Spirituality - 3

........However, according to Hindu way of life the ultimate aim of life is to attain Moksha, Mukti or salvation. Moksha is a state where the soul of a man gets unified or merged with the Bruhm. It combines with Bruhm to never to return to cycle of life and death. It is released from Karmik life cycle.

It is claimed that the soul is subtle in nature therefore the modern science is not able to find its existence. However, it is not known that what the subtlety means in this context.

The soul is indestructible in nature. The indestructibility of soul is axiomatic in nature. So far nobody has explained that why it is indestructible. It cannot be born. It cannot die. It cannot be burnt. It cannot be cut. On death it leaves one body and acquires a new body. The soul cannot be disintegrated further. The fire cannot burn it. The sword cannot cut it. It is never born because it never dies. It is neither organic and nor inorganic because in both the cases it would be destructible. It is always preexisting to a body and also postexisting. It has a separate existence than a body. The real thing is soul and not body because body is temporary in nature. It exists as long as soul exists in it. The moment, a soul lives the body, it is dead. The body is only a temporary abode for the soul. However, it is not known that why should the heart stop beating when the soul leaves the body. A soul may change an infinite number of bodies during Karmic cycle on its way to merger with Bruhm. The soul cannot be divided because in such case it has to be degraded to biological level. Only higher level things are considered here; not biological or materialstical. It is Hindu spiritual world. However, the soul can be hurt as is clear from the statement “I am hurt”. It can die also as is clear from the statement “I am dying”. It can be hungry also as is clear from the statement “I am hungry”. And so on. In short it can have all the biological properties as “I” can feel or desire or complain about etc. The description of soul in Gita seems to be a bundle of contradictory wrongs. For the soul to be indestructible; it necessary to show that “I” in “Who am I?” is different than “I” in “I am dying”. However, a soul being a higher level entity cannot have lower level biological functions and processes allotted to it. It is getting convoluted; the logic may stand on its head but the spiritualists are not bothered about it; you see these are higher level things and normal logic cannot be applied to it. It is convoluted means it is convoluted. Nobody should expect to find an iota of logic in Hindu spiritual logic. It is a logicless spirituality. The existence of a soul and Bruhm can only be realized or felt through higher level unknown faculties of higher level people not amenable to the laws of science. Of course if somebody is under peer pressure or social pressure then one can just nod, nod and nod - and long live the non-understandable and unidentifiable Bruhm......

Spirituality - 2

...So we got a pairing of body with soul, world with Bruhm and soul with Bruhm. Here the impermanent body and world belong to lower level and soul to higher level and Bruhm to still higher level. If one still wants to raise his level then he should know that there is no difference between soul and Bruhm. And this grand spiritual knowledge is not supposed to reach to Shudras and untouchables. One needs to go into deep meditation to realize Bruhm - the fantasy in the air.


Now we are told that the Bruhm is superior to gods and they are its manifestations only; so we discuss the things which belong to higher level then the gods; still raising the level higher. However there are said to be two kinds of Bruhms. One Bruhm is called Saguna Bruhm, which has physical form and this entire world is his body. The representative of Saguna Bruhm is Lord Vishnu in this universe. The soul is small and subtle but different than Bruhm. This is also known as dualism or Dvaitvad. The soul or jiva ultimately gets merged with the Ultimate, the Bruhm. This also connects Bruhm with gods and idol worship and temples. This can convert polytheism in Hindu religion into monotheism. There is another Bruhm known as Nirguna Bruhm. This is formless and indefinable God in any sense of dimensions or power or anything else; it is truly indefinable. It is attributeless Absolute. It is all pervading; nothing pervades it. However most of the experts agree that the Nirguna Bruhm is the final thing and Saguna Bruhm is to enable layman to worship it. The soul and Nirguna Bruhm are not different from each other. This is known as non-dualism or Advaitvad.

The quest for soul is the quest for “I”. This “I” is not considered as pronoun but an entity in itself; like in the sentence “Who am I?” This soul (Aatmaa or Jiva) is separate from body and is indestructible. The life in a body exists because of existence of soul in it. The life is not the basic property of live bodies. The life is due to soul. When this soul is combined with the permanent absolute soul (the Bruhm) then the Hindu spiritual theory is complete; salvation or Moksha is achieved. One may add Karma theory to explain the sufferings in this world.

However, it would be difficult to quest for the identity of “my” in “my soul” and for the identity of “you” in “your soul”. These pronouns can acquire entirely new meanings in Hindu spiritual discourse. It may be akin to saying that you are not you but something else. Or your soul is not your soul but something else. However, this kind of supposedly higher level logic helps in maintaining the supremacy of Brahmans and who destroyed the life of the fifth stratum

However, this sense of spirituality never gets offended by the inhuman practice of untouchability of thousands of years. The overwhelming pride in the purity of Varnas enforces the separation between society and the people doing unclean jobs. These untouchables would like to have a society of their own but they are not traditionally and dharmically permitted to have any means of sustenance. Thus they have to live insulted lives at the bottom of the heap of the society and live through their hard labor doing despicable jobs...

Spirituality - 1

...Santana dharma or Hindu dharma is very spiritual religion. It contains deep discussions on the nature of soul (self or jiva), world and Absolute or Bruhm. The soul in Hindu spiritualism is immortal; it was never born; it can never die; it cannot be cut; it cannot be burnt. It changes the bodies as a body changes its clothes. So it is superior to body as the body is superior to clothes. Thus if one wants to talk of higher level things in Hindu religion then he should talk about soul; its existence and its immortality and superiority. If one still wants talk to at still higher level then one can talk about the Bruhm.

What is soul is to body the Bruhm is to universe and more than that. Anybody talking about Bruhm with authority surely qualifies to be a Guru. Of course, the lower strata are not supposed to talk about these higher level things and especially not about the Bruhm which is the sole prerogative of Brahmans. As soul is preexisting to a body the Bruhm is always preexisting to any universe. There might have been many universes and Bruhm is always preexisting to them. As soul is always post-existing to a body, the Bruhm is always post-existing to any universe. A soul sees the birth and death of many bodies; the Bruhm also sees birth and death of many universes. All the gods are physical manifestation of the Bruhm including famous trinity of Hindu pantheon, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. However, there are many souls but only one and only one Bruhm. A soul is never born and never dies; the Bruhm is also never born and never dies. Both of them have permanent existences. The ultimate aim of a soul is to unite or merge with Bruhm. That is Moksha or salvation. The Bruhm is the substratum of this entire world, solar system and galaxies, past, future and present. Everything has come out of Bruhm and will finally merge into it. Anything, which exists, is due to Bruhm. Anything that existed in the past existed due to Bruhm. Anything, which will exist in future, will exist due to Bruhm. The Bruhm is eternal like eternal Sanatana dharma. However, it is not clear that how the Bruhm manifests itself as this world. There is an utter silence about this process. There is a creation. There is creator. But there is no process of creation. Anyway, it is all fantasy in the air. It explains nothing.

In Hindu spirituality the truth is defined by the permanency of an object. So falsity is defined by impermanency of an object. Here the talker can claim to be talking about still higher level thing or things at a still subtler level. And has better knowledge about the truth or permanent things. The sun will not exist forever therefore it is false. So is this earth. The life is not permanent so it is also false. The word “Sat” gets translated into English as “really real” but the true meaning is truth. So the only thing which is “Sat” or really real or permanent is Bruhm. Everything else is impermanent or a mirage or temporary. If one can claim to understand this concept based on the permanency of an object then one can claim to be real knower of truth; the knower of the Ultimate; the Bruhm. Thus the talker belongs to highest level of higher things. That is the way it works out to be. In this way all the scientists will never catch up with the level attained by the ancient Rishis who possessed the knowledge about the Ultimate. However if the truth cannot be identified with the permanency then the claim about Rishis falls flat on its face...

Caste mobility - 7

...However, in relation to upward mobility, the downward mobility of individual was the norm. All the outcastes descended to fifth stratum so that purity of society could be maintained; the dastardly caste Panchayat was the tool for this. The Hindu society contains an inordinately large numbers of untouchables. Every fifth Hindu is untouchable. All the untouchables are supposed to provide unclean goods and services to rest of the society. This means that 20 percent of Hindu population or labor force is meant to provide these unclean goods and services. By no measurement or by no stretch of imagination any society needs 20 percent of its strength for such purposes. These so many untouchables are not needed though some people call caste system a specialization of labor. Then what explains their numbers? In ancient times nearly 10 percent of population was employed in the army. So all of them had to be Kshatriyas. With an average family of five, the fifty percent of population had to be Kshatriya. Now they are barely 5 percent. Where have they gone? The Vaisyas of ancient Hindu society were engaged in agriculture and cattle rearing. These formed about 90 percent of the total productive activities. There should have been about 40 percent Vaisyas but they are barely 5 percent. For Shudras there was no proper occupation; they were not connected with agriculture and cattle rearing which was then the work of the Vaisyas. Thus they were insignificant in numbers where as they are now about 60 percent of Hindu population. Where have they come from? This means that there have been large scale but slow degradations in the Hindu society. One of the degradation was the degradation of the occupations of agriculture and cattle rearing. These occupations were degraded from Vaisya level to Shudra level thus degrading a very large number of people. Or the Shudras in new Vedic areas engaged in these jobs were not upgraded...

Caste mobility - 6

...The Marathas of Maharashtra have also risen on social scale in Hindu society. In their case it was newly developed warriorship which enabled them to acquire higher status starting from Shudras status. As we know all the Shudra kings were granted Kshatriya status provided they agreed with Vedic religion; the only thing remaining was the patronage of Brahmans and they would be assimilated in Hindu society. Before that the Brahmans of Maharashtra refused to coronate Maratha king on the grounds that he was not a Kshatriyas; the same pious and other worldly Maharashtrian Brahmans were later to usurp his throne under Peshawa raj. However when Maratha king was refused coronation by the simple, pure, pious and religious Brahmans them his courtiers arranged for a poor Brahman from Kashi who agreed to do the coronation for some consideration. The fables were created to assign the Kshatriya origin to Maratha king. Then the similar assimilative pattern followed which had been followed through Vedic history; the Shudra kings came to be defenders of Brahmans forgetting their own people. With this the Marathas acquired Kshatriya status and became a land owning caste with jobs in the army. However the Brahmans raised themselves to the status of demigod; they came to be known as Bhu-dev or Brahmandev.

The upward movement limit for whole caste mobility is set by Brahmans. Whatever Kayasthas, Jats and Marathas do; they can never be equal to Brahmans; let alone becoming superior to them.

Then there are Nadars and Ezhavas of south India who have also moved up the social hierarchy only a little.

More examples of upward caste mobility are found in 8^th and 9^th centuries and onward. At that time there was no big ruler in India in northern India. This led to rise of uncertain conditions in north India. Many new local rulers arrived on the scene; each claiming suzerainty over a small area. These were by and large small kings of obscure origin. As usually these small kings did not have popular acceptance and neither the divine and social right to rule. This required acquiring of Kshatriya status by these people which could have made them qualified divinely ordained rulers. The Brahmans could only provide this. Thus, exchange of favors among new rulers and Brahmans took place and these new rulers were granted Kshatriya status by the Brahmans in lieu of patronage and acceptance of Brahmanical superiority. And the administrative jobs for Brahmans with these new kings were assured or reserved...

Caste mobility - 5

....To begin with the Jats were most probably Scythian who entered India sometime after entrance of other Scythians who invaded the Western India and established their rule. These other Scythians rulers were later co-opted by the Brahmans and given Kshatriya status. They came to be known as Rajputs who were to overlord over valiant Jats for a long time. The Jats, when they entered India, were a pastoral people. They were not the agriculturists as they are now. Though they did not lack quality of bravery but they did lack the capacity to organize on a sustainable basis. Their organized defenses or the resistance to big armies never lasted long enough and they always capitulated to strong rulers. But they were occasional source of local troubles to rulers. They were poor pastoral people who moved from place to place in search for greener pastures. They kept mainly camels, cows and buffalos in their cattle stock. Till the advent of modern medicine system from West they were the best vets and breeders. They sold milk and dairy products they got from their cattle stock. Occupation wise they were equivalent to Ahirs. However they also did engage themselves in the pursuit of plundering and robbing and thus always creating law and order problems for the local rulers. However, by 10^th century they also took up cultivation on temporary basis and came to be classified as low level Shudra. Though they have traveled a long up the social scale they are still regarded as Shudras, only the highest level Shudras. They lived a pastoral life and moved from here to there in search of greener pastures. They also plundered and robbed the people; this reminds of Rig Vedic Aryans who were pastoral as well as plunderers. Both of them took to agriculture. However like the Kayasthas their rise is also linked to the coming of Muslim rulers. Here again we find no help from within the Hindu framework. The lowly people took the help of adharmic invaders. The Jats joined the Muslim armies in large numbers. However, other Jats with their robbing and plundering ways were a constant source of trouble to Muslim rulers. However, this trouble was converted into asset by giving these poor, landless, ostracized but brave people jobs in the Muslim army infantry and making them cultivators. Not withstanding all the claims to Jats’ opposition to Muslims one finds that the largest conversions took place among Jats; they appear as cultivators only during Muslim rule; they formed big groups under Muslim rulers; their bravado was recognized only by Muslim rulers; afterward by British. Still one can see that there was no help from within the Hindu framework. The Jats proved to be efficient tillers but no more than that. Whatever they produced was taken away by the landlords leaving them barely with enough food to survive. However they were better than untouchables because the untouchables could at most be casual labor but not the tillers. The landlords exploited them. The Rajputs who in Rajasthan were the landlords, forcible took away their womenfolk frequently - not really a surprise from the cultured elites of Hindu society. In Rajasthan many disabilities were imposed on them not long ago. However the converted Jats maintained for a long time intermarrying into Hindu Jats and smoking or inter dining with them. Thus they probably became a favored group with Muslim rulers. Thus the Kayasthas did clerking and administrative jobs along with maintaining land records for Muslim rulers. The Jats on the other hand did the tilling and army infantry jobs for them. Even after becoming tillers, they were rarely able to accumulate anything in their entire lifetime (Jutt di joon buri- the life of a Jat was bad and fruitless). A Jat was supposed to be a person who could toil on others’ land all his lifetime without really hoping to get anything in return. All his sweat or bravery was not sufficient to raise his social status; he was bound to remain an impure Shudra. But he had become higher than untouchables. They had relatively stable source of income through tilling and jobs in army. The Jats unlike Rajputs were unable to make a forced entry into higher status of Hindu society. Under Muslim rule they were upgraded to Shudra level. After Mughal rule decayed they formed armed groups around the region of Agra; attacking the Mughal armies. At that time they established some small, kingdoms like Bharatpur and others. However they never got the status of Kshatriyas and were branded as unruly plunderers and bandits by the Kshatriyas and Brahmans. The Jats and Brahmans have traditionally ignored each other. The British classified them as martial race and gave them jobs in the army. This helped them further financially. Here joining the army as infantry indicates bravery as well economic pressure. They mainly did the tilling and joined army till the independence. After the independence the land reforms took place and the tillers became the owners of the land. Here was the real jump, they had become resource owners and highest among Shudras. Now they have the land and muscle power with them in rural upper north India but still have not acquired the status of Kshatriyas. But they are still regarded as uncultured by the cultured elites of the Hindu society.....

Caste mobility - 4

...Another example of upward caste mobility, are the Jats of upper northern India. The Jats are hardy farmers. At present they are landowning people in rural areas but they were not like this earlier. In 8^th and 9^th centuries they were treated as near untouchables. By 12^th century they came to acquire Shudra status. This was also the time of Delhi Sultanate, the Muslim rule in north India. With the advent of Muslim religion almost a third of Jats got converted to Muslim religion. It gave a real boost to Muslim religion and to Jats an occupation of soldiers with the Muslim rulers and also a tiller status with them. It looks like that they really disliked their Shudra status. Instead of improving their status by working with Muslims they chose a direct path of becoming Muslims outright. Now the Jats are dominating community in the Muslim state of Pakistan.

In 8^th century the Jats were ordered by Brahman king (the Brahmans could wield weapons and rule to save the dharma) of Sindh to go barefoot and do all other things applicable to untouchables. This would have reduced the nomadic Jats to the level of untouchables. We know that still in villages the untouchables are required to go barefoot this is an indication of their untouchable status. Had the situation prevailed for a long time say about 100 years or so; the now proud Jats would have become permanently untouchables – the lowest status people. As we know the lawmakers were the lawmakers. But fortunately for them the descent to fifth stratum was prevented by an event. The Muslim invaded the India for the first time. A young Muslim boy attacked the king of Sindh on the instruction of his king. And defeated and killed Brahman king. This was the king who gave the orders for Jats to go barefoot thus reducing them to untouchable level. However after the death of this Brahman king, the Sindh was ruled by Muslims and Jats were avoided the ignominy of going barefoot. They also joined the Kasim army and fought against Brahman king. Had this Brahman dynasty continued for 100 years the Jats would have become permanently untouchables. But the Muslim political interference stopped the logical course of action within a short period of time. The Jats were free again, back to their nomadic ways.....

Caste mobility - 3

...There is another way in which an endogamous jati can move up. This also includes a change to higher-level occupation along with a solution to problems of marriage and inter-dining. In this the whole jati moves up the social scale. The Kayasthas have moved a long way from being to near untouchables to be near to twice born. It has been a long difficult and arduous journey achieved with the help of Muslim invaders. The Kayasthas were the court musicians and dancers. The women and girls danced for the ruler and his courtiers. The men played musical instruments while their women danced. Not having their own means to survive they had to depend on the mercy of court and courtiers. It was an occupation of utmost subordination. Their women were more important as the skills of men were secondary to that of dancing. The men held secondary position. Their women danced to please. They were also the targets of exploitation. This exploitation passed from generation to generation. It was not one of the grandly respected occupations especially with the exploitation of women that went with it. In the ancient purity based society their social status was almost insulting. There was no purity to be maintained. Then came Muslim invaders and everything changed for them. At the same time dharma hid itself in unknown places under the onslaught of Muslim invaders. The Muslim rule was god-sent opportunity for them. The heaven changed its mood for the Kayasthas; it became benevolent in the form of Muslim rulers. After all, the Muslim rulers controlled the resources of the kingdom. The pillars, which crushed dharma, provided solid and strong support to Kayasthas. The Kayasthas progressed while dharma suffered under the rulership of idol breaker Muslims. Whose fault it was anyway? The lowly court musicians surviving on their dancing women were destined to become high-rise under the Muslim rule. As it happened, the rulers were predisposed to ruling the people only but somebody was required to do the administrative work. The Muslim rulers wanted all the record to be kept in Persian, the language was not known to people here. One had to know the Persian to gain employment with the rulers. High caste Hindus were generally averse to do the work for Muslim rulers because dharma was suffering. They were also not used to being subordinates. Thus by and large they avoided working for foreign rulers. Like earlier foreign rulers the Muslim were not interested in accepting cultural hegemony and superiority of Brahmans. They believed that worshipping idols was meant for heathen people since idols did not have any real powers. Thus they were disinclined to accept the superiority of heathen people. However they ran short of people to run the administrative. The Brahmans and other high castes were not coming forward to learn the Persian and take up the court work. The lowly Kayasthas grabbed the opportunity with both the hands. They learnt the Persian and took up the court work. The study of Persian spread in the community of Kayasthas and with that the employment with the rulers. They handled the court records first then land records. The land record work was very heavy; heavy enough to give a significant number of Kayasthas work with the court. Then slowly they were elevated to the ministerial jobs which was as good as being Brahmans in Varna dharma. This opportunity could have never been provided to them by the time tested ancient Varna dharma. When British came they got land Zamindari under their rule - it pays to be on the side of rulers. Then they acquired the modern education and got plum jobs with English rulers. Now they are as good as twice born. Some even claim Kshatriya status and get accepted as such...

Caste mobility - 2

...A man interested in raising his status in Hindu society raises a whole lot of problems. Where this man and his offspring would marry? With whom he would dine? With whom he would socialize? What should be his occupation? What should be his place in power structure? Such a man would thrteaten the existing social structure and its beneficiaries. This threat itself is a corrupting influence. It would be desirable to ostracize this man to avoid theses problems that transgress upon Varna dharma or cosmic order of the society. Such an ostracization would result in avoidance of an introduction of filthy impurities in the society. For example, for a Shudra to become Brahman it is essential to teach him Vedas; he should be eligible to teach Vedas to higher Varnas; he should be able to marry a Brahman girl; all the Kshatriyas should pay him respect by touching his feet or accept their secondary position to him; he should receive the same respectful treatment from Vaisyas and other section of the society without any questions. It is near impossible to find even one person from any of the Varna who agrees to treat him as such. The impossibility keeps on increasing as one adds more people and more Varnas. Thus in the total absence of extension of such facilities which are available to born Brahmans, the Shudra in question remains where he was. The insurmountable questions are raised in the process - the questions which do not have any solutions within the Varna dharma.

However, the downward mobility was automatically implied in the ostracization process which created the outcastes. Automatically, all the outcastes, who were without any ceremonial, social and property rights, became members of the fifth stratum.

The caste system does show some flexibility when it comes to movement of full jati because it automatically solves the main problems of marriage and inter dining. A group moving up can always marry within the same group. Thus the bloodlines and purity of other groups or jatis are not affected. This upward movement of a jati is an extremely slow process but it does happen. One way for this to happen is the learning of new higher-level occupational skills by some members of caste. Thus two occupational groups in the same caste are created. The number of such newly skilled people in a new occupation keeps on growing. After a considerable gap of about three or four generations the number of such people grows considerably. The people belonging to new group start intermarrying and leave out the people still following the old occupation. This process is carried forward in time till the new group becomes totally endogamous and separates. This causes a new endogamous occupational jati to emerge. For an example, some Chamars may learn a new occupation of weaving due to reasons beyond the control of anybody. The reason may be the wiping out of weaver community in that area due to any epidemic leaving nobody to weave. Or it may be due to foreign invasion that caused the weaving community to migrate totally to some other area. Or because the foreigners have created a new power structure which has created a new class of religious converts willing to employ the skinners as weavers. As long as new skinner-weavers are few in number they continue to align themselves with their skinner caste. As the time goes by these skinner-weavers grow large into numbers. They start intermarrying and a time comes when these skinner weavers become an endogamous jati in their own right. Then they cut off all the links with their previous skinner caste and separate. And a new weaving jati comes into existence. The weaving occupation becomes their heredity occupation. In due course of time the society also starts identifying them by their new endogamous occupational group at a relatively higher social status....

Caste mobility - 1

......The Hindu society is famous for its watertight five boxes of people, four Varnas and one Antyaja. These are five straight hierarchical strata with no overlapping in between. There are clear-cut four Varnas only and Varna-Sankars are outlawed. An individual is born in an endogamous jati with his inherited Varna, inherited occupation, an inherited social status, inherited disabilities and inherited priviliges. One is born in a jati; marries within jati and dies within jati. The caste or jati is social world in which one lives. The people from other castes are outsider to him; with them he interacts only on the basis of unequal social status and economic needs; no permanent relationship bonds them and no possibility thereof. His all relatives and father and forefathers are from within the same jati only. It is only a dharmic way of living or righteous way of living.

An individual in his lifetime has no chances of upward mobility in group based caste system that does not really recognize any individual. Any individual is recognizable only through his heredity group or caste. Without knowing the caste of a person one cannot really place him in Hindu social, economic and power structure. The knowledge about his caste helps others in showing appropriate behavior toward him. An individual has to behave according to his caste and the castes of others; he has no really individual behavior or personality; his behavior is always relative. A person becomes mentally meek or aggressive depending upon his caste in relation to others’ castes. The caste of a man molds his life. The caste enforces social, economic and power structure around him.

To be effective the claims of an individual for upward mobility in the caste system has to be approved (ratified?) by the collective might of traditional social system. In the vertically stratified society of five strata an individual is higher than some and lower than some. Some individual may not accept their heredity social ranking in the caste system and may claim that he is superior to those above him. A Vaisya may claim that he is superior to Brahmans. However, this claim is without effect until ratified by the people belonging to other Varnas. And for their own welfare, people would not recognize such a claim. It is necessary for moving up on social scale that all the other people agree to it. The higher Varnas would not appreciate it; the lower Varnas would not recognize his new status. If they were do so their own social ranking would be adversely affected. So he remains where he was. Even the almighty God with his unlimited power cannot raise and change the born scavenger into a Brahman and make the society to accept him as such. The lawmakers have disabled the almighty God through Karma theory. A disabled God is contradiction of terms. However it is a reality in Hindu framework. The God cannot help people from lower castes in raising themselves. And there is no ritual prescribed in scriptures to raise the Varna of a man; it was not the intention of the lawmakers also; any such provision would have undermined their monopoly on the society and religion and would have adversely affected the benefits attached to such a position. No Ghure (garbage dump) Lal or Kachara (garbage) Mall was supposed to make laws; one needed the purity of blood for such sacred purpose....

The Village -18

....In the not so old Hindu Peshawa raj of Marathas, the untouchables were not allowed to walk on the streets of Pune city in morning and evening. This avoided the falling of polluting shadows on caste Hindus of the city. In evening and morning the shadows become larger and their chances of falling on Brahmans increased manifold that would have polluted them and their sacrosanct self. There are people who still yearn for those times when everything was in its proper place; when the movement of polluting shadows was under control. These are the people who think that India is going to dogs because of not following such traditions. In some places the untouchables were required to carry a small earthen pot around their necks so that they could spit in it to avoid contaminating the streets on which the uppity nosed high castes walked. However, the spitting of high caste did not pollute the streets; their spiting was unhygienic but not polluting. There is a difference between pure and clean, one can be clean and still impure and unclean but still pure. Some spiritual aspects of Hindu religion are fathomless. The logic stands on it head. There is rationality in irrationality. Somebody still has to isolate any polluting substance in the saliva of untouchables and which is not found in the saliva of high caste people. And still somebody has to find out the reasons for which the saliva of upper caste could not pollute the streets of Pune while that of untouchables’ could. In some places they had to tie a broom around their waists to automatically sweep the streets that became polluted by their walking. For the untouchables the veritable hell was in this world only; others had to die to see it. For them the arrangements to live in hell are made here itself - the eternally privileged untouchables! Otherwise who would go to such an extent to do this for them? Is it the law of Karma or something else? It was courtesy the pure, pious and powerful lawmakers. In some places they had to wear a black thread around their necks or wrists for quick identification by the upper caste people who then could keep safe distance from them. They could only talk to Brahmans from a distance so that their polluting breath did not touch them...

The Village -17

....The high caste people are always ready to shed the blood if their Varna dharma is destroyed. The only condition is that it should not be their blood. This blood should belong to weak and poor untouchables who are not in a position to retaliate. If it is somebody stronger then they rapidly develop the tolerance with electrifying speed. However, when it comes to fifth stratum, they are effectively able to show them their place in the society and make them to behave. They maintain the eternal ways of their grand cultural heritage.

The police are deeply disinterested in filing their report and taking any action. A self induced paralysis develops in the police force when it comes to taking any action in any case of atrocities on the weak and isolated people. After all it amounts to taking action against their kith and kin and people of their own status. A whole farce is carried out which starts from filing of report and lasts till completing the investigation. The final report generally is that the atrocity actually did not take place or the criminal could not be identified because of want of witness. After this charade which may last up to court hearing, the culprits are usually honorably discharged. However, a feigned seriousness runs throughout the course. The Varna dharma runs deep down in Hindus society. It is deeply embedded in the psyche of the society.

In any conflict between higher caste people and untouchables, all the people belonging to the particular untouchable jati in the area are collectively punished for the supposed fault of a single man. This fault may be like raising the voice against the injustice. This group oriented punishment helps in preserving the purity of caste system by teaching the weakest group a solid lesson. Their economic boycott follows any violence against them. Only the physical violence is not deemed to be sufficient against them. The threat of starvation must hang on their heads. The untouchables are generally landless laborers who have to work on the fields of land owning high castes to make a living. In any boycott no farmer would give them any work on his fields. No shopkeeper would sell them any grocery item or anything else. They are also not allowed to cross the high caste fields to go to work. So they cannot earn and cannot buy anything to eat. The alternative is to go hungry or temporarily migrate to some other areas where their relatives live. Or capitulate before high castes. Physical subjugation is not enough; they have to be broken down mentally. And the famed Panchayats play a critical, pure and pious role in it. They decide and regulate this boycott. Any high caste person defying the boycott is fined by the Panchayats and threat of his ostracization looms large. The Panchayats are the upholder of grand inhuman tradition of suppressing the untouchables; they keep them in their prideless place. All this happens for the cause of maintaining the order in the society. The social harmony has to be maintained.....

The Village - 16

...Then there are meaningful ways devised to prevent them from attending the schools. In the grand tradition of separation between jatis the students from the weakest of society are made to sit separately. They are also not allowed to draw water from school taps for the purpose of drinking for the fear of contamination. They have to wait for somebody from upper caste to open the tap so that they drink water and who will also close it afterward. Further to add insult to injury the teacher never misses a chance to scold or punish them in a humiliating manner in front of the class or the school on filmsy grounds. It is always caste exemplary. The insults are added after insults as if though the ever present insults in their lives are not enough. The more they are insulted the more soothing it is to others. A cloud of insults always hovers over their heads ever ready to rain furiously. At times the punishment can be corporal and so severe and so frequent that the student stops going to school. Even the social insulting is some times sufficient for them to leave the school. Had it not been for British and their egalitarian outlook the untouchables would have never got the education. The British with an attitude of superiority in favor of their educational system overrode the dharmic and social and divine objections of upper castes in allowing the lowest stratum to enter the schools. They did the greatest damage to sacred, pure and divine Varna dharma in forcing the upper castes and the lowest castes to sit together in the schools. Not even the Muslims tried that with the Hindus. Anyway the people whose dharma got contaminated must have gone straight to hell or must have taken the birth of jackals, lizards, insects, worms and other lower level form of lives.

Just out of context, there are people who consider the Vedic Rishis being superior to Newton and Einstein on the grounds best understood by them. They agree with each other and live in eternal bliss. The explanations they offer are restricted to themselves and not to be told to lower strata people. They also illogically consider the Vedic education to be superior to modern education.

And in rural areas there is a system of two tumblers. It is matter of preventing the contaminations of different castes through touch. It is a matter of keeping away the clean from the unclean. The village restaurant is a small dingy makeshift arrangement of dirty wooden work. All the broken, uneven and unequal pieces of wood are joined to give it a semblance of a room. The gaping holes are covered with dirty and torn cloth pieces. No cleanliness reaches there but they keep the clean separate from unclean. One set of tumbler is meant for the use of higher caste people. There is one more lone tumbler for the use of the lowest stratum of the society. A member of the fifth stratum has to drink the tea in the tumbler marked for untouchables. After that he has to clean it and keep it back. Then another fifth stratum member can repeat the process. And if there are many of them then they have to drink tea in sequence. No staff from these dingy and dirty restaurants would touch this tumbler and neither would clean it. The higher caste people would not drink from this tumbler to maintain the sanctity of their higher social status. It is an indication of wisdom of ancient people who categorized people into different compartments and made their dwellings and other things separate to keep the pollution at bay. However, the new generation of the lowest section of the society does not believe in such wisdom, they are infused or contaminated with the ideas of modern world and considers it to be inhuman thereby questions the entire philosophy of Varna dharma...

The Village -15

...Getting education also qualifies to be major offence. One reason is that it involves sitting of high caste children with untouchable children which is responsible for spread of impurities directly from person to person. One should know this dharmic fact. This can make all the high caste children impure which require bathing at home or risk the spread of impurities in other members of family and thereby in the whole of village society. This can impurify whole of the village endangering the pure, sacred and innocence dharma. Secondly it goes against the major rule of Varna dharma of subordination of untouchables to higher Varnas. The education enables the untouchables to fill the gap between themselves and others. Thus it is a major move toward their emancipation. And high castes do not like them to get nearer; the lower down they are, the better it is. The education among the untouchables jeopardizes the entire dharma. However the education to them is considered purposeless especially when the traditional education specialists in other Varnas are available. Only the higher three Varnas are eligible for education. After all there should be labor specialization. The untouchables are deemed to be fit only for leatherwork, scavenging and at best for doing the agriculture labor or lower level unskilled work. This is the maximum talent they are supposed to possess and not the awesome talent of cramming Vedas. They are supposed to be unfit for any higher-level work like education. There were the golden times for Brahmans when the molten lead was poured into the ears of impure people who happen to hear even a single word of sacred and divine Vedas. Such times of non-competition are looked upon by upper castes with nostalgia. Tears after tears are shed for disappearance of such dharmic times. These tears come straight from the pious, pure and innocent hearts. If untouchables are allowed to study then it is an indication that the civilization has since degenerated to abysmal depths. The education is not supposed to be part of life of these lowly people and it should not become one. Getting education means going to school which means encroaching on the dharmic monopoly of high castes and which is strongly resented in village society. It is needless to say that the schools are deemed to be meant for upper caste people. It is getting to be repetitive but the crippled lives of the people from lowest stratum have been a integral part of the Hindu civilization for 2500 years which requires to be repeatedly told. The people from lowest stratum are supposed to follow their traditional jobs only for which they are supposed to have appropriate and innate talent. They should not cut off themselves from their traditional roots of their cultural heritage. In addition it was the dharma which their ancestors followed faithfully. In getting education they are supposed to be flouting the rules by which their forefathers lived. ...

The village - 14

...However, all this fabulous display of bravery is reserved to be used against helpless, weak and unarmed people who can barely manage to make the ends meet. None of this fabulous, legendry and god created inherently superior bravery was on display when it met with Muslim invaders and British colonizers. Then their righteous mightiness disappeared into unknown places with its tail tucked deep inside. At that time they gladly adjusted to their subordinated status; not an iota of an effective bravery was on display. All the bravery was trampled upon by the foreigners with ridiculous ease; the Hindus could rule only over a disarmed, unclothed and hungry population. Only a handful of foreigners were needed to bring this ancient and mammoth civilization down to its knees and that too with effortless ease. Absolutely at that time the question of their honor or honor of their womenfolk did not arise. The Muslim warriors who were without women were not supposed to play marbles with the girls and women of this land. It was forced Niyoga. The question of honor or dharma did not arise at that time. Actually the concept of dharma became malleable instead of being permanent or divine. The non-Hindu human beings could easily play with this divine dharma. This malleability or a tendency to capitulation enabled this Varna dharma to survive. They opted for submission to avoid further damage. Had they taken brave and rigid stand at that time then the dharma would have been destroyed totally. The authority of Muslims was submissively acknowledged. So it was not desirable for Muslims to push the servile Hindus too far. The sheer arrogance of higher Varnas got completely reduced to dust. Their pride crawled on the ground. At that time the eternal dharma went to pieces and nobody effectively objected to it. The God created intelligence, the God created bravery, which were used with killing effects against the untouchables refused to essay anything other than complete servility. A paralysis developed in the innate superior qualities. After all, the God created them to rule; they turned out to be miserable failures. Dharma survived by accepting the meek position of servitude and subordination. The divinely ordained intelligence and bravery hid themselves under the dust raised by the hooves of horses of Muslim invaders. These qualities readily mingled with earth on which the foreigners treaded with their mighty boots. The half-baked bravery and half-baked intelligence were reserved for the landless, hungry, weaponless, isolated untouchables living in small mud huts without any viable means of subsistence...

The village - 13

...And wearing sleepers is also a great offence. It is out of touch with their social status. This simple act is also an absoloute act of insubordination. Thus it is punishable by the dharmic high caste people. Anybody can take law into his hands to save the dharma which amounts to saving Varna dharma. All the untouchables have to take off the sleepers when passing by upper castes or their houses. They cannot wear them in their presence. There should be no quarrel with that. They have to appear totally helpless with a bare minimum covering on their bodies. Any untouchable assertion is dharmically prohibited.

And taking an untouchable groom on a mare during a marriage procession can play havoc with the mental peace of upper castes. The man who is supposed to go barefoot and wear unclean, old and torn clothes dares to ride a mare, which is the sign of a ruler, in their presence and bring so many people to show off. From such a height he dares to look down upon the upper castes. He can never raise himself to their heights. And going through the cluster of houses of upper caste! It is pure sacrilege. It may cause serious law and order problem. It seems that the heathen people have slapped the upper caste people right in the face; anybody superior to them doing it would have been all right; but the untouchables? They are not allowed to do that. Their status and dharma is in danger. So the mentally tortured upper castes decide to save dharma by taking recourse to arms. A brave display of bravery takes place. The violence erupts. The troubled conscious of upper caste people does not take rest until the blood of unarmed untouchables flows on the earth like polluted red water. Few untouchable dead bodies are sufficient to give the feelings of serenity to their agitated conscious. So some of heathens are killed and this continues until the untouchables have given up. After killing they safely go to their large houses while the cries of bereaved people can be clearly heard from small untouchable huts. The honor of upper castes has been saved and they are satisfied; a sense of eternal bliss prevails. These heathen people cannot play with their honor. The gaping whole that was about to appear in the delicately woven fabric of dharma has been embroidered with a few corpses. They cannot be accused of not being aesthetic. Everybody on the side of dharma heaves a sigh of relief. The twang of pain on the faces of untouchables is equally matched by the radiant smiles on the faces of tormentors; the protectors of divine Varna dharma; the Brahman lawmakers appreciate themselves in an appreciating way; the self satisfied grins spread on their faces and silent appreciating glances are exchanged...

The Village -12

...The Varna dharma morality also dictates that the untouchables shall behave their divinely ordained status. The untouchable shall not indulge in such acts which offend upper castes and that is dharmically final and settled. He shall never try to become equal to an upper caste; that is the bare bone essential. He shall never indulge in the unethical act of hurting social sensibilities of his superiors. He shall willfully submit to all the humilities heaped upon him, his family and his jati. He shall always be servile to upper castes. He shall possess no ego. He shall not study. He shall not walk in an upright posture. He shall not talk back. He shall never assert himself. He shall never enter into temples. He shall endure with the insults heaped on his womenfolk. That is the culture.

He has committed the involuntary ghastly crime of being born in an untouchable family and goes on to compound his sins by wearing a decent set of clothes and thus treading upon the dharmic egos of upper caste people. He ought to be taught a lesson and he will be. It will be an enduring lesson. It should set up such a depth containing cruel example so that it prevents other untouchables from following the same anti-social path of dishonoring the upper castes by trying to become honorable. He is guilty of tearing the delicate and meticulously built social fabric of the society where preponderous servility passes as proof of social harmony. He is guilty of challenging the social authority. He is impurifying the society by trying to mix his polluted self with others. So a nice piece of ruthless thrashing, at least, would be forthcoming, in order to maintain the divinely ordained Varna dharma. So that in future he desists from such an anti-social act amounting to interference in the cosmic order. He shall not wear away from god assigned nature and duties. He should wear only old, unclean and torn out clothes. He shall extend all his servile cooperation in maintaining the Varna dharma otherwise it should be extracted from him. The punishment also assures the high caste people of their great dharmic heritage. A river of such assuring and soothing feelings runs through upper caste psyches through the system of punishing the untouchables. If the punishments were not deemed to be sufficient then dishonoring their womenfolk would be next in order. And they shall be mute witness to this, cursing their helplessness, destiny and of course Karmas. Only their Karmas are to be blamed for dishonoring of their womenfolk; nobody can be held responsible for this; especially when the high caste people are not answerable to low caste people. Sometimes the upper caste people do not need any flimsy reasons for committing this highly cultural dastardly act. This dastardly act has been long culturalized in Hindu society. Since ancient time, there has been no law and order as far as untouchables are concerned. It has been a Goonda Raj for them from the very beginning. They are like the preys to be hunted upon by the dharmic people....

The Village - 11

...And should an untouchable desire to dress him well? The heavens would fall. It would be quite contrary to dharmic ways. An untouchable is supposed to talk, walk, wear, eat, sleep and behave his jati. All his acts should be in perfect alignment with his lowest status in the society. It is quite painful and mentally unstabilizing for an upper caste to see an untouchable getting out of this alignment. Perfect geometry of alignment has to be maintained. Harmony is harmony no matter what. The way of living of an untouchable should be in harmony with his insulting status. Otherwise it makes high castes emotional wrecks. It makes them angry with a perfect degree of righteousness. It is sufficient to send them in a maniacal mind set causing destruction to untouchables and their huts. Nobody can ever accuse them of not being geometrical and. they cannot also be accused of not believing in harmony. The upper castes do not see any meaning in seeing a well-dressed untouchable. They think it is purposeless and the particular untouchable is aspiring for too much; getting out of alignment of dharmic social structure. It is an affront to their dignity. Any untouchable ought to be satisfied with getting two square meals a day; filling his belly should be the highest ambition for him. That is the limit imposed on him by Varna dharma. If he is dressing himself well then he is crossing the ethical limits; it is unethical to hurt the dignity of higher castes; no dharma-abiding untouchable should do it. It is demeaning for higher castes to see a polluted man going around the village in decent clothes. By wearing decent clothes he is being indecent to others. The decency incorporates indecency. The honor of untouchables implies dishonor of high castes. And dishonor of untouchables means honor of high castes. Some untouchable has been indecent enough to wear decent clothes. Now he has to be fixed for that. His forefathers never dared to do it. No high caste can bear such social indecency; it is a matter of honor. The untouchables were never in a position to face the wrath of upper castes and they are still not. It is not for him to fill the gap in clothing between him and the upper castes; he is supposed to know his wretched place. He shall not dare to come out of his wretchedness. Otherwise breaking few bones of such a recalcitrant untouchable is quite satisfactory to righteously, morally and ethically superior high castes. Thrashing badly an untouchable is like thrashing the wheat...

The Village - 10

...The untouchables are still searching for their crimes which caused this exclusion forcing them to use the water shared by animals. Nobody is coming forward with any proof. However, the untouchables dare not approach the village wells not meant for them as few splattered brains here and there do not matter. Few bloodstained bodies lying here and there on the ground assure the high castes of their superiority and purity of their Varna. The blood flowing on the earth is merely dirty red thick water that comes dirt-cheap. The flash of untouchables looks good only when it is separated from their bodies in the cause of dharma. This would assure the souls of tormentors thousands of years in heaven for such brave and dharmic deeds. Even some of them would get the Moksha straight away. The Sanatana dharma would be eternally thankful to them. No, that is wrong; the Brahmas can never be thankful to any Hindu; see it was their (the tormentors’) Varna job they were doing – nothing personal about it. The impure souls of heathen untouchables would be separated from their impure bodies and take the birth of jackals, dogs, lizards and insects etc in their next life as a due punishment for taking the water from high caste well, resulting in violation of dharma. The heavens had never been happier. So the untouchables have to search for another source of water other than the upper caste wells. They may have to tread for miles altogether but they would do it even if it is scorching sun. They have to avoid the death at the hands of dharma defenders. They have to minimize their sufferings.

Few people going without water is immaterial; dharma is supreme.

This infallible and supreme dharma suddenly developed paralysis when faced Muslim invaders and British colonizers. It immediately went into a mode of capitulation and submissive, egoless cooperation with such adharmic people – the cow-eaters. The superiority mingled with earth and nobody objected but everybody objected to the use of village well by untouchables; perfectly logical; only the armless people with half filled bellies could be shown dharma but not the adharmic people backed with full armies. The village well cannot be used by untouchables though the dharma can be buried under the feet of Muslims and British. The priorities were clear-cut; rule of dharma in case of untouchables and rule of foreigners in case of Muslims and British; a clean and crystal clear piece of thinking; knowing which side of the bread was buttered; bending with the wind and hunting the hare...

The Village -9

...As far as the leftovers are considered, it looks like that there was a pact between high castes and untouchables that if the untouchables did not compete for the food with the animals like cows and dogs then the high castes would break their heads. Or the Brahmans were given a boon by the almighty God that the untouchable would compete with the animals to get food from them. This very soothing element of Varna dharma approaches deep down the hearts of lawmakers and others. The consequences of not competing with the animals for food were self destructive for untouchables. They could have starved to death and any violence from the weak people was immensely punishable. If few heads were broken and brains splattered on the streets, it hardly mattered. The atrocities committed in past and present are the proof of highly cultural and spiritual attitude of highly spiritualized people. The hatred flowed like an overflowing Amazon, the hatred born out of purity.

Next, we will see the traditional inhuman treatment of untouchables in the innocent villages. Some people consider the villages as innocence personified, far away from the exploitative modern materialism. Of course the villages are devoid of any element of humanity but even after that they are considered to contain an inbuilt ancient pure and pious innocence. First of all the untouchables do not have reach up to common village well. This keeps the standing water in the village well pure. They have to have their own well or they have to use any other source of water. Animals like dogs and buffalos may share this other water source – see the equality – no room for complaint is left to the dogs and buffaloes. According to Rig Veda the water is great purifier; however, the touch of an untouchable can pollute the standing water. Now what happens when the purifier is polluted? The basic need of life is polluted which can play havoc with the dharma of people in general. Everything will be thrown out of gear. Anybody using polluted water would get polluted. And many would use it. Then many people’s dharma would get corrupted or destroyed or infected. This would result in lowering of dharmic and social superiority of concerned people. Some would still be pure and some would be impure. The people belonging to same caste would no longer be equal because some would be pure and some would be impure. Their understanding of each other would get adversely affected. They would not know how to treat each other. Nobody would be sure about Brahmans’ purity for reciting Vedas and worshipping the gods. Nobody would know who is high and who is low. There would be nobody pure enough to teach dharma and complete the rituals. If highs become low then what would happen to lows. It would be total chaos if allowed to happen; the order the divine order would break down. Thus the untouchables should be kept away from village waters...

The Village - 8

...Did anybody say anything about exploitation of human beings in materialistic western societies?

Frequently, the untouchables had to go to the houses of upper castes and take the leftovers at the gate itself like servile servants or beggars. They moved from house to house and got it wherever it was available; the permanent Varna exploitation in an eternal pious and pure dharma. They were grossly underpaid which forced them to go to the houses of permanent exploiters to beg for food. Sometimes they had to compete for the food directly with animals like dogs and cows in an utterly dharmic manner. The untouchables were required to take out the carcass of dead cows and other animals out of village and throw it at a far away place. However they were forced to eat the meat of the dead cow out of poverty. They could not afford to buy the meat of a butchered goat. This was the meat of a cow that was not butchered or slaughtered but the one that had died due to old age or some kind disease. It came for free. And for this they had to compete with the vultures and kites; a grand and predestined event.

Of course Varna dharma does not know anything about humanity. Why should it?

The atrocities against the untouchables were not very infrequent even when they did not know anything except permanent and humiliating servility. The sword of atrocity was always hanging over their heads. And whoever dared to go against the confirmed rules of the dharmic society was punished severely along with his jati people in that particular area. The Hindu society does not differentiate much between a man and his jati. A man is judged according to his heredity group. The crime of man from one of the lowest jati is the crime of his jati; the punishment is collective with an aim to teach an sustainable cruel lessons to these people. Actually the unsafe and insulted untouchables have faced a Goonda Raj (goons’ rule) for 2500 years; a small period of jubilation for the cruel upper castes; they earnestly desired it to be interminably extended. The more the atrocities were committed on untouchables, the more pious were the upper castes and more was the dharmic content of the society. This is the beauty of caste system. Commiting atrocities, is a finely devised way to increase the dharmic contents of the society. The ghastly details are left to those who play like instruments into the hands of lawmakers...

The Village -7

...The untouchables are segregated outside the village and prohibited from taking part in any the village social functions. If they are allowed then they are allowed in such way as to confirm their insulted status in the society. Their major contribution is unpaid labor for which they are paid with leftovers in a separate corner.

The land was owned by the higher castes but all the people depended upon it for their survival. The landowning castes owned the lifeline of the village. The land was owned by high caste people and tilled by Shudra tillers who are the forever servants in Hindu society. The casual labor was provided by the untouchables; they were the eternal polluted bottom of the heap. They provided lowly paid labor and worked from field to field.

The people from different jatis provided different things to be used in agriculture. They were mainly ironsmiths, carpenters and leather workers. The carpenter and ironsmith provided plough the leather workers provided large water carriers made of full size buffalo skin for carrying the water from well to fields. The potters provided the pots to be used in homes. In exchange they were given their share at the time of reaping the crop. Those who were not directly related to land got their share directly from land owning castes in exchange of their services.

All got their shares does not mean that they got equal share. The share was usually fixed for every jati. The share they got was barely sufficient for survival. The food was not sufficient for untouchables and Shudras. Sometimes they had to eat the bread made out of fodder or grass. Sometimes they had to eat the grains cleaned out of cow dung. It insulted the lower two strata but added tones of superiority to the personalities of higher Varnas. Such a spiritual treatment was never seen; nothing like freezing and demeaning inhumanity or a burning desire to humiliate the lowly human beings but simply an ancient river overflowing with eternal compassion for the two lower strata; and a cool, calm, soothing, self satisfying breeze flowing in the superior and purer clusters of high caste houses; there the ethereal selves walked dozen feet high in the air with ever broadening radiant smiles; the quiet jubilation knew no bound; after all their superior selves could force the Shudras and untouchables to eat such a grain cleaned out of cow dung; such a show of unsaid permanent tormenting superiority was quite common in Hindu society. This goes to show that there was more than sufficient to feed the animals of high castes but not for the human beings. It is a show of Varna exploitation....

The Village -6

...The people from different castes do not have any affinity with each other. A man from a given caste is friendlier with a man from same caste and not with a man from a different caste. The same caste men from different villages are treated as kith and kin by each other. Actually caste is an extended kinship that cuts through village limits and reaches beyond. The village can always be undermined for favoring the caste. This loyalty to caste is maintained from place to place, from cities to cities, from villages to cities and even to foreign countries. Indian Diaspora is known for its castiest nature.

In any group the moment the caste identity of a man is revealed the feeling within group changes. It changes to affinity if the person is from same caste and to contempt and hatred if the person is from lower caste. The caste is the actual place where one mentally and emotionally lives. The village is the physical reality. The village is not an emotional and mental construct to which one can have loyalty. The attachment in the villages is mainly to their caste and caste cluster of houses and to land if they own any; other things are irrelevant. The Indian Diaspora maintains its loyalty to caste; it is in their well honored roots....

The Village -5

...To segregate is a natural characteristic of caste system. The castes themselves are segregated groups of different endogamous people. The area of one caste starts at the end of wall of the last house of cluster of another caste. These areas never intersect each other though many areas may be adjoining. The people belonging to a given caste hardly talk to people from another caste. Any talk should be only on the caste basis other wise it has to be salutations and their acceptances. All socializations among different castes are only pretensions because those who cannot eat together cannot talk together. The talks among different castes are need based only.

The overflowing cup of hatred and contempt flows in the downward direction. The steam of respect moves in upward direction. They hatred and respect never cancel out each other. The environment in the village usually appears to be cordial and friendly; everybody goes around doing his job according to his place in the social and economic system. Each caste is a society in itself; insulated and isolated. It is logical because for the marriages they do not need the other castes. Thus no relations mean insulation. This insulation and isolation provided the purity in the society; exactly the non-mixing of bloodlines. People are separated from each other in their hearts...

The Village -4

...In an Indian village the people from different castes are found. All the innumerable castes in India are not found in one village. From outside one can never guess the caste nature of an Indian village. From outside it looks like a random cluster of houses. However there is a strong caste pattern in this seemingly randomness. There are many adjoining clusters of houses in the village. There are clusters alongside clusters. The people belonging to a given caste live in the houses or huts that clustered together, the helmet. The high caste people live in the important area of the village which is usually the middle of it. Their houses are usually big and large. Other castes live around them and in clusters. The untouchables usually live at the inauspicious southern end of the village or outside the southern end of the village. The inauspicious people live in the inauspicious direction. Such a positioning meant that they absorbed all the ill effects due inauspicious southern direction. This direction is considered inauspicious probably since Rig Vedic days when the settlements of Vedic people were prone to violent attack from the southern side where the natives of the land lived. Considering the history of this land, the northern direction should be the inauspicious because all the attacks on land come from there.

The untouchables generally have their small mud huts in an isolated corner as an indication of their poverty and isolation. These hamlets have mud huts with hardly anything inside them. They have hardly anything to sleep on; few torn and ragged clothes to put on; few old cooking utensils and a small box. This small box can hold inside it more things than they can accumulate in their lifetime. The earning abilities granted to them by sacred and pure Varna dharma can be easily dwarfed by a handful of grains....

The Village - 3

....The sole objective of untouchables was to minimize their sufferings. The miseries; eternal, the man made, predestined miseriess followed them even in their mud huts. The miseries followed them while they worked on others’ land. The miseries of being born insulted. The miseries of watching their women being dishonored under the great culture of the great land was like piercing the mind. The miseries followed them while they walked. In addition there were the miseries of half filled bellies; the miseries of being denied water to drink; the miseries of ragged clothes; the miseries of watching the whole family being insulted; the miseries of watching their whole community being insulted; the never ending miseries. The miseries existed prior to birth and will exist after death. The lowest stratum is always predestined to swim in the mud swamp of gutter miseries; all this indicates what a great dharma it is.

The powerful did not actually use the violence frequently but always kept it ready in their armor. The weak could not resort to violence. So the violence was minimal and the dharma was happy. It was an eternal situation. The Brahmans chanted the mantras and skinners tanned the skins. And never the skin tanners crossed willingly the paths of pious, pure and powerful lawmakers. They deliberately kept away from Brahmans which was desired by the Brahmanas and safe for the untouchables also. There was smooth and rampant treading of casteism on the lives of lower caste people which did not create any backlash but only ineffective and silent murmurs, silent cries and silent sobbing which were not destined to go beyond their mud huts....

And this was the innocence that was broken by the roaring steam railway engines.

The Village -2

...It was quite a merciful system where lower castes lived at the mercy of upper castes. They were born with it and accepted it as their true living condition, which was not far away from reality. It was a fait accompli. Lower caste people lived a life resigned to their dasterdly fate. The powerful towered above the wretched ones. And absolutely it produced no upward bounce. Allowing it would have been totally adharmic. Everybody knew his place in the society and behaved accordingly. The lower caste people showed deference to higher case people who showed it to still higher caste people. The contempt moved piously in opposite direction. The untouchables prostrated on the ground on which upper caste people moved. They walked with their eyes downcast, head bowed down, shoulder stooped, meek gait and torn out clothes so that the dharma was maintained. The time stood still for generations altogether. It was a time of eternal exploitation for permanent dharmic exploiters. It was Varna exploitation. At the bottom of the society were untouchables who lived at the inauspicious southern end of the village or outside the southern end of the village.

People lived like masters and servants. The slavery was avoided because impure Shudras and polluted untouchables were not supposed to live in the houses of upper castes. The purity had to be maintained. They were like eternal masters and their servile servants. The servants were generally kept at a safe distance. The consideration of purity kept them separate from each other. The castes were closely knit but not the society. The higher ones lorded over others. There was little violence in the village. The land owning castes usually maintained a private army of musclemen who were tillers on their land. The violence anyway was unnecessary because the Shudras and untouchables were not allowed to carry the arms; it was a demilitarized society. Only Kshatriyas, soldiers and land owning castes were allowed to carry the arms. Any conflict between land owning castes and lower castes would have been one-sided show of arms. The demilitarized population contributed significantly to a stable society. Actually the three ancient, stable and still existing civilizations India, China and Japan have one thing in common. The population in all three civilizations was demilitarized. This by and large prevented successful rebellion by the general population. The lack of arms and land or any kind of any other assets hardly provided the Shudras and untouchables with any force or motivation to rebel. They had to face the enemy with bare hands, empty bellies without any support from anywhere. In absence of weapons how did the Shudras enter into a serious argument with each other? Both the weak parties used agriculture equipments and bamboo sticks for such purposes. Entering into a serious argument with the Kshatriyas was beyond their capabilities. The God created bravery and rulership of Kshatriyas needed a disarmed population to lord over. The population had to be weakened to affirm the strength of the Kshatriyas. A strange kind of bravery it was. The lower castes willingly acknowledged their servility because of handicaps imposed on them by the Vedic dharma. They did not have much alternative. Bare handedly it was difficult to rebel against the armed people on whom they depended for their sustenance. The lower castes did not dare to show any violence because they knew the horrible consequences of such an act. The retaliation would have been swift, cruel and murderous. It was a self-defeating proposition for the dependent people living in mud huts and wearing torn clothes. Thus they avoided violence...

The Village -1

....This land is very big. It is littered with villages. The villages are different in sizes; some villages are large and some villages are small. There are under populated and overpopulated villages. The villages are ridden with casteism which is the soul of Hindu dharma. The souls of untouchables are buried under it. Their personalities are suffocated; their lives unbearable; their conditions hellish; their dignity tattered; and their shadows polluting. And all this is under the name of pure and eternal Sanatana dharma. And the mainstream is proud of its heritage. The insulted others have never experienced the pride. They are worthless human beings.

A large part of population lives in rural areas - about 70 percent. These villages where the worth of certain human beings is equal to trash were considered epitome of self-sufficiency. The villages were thought to be stable and without any violence. The roaring railway engines pierced the calm, peaceful and serene soul of these villages, during the British period. The cruel roar of cruel engines harbored the voices of modernity that played havoc with the independent ancient Varna dharma, tormenting the psyche of believers in superiority by birth. Before that the people in the villages were perceived to be mutually cooperative and lived in natural peace and harmony. They lived in a kind of innocence; away from the materialism of West. In such a system everybody was well adjusted to his position in the permanently exploiting caste system. The social, economic and religious powers of the twice born were unchallengeable. The fort of caste system was unassailable for thousands of years. The untouchables are not supposed to take breath properly for the fear of breaking the social equilibrium. The engines came and people buried under social system started to take some breath, which caused unbearable pains to the defenders of Varna dharma....

Temples - 4

...The temples were places of worshipping the God, spiritual realization and salvation of soul. Being the abode of god in the form of idol, they were as sacred as they could be. These religious places were sacred and pure and hence the entry of untouchables was prohibited. Here we have a case of the strange kind of God who could be defiled by the mere presence of human beings. Any defilable God has to be less powerful then the defiler; all this goes contrary to the notion of all powerful God; actually such a weak God by definition cannot exist. There is no defilable God by definition. Dharma Shastras prescribe severe punishment for an untouchable who dares to enter the temple. They also prescribe purification of temples that have been defiled by such an entry by a human being. However any purifying act after a contact with any untouchables actually meant a defilement of untouchables and not that of God. The untouchables who dared to enter the abode god were severely punished sometimes even with death. May be the spiritual and cultural people thought that it was a nice way to help them to get rid of their wretched lives. Still an untouchable who dares to enter a temple runs the risk of his life in many parts of this pure land. In the same tradition none of the great untouchable saints of Bhakti movement were allowed to enter the temples not withstanding the large followings they had. The spiritual equality that was taught by Bhakti movement gurus was in respect of personal attachment to God. The benefits of devotion were to be reaped in next birth only which is correctly in nice alignment with Karma theory. No amount kind of Bhakti could to make them pure and thus eligible for temple entry. The pollution embedded in them could not be removed by any kind of devotion to any god.

Religion and faith in God is essential part of life of a man who is not an atheist. It gives him the reason for his existence. It gives him mental and emotional support. For his own satisfaction a religious man can complain to God or ask him to alleviate his wretched conditions. The support of religion is essential for a religious human being. It provides him support in his troubled times. The troubled times always accompany an untouchable from street to street. By denying him the reach to temple the mental well being of a religious untouchable is destroyed thereby wrecking his emotional state. Further the actual effect of Bhakti movement on untouchables’ lives has been worthless....

Temples - 3

...The priests in temples were Brahmans only. The people from other Varnas were not eligible to become priests. It was in accordance with Vedic dharma where the pure and pious people of highest social stratum, the lawmakers, controlled divinity and all the sacred things and god. These lawmakers were the only people who could recite the word of God. They were the only people who could worship the sacred temple gods.

Over a period of time the temples became highly popular. They came to enjoy the patronage of kings, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas and this made them quite rich. The temples received various land grants. Everybody was damn interested in improving his next world, which nobody had seen. By making donations to temples people expected to prevent their rebirth in lower categories lives like jackals, cats, dogs and others. Not only that, their social status, with in their Varna, also increased directly in proportion to donations made by them. It was actually a transfer of wealth from kings, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas to Brahmanas; the deviceful spiritual people. The lawmakers were very happy. With people controlling the resources of society attaching themselves with the temples, the temples became centers of religious and social activities. The Brahmans who controlled temples were not under the rulership of kings. As a result the temples emerged as parallel power centers in Hindu society. This was the section of society which accumulated ample wealth and which was not under the purview of kings. The development of super rich temples under the renunciating and sovereign Brahmanas had its harmful effects. No Hindu king or robber dared to attack the temples with a view to take away the wealth without hurting the supreme dharma. Unfortunately the coming Muslim invaders did not think so. They did not believe neither in Hindu gods and nor in the Hindu dharmic theory of divine retribution. And they met with no divine retribution thus falsifying the Hindu theory of divine retribution.

However the distribution of wealth went in favor of temples and thereby in favor of renunciating and spiritual lawmakers who were forever interested in welfare of people through dharma by denying all the rights to Shudras and untouchables. These epitomes of spirituality happily enjoyed all the wealth that came their way. Such a high level of rationality was never seen. It was a divine reward for their social and religious control...