Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 3

Now let us consider why should the land owning Shudras practice untouchability? The category of land owning Shudras emerged strongly after independence in India. Before independence when the British ruled India, the land was mostly owned by the twice-born people. The people who worked on the land were Shudras and untouchables. The Shudras were mainly tillers and untouchables were mainly casual laborers. The Shudra tillers got a share of crop at the time of reaping of crop. The landless casual laborers who were mainly untouchables got payment in kind on daily basis. The untouchables worked from field to field on irregular basis while the tillers worked on the given piece of land on more or less permanent basis. The untouchables were rarely tillers since tilling was a high level job and could not be given to them since it would have meant that the fifth stratum was better off than the fourth strata. It would have been adharmic This went against the Varna dharma. The divinely ordained order could not be contravened. Thus, the Shudras having a relatively higher status got the higher level tilling job which assured them a regular income. Their income was pittance but more than what the untouchable casual workers got. One can see the fine mechanism of caste system here.


However, this system which was entirely in tune with dharma was considered as unequal and exploitative by the people not attached to land for their sustenance. Thus the land reforms took place after independence. The aim of land reform was to redistribute the agricultural land to remove the associated inequalities with such an exploitative dharmic system. A land ceiling was mooted for agricultural land and surplus land was redistributed freely among Shudra tillers after paying compensation to upper caste landlords. The guiding principle of the land reforms was the land to the tiller. This looks quiet egalitarian in nature but this overlooked the existence of landless untouchables who worked as casual laborers on the fields for their sustenance. This meant that the beneficiaries of the land reforms did not come from the bottom of the heap. The untouchables did not enjoy the status of tillers because being the most poor they were not in a position to supply the agriculture equipments like plough and animals like bullocks to work as tiller on the fields. It was the result of Varna dharma forces which aimed at keeping the untouchables in most pathetic situation bereft of any resources. Thus the untouchables were in a position to offer their labor only. Only relatively well off Shudras could afford to own the majestic plough and a smart pair of bullocks which enabled them to get the job of a tiller without any right to land. However, the grain produce by the labor of untouchables never became polluted because the grain is classified as unpollutable in dharma Shastras by the lawmakers; a stroke of genius. Nobody can accuse the lawmakers of foolishness. Also they can not be accused of not having the sense of discriminating between pollutable standing water and unpollutable dry grains. Both of them are necessities of life. One of them, the grain, is the reason for living of high castes touching it by an untouchable causes no pollution; no question of adharma arises. The other one, the standing water, if touched by an untouchable may cause mayhem; merely a common occurrence designed to save the dharma; anybody can take up violence to save the dharma. Indeed it is a holy violence which targets the people who are not in a position to cause any retaliatory harm.