G Aloysius - Caste in and Above History
G Aloysius - Caste in and Above History
G Aloysius - Caste in and Above History
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Indian Sociological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Sociological Bulletin.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Caste
In and Above
History
G. Aloysius
has
community as
come to be
thought of in social science literature, as the one and unique social reality
of the sub-continent: India is caste and caste is India.1 Roland Inden in
as the
work has pointed out that 'Caste is conceptualised
from
that
the
country
every other
distinguishes
peculiar
has
become
essentialised
and particularly the Western', and again 'Caste
his seminal
Indian essence
for
agent of history'. Essentialisation
Inden, 'is the idea that humans and human institutions, for example, the
individual and the nation-state are governed by determinate natures that
inhere in them in the same way that they are supposed to inhere in the
and turned into the substantialised
and changelessness.
timelessness, all-pervasiveness
First, since caste in
India is recognised to have existed since Vedic times, it also has through
a time-immemorial
its
sacred
association
become
entity; second,
with the
operative nature is considered monolithical and co-extensive
entire Bharatvarsh; third, the main elements of caste are supposed to
have survived more or less unchanged down through history. Such an
view of caste is held most often unconsciously,
essentialised
particularly
when the term is used as a shorthand in academic
discourse
to describe
social
and group relations. It also runs parallel very often to more critical
considerations of the subject. Sociological
and historical studies of caste,
micro
off
from
either
a
text or village-level
Sanskritic
starting
single
studies, do not hesitate to predicate generalised conclusions for the entire
sub-continent.
Curiously
enough both those who attribute near total
determinacy to caste as well as those who deny it in absolute terms
subscribe
to this same meta-historical
vision. It does not require
uncommon
is Professor,
Centre for Social
Aloysius
Udhna Magdalla
Road, Surat 395 007.
SOCIOLOGICAL
Studies,
South
Gujarat
University
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Campus,
152
Sociological
between
the two
modernity;
maintenance
and
in the sub-continent's
the
academic
transition
contribution
Bulletin
from tradition
to the
construction
to
and
the nationalists
take-off points.
I
The Indian sub-continent
history encompasses
formations of vastly varied levels and differential types of technological
labour-social
organisations,
linguistic-cultural
developments,
beliefs
and
control
achievements,
systems. This
religious
political
persistent and patterned diversity surviving from the pre-modern into the
present times can and is increasingly being used as a heuristic tool to
recorded in religio-Iiterary texts and
understand its past, ambiguously
patchily revealed through archaeology (Allchin and Allchin 1996: 62 and
fif)). Search
and
non-material
cultures
and
social
structures
of
the
populations3; as for the latter, without going into the unsolved problems
of race-language
identity, locale of origin, among others, it can safely be
asserted that language is not only an embodiment of kinship systems, and
an expression of the material culture but also the dynamic repository of
thought-affect systems, world views and politico-cultural values.4
land mass is characterised by a
the sub-continental
Geographically
series of riverine valleys as distinct eco-zones-the
Gangetic to begin
the
the
Narmada, the Godavary,
Sind,
with, but also, the Brahmaputra,
the Cauvery, and so on. Here the fertile soil, lush vegetation and above
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Caste
all
In and
Above
153
History
zones
stand in clear contrast to the rest of the land mass taken together, it
is still useful, to divide the latter into two categories; the plains and the
hilly jungles (ibid ). The plains are a mediating type in which irrigation is
carried through both rain water and artificially constructed tanks and
lakes; here the economic level can be thought of generally as subsistence
but with a perennial threat of food-shortage due to drought, famine, war,
pestilence; correspondingly the labour-social organisation is identified as
smaller in size and the population less dense. The hilly-jungles on the
other hand, must have been as they are even today, under constant
shortage of food, as whatever goes by the name of agriculture depended
solely on the vagaries of the monsoon; continued and settled collective
life here must have been conducted under difficult circumstances with
sparse population
and micro-level
social
units.5
Ethno-linguistically
again three/four clear streams or substrata have
been recognised among the modern Indian languages: the Indo-Aryan,
the Dravidian, the Austric-Munda
and Sino-Burman (the latter two could
be together called the 'tribal'). The language-communities
belonging to
the different families generally occupy distinct geographical regions and
these are more often than not contiguous.6
Unlike that of geography, the
role and importance of language in general and the impress, actual and
of sub
potential, of its diversity in the formation and explanation
continental societies, unfortunately are not given sufficient attention in
social sciences.
For understandable
political reasons, language in the
subcontinent is seen by scholars both foreign and native, merely as an
instrument of communication
in contrast to its supposedly encompassing
role
in the West
Khubchandani
1993; Washbrook
(see, for example
it needs to be remembered that just as geographical
patterns have persisted down the millennia, the linguistic diversity has
been continually affirming and asserting itself very much as a continuity
1991).
However
diversities,
the peoples of the subcontinent, interacting on the one hand, with the
natural environment, and among themselves on the other have given
birth to not only diverse forms of speech and labour-organisations,
but
also cultural beliefs and methods of political controls and have formed
in small farming communities
in different
simultaneously
themselves
findings (Allchin
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
154
Sociological
of action
Bulletin
and interaction
continued
First, the
history exhibits certain definite characteristics.
mix is among communities placed unequally in terms of
this
both geographical
and historical advantages
and disadvantages;
civilisational
of region-based
systems; and the construction
even
The
societies
overcoming
embodying these,
religious symbolisms.
the horizontal and other social cleavages, more often than not are found
is
territories. While the interrelatedness
to be occupying
contiguous
differential
kinship
certainly the undercurrent, the existential reality of the south Asian social
formation clearly is diversity.8 Third, is the incomplete nature of this
It is indeed
regional and sub-continental.
process at all levels-local,
remarkable that traits, simple and complex of both material and non
between
the types
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Caste
In and
Above
155
History
II
Within
such
broad
recent scholarship,
in
anchored
historical-sociological
perspective,
the attempt here is to contextualise caste in all of its
major
dimensions-hereditary
occupation,
endogamous
sexuality,
ascriptive hierarchy and religious legitimation. The earliest period of
Indian history to which the formation of caste-varwa stratification is
assigned by scholarly consensus
B.C., the period of the Buddha
boosted
up the levels of
with surplus in food and
the state-varna complex,
privileges to the priest but also by upholding the foundations of the new
order- the patriarchal family, private property and the varna form of
social stratification. The process is identified to have taken place under
the hegemony
of the 'Vedic
here is not only a cognitive and volitional ideal or merely normative but
also 'a stark reality'actual
divisions of society based on birth with
discriminating rights and liabilities. Given the chronological
priority of
the process here and the migratory-expansionist
nature of the Vedic
groups, we are now clear as to the area, agency and method of the origin
and spread of 'caste', both as concrete and cognitive reality in the sub
continent. Sharma's narrative, erudite as it is, appears to subscribe to a
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
156
Sociological
mono-model
social-state
India's juridico-legal
in the ritual-based
Bulletin
device
each
other.
She
also
identifies
autonomous
the
alternative
delineates
between
the lineage
corresponding
political or state forms and the presence of perennial
are the
tension between the two.12 Monarchy and republic (gana-sangha)
two state forms that presided over the two types of social formations that
shape during the most determining period of history within the
dominant eco-zone of the subcontinent. The gana-sangha societies of the
period were no less complex and stratified. However they were in sharp
took
contrast
to those
of
composed
owners/householders
developed
dominant
under
was individual,
Landholding
unequal and the land was worked upon by the owner, as well as hired
labour. While agriculture is the dominant economic activity here also,
trade and crafts have begun to flourish under favourable material and
dasa,
Kamma
Karas
and
Brahmanas.
conditions,
resulting in the proliferation of occupational
and craftsmen. Social stratification tended to be
of
artisans
groups/guilds
the
the low revolving around jati, kula, kamma and
as
and
high
polarised
ideological
sippa. These referral points were neither rigid nor uniform everywhere.
was represented through a chief elected from among
The gana-sangha
the landholders, who as a collective retained effective
the gahapatis,
power over the general mass. The chief owed his position in general to
and other leadership
his physical prowess, skill at resource-mobilisation
elaborate
There
was
no
system
philosophico-ideological
qualities.
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
157
justifying
system.
they were with certain ameliorative measures, thus providing space for a
certain measure of fluidity and mobility of groups. The dominance, again
was that of the land-owning
gahapatis as opposed to the Brahmana
all the ritual-sacrificial
monarchy. Above
legitimacy of the royalty and its corollary of royal upholding of the
Brahminical
social
order was certainly missing.13 When Buddhism
Kshatriya
combine
under
or the 'emperor',
it prescribed for him duties other than
the
varna
dharma-that
of the establishment of just social
upholding
order and a welfare state as a pre-condition for the dawn of the universal
the 'king'
these historical
together and considered
complementary,
lead to certain inferences, which, since they are from the earliest
recorded
social
have
serious
for our
formations,
implications
studies
but also of mutually antagonistic nature; in other words, the very origin
of caste-varna in the sub-continent was tension-ridden and contained the
seeds of its own negation, flagging off the very real possibility of
and resistance; the two distinct social formations along with their well
articulated and conflicting ideologies had advanced side by side too long
to place them in sequence as inevitable and natural stages of a single
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
15 8
Sociological
Bulletin
the ground;
varna
became
not change
become
communities/tribes
take on one
or more
characteristics
of the varna
within the ethno-culture, they result in the abatement of caste; but as the
meta-cultural empires are basically a lateral and horizontal network of
the valley elites, caste gets invigorated and valorised.16 Sixth, this great
and ethnic diversities
process, as it moves along blurring the ecological
and
societies
tends to divide settlements
provoking disjuncted responses
and actual
everywhere and also to create an overarching ideological
versus
versus
anti-caste,
orthodoxy
of
In
the
event
like.
and
the
versus
Buddhism,
heterodoxy,
the
of
social
pre
development
uneven, incomplete and simultaneous
modern era, we thus find, vast areas of hilly jungles, inhabited by people
whose economy ranges from primitive hunting-gathering to well settled
polarisation
between
caste
Brahminism
and
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Caste
In and
Above
159
History
the emergence of the cultures, values and peoples of eco-zones other than
the riverine valleys through the formations of regional economic zones,
ethno-culture based polities and vernacular literatures.
The
most
diversification.
remarkable
While
phenomenon
of the times
irrigated
agriculture
to be the single monopoly
was
continued
economic
to
remain
The
emerging economic
configurations were multiple
however
their
on
the larger society'was
the
differential;
impact
the
economic role of the non-valley populations and
same-boosting
up
and
in the valley
releasing the labouring groups from agrarian bondage
zones. In general the 'plausibility structure' of the valley varna model of
society was giving way to more pluralist and flexible forms of society.
Formation of regional kingdoms in the concrete context meant increased
of the valley-dominant
on the petty chiefdoms and other
dependence
of the plains
flourished,
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
160
Sociological
Bulletin
Even
the pre-colonial
argued that the period was one in which hierarchical and uniforming
forces emanating from the ritually stratified areas of the valleys were
losing their edge over those of egalitarianism and diversity, the historical
hallmarks of the people and culture of the plains and hilly jungles (for
some important reading on this, see Stein 1969, Baker 1984, Washbrook
1993 and Pollock 1998).
Ill
In this section our specific query is: what did the British rule do to caste?
As early as 1962 M.N. Srinivas correctly observed: 'It is my hunch that
the Varna model became more popular during the British period as a
result of variety of forces...' (1962:
16). What these variety of forces
were and how their combined operation did result in the popularisation
of varna, Srinivas unfortunately did not explain. Roland Inden suggests
that the imaginations and writings of Orientalist scholars and imperial
of
bureaucrats have much to do with the construction/reconstruction
caste in modern India. Others similarly point to the caste enumeration of
operations as being responsible: 'The enduring interest of the
British in Caste as a system which both divided and ranked their Indian
the census
is a colonial
between
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
161
of this
policy as well as unconscious
consequences
resulted
in
certain
eco-zones,
Empire
bolstering up
segments of
and
socio-cultural
forces
and
the
others; keeping
population
depressing
new
with the general flow of Indian history, this last of the empires too had to
bank on, stand by and promote the interests of the riverine valleys at the
of the plains and hilly jungles.
And here too, the imperial
for self-preservation
did not falter. The Commissioner
of
Deccan, for example, in the course of administering justice 'argued that
maintaining the hierarchical order would keep the subjects disunited and
expense
instinct
unable
to combine
reduce
ultimately
The caste-varna
this basic agreement the colonial bargain was struck.18 Having decimated
or neutralised the kings and chiefs, particularly of the plains and hilly
jungles, the new rulers 'settled' with the socially powerful of the riverine
valleys either as zamindari or ryotwari. The ending of the endemic wars,
the increasing and unstable demand for land revenue and the linking of
the local economy
to that of the home country, all these had the
of de-diversification
and re-agrarianisation,
devastating
consequence
albeit
with a difference.
'A
mobile
and
highly
economically
differentiated society rendered stationery and traditional by the processes
of peasantization'
David Washbrook
project'
is the conclusion
of
(1993: 68).
integration of the subcontinent was basically agrarian
and this had to be on the already available
and dominant and high
model
The valleys and their
yielding riverine-valley
(Stein
1969).
inhabitants
a
sort
of
'most favoured nation
prosperous
easily acquired
The colonial
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
162
Sociological
Bulletin
status' within this modern empire also. The constraints and opportunities
presented by this nexus between the inhabitants of the river valleys and
the immigrants of the sea-ports was the solid undergrid which effectively
and determined most of the colonial policies and practices well
into the 19th century. While the British reigned in splendour and glory, it
was the Brahmanas
and other upper castes, largely of the riverine
and were being trained through
consolidated
valleys, who expanded,
the
art
of
modern
in
ruling (see, particularly, the
apprenticeship
dictated
conclusion
by Frykenberg 1965).
For our purpose it was a colonial-modern
process of riverine-valley
model isation of the entire subcontinent with all its economic and cultural
implications.
labour-social
ideology-belief
The
agriculture-based,
along
organisation
systems of these eco-zones
everywhere, overcoming
certainly with differential
traditional
success
of social
others, even those running counter to this were only subsidiary and
subordinate to this main process. An analysis of this unified and unifying
would at once clarify what the
into multiple sub-processes
mega-process
British did to caste during the major portion of their rule. Earlier, it was
suggested that the British empire was both a continuity as well as a break
and finally successful attempt at
in Indian history, seen as a successive
unification, originating generally from the
socio-political
pan-Indian
riverine valleys of northern India. As a continuity, the British too largely
the same logic of empire-building, first having done away with
the petty rulers and then, unifying and consolidating the dominant either
priestly-ritual or land owning castes of the different riverine valleys.
was also different: it was
However, the instant case of pan-Indianisation
followed
the social
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
163
in the concrete.
In
the words of Srinivas, 'The establishment of Pax Britannica has set the
Caste free from the territorial limitation inherent in the pre-British
16).
political system'(1962:
Once politically unified, the persisting diversities of the ecological
zones and ethno-linguistic regions were viewed as obstacles and sought
to be overcome
and
and
districts
homogenised
of
construction
administration
and
notions became uniform and integrated with the state knowledge sources
for policy purposes.
As early as 1776, a 'Gentoo-code'
got formulated for application in
the law courts. As a piece of colonial
Shastraism the Gentoo-Code
needed to be interpreted and explained by the native expert-the Brahman
Pandit. The modern-colonial
court, soon enough, was transformed not
only into a vehicle to propagate Brahminical hierarchicalism but also to
extend it over the entire country indiscriminately,
inhabitants of the plains and hilly jungles.
The skewed
and sectarian
modern
documented
classes
in
The
most ideological
sphere of the new civil society,
from its inception was nearly monopolised
by groups who
education,
were traditionally
dominant
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
of the
164
Sociological
revenue
and
at
Bulletin
and
mercy of big land magnates-zamindars
and
to
the
suit
shaped
reshaped
agrarian ground-realities
their interests and conveniences.
The speedy transformation of Britain
the
mirasdars-who
in short
is being
of
of
processes
could
not
be
a
or
economic
(which
change
certainly
large-scale
organised
colonial agenda), the protagonists of caste-varna, enabled through their
historical role of partnership with Imperialism, went forth from their
various
social
as
isolation
to all corners of the subcontinent
ecological
of the new state and civil society, dictating and determining
their nature and contour everywhere, certainly with varying degrees of
success. In other words, precisely because those who had been making a
relative
emissaries
living and ruling out of caste and its alleged sanctity in the riverine
valleys came to occupy largely all the positions of power and influence
they not only helped shape the
nearly as unbroken communities,
and
society according to their interests in innumerable
emergent polity
the hitherto
they also carried and consolidated
restricted, sectionally practised and perennially contested
ecologically
identification
caste ideology and spirit, through their own communal
and
became
the subconscious
Caste
with the state and society.
subtle
but
ways
foundation
communities
with them
with tradition.
opposite:
compact
economic
had
change
and of no serious
contestation
at the pan-Indian
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
level,
Caste
In and
Above
165
History
the caste-protagonists
had no reason to give up caste in any significant
sense except to adjust it to the exigencies of modern life-circumstances.
That the caste-cluster
enriching
themselves
envisage the emergence of any new reality for the country as a whole
was clearly evidenced in their consistent opposition to the attempts of the
lower castes to gain entry within the same system. This opposition could
be identified everywhere in the subcontinent, consistent with the social
locale they had been enjoying, and founded on certain notions of social
as caste-varna. The opposition was there
the
hitherto
communities
made efforts to enter public
when
relegated
school and education, market-places and public squares, public resources
such as water, grazing land, religious services, particularly temples and
order which is best described
above
all
Ambedkar
has repeatedly
government-public
employment.
of
drawn our attention to the nature
relationship among the castes
constituting the varna order: 'an ascending scale of reverence/hatred and
a descending
communities
of contempt'.
The resistance of the twice-born
to
the
everywhere
emergence of the mass was based on
scale
were being empowered within the new state and civil apparatus,
and hence casteism came to percolate and pervade the new public arena.
And this process is to be identified as the single-most significant impact
of colonial rule in India. And again, it is within this context that the
castes
Orientalist
contextualised
IV
In the history of social formations of the subcontinent caste-varna along
with its anti-thesis
was identified first in mid-Ganga
and
valley
in
several
other
the process
of
valleys;
encompassment
by the valley-culture was also found to be double-edged,
polarising the multiple and scattered forces into caste and anti-caste
subsequently
formations
Validation
disastrous,
riverine
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
166
Bulletin
Sociological
empowerment
scattered
multiple directions,
universalised
caste-subordination.
M.N.
broke
forth in
and
aggravated
estimation
of the
Srinivas'
countrywide
instinct of
restlessness
of the generalised
to
self-preservation,
began
masses
make
half-hearted
itself suddenly
moves, the larger scenario of colonialism
call of
with
Nationalism
the
erupted
powerful
unifying
changed.
in
And
in
this
section
we
nation
tradition/culture/religion/
being
danger.21
conciliatory
deal
and nationalism
did to caste
and the
castes.
Any explanation of the genesis of nationalism in the subcontinent has
to grapple with the crucial question of why the ritual-literary and landed
dominant communities everywhere, for whom the British-Imperial rule
so far, all of a sudden towards the end of the 19th
had been 'providential'
the crucial
Within the above
'satanic'.
became
perspective
century
change
abolition
its expression
dikku/adibasi,
for confrontation
nation.
Here
at
is the
The agency of nationalism here from its inception to the very end
continued to be more or less exclusively constituted not only by the same
accustomed
to the wielding of power within the caste
communities,
varna mode, and now, under colonial auspices were fast becoming part
of the state-structure, but also who were simultaneously
rejecting and
castes in
lower
mass
of
and
of
the
similar
attempts
aspirations
resisting
the name
of custom
and tradition.
The
historical
domination
through
empires, to the articulation of nationalism towards sovereign
mode,
hegemony, all these, as far as possible within the caste-varna
riverine
valley
successive
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Caste
In and
Above
167
History
cannot be missed
to become
The
nationalist
awakened
in comradeship
of equality
and fraternity, sought to
and
the
entire population.22 When
represent
exclusively
hegemonically
the traditional noblesse oblige and proxy presentation did not succeed
leadership
and the same was rejected by the relegated castes in favour of relatively
autonomous collective assertion, social antagonism, the hitherto hallmark
now engulfed the political sphere also. The scores of
of caste-relations
caste
attempts by the masses to escape
and identities-were resisted and rejected
imposed liabilities-occupations
of age-old
custom and tradition, caste-movements
or
as sabotage
subcontinent-wide
equally
of
was
confronted
with plain
violence
(see
particularly
Aloysius
1997,
chapter 5).
under the leadership
of
During the latter phase of nationalism,
the
mutual
recrimination
hitherto
Gandhi,
surged
largely undercurrent,
into an open, acrimonious debate, with his candid declaration in favour
of the varna ideal.
and dividing
tendencies found in men is the priceless discovery of our ancient sages
and the proper basis on which a harmonious society in contrast and
contradistinction
ridden Western
achieve
defensive
Caste-varna
located
in the
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
168
Sociological
various
forms
of
disabilities
Bulletin
was
to be substituted
sought
by
of
all.
Ambedkar, who, by this
problem
the spokesperson
of the anti-caste forces at the pan
as a consensus
untouchability
time had become
Indian
level
alternative
dimension
whose
of colonialism
caste as varna-the
Varnashrama
'national
synthesis',
phrases such as 'civilisational
and so on, though when contested it was pointed out
legacy/heritage',
was very different from its current
that the ideal being apotheosized
secular-sounding
practice.
Gandhi
construction,
maintenance
and
projection
of caste-varna
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in
its
sense
around
the
169
of superordination
and subordination
of communities
of dharma, meaning
differential duties, was a
castes,
project of the entire range of newly empowered
notion
collaborative
the 'middle
classes'.
Professional
and political
differences, though many and real did not interfere with this minimal
consensus
on dharma-varna
as the ideal being the cultural nation.
Politicians,
writers, religionists and others,
professionals,
journalists,
each in their respective sphere of activities, engraved and elaborated the
ideal vision or the Golden Age of society in consonance
with varna
dharma and critiqued the actual society in dissonance from it. Third, this
dharma
was
then easily
identified as the natural and desirable
with the colonially
of all regions, in fact co-extensive
development
constructed
state incorporating
and anti-caste social
non-caste
and
The
formations.
and
claims
of
other
value
cultures,
ecological
presence
streams, though not to be left out of
systems and philosophico-religious
of the hegemonic nation-state in the name of diversity,
ought not to be included in the newly sacralised sphere of the nation.
Apparently the principle of inclusion and exclusion too operated in a
hierarchical fashion.
the boundaries
'Dharma'
definite
functions.
difference,
positions
as
such
spiritual/material,
duties/rights,
communitarian/
and finally,
individualist,
religious/secular,
imperialism/nationalism,
we/they, have become perennial and persistent categories of all levels of
dominant thought processes with the inbuilt evaluation of the good and
the bad. Simultaneously
the caste-varna
traditions now
however,
shrouded and sacralised
as the cultural-national
the master
became
ideological
mass-the
communities
articulation
weapon
to contain
generalised
in the
lower
far-flung regions.
the caste-varna values became
If through association
and
national and hence inviolable,
dissociation
anti-caste-varna
beliefs
values,
antagonistic
and
behaviour
became
stood
anti-national
and
ideologies
patterns,
the
culture
and
values
of
the
imitation
discredited; they represent
Other,
of the West and hence stand in serious need of correction.
through
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
170
Bulletin
Sociological
Caste-varna
the new
Roy
down
Orientalist
labelled
the Brahminic
faith, Vedic
religion,
Hinduism, to the conjuring up of which much
by nationalist stalwarts from Raja Ram Mohun
Das Karam Chand Gandhi-was
and has been
discovery.
Variously
sanatoria
dharma-the
efforts were
the kernel of
expended
to Mohan
invariably recognised
by the masses in the absence of specific set of
beliefs, for what it actually is, an embodiment of a way of life, a form of
social relationship, a pattern of organising the society, not dissimilar to
that of varna. Generally, in the wake of modernity and secularism, the
rise of a civil religion has been noted in several parts of the globe, a
sacralisation of the new and changed values surrounding egalitarian and
forms of socio-political
relations and a contractual respect
towards the public-civil spheres limited to and bounded by the particular
culture or ethnie. In the subcontinental context, however, we have hd
fair-minded
traditional socio-religious
with no change in essentials
religion in modernity and secularism.
dominant
land mass.
The
has re-incarnated
practice of the
as the new civil
to certain areas,
formation peculiar
historical
social
India
and
its
river
in
the
early
process of engulfment
valleys
particularly
in the sense of provoking its
of the subcontinent has been double-edged
It was certainly
own anti-thesis. The process is far from complete.
possible, as Rhys-David points out that if Buddhism had persisted, today
is
Caste
we would
and
salience
sacred
nature.
the historical
and hence
meta-historical
precisely on their supposedly
The deep enmeshing of the former with the latter under
in both its dimensions of
accident of collusive colonialism
and nationalism
imperialism
has made
meta
as
historical,
Grasping this metamorphosis
the result not only of hegemonic imagination but also of the rise to state
power of the dominant castes everywhere is the first step in its re
historicisation. Caste-varna, both as an existential reality and a cognitive
social order or Brahminism in
ideal is another name for Brahminical
essentialist
short,
which
as
the
and quasi-sacred.
socio-political
ideology
of
modern
India
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
is
Caste
In and
Above
171
History
valorise
sending
author
is grateful
with
Professors
C.N.
and
Venugopal
Uma
Chakravarti.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The
author.
Subbarao
(1958)
speaks
of the
valley's
relatively
and
isolated,
isolated
zones.
6.
7.
classification
into the three
it is tempting to fit the three-fold geographical
Though
fold linguistic traditions, historically this cannot be validated.
isolation
of India
from the main trans
Subbarao
(1958:
5) notes the relative
continental
8.
the subcontinent
as well as academic
discourses
insistently describe
popular
as unity in diversity, it is only the unity that is problematised
for
and valorised
that has resulted from this
understandable
the knowledge
political reasons. However,
While
9.
10.
The
monotonous
11.
12.
H.K.
Kulke
and mono-linear
(1995)
Chakravarti
under
class
and Chattopadhaya
To' these must be added
(1978,
chap.3).
stratification
as evidenced
in the Sangam
poetry of peninsular
(1987)
the non-caste/varna
India.
13.
Within
could
if caste-varna
the sociologically
stratifications,
recognised
types of social
be seen as based 'status', this would be on 'power'.
The south Indian variation
While
among
Buddhist
the resonance
non/anti-caste
that Buddha
forces
has
and
been
Buddhism
well
have
recognised,
had
down
the
through
precise
history
of
nature
is
is debated.
evaluation
(1978)
egalitarianism
Perhaps D. Chattopadhya's
alone of all the
accurate
if we pardon
him his Marxist
bias:
'The Buddha
contemporary
prophets, could offer to the people of his times the illusion of liberty,
most
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
172
Bulletin
Sociological
and fraternity....'
the Marxist,
equality
Typically
democratic
equality as an illusion
(p. 467).
This
the author
the anti-varna
regards
Brahmanavarta,
horizon
dominated
by the varna-caste
political
type of social
in the changing
nomenclature
of the territory as
well-captured
Aryavarta and Bharatvarsha.
There
other
expanding
stratification
is
are
also
reasons
why
for administrative
need
empires-the
of the traditionally
caste
forces
and clerical
become
at the rise of
aggravated
infrastructure requires the services
the language
to be used at the level
accurate,
Swami
historians,
The
somewhat
though
Brahminical
empowered
propagandist
be had
castes
Dharma
Teertha
(1992:
of
how
of
the
colonialism
social
earlier
159ff).
version
is a much condensed
argument
summary
from one
could
book
(Aloysius
with
extensive
1997).
This
the following
again is a sketchy
in G. Aloysius
(1997).
and
argument,
elaborated
documentation
While
of movements
sociology
and
protests by the subalterns
in India
of mobility and
the political
movement
the two is a
relation between
has documented
has
the stories
recorded
historiography
for independence
by the elite, the mostly conflictual
Some
child of no parents.
attempts have been made
to take
of this
care
Aloysius (1997).
in G.
derivative
of
of
P. Chatterjee
(1986)
thought in India
spoke of nationalist
But he certainly did not explain it in this sense.
colonialism.
as
being
References
B.R.
Ambedkar,
The dominant
et al. 1980.
Abercrombie
1990.
Collected
writings
Maharashtra.
Alichin,
and
Bridget
Aloysius,
Cambridge:
G. 1997.
Raymond.
Cambridge
Nationalism
Press.
Baker,
C. J. 1984.
The
1987.
University
. 1998.
Delhi:
rural economy.
An Indian
U.
Chakravarti,
social
Oxford
dimensions
of
early
University Press.
Buddhism.
Delhi:
Oxford
Press.
Ramabai.
New
Delhi:
Rewriting
The
history:
life and
times
of Pandita
P. Nationalist
D.
Chattopadhaya,
Publishing
Peoples
Conlon,
Frank,
1978.
F.
1981.
and
religion
Manohar.
Dirks,
N. B. 1987.
'The
caste'',
Hollow
Press.
House.
census
in N.G.
crown.
of India
Barrier
as a source
The
in British
(ed.).
census
University Press.
Cambridge
A history of local
(1788-1848):
Press.
Oxford: Clarendon
India.
study of
Delhi:
Cambridge:
R. E.
1965. Guntur district
Frykenberg,
central authority in South India.
influence
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
and
R. 1990.
Kulke,
H.K.
Nehru,
Jawaharlal.
1998.
Basil
'India
as
Blackwell.
a sociolinguistic
area'
in A.
Ahmed
(ed.),
and
regional development.
Jaipur: Rawat Publications.
The state in India 1000-1700.
Delhi: Oxford University Press
1956. The discovery of India. London:
Meridian
Books Ltd.
1995.
S.
Oxford:
1993.
structure
Social
Pollock,
India.
Imagining
Lachman.
Khubchandani,
173
'The
The Journal
vernacular',
cosmopolitan
of Asian
Studies,
57(1):
37.
R. 1972.
foundations
of European
in R. Owen
'Non-European
imperialism',
and B. Sutcliffe (eds), Studies in the theory of imperialism.
London.
R. S. 1990.
Material
culture and social formations
in ancient
India.
Delhi:
Robinson,
Sharma,
Macmillan.
. 1996.
The
state
and
vama
in the mid-Ganga
formation
Delhi:
plains.
Manohar
Spate,
and
O.H.K.
A.I.A.
Learmont.
1967.
India
and
London:
Methuen & Co.
geography.
M. N.
in modern
1962.
Caste
India
Srinivas,
Pakistan:
and
other
House,
Publishing
. 1966. Social
change
Stein,
Burton.
1969.
Frykenberg
216. Madison:
B. 1958.
Subbarao,
Thapar,
R.
1984.
D.
Dharma.
1992.
Literature
1991.
colonial
203.
of Wisconsin
'To
India',
Oxford:
. 1993.
History
Centre.
each a language
in P. J. Corfield
Basil
'Land
the pariah?'
M.
1958.
Illinois:
Asian
Bombay:
Longman.
south
in Indian
in
R.E.
history, pp.
175
India',
Press.
of
Hindu
of his own:
(ed.),
Language,
culture
history
and
Madras:
Dalit
and society in
pp. 179
class,
Blackwell.
and labour
in P. Robb
The
imperialism.
Language,
(ed.),
Weber,
Orient
of
regional
The personality
M.S. University.
of India. Baroda:
lineage to state. Delhi: Oxford University Press
Educational
Washbrook,
University
essays.
and
From
Swami
Theertha,
A general
religion
of India.
The
sociology
of Hinduism
and
Buddhism.
Glencoe.
This content downloaded from 14.139.86.99 on Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:24:00 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions