Ninety per cent of Indians are
idiots who can easily be taken for a ride in the name of caste and religion.
Just about anyone can set off a caste or religious riot here.
– Markandeya Katju (Former
Supreme Court Judge and current Chairman, Press Council of India)
‘Caste comes with
birth; it can never be abolished’, ‘Caste is a concept that is accepted by
everyone in our society’, ‘Caste is very
important, it tells everyone his true place in society and what he should do in
this life’ are among quite a few pronouncements on caste in India . More than
the caste fanatics, it is the so-called intellectuals who put forward such
justifications for caste. It is these people who have no doubt that, particular
castes have particular characteristics from which they cannot free themselves
even many generations later!
If you suggest that
caste fanaticism is a phenomenon only among people of Indian subcontinent and
those nations where migrants from Indian subcontinent are dominant, they will
tell you that there are castes even among nations of Europe like France and
Spain. They will tell you that even among white men there are castes like
Anglo-Saxons and Hispanics. None of
these can be compared to the caste fanaticism that is prevalent in India.
Here, when a young man
and a woman hailing from different castes fall in love, an entire village is
set on fire! Some members of both the families are either killed or ‘commit’ suicide
or are maimed for life! If the lovers run away to live elsewhere, they are ostracized
and banned for life from the community. The community’s consuming goal, abetted
by powers that be, is to hunt and haunt the lovers, till their death. Think for
a moment. Does love and sexual attraction between a young man and woman happen after
verifying their caste or religion? A smile and a wink, and a man falls hopelessly
in love with a woman he had not known before. Men and women get attracted to
each other by the way a gesture is made and by the way a look beckons them! Even
the guardians of caste virtues will go to anyone to fulfill their sexual
desires, if they are sure of making it a secret affair! It is the biological
instinct that guides here. The caste and religious distinctions created by man
entirely for selfish reasons cannot stand in the way of a biological instinct.
Divisive factors like
race, language, regionalism and nationalism work virulently and efficiently to
divide man from man, to dominate men and to work their ways to achieve nefarious
political goals. You can see in them a fanaticism that is in no way less than
casteism. My intention is to narrate here how these things confronted me in my
forty years of life and how I made the effort to face them. These are all my
personal evaluations and opinions. You might even say that these are a kind of personal
memoirs.
It is said that
castes arose and were then followed from one’s calling or trade. But in my
childhood, spent in the hill villages of Idukki district in Kerala, the
experience was totally different. There, people of all castes and religions
whether Brahmins, Nairs, Muslims, Higher caste Christians or Dalits had
agriculture as their calling. Traders in the village markets were people
belonging to different castes. Some of them were traders as well as farmers.
Bhaskaran, a barber
by caste’s trade, worked on his field till lunch and opened his saloon only in
the afternoon. His eldest son ran a provisions shop. Bhaskaran’s wife, Savitri,
was the dance teacher to our village children. She taught dancing to the girls
of all castes, high or low. No function at our school will be complete without
the dance of her younger son, Salim Kumar, who was my childhood friend. Savitri
was the only celebrity and fine arts centre of those villages!
Oanachan, who sold
both vegetables and dry fish in his shop, was a Dalit. Mynakunjootti, who sold
household goods on installment payment basis, was a Dalit, too. The Brahmins
and Nairs of our place cooked their food on the vessels bought from him! I have
seen daily wage labourers from all castes in our place. Our place was full of
people of all castes doing all kinds of jobs.
Jose and Thangachan, higher caste Christians climbed coconut trees and
betel nut trees. Ramanan Nair, the head load carrier in the village junction or
Vasu Namboodiri who watered our paddy fields.
Chenda, the
traditional drum of Kerala, is played by a caste called Marar. But in our
villages and towns, Karappattu Kutty Asan and his relatives have been playing
Chenda for generations. They are from the Dalit caste s called Sambava. There
are no temples in our area where their Chenda had not resounded. That tradition
still continues. I still remember the grand function to honour Karappattu Kutty
Asan organized by the villagers when he returned after winning the Special
Award of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Academy. He is not alive today. But his
relations and children play Chenda not only in Kerala but are also in the
temples of Tamilnadu.
I do not recollect
Brahmins being either the priests or administrators of temples in our area. A
few Nairs knowing the rudiments of rituals and even some Ezhavas, considered
low caste, had officiated as Priests! They were called ‘Santhis’ in Malayalam.
There was one ‘Santhi’ in our neighbouring village. He officiated as priest in
many temples and was known as extremely devoted. But one day when he attempted
to rape his teenage daughter, she had cut off his penis with a sickle. He
escaped somehow and ran away from the village. He must still be working as a temple
priest wherever he is, since he knows no other trade!
As a child and as a
teenager, I had close friends across all castes. I used to congregate with
friends like Salim Kumar, Kaniappan, Achan Kunju, Priyan and Sunny in our
friend Srinivasan Nair’s house to play and pass time. When Srinivasan Nair’s
parents were not at home, we used to get into their kitchen to cook and eat
whatever caught our fancy. It, then, never occurred to us to regard a Barber, a
Muslim, a Dalit, a Christian, an Ezhava or a Nair as persons belonging to
different castes. It is only now; when I sit down to write this article, I
remember that we were supposedly born into different castes! I do not think
that the Nair household came to any harm because of the ‘low caste brats’
entering their house! Today, Srinivasan Nair is a happy man, settled in Dubai
as a top executive of a huge corporate.
Religions play a big
role in controlling and institutionalizing caste. I have always seen religion
as far more complex than caste and quite active in creating confusions. As an
example, let us suppose somebody wants to know my religion and I respond to
them saying that I am a Muslim, it does not end there. I have to say whether I
am a Sunni, Shia, Ahmadiya, Ibadi, Qurani, Sufi or belong to Nation of Islam!
Alright, take me as a Sunni. Then am I confessing to Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, Humblee,
Tauheed or Wahabi! If I am, on the other hand a Shia, then do I belong to
Twelvers or Ismaili or Zaidiyya or Bohra? Let us look at what the Islamic web
site ‘Fundamentals of Islam’ has to say: “Muslim world remains divided into
countless sects and sub sects. Every sect has its own laws and disciplinary
rules.”
It may require many
articles like this to write about the divisions, sects and sub sects of
Christianity. Christianity has thousands of sects and sub sects in its many
important versions like Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Non Trinity, New
Thought, Jewish Christianity, Esoteric and Syncretistic. You might have heard
of Catholic churches like Roman Catholic, Latin Catholic and Syrian Catholic
and Protestant churches like Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican, Brethren, Baptist
and Pentecost. There are ‘Orthodox’ Christian Churches native only to Kerala
like Jacobites, Catholicate and Marthoma. Like this there are endless numbers
of churches counting as sub sects in each and every part of the world that
follows Christianity!
In Hinduism they say
that the four varnas of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras said to have
been born from different parts of the creator god Brahma. Chandalas are said to
have been born from the dust of Brahma’s feet. But under the sects like
Vaishnava, Saiva, Shaktha, Saura, Smartha, etc., there are thousands of
divisions and subdivisions in Hinduism. Many know that Iyers are Smartha
Brahmins following the line prescribed by Adi Shankara. But how many know of
Smartha Brahmin sects like Kanyakubja, Sarayubarene, Saraswat, Utkala,
Maithili, Gauda, Garhade, Deshastha, Konkanastha, Devarukke, Gauda Saraswat,
Chitrapur, Rajapur, Havyaka, Vaidiki Mulakanadu, Vaidiki Velanadu, Vaidiki
Veginadu, Badaganadu, Hoysala Kannada, Koda, Babbur Kamme, Arvel Neogi, Vaishya
Vani, etc….etc…
Among Brahmins of
Kerala there are many sub sects like Pushpaka, Nambisan, Unni, Brahmani,
Daivampati, Pilappalli and so on. There are countless Gotras and Pravaras as
well. Brahmins are only a small percentage of Hindus. Just imagine the
mind-boggling number of sects and sub sects in the other castes of Hindus. Chettiars,
who are another of smaller castes alone are supposed to have 24 sub sects! All
these countless divisions among different religions and castes seek to prop up
differences, deviations and contradictions. Even among the people of the
outwardly same caste there is hierarchy of superiority and inferiority. They
prescribe different levels of untouchability among themselves!
Does human life that
lasts a short span of 70, 80 years need these countless castes and religions
and the contradictions of their separate laws and rules that create most of the
social frictions, sorrows and losses? Many still believe that caste is being
preserved to maintain racial purity and sacredness! What importance can be
accorded to such remnants of superstitions that bedeviled man during his cave
dwelling days? Have not we heard that ‘Mother is truth but father is faith’? Is
it possible all such faiths of us are true? Do we realize that only a mother
knows about the degree of ‘racial purity’ of her children?
What will happen when
two persons hailing from different castes inter-marry? Will the sky fall down?
I have only one sister. In the gap between her graduation and preparations for
her wedding, she temporarily joined an organisation for work. There she
happened to fall in love. The boy was a Dalit Christian! He came home and asked
for the hand of my sister. My father, who was into social service and was
regarded as one who ignored caste and religion, was beside himself with anger.
He exploded in rage. When it came home, his social inclusiveness and social
responsibility went out of the window! The news reached me in Karnataka where I
was working. My father and my maternal uncles were preparing to create a real
ruckus. My sister remained silent.
She made one thing
plain to me when I talked to her. “If you say no, I will stay away from this
love. But I can never break away from it in my heart. I will spend my entire
life in this house. But please do not ever run away with the impression that I
will change with time and that you can thrust on me a marriage of your choice.”
The suggestions that I could have made vanished before her determination. I
stood by her in that wedding. I had a tough time getting my father to agree to
the wedding which took place braving the opposition of our relatives and family
friends. My brothers and I bade our sister a tearful send-off.
Her husband rose from
ranks in his job. Till my father’s death, he maintained a very close relation
with him. I felt that my father, who had more or less disowned me, accepted him
as his own son! My sister is now mother of two children. Her daughter is
seventeen and studying well, standing first in the district. She has even won a
few state-level prizes for her poems. My 13 years old nephew reads a lot and writing
short stories. My sister is happy. And as I write this, the new house she is
constructing is taking shape in our home town.
A young boy and a
girl from two permanently warring castes fell in love. The girl got pregnant.
When she became aware of the pregnancy, it was too late. Frightened of the
threat to her life if it became known, she took some potentially harmful medicines
to abort her pregnancy. But the foetus refused to abort. The girl child saw the
light of the day hurdling over all the death traps set for her. She was born
with physical handicaps and many brain deficiencies. My caste is the same caste
of that child, condemned to live her entire life in tears.
