy Centre have brought to light the different forms of untouchability and the discrimination that is practised against the backward sections even in ‘vibrant’ Gujarat (DNA, January 28). They deserve our gratitude for this.
The study by the Ahmedabad-based Navsarjan Trust identifies 99 ‘varieties’ of untouchability. In case this sounds unbelievable, it will be illuminating to examine the roots of the Hindu caste system as they exist in the scriptures.
Such an analysis will identify the reason why the injustices of the caste system have proved so resilient, and continue to dominate Indian society even today.
Unbiased scholars have pointed out that untouchability persists in Hindu society mainly because of the hypocrisy of the caste Hindus. Their hypocrisy lies in the fact that they preach the Srutis but practise the Smritis.
The Srutis are divine revelations mentioned in the basic Hindu scriptures such as Bramhasutra, Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita.
Smritis, as the name suggests, consist of wisdom that sages have passed on to their disciples over the ages. This remembered wisdom consists of traditions which came to be codified by sages say as Manu, Shankara, Parashara and Yajnavalka.
The codified traditions have been used over the ages to justify the caste system. The Smritis, however, are secondary in importance to the Srutis.
The thesis of Sanatana Dharma, better known as Hinduism, is egalitarian, non-discriminatory and gives even animals the right to merge with God, and gain enlightenment and Moksha (salvation).
Srutis are deemed to be the final authority whenever there is a dispute on the concepts, and the means and ends of Hindu religion. Smritis, on the other hand, are known to be sectarian, discriminatory and favouring caste Hindus. The Puranas and the epics also support the status quo.
The concluding sukta (verse) of the primordial holy text of the Hindus, the Rig Veda (one of the Srutis) sums up the thrust of community life thus: “May you move together, speak together in one voice; let your minds be of one accord.”
The Bhagavad Gita, too, states: “Men of self-knowledge are same sighted on a Bramhana imbued with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and an outcast”
Unfortunately, the counter-current of lowly elitism that is popularly known asVarnashrama Dharma has been the way of life for Hindu society since the later Vedic period (800 BC onwards).
The Varnashrama Dharma refers to a caste-based stratification of individuals in an immobile vertical hierarchy based on birth.
A result of the Smritis was de-motivation of classes engaged in production, innovation and creation of wealth. This eventually pushed India into a state of inertia, because of which the country lost all battles against foreign invaders, including the Chinese invasion of 1962.
People classified as Shudras under orthodox Hinduism were literally kept away from knowledge so that they could be used as slaves by the caste Hindus.
The literal meaning of the word, Shudra, is “a person who is kept away from the Srutis (sacred revealed knowledge)”. As Sanskrit puts it: ‘Shrutat Doorah Shudra’. The eighth and ninth chapters of Manusmriti elaborate on the duties of aShudra who wants to attain Moksha. It asks them to be selfless and render service without reward to the higher castes so that, in future births, they may be born in a higher caste.
Even the Adi Shankara, the Hindu revivalist of the 7th century, unequivocally approves a caste structure based on karma and re-birth theories. In his masterpiece, Viveka Chudamani, he places the Brahmin (by birth and not by deed) leading the life of an unproductive recluse, at the top in the social order.
Such beliefs that ensure the marginalisation of a bulk of the Hindu population pose a massive challenge to the letter and spirit of the Indian Constitution and the core values of Hindu spiritualism.
The solution to the problem they pose lies in the twin strategy of educating the victims of the caste system towards the fundamental egalitarianism of the basic scriptures (Srutis) of Hinduism.
Secondly, pre-emptive steps must be taken to neutralise the perverted power-hungrysocial deviations that have their roots in
Smriti literature. Innovations such as appointing qualified non-Brahmins as priests at the major temples, abolition of manual scavenging and stopping the ostentatious
display of wealth can be helpful.
The author is a retired DGP
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