An Evaluation of the Caste System and Its Affect on India

Throughout the world and the many religions that inhabit it, none have a bigger part in it’s society than that of Hinduism in India. For centuries, the people of South Asia have been severely socially stratified due to the caste system. The caste system divides society into five castes; the brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas, shudras, and the dalits (or untouchables).

However, ever since India had won its independence against Britain in August of 1947, the concept of caste was abolished along with caste discrimination.

Despite the abolition of caste under the new constitution, post independence India is still being affected both politically and economically by caste.

To truly understand how caste affects India, one would have to understand what is caste. As previously said before, the caste system is a rigid social system that divides India into five classes. Every Indian child is born into a caste and they can never move castes, whether it is up or down. Even though their caste is decided at birth, they are predetermined through what they did in their past lives (karma).

Each caste was said to have come from a spot from the body of a great deity (Brahma).

The Brahmins came from his head. They were the intellectuals. Thinkers, and priests. Out of all of the castes, the brahmins had the most power and authority out of all of them. Below them is the Kshatriyas, they come from Brahma’s arms. The Kshatriyas were India’s warriors, as well as administrators and rulers.

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Then they were followed by the Vaishyas (who came from Brahma’s legs. They made up the bulk of India’s economy, many of this caste becoming merchants, farmers, artisans, and tradesmen.

On the bottom of all of this is the Shudra or peasant caste. The people of this caste had come from Brahma’s feet. The Shudra was a very large group that was made up of peasants, farmworkers, and laborers. Lastly is the “untouchables,” now more commonly known as the Dalits (oppressed). They never could afford a spot on Brahma’s body. The Dalits are considered outsiders and they are even segregated in many villages and overall society (Darity Jr., 2008).

In post-independence India, social mobility in the caste system affects India Economically. In the caste system in post-independence India, the lower class men and women were not able to get high paying jobs. In post-independence India an educator and activist for women named Subbalakshmi, was born in July 1886 into the Brahmin class which is the upper side of the caste system. She was born into an era where upper class schooling is careless, but this did not stop her from wanting to become educated. Her family then decided to move her to Madras so she can attend a higher secondary school. She then became the first Hindu women to receive a bachelor’s degree in Madras.

After Subbalakshmi graduated, she wanted more young women to have a good education, so she decided to make an informal home to educate young women and she was also able to work at her old high school. As she was working at her old high school she was able to work for minimum wage (Raman, 2006).

This shows that social mobility in the caste system affects India economically because since Sabbalakshmi was born into the upper class it was easier for her to get a good education which then allowed her to get a good job at minimum wage. Since there is no social mobility, the lower class will have a harder time trying to get a good job since the lower class is known as not being advanced they get low class jobs which probably means that they don’t earn much money.

Additionally, lower classmen like the untouchables are getting jobs that others wouldn’t want to do. In 1950, untouchability was abolished under India’s constitution and many laws have been added to get rid of caste-related problems. However, much of the legislation remains unenforced. For example many of the lower class is doing bonded labor which is when you give yourself into slavery when you are in debt from a relative. Some are also still forced into devadasi. Devadasi is also known as forced temple prostitution.

Many are women are designed a temple and they then must be prostitutes towards the upper class men. Also, once they get married to a certain man, the women are not allowed to be unmarried. They are just forced to become prostitutes (Dudley, 2003). This shows that social mobility in the caste system effects India economically since there is very little to no social mobility in India, the lower class would most likely to be seen in bonded labor since the lower class is poor and uneducated which means they will have a hard time making money so they stay out of debt.

The women are also affected economically since they are viewed as subordinate, they have bad jobs such as prostitution which proppses a negatavive view towards the women as men are treating them unfairly.

Furthermore, supporting the idea that the untouchables are getting jobs that others wouldn’t want to do since they are a low rank in society means that they also get some of the dirtiest and most hardworking jobs. Being an untouchable meant you had to do such jobs like manual scavenging and dealing with dead bodies. Other than doing labor, the untouchable would receive little to no money as they do their work which results in them having a hard life. As the Indian society was growing and developing, the higher classes began practicing in a more variety of jobs, but the lower class had to stay put since they don’t have the knowledge to work in a higher class job. More jobs allowed more brahmins to become priests.

However, there were some attempts giving to try to give untouchables better jobs and trying to give them more equality. One person, Mahatma Gandhi, devoted special attention to the untouchables and lower class as he calls them “harinjas,” or, “children of God.” From this, only some success was given to the untouchables and the lower class, but their is still lots of discrimination upon them (Holler, 2007). This shows that the caste system affects the lower class economically since they were forced to do specific jobs since there was no social mobility.

Instead, the lower class was just forced to do bad jobs and they were not allowed to choose what they wanted to do because of their rank. The lower class had very little freedom even in post-independence India. However, if there was more social mobility in the caste system, the lower class could be able to do a wider variety of jobs like the upper classes, but they must stay put.

Additionally, the lower class was mostly restricted towards having a good education in Post-Independence India. In Post-Independence India, there was an Indian thinker named Dharampal Ji. Dharampal Ji was an Indian thinker who has had many great studies in India, England, and Germany. As Dharampal Ji was doing his studies, he came to the belief that only the upper class should be attending schools even in Post-Independence India. This belief then exploded in popularity amongst everyone in India. As this belief was increasing in popularity, more and more of the upper class going to school was increasing as a percentage of the lower class was decreasing from 1822 to 1825.

For example Brahmins going to school increased from 23 percent all the way to 84 percent. As more and more of the upper class were attending school, more and more of the upper class was graduating. This lead to the upper class going into many jobs getting paid well, as the lower class was doing bad and very gross jobs with very little outcome.

The main reason why Dharampal Ji believed that the upper class should be the only people attending schools because he thought since specific people were born into the lower class because of the previous life, this makes him believe that the lower class is not smart enough to come up with complex beliefs and ideas, so they should not be allowed to attend school at all in India (Venkatesh, 2009).

Not only is India’s economy affected by the caste system, but it’s government as well. It can be seen through its influence on the ability for lower castes not being able to get as high governmental jobs as higher castes. Part of this has to do with the fact that many of the lower castes do not have the proper education needed for such jobs. However, they mainly face a network of discrimintion that blocks many from achieving the highest ranks in today’s society.

Despite the preferential policies being made to help the lower and middle castes, they only benefited a small portion of them notably because they were limited to education and government employment. (Subramanain, 2006). Regardless of the implementation of special laws and movements that were supposed to protect the lower castes and offer them more opportunities in positions in government they aren’t protected from getting jobs outside of the government which meant for a declining workforce.

The job quotas were among those policies that was put into place to ensure lower caste participation in government. “The postcolonial political elite chose to retain caste rather than shift to income as the basis of eligibility for ‘affirmative action’ preferences and required preferences for the lower castes. It was claimed that all preferences would be phased out as the social mobility of the lower and middle castes increased” (Subramanain, 2006). The job quotas had required a certain number of each caste to have representatives in government. The job quotas also were put into use to help lower castes get into better schools and (of course) better jobs besides those in government.

India’s elections also take quite a bit of influence from the caste system. The Dalits alone are 15 percent of India’s overall population. That dwarfs the higher class brahmins who only sit at 5 percent (Wibawa, 2015). The lower caste voters can largely affect the outcome of the elections just because of their sheer size. This explains why many politicians try to woo the lower castes in order to win. However, a few empty promises are not enough to win. Many are put under pressure of who to vote for.

In an interview, Mr Maiorano had said “It’s often said in India, you don’t cast your vote, you vote your caste.” People of their respective castes are put under pressure to vote for those who share the same caste as them. Many politicians have used this to their advantage. Those who use the caste system in politics are called caste-based politicians. The key to caste based politics is to viciously target their message to just a narrow piece of the population. Mostly, they will try to target the lower class because of its size. One of India’s most popular politicians, Laloo Prasad Yadav, is widely known around the sub-continent for turning that strategy into a fine art.

Laloo had ruled Bihar for almost 15 years due to his immovable electoral alliance with the muslims and the large Yadav caste (the cow herders) who in fact deliver 30 percent of votes every time (Rowlatt, 2015). His victory is always assured largely because that Yadav himself is of the Yadav caste. “Sir, we vote as per our caste, nothing else… Lalu Yadav is a rascal, he has done nothing, but as a Yadav, I have to vote for his party” (Dehaas, 2010). Yadav had never won his position because of his “way with the people” or his talent. He won most notably because of his caste.

In one Indias more recent elections (2014), another politician who used caste to his benefit was Narendra Modi, who had won the election largely due to his ability to appeal to the higher and lower caste voters. Many of those who followed him and cast their votes in his favor had identified with his personal background (Wibawa, 2015).

The lower caste voters chose him because he himself was of the lower castes. And the higher caste chose him because of the wealth he accumulated through the tea market. However, his victory will be difficult to replicate because of his decreasing popularity and outbreaks of caste-based violence as well as a series of broken election promises.