Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 1

Caste? What caste? There is no caste! This is the usual refrain from the mainstream. The academics, newspapers, television and other printed media deny the existence of caste. They do not believe in caste. Caste is a thing of ancient past. It was abolished with a stroke of a pen with the enactment of anti-untouchability law at the time of independence. It disappeared into thin oblivion as soon as the law against came in force. Now everybody is equal before law. The discrimination on the basis of caste is also prohibited by law. There should be equal opportunities. They work strictly on the basis of merit and efficiency. There is no place for caste in their views. The caste as a matter of consideration does not exist. It is a wholly backward concept and they do not believe in it. And neither does anybody else. So people should stop making caste an issue. Since caste is non-existent the issues related to should also be non-existent. These lower caste people do not know this simple logic. Stop all that crap and no news about untouchability.


For the mainstream and civil society the casteism ended with the enactment of anti-untouchability law. As far as this exalted and well considered segment of the population is concerned the caste system ceased to exist with the enactment of this law and provision of fundamental equality under the law. However, these people who represent mainstream and civil society belong to upper castes mainly. They are in the state of constant denial over the existence of casteism. Their astounding stupor in this case is remarkable. And they occupy the dominating positions in the crucial areas of education, administration and business.

Untouchables in cities - 8

However, there is sprinkling of some moderns and liberals in Hindus society here and there. But their encouraging and brave presence is not enough to make a serious dent in the caste orientation of Hindu society. There are some foolhardy individuals who go on trumpeting the absence of faith in caste and go and practice their views in ditto. One would be hard pressed to find a difference in what they say and what they do. Generally these people are idealists who have their childhood friends among untouchables. Some are appalled by casteism since their childhood. And thus they do not find any difference between two human beings through their own experience. They remain unconvinced of the arguments of casteist forces and casteist structure of Hindu society. And then there are others who naturally develop sympathy for these people, Karma or no Karma.

Generally, the caste orientation of Hindu society makes untouchables to feel inferior. It regularly ignores their opinions. In the upper circle of upper caste these intruders are judged according to the rules made by upper castes. So they constantly have to strive to come up to standards set by the others. In other words, they simply have to keep on jumping while the upper caste people watch from the sidelines. It is a tedious job but practice makes a man perfect. The one, who jumps correctly for longer period, stands a better chance of gaining acceptance. Their mode of living must be similar to others, on a continuous basis, until others accept them. Simply a good education, obedience to law and a simple hygiene are not sufficient to gain acceptance. It is not good living or hygienic living but living according to them which matters. To be accepted by others it is necessary that they are able to identify with the newcomer. And that can only be done when mode of living and cultural behavior are very similar, the nuances of way of living of upper castes are acquired by the low caste aspirants. Thus, the intruder untouchables have to live and behave in a manner similar to upper castes. They have to copy their culture and imbibe their cultural values which may take an extremely long time. It is a fact that the educated untouchables are not in a position of gate crashing into upper echelons of the society. After a due process the intruder may be accepted as somewhat being equal just below them but never equal. He does not have the purity of origin to be granted such an exalted status of being equal to them. This process may stretch itself into time span of many generations. It is heartening to watch many white collared untouchables performing social calisthenics for gaining acceptance. These social calisthenics may involve berating their own caste men, criticizing the government policies for the welfare of untouchables, ignoring the injustice done to their people and many others. They may sometimes end up harming the interests of their fellow untouchables. So much of their energies are used in this process that they end up working much below their own true capacities. Another major part of their energies is spent in finding the cause for being untouchables. Due to this extra use of energy it is very difficult to find an untouchable who is working at his true efficiency.

Untouchables in cities - 7

A special mention has to be made of the manual scavengers in the Hindu society without which any discussion on untouchability would not be complete. They are the people of last of the fifth stratum. They are the real rotten bottom of the stinking heap. They are the lowest of lowly. They are dirt of the dirt. They are marvelous examples of this scientific heredity division of labor based on purity. It is a showcase of how to make people’s life worse than hell and be proud of it. Every Hindu takes advantage of their dirty services and then disowns them in dharmic manner. They are the recipients of contempt, disdain and hate from all the dharmic sections of Hindu society. Often I wonder whether it is the lowest end of Hindu society or it has to go further down. If one end claims to be most spiritual, renunciating and pure then the other end is condemned as the dirtiest, dealing in human excreta. They find no place in any kind of social discussion. They are the proud medals of dharmic and caring society. They are simply invisible to exalted and pure defenders of Varna dharma who are extremely disinterested in looking at the dirty and unclean people with born impurities. They work in a stinking environment. The presence of untouchables and especially that of manual excreta scavengers makes the Hindu society a stinking society. Wonder of wonders, this stinking society is one of the most enduing one. Karma theory gets hold of everybody except that of pure lawmakers because they know it is the false one. And it rains with all its dirt on manual excreta scavengers when combined with purity based scientific heredity division of labor and the art of crippling the lowest stratum of the society. The impurities after impurities are permanently heaped upon them with all the righteousness existing in the world. These people are involved in cleaning and carrying human excreta in a basket or pale on their head. The rotten people are doing rotten jobs while the pure spiritual and merciless people turn their heads away with utmost disdain. They cannot bear the sight of these social lepers. Their purity forbids it. The disdain, here, reaches its height in Hindu society. This is the permanent ruthlessness of the spiritual and pure Hindu society. These scavengers do their work with bare hands only with a broom. They collect the human excreta from houses in baskets or pales and carry it on their heads or in their hands, and throw it in a far away place. This stinking greatness of Hindu society is a permanent part of their daily life. There is no way in which one can feel the worthlessness, indignity, rottenness and stinkiness of their lives. We simply lack the required sensitivity for the purpose; never been in their shoes. They are the ultimate untouchables next only to actual untreated lepers. They do it in a place where the open or covered sewer system is not in place. In such places they and their generations are involved in cleaning the toilets full of human excreta. In other places where such sewer system is in place, they have to dip their bodies in the blocked sewer system to clear the blockage there. This blockage of sewer system does not happen infrequently. Their lives are actually guttered. They do this without raising their voice in protest as if they are predestined to do this work submissively. Their attitude seems like that they have been born for this purpose. You see everybody has got a purpose in his life. They also have one. Rather they were born with one, quite naturally. They may feel like raising their voice against it. However, the voices they raise are never heard. Their feeble voices ultimately turn into ineffective murmurs and into silence at last. They are very poor and do not have means to sustain their fight and we know that Hindu society provides for crippling a full group of people not only individuals. The finest examples of crippling are the disabling the right to property of Shudras and demilitarization the society. Their murmurs are ignored jointly by the upper castes and others. For a civil society, which consists mainly of upper castes, such a thing does not exist. All the higher castes, relative to scavengers, are in total agreement in disagreeing to their objections. Why they? Why not others? It is all in the Karmas, my dear. They pay for their unseen, unconfirmed and unverifiable Karmas. Besides society groups get exclusive specialized cheap heredity labor to get the unclean stinking jobs done. Such an arrangement also means that others do not get the chance to do such a job in their lifetime. And everybody washes his hands off them and moves forward. They are without any real friends in the society even among rest of the untouchables who have different heredity occupations. They fight a losing battle every day. Their plight is not shared by anybody else and it is not possible. Only those who experience it can feel it. They live in a highly pressurized, insulted, and hungry bottom of the society, which is closed horizontally as well as vertically. They have neither horizontal escape nor vertical escape. All such adharmic things are not provided in spiritual pure pious and eternal Hindu dharma. And as the society doubles as market also, a manual excreta cleaner does not find a place there. For example he cannot put up a tea stall in the areas where his caste is known. There are simply no customers for his tea which is considered as polluted. So he is back to work as manual excreta cleaner. Here, the Hindu social system shines in all its glory. He is the veritable prisoner of the veritable excreta house of the society of highly cultured and spiritualized people with a great traditional cultural heritage. Everybody is busy asserting his status superiority over this most polluted human being. He is absent from all the social cultural and economic discussions. It is a stark example of permanent intelligent cruelty.

In this caste bound society an educated untouchable with a white-collar job is never treated as equal. He is always treated as an intruder in the sacred and hallowed sections of the upper castes. His presence has to be endured and tolerated and any contacts have to be avoided. They are even supposed to contaminate their hallowed environment. Any Chamar or Bhangi having an officer level job remains what he was, a Chamar or a Bhangi. He is really never accepted in the circle of upper castes. They are made to feel inferior through various means devised for such purpose. The crass untouchability is out; the subtlety is in. These new subtle means are devised to circumvent the anti-untouchability law. New indirect taunting remarks are created. New actions, which indicate his inferior status, are also created. Sometimes the force is also used. The civil society maintains its civil face while maintaining its casteist character.

Untouchables in cities - 6

There are two groups of people in untouchables. There are those who have benefited from the policy of reservations and those who have not. Those who have not benefited from reservations are doing small and lowly paid jobs and are living in slums. The other group is that which has taken the benefits of reservations and enjoy relatively well paid government jobs. These people are the elites of untouchables. Generally, these elites live in middle class areas. Many of them are highly educated and hold high government posts.


The reservations in government jobs and education in government educational institutes is strongly resented at ever hierarchy in the system. The unofficial effective system is biased against them. Hence there are no chances of anybody getting any promotions without reservations in the promotion scheme. The elites of the untouchable society have not been able to do much for their more unfortunate brethren. It looks like that they tend to shrink away from their responsibilities or have taken to individualism whole heartedly in a group oriented society much to the detriment of their own castes. All the gains of reservations seem to have been frittered away on their own families only. The resources that they have gained from reservation system have not been ploughed back into society and neither have they provided an effective leadership to their people. This may be due to absence of any will on their part. Or it may be due to the fact that government servants are not allowed to take part in political or commercial activities. Their steadfast refusal to combine and do really something effective is stunning. Their mind numbing isolation from their suffering brethren is a matter of grave concern. Then the people who have not benefited from reservations have not shown any initiatives to take the guidance or help from their elites and back it with sincerity and hard work. Both the groups seems to have gone into a kind of inaction or rather in sleeping mode and once a while they would make some murmuring voices against the injustice done to them and then again go to sleep. The injustice done to them seems to be none of their real concern. The frozen minds are accompanied by frozen actions and frozen initiatives. They appear to believe in Hindu Karma theory. The destiny is set for them. They have to go beyond simply formation of associations and the resultant meetings.

Untouchable in Cities - 5

The distribution of benefits of quota system has been uneven within the untouchable community. The untouchables themselves consist of many jatis and sub-jatis. Some have benefited more than others have. This is an issue of concern within the untouchables and especially among those who have been left behind. By and large the main beneficiaries of reservation system are those people who got the education earlier than others. There were also the people who moved earlier to cities. The higher education was generally available in the cities only. These people reside normally in lower middle class and middle middle class areas. However, many of them try to hide their caste and take up the surnames of upper castes very well knowing that their tormenting presence there is resented by the upper caste people. In beginning this creates some confusion but sooner or later the social networking reveals their true castes and everything is back to normal. This social networking spreads from village to cities and then backward and from cities to cities and even to outside the country. This social networking includes offices and educational institutes etc. Indeed there is no escape from this social network; it automatically extracts caste of everybody. It feeds on information and curiosity. Especially the curiosity whether somebody has arrived to contaminate their neighborhood or not. The moment an upper caste man comes to know that his neighbor is an untouchable he curses all his past lives, his fate and all his accumulated Karmas. After that he keeps a safe distance from him. After that he avoids any exchange of any eatables on any occasions. If it is not avoidable then he takes them and silently dumps them in dustbin afterward. In big cities generally nobody asks other’s caste directly. Here people depend on social networking and discreet inquiries. If it is asked then it is asked in an indirect manner. Normally people ask other’s caste in case of marriage. When asked about his caste an untouchable would not reveal his true caste if pushed further then he would feign to belong to a higher caste. Here the person from upper caste would nod his head in agreement very well knowing the true caste of the man in question and return the feigning.

Cities - 4

Only scheduled castes can compete for the jobs reserved for them. They have reservations because of being socially, educationally and economically backward. However, the real reason would their historical deprivation in all the three spheres not the backwardness. It is actually compensation to them for being paralyzed by the dharmic society. Their paralyzed state made it easy for the atrocities to be committed upon them by dharmic people. They were excluded from the main functioning of the society for thousands of years. The educated untouchables got the education with the help of the state but without the help of society. Their presence in education, government jobs and middle class is resented by the society. In short in every area which is dominated by the upper castes. It tends to compromise the relative superiority of everybody else, which is in fact a matter of utmost concern to all. The social structure feels threatened by it. However, when the untouchables enter into any educational institute or any non-slum area then they tend to hide their caste. The reason is that they are in minority and can be easily isolated and made to feel inferior and even ignored with smugness and a grand element of non-cooperation. There they are the easy targets of sophisticated taunting by the upper castes which is designed to remind them of their low origin. However, the rouse of hiding caste does not work. If the caste of one man is known then the caste of all his relatives is known. The social networking reveals their true caste sooner or later. It may work occasionally in the areas where the people of his village have not reached and neither their relatives. In case of government employees it never works since it is given in their office records. And of course no one is going to marry anybody without knowing his or her caste.

Cities - 3

The untouchables who got some education were drafted into government jobs through a system of reservations. Under this system a certain percentage is reserved for them where only they can apply. This is a provision made for them in the Indian Constitution for the welfare of historically deprived people. The jatis of such people are included in 25th schedule of the Constitution so they are also known as Scheduled Castes. Or bloody scheddus, as they are known in premier knowledge and academic institutes dominated by the upper castes. The honorable members of these institutes who take pride in calling themselves members of modern civil society do not call them untouchable and thus do them a great favor. The derogatory bloody scheddus seems to be a very civil way to address these people. It must be civil because it is coming from civil and intelligent people. These people are highly responsible people of the society. The untouchable students dare not raise their voice because the faculty belongs to upper castes and they dare not displease them. In internal examinations these honorable members of faculty have the power to make their education duration an unduly long one. And they are supposed to favor their high caste students. If not then what is the use of kinship? Though untouchability is long prohibited by the law but it is still unofficial system of India. The upper castes find a lot of ways to humiliate the lower castes and show their real feelings. There have been many instances where the room has been cleaned and purified because earlier an untouchable officer occupied it. However this anti-untouchability law is not enforceable beyond two kilometers of any city limits in India. It is buried in the dust there.

Cities - 2

Another movement of the untouchables to cities was those who acquired education against all odds, got government jobs, and moved to cities as these became their workplace.


The unskilled and uneducated untouchables moved to cities and started living in slums. It started with one man moving to city to escape from innocent village. There he settled in a slum and got the job of casual laborer on the construction sites. The cities were developing and construction of building and small factories needed unskilled labor. It was a lowly paid job and that was all they could do. There this man occupied a piece of land and made a small temporary room to dwell. Or otherwise he took a single small room on rent. After he got settled in the city his brother followed and joined him. After sometime the brother also got the lowly paid job and rented another small room or constructed one for him. These dwellings were very small so a newcomer had to move out invariably. Then other relatives followed, the chain was repeated and the slums grew larger and larger; the one who came to city brought many more migrants. This increase in slums is highly objected to by the middle class society which comprises mostly of the high castes. They abhor them due to their unhygienic conditions and unacceptable social behavior according to their high standard. The slums do not have any civic amenities. There is no water, no electricity and no sewer system. The sewer system is open.


No water lines force people to get water from a common tap. The absence of proper sewer system forces people to defecate in the open. Thus the situation is very common where one is defecating in the open and the other person is going to fetch the water from common tap. They cross each other’s path invariably. The roads are narrow. The unending dingy lanes and by lanes which move on their own have their own way of turning around the corners and sometimes stopping suddenly. The slum people are normally despised by the middle class people for their uncleanliness, rude behavior and all the other similar things. Nobody can get admission in English medium schools if he happens to be the one from the slums or their equivalent areas.

Cities 1

The modern cities of India have been developed on the basis of industrial and commercial activities. The untouchables moved to cities to escape the social indignity, oppression at the hands of landed castes and the innocence of villages overflowing with hatred. The failure of rural system to provide them with enough means of sustenance also lent a causative hand. The insulted, tormented, hand to mouth living untouchables moved to cities in much more number than other castes. After land reforms the upper castes also moved to cities and got entrenched in all the important activities where the social value added and economic value added was the highest. Others also moved out of villages out of necessities but most of them stayed back. They stayed back due to attachment with their piece of village land and their relatives who lived there. One more reason to stay back in the villages was that the people did not have any linkage with the cities in the sense they did not have any relative living in the cities who could offer them a place to live and offer guidance.


For the untouchables one added advantage was the anonymity provided by the city. They could move in the city crowd without any chance of being insulted. They did not have to feel tormented while moving on the streets. They could become simply another face in the crowd. There was nobody to call them by their derogatory caste names thus reminding them of their insulted selves.

Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 4

Before independence the Shudras were the tillers of land for the upper castes. They were under the obligation to landlords for their survival since they had no right on the land. The land owners could ask them not to come on other day if displeased. It was as simple as that. This was sufficient to make the tiller shudder with cold in winter as well as in the scorching summer. How he was going to feed his family? The tillers could be changed according to wish of land owners. So these Shudras kept them attached to their land owners as firmly as possible; using all the humility they could muster. To please them they also doubled up as musclemen of the upper castes to fix the recalcitrant untouchables if any. This obviated any need of the high caste people to move out of their houses to fix the untouchables. They had their tillers to do that. They could always enjoy the serenity of their large houses. They could get the heads of the untouchables broken with heavy bamboo sticks without moving a finger. The Shudras could not use the arms. They were utilized to quell any voice of dissent from untouchable cluster. With the piercing of dharmic innocence of village with entry of railway steam engines such voices had started to emerge out of untouchable mud hut clusters. Actually it was the innocence of untouchables which was destroyed not the thick impenetrable, exploitative deep psyche of higher Varnas. They disliked it since it interfered with their permanent exploitation of the village people of lower strata. It pierced the ears and psyche of upper caste to listen to voices of assertion from the fifth stratum. To protect their interests and to make their lives beautiful it was necessary to suppress these voices of untouchable dissent on an enduring basis. So the means used for this purpose had to be such that they had an enduring effect. The acts of merely scolding and rebuking were not enough. The atrocities, torture, murder, death, rapes etc. were more enduring in their effects. Thus they were used for the holy purpose of maintaing Varna dharma.


The Shudra tillers had the highest status among the Shudras because they were connected with land and enjoyed the proximity with the ruling class. However, they still got pittance though they committed atrocities on behalf of upper castes. Any Shudra with a fully filled belly was considered as a danger to upper castes or dharma. Thus the question of leaving enough food with them did not arise.


However, the result of the policy of land to the tiller was that the Shudra tillers were given the land free and the landless untouchables were left standing. May be it had to do something with the mentality of policy makers or there was not enough land to go round. The untouchables were compensated in the form of reservations in government jobs and education. The twice-born people whose land had been taken after giving them due compensation moved to cities and the landed Shudras became the land owning castes; the dominant castes. Each different caste was dominant in each different area. These different land owning castes did not become a class after their rise in status. They maintained their caste identities and maintained their endogamous nature and continue to keep their dining separate from others. But now they were the new overlords in rural areas though not as big as the earlier ones. The non-land owning Shudras continued to be in their same wretched position without the benefit of free land or job reservations. However, the new land owning Shudras behaved in exemplary a way as to justify their newly acquired status. Their past of utter poverty and servility was soon forgotten. The human memory is very short but the history cannot be wiped out. They continued with the atrocities on untouchables; this time on their own behalf. The oppressors changed but not the oppression and neither did the dharmic philosophy behind the oppression of pathetic untouchables.

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.

Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 2

...these sub-castes or sub-jatis also do not inter dine or intermarry because they are divided fundamentally along bloodlines which prohibited any kind of interaction. And nobody among non-twice born remembers these bloodlines. The Shudras and untouchables can hardly remember the names up to their three generations.


Now, why do all these Shudras who themselves are considered as impure, practice untouchability against the people ranked below them? These people do so even after being very poor and landless themselves. So it is basically poor against poor. It is antagonism between the poor; not among the poor; the poor are of different kind to each other; long live the dasterdly caste. One of the reasons for such a situation to exist is the traditional belief in Varna or jati system. The most impure are ranged against the polluted people. The second reason is that they themselves are very poor and depend upon the high castes for their livelihood. The land owning castes are in a position to adversely affect their means to livelihood. If higher castes are displeased then the sources for sustenance for these people may dry up. Thus if a Shudra intermixes with the untouchables and it comes to the knowledge of upper castes, then the concerned Shudra receives a polite indirect warning to desist from such practice or face action. Normally this is sufficient to restore the traditional dharmic practice. Even otherwise the concerned Shudra has to agree to their dharmic advice because his economic sustenance is endangered. The dependent people cannot be independent. Thus for his economic sustenance he has to behave like high castes towards untouchables. Another reason is the fear of losing his social status when mixing with the still lower category people. Also a Shudra considers him superior to untouchables and does not intermix with them on his own. Then there is always a threat hanging over his head of excommunication from his own caste men who also fear the loss of status through such adharmic acts. There would be no agreement to intermixing with the untouchables within his jati. As it happens the acceptance among higher castes is a very valuable factor because it sustains their superiority over still lower jatis. The people have been dancing one leg to gain the acceptance from Brahmans. The acceptance is not to be treated as equal but as near equal. Nobody can be equal to higher castes. It is the acceptance to be treated as fit enough to enter into social discourse with the Brahmanas without being made to feel inferior. If Brahmans talk to somebody without any element of disrespect then it is sufficient. Even if there is an element of disrespect it remains sufficiently hidden, not really observable to an inattentive observer...

Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 1

As we know the Hindu society is composed of five categories of people who are further divided into watertight compartments. These five categories in descending order of social status are Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras and Antyajas. And same is the order of purity. The Brahmans are the purest and Antyajas the polluted. The Antyajas are outside Varna system also. And same is the order of authority of social control that is limited to twice born. The Hindu society is not a simple matrix of five hierarchical and heredity Varnas. All these Varnas are divided and sub-sub-divided into sub-sub-castes and sub-sub-jatis. This division takes place until an endogamous group is reached which is not further divisible and is independent. This last endogamous group is composed of many exogamous gotras which are paternal lineages. All the jatis are finely divided along the bloodlines. There are thousands of jatis in India. Each jati follows a particular heredity occupation which is passed down from father to son. Each sub-sub-jati is supposed to follow the occupation of its main jati. The Shudras being the larges group have the largest number of jatis. Further these sub-jatis are limited to a given region and people generally do not marry outside their geographical area. Two endogamous groups following same occupation represent two sub-jatis of the main jati or sub-castes of main caste. Any given main jati may or may not be prevalent all over India. All the Varnas also may or may not be prevalent all over India. The Shudras have largest number of jatis so it is difficult to give the names of their jatis but some of them are carpenter, barber, potter, gardener, vegetable seller, milkman, washer man, oil presser, ironsmith, goldsmith etc. These various endogamous groups cannot be identified on the basis of Varna only. The professions with in Shudra Varna may different from each other as chalk from cheese. The jati indicates an endogamous group within a Varna, which has its specific heredity occupation. These jatis are identifiable on the basis of their heredity occupation only. The regular tillers of land occupied a higher position compared to other Shudras. The Antyajas or untouchables are also divided further into different jatis which are further arranged on a hierarchical scale. These jatis are further sub-divided mainly on the basis of region. Each sub-caste or sub-jati has the social status of the main caste or jati only. The jati is placed on a social scale on the basis of its relative purity and the relative purity also defines its particular power in the society. It also defines the occupation and thus the economic condition of any given jati. The people belonging to a higher heredity occupation have higher social status and a relatively higher level of earning.

Status and Behaviour - 3

Finally with increase in population the demand for agriculture and thus for land increased. This gave rise to many conflicts and many wars over the land.

The history is full of hierarchical societies. This is the main trend of history. However, the French revolution and American rights declaration made people equal at least in the case of political power. This equality is provided on individual basis that may easily be transformed in tyranny of majority if different groups are present in the society. The equal distribution of political power requires a group of homogeneous individuals. The Russian and Chinese revolutions tried to make people economically equal on collective basis but failed in implementing properly. Economic equality does not seem to go hand in hand with political equality. But economic inequality can easily go hand in hand with political inequality.


However, we define all societies as hierarchical societies. An equal society has hierarchy of degree one. A society has as many degrees of hierarchy as many as strata it has. In such a society a man has a given status. Here we take the status to be axiomatic in its existence because the status may change with the cultural values of the society. In a changing society the status may be changing but we deemed it to exist. In a composite society again we take the status to exist even if it is difficult to define.

Status and Behaviour -2

The general tendency in the history has been towards formation of hierarchies with an equally natural tendency to oppose it. The two opposing forces are working at the same time. This also explains the need for great movements against hierarchy which often led to bloodbath.


With the discovery of agriculture, which was a stupendous change in the history of mankind, the institution of private property came into existence. The stage of hunter, food gatherer required that the small tribes moved in search of food from here to there. This movement of people from one place to another place obviated any need or desire of a man to claim a piece of land as his own. It was not certain that the tribe was going to be back to that place in near future. And there was no use of land as private property. It yielded nothing that he could use directly and which was under his control. All the food he gathered was from the trees or shrubs that he did not know how to plant. The nature planted them for him from place to place in a natural way. He could claim any particular tree as his own. However, one trait was possibly there which prepared the ground for future private property institution. The finder was the keeper. Anybody who found a particular food could consume it himself. And keep the rest for others in tribe. Later it translated into private property where first user of the land was the owner. With the discovery of agriculture the human society was able to produce regularly more then its immediate needs. It was no longer necessary to go everyday for hunting or for food gathering to forests. The grains being dry in nature were not immediately perishable like fruits and meat. Thus, food could be stored for a longer period. The development of agriculture technology was in fact an important step of man towards the control of nature. Now the man was no longer chasing the nature in the form of hunter and food gatherer, he could now control it. His food supply was no longer controlled by the whimsical acts of nature. The man now could clear the forest, prepare the field, sow the seed; when the crop maturee he could reap and store it. And clear as much as forest as he needed it. This led to a settled life. There was no longer any need to move from place to place in search of food. Now he could live near the land giving him the food. Also being settled meant that he could no longer act or move in a random manner. Some kind of order was needed. To prevent two men fighting to cultivate the same piece of land; it was necessary to allot them the land. It was absolutely necessary to avoid the violence. The random desire to cultivate any piece of land meant invitation to violence. Or stronger men pushed the weaker men out of the prime land. However, it was necessary to identify a man with a given piece of land to maintain peace. Randomness was not going to work; some kind of order was needed; the agriculture itself required an organized way of operating. The durable identification of man with a specific piece of land led to the notion of belongingness that developed in the notion of private property. Some authority was needed to implement the order and thus a king like authority emerged which was strong enough to safeguard people’s claim to land. For this the authority extracted some part of food surplus. This authority also needed warrior men who could fight with the marauding tribes who still had not learnt the technology of agriculture. Or the society had to agree to give the plunderers a share of the crops whenever they came. The defenders of society obviously needed a part of surplus produced by the society. It was possible since the cultivators were producing more than they needed. Obviously those who controlled the people and defended the land were more powerful than the owner cultivators. Or the one who had more land came to be more powerful. In a sense the hierarchy was developed. At the top was the man who controlled the men not the land. With the warriors or soldiers under his control he could change the ownership of the land. Then there were his courtiers and the owners of the land and then came the actual cultivators. These owners and cultivators could have been the same if the piece of land in question was small. But if the land was large enough then the owners and cultivators could be different. The cultivators were having lower rankings. Naturally, those who were low in ranking had low powers and those high in ranking had high powers.


Another group of people, which came into important existence, was the group of shamans or later day priests. A man is not only a social being but he is also a curious and thinking animal along with being physically weak and nurtures a fear of unknown powerful things. He needs reasons and explanations for the events in the nature. The shamans and later religious people were able to convince the people of the supposedly higher live powers behind the natural events and also the existence of life after death. The natural powers like lightening, rain and other had a terrifying effect on people’s life. So the people supposedly in contact with the God and spirits came to be powerful and thus authoritative. Super natural things had a very important place in the life. The people supposedly connected with super natural powers came to acquire the supposed super natural powers. It was another group of influential people which extracted the surplus from the cultivators. Societies having faith in super natural powers paid their shamans and priests handsomely in kind. These shamans and priests traded in people’s natural fears.


Thus the people connected with temporal power and others connected with super natural powers extracted their share and had the highest status in the society. However further labor specialization took place with advancement in technology. Many more occupations came into existence. These were carpenter, forger, weaver and potter etc. These people got their share of produce in exchange of their services or goods. These were the lower ranking people similar to cultivators.

Status and Behaviour -1

...A man is a social being; he cannot live without society. All societies can be considered as being made of hierarchies. In a society where everybody is equal we may consider as a society of single hierarchy. It may be a very long horizontal stratum. The nearest of this kind of society was found in pre-agriculture communes. There was only one leader. Even the leader in such societies could not take independent decision because he was dependent on others. An egalitarian society has been ideal of many thinkers and philosophers for a long time but not yet fully achieved. It has been very difficult to create such a society in a situation where the members of the society are very large in number. The elements of equality have been embedded in varying degrees in the thinking of Buddha, Jesus Christ, Mohammad, Magna Carta, French revolutionaries, American Lawmakers, Hobbes, Rousseau, Karl Marx etc. Everywhere it was present in it own way. Actually it has been an enduring theme of the history. The same ideal of equality is supposed to have been provided by democracy and communism etc. There have been great religious and social movements in the quest of equality. Needless to say the three great religious movements in this direction have been Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. The French revolution, American rights declaration and American civil war have been great events in quest of equality. In this the aim of Russian revolution and Chinese revolution cannot be denied.


The natural desire of a man is to be superior to others. This has twofold opposite results. One is that a man always tries to be superior to others and the second is that the same desire forces him to negate the superiority of others. The first one leads to formation of hierarchy and the second leads towards equality. Those who are able to assert superiority are able to form hierarchy and those who oppose them lead to equalization. The superiority is desirable and inferiority is undesirable...

The tolerance of Hindu religion - 6

...So the resources of state had shrunk considerably. Thus in the absence of resources it was not possible to raise a large army of soldiers which was necessary to fight it out with the new invaders. Invading India was never a new thing. Had the new invaders got converted to Hindu religion and undertaken to protect Brahmans, temples and dharma like the earlier invaders there would have been no problem. In that case the paeans would have been sung in their favor. But they did not. However, the Hindus lacked the might to holdout against the Muslim onslaught due to religious accumulation of wealth that was not available to defend the dharma.


During the period of Muslim invasion and rule, the God created superiority of upper castes was nowhere to be seen. The God created superiority knows no reason; its sheer existence is the reason for it to rule over the others. It cannot be defeated - “never” is the word. The born superiority itself is the cause of ruling over the society. If the born superiority gets defeated then it is inferiority. If that happens then born superiority or naturally born pure Varna dharma ceases to make any sense. The purity becomes meaningless. With the Muslim rule the pure, pious and supposedly superior Hindus became subordinated to people not believing in Vedas - the adharmic, hated and cow-eating people. However, the upper castes maintained their position in Hindu society as the Muslim rulers did not interfere with its structure.

So the resources of state had shrunk considerably. Thus in the absence of resources it was not possible to raise a large army of soldiers which was necessary to fight it out with the new invaders. Invading India was never a new thing. Had the new invaders got converted to Hindu religion and undertaken to protect Brahmans, temples and dharma like the earlier invaders there would have been no problem. In that case the paeans would have been sung in their favor. But they did not. However, the Hindus lacked the might to holdout against the Muslim onslaught due to religious accumulation of wealth that was not available to defend the dharma.


During the period of Muslim invasion and rule, the God created superiority of upper castes was nowhere to be seen. The God created superiority knows no reason; its sheer existence is the reason for it to rule over the others. It cannot be defeated - “never” is the word. The born superiority itself is the cause of ruling over the society. If the born superiority gets defeated then it is inferiority. If that happens then born superiority or naturally born pure Varna dharma ceases to make any sense. The purity becomes meaningless. With the Muslim rule the pure, pious and supposedly superior Hindus became subordinated to people not believing in Vedas - the adharmic, hated and cow-eating people. However, the upper castes maintained their position in Hindu society as the Muslim rulers did not interfere with its structure.

So the resources of state had shrunk considerably. Thus in the absence of resources it was not possible to raise a large army of soldiers which was necessary to fight it out with the new invaders. Invading India was never a new thing. Had the new invaders got converted to Hindu religion and undertaken to protect Brahmans, temples and dharma like the earlier invaders there would have been no problem. In that case the paeans would have been sung in their favor. But they did not. However, the Hindus lacked the might to holdout against the Muslim onslaught due to religious accumulation of wealth that was not available to defend the dharma.


During the period of Muslim invasion and rule, the God created superiority of upper castes was nowhere to be seen. The God created superiority knows no reason; its sheer existence is the reason for it to rule over the others. It cannot be defeated - “never” is the word. The born superiority itself is the cause of ruling over the society. If the born superiority gets defeated then it is inferiority. If that happens then born superiority or naturally born pure Varna dharma ceases to make any sense. The purity becomes meaningless. With the Muslim rule the pure, pious and supposedly superior Hindus became subordinated to people not believing in Vedas - the adharmic, hated and cow-eating people. However, the upper castes maintained their position in Hindu society as the Muslim rulers did not interfere with its structure.



So the resources of state had shrunk considerably. Thus in the absence of resources it was not possible to raise a large army of soldiers which was necessary to fight it out with the new invaders. Invading India was never a new thing. Had the new invaders got converted to Hindu religion and undertaken to protect Brahmans, temples and dharma like the earlier invaders there would have been no problem. In that case the paeans would have been sung in their favor. But they did not. However, the Hindus lacked the might to holdout against the Muslim onslaught due to religious accumulation of wealth that was not available to defend the dharma.


During the period of Muslim invasion and rule, the God created superiority of upper castes was nowhere to be seen. The God created superiority knows no reason; its sheer existence is the reason for it to rule over the others. It cannot be defeated - “never” is the word. The born superiority itself is the cause of ruling over the society. If the born superiority gets defeated then it is inferiority. If that happens then born superiority or naturally born pure Varna dharma ceases to make any sense. The purity becomes meaningless. With the Muslim rule the pure, pious and supposedly superior Hindus became subordinated to people not believing in Vedas - the adharmic, hated and cow-eating people. However, the upper castes maintained their position in Hindu society as the Muslim rulers did not interfere with its structure...

The tolerance of Hindu religion - 5

....The rise of Islam cut off the trade between India and Europe. Europe depended on India to provide spices and clothes. A large portion of gold of Roman Empire flowed to India through trade. The Roman Empire was not in existence when the new invaders came to India. However the trade was continued. The rise of Islam brought a stop to that. Europe was the main source of income through trade. After rise of Islam the Arab traders monopolized the trade between India and Europe. They paid minimum to Indian sellers and charged maximum to European buyers. This had an adverse effect both on India and Europe. The prosperity of both declined. The cities and urban centers in India declined during this period. Some part of this wealth of Arab traders might have gone to finance the Islamic wars and expansion of Ottoman Empire. This extremely high cost for Indian goods ultimately forced Europeans to find a sea route to India indicating the vital importance of trade both for India and Europe. The Arab traders monopolized this trade for about seven hundred years during which Islam spread and enjoyed its golden period. Its golden period incidentally came to an end with the discovery of sea route to India.

The trade through Arabs reduced the margins on trade and thus taxes revenue of the Indian kings.

Another source of raising revenue was agriculture. By the time Muslims came to India the India had had inherited a tradition of wealthy and land owning temples, which were power centers in themselves. The new kings had continuously patronized the Brahmans and temples to raise their social status and attain the status of a caste divinely ordained to rule; in other words to acquire divine right to rule over everybody except Brahmans and temples. The land grants and donations by kings and Vaisyas made these temples so rich that many of them were richer than the richest Vaisyas. The Brahmans who were knower of Vedas did not have to pay tax on their land. Other Brahmanas were taxed at a lower rate. There was a large scale of transfer of wealth to Brahmans and temples. The temple wealth also indicated a devotion of Vaisyas to dharma. The life was not worth living if it was not for dharma. This automatically meant a paucity of resources with the dharmic kings. And no king could think of attacking temples to loot their wealth because that could have been adharmic and could have robbed him of divine right to rule. Large amount of wealth and socially powerful Brahmans were outside the control of kings. The temples enjoyed the wealth but did not provide army to kings in case of need. The Brahmanas, individually and through temples, had cornered a considerable chunk of wealth. This was going to be proved fatal to India but nobody learned the lessons. The importance of land grants to Brahmans and temples can be seen in the fact that the kings who did not do so offered better resistance to Muslim rulers; the Rajputs of Rajasthan...

The tolerance of Hindu religion - 4

...there were historical reasons rooted in the past and the structure of Hindu society for absence of any big army in north India. There was no big king in north India at the time of Muslim invasion. This indicates that no king could command loyalties of a large number of people. And the loyalties were related to caste and to sustenance. To have a big standing army or to have the local rulers supply a large number of soldiers, one needed to have a command over a large number of resources. The army had to be paid in kind or money; larger the army larger the payment and larger the resources required. However there was no big army indicates that the small kings were lacking in resources. The small kings with small dharmic kingdoms did not have large resources to raise large armies to fight the adharmic invaders. Of course, they could have united, but that meant willing to die for others, the concept that was quite lacking in Hindu society. And what would have happened to fault lines along bloodlines? The overwhelming pride of Kshatriyas in their bravery which was the direct result of atmosphere of by and large a demilitarized society was no substitute for the need of big army. The valiant and non-retreating Muslim armies were not in a mood to be cowed down by the presence of God created bravery in Hindu society. And they had a cause to die for and a unity to fight with. This concept of God created bravery of Kshatriyas’ could have terrorized the weaker segments of Hindu society but the outsiders were a different proposition. The Muslims looked for weaknesses in fractured Hindu sides like disunity and a lack of loyalties. As we have seen that the loyalties are caste related and not village or land related. And in bravery and resources the Muslims were second to none. Not even to the holders of God created bravery. The inherited attributes according to Varna dharma were simply useless. The victories of Muslims simply rubbished the inherent bravery. The Muslim rule made a mockery of right to rule of Kshatriyas. And still nothing happened to Varna dharma. The Delhi sultanate by and large limited itself to urban centers and the Mughals made a peace with upper castes. The bottom of the heap remained by and large unaffected. The dastardly Panchayats ruled in rural areas and maintained the Varna dharma.

The society had multiple centers of power. These centers were kings, Brahmans, temples and village caste Panchayats. These power centers had their own existence independent of each other. And all of them helped in maintaining Varna dharma. Brahmans were not under the rule of kings. Similarly the temples were very wealthy and socially very powerful but not under the control of kings. They were by and large autonomous and received heavy land grants from kings and donations from others. The temples were accumulating fabulous wealth while the Shudras and untouchables were eating grains cleaned out of cow dung and bread made out of fodder and grass. There was divine and dharmic justice in favor of Brahmans and other higher Varnas. These temples did not provide army or resources to king in case of need. The wealth of temples became very famous outside India and attracted the attention of invaders who came earlier only to rob the rich temples of their fabulous wealth. The came and looted and destroyed the temples. They dug out their walls and foundations to find the gold buried in them. And the Brahmanas waited for miracles and/or reincarnations assuming that they had accumulated a very large amount of dharmic Karmas to help them out of the situation; however such hopes based on unfailing Shastras were belied. Their purity and their Karmas were not sufficient to save the temples. No king was powerful enough to stop the looting and destruction of temples....

The tolerance of Hindu religion - 3

...the intolerance of Hindus moves inward and tolerance moves outward. It is all relative. The Brahmans were more pliant than all the others. They simply disowned the idol worship to avoid the Jaziya tax imposed by Muslim rulers on Hindus. The Jaziya tax was not to be imposed on people of book like Koran and Bible. The Brahmans disowned the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and the temples and rest of the Hindus and claimed that their sole allegiance was to their books; the four Vedas which made them the people of book – ahle-e-kitab. The people of book were not liable to be taxed under Jaziy tax. Thus they avoided the Jaziya tax. It is a classic example of their flexibility and of not having any answerability toward other Hindus who are lower then them. They disowned the Hindus and their gods and nobody thought to question them. It was a complete lack of indignation at betrayal.

The emergence of tolerance seems to be the result of the relative lack of might of Hindu religion against Muslims. Showing intolerance and opposing Muslims and their mosques might have resulted in a quick and brutal show of might of state. Muslims were the rulers. The fear of reprisals helped the development of Hindu tolerance.

One of the reasons among several others for the Hindus losing out to Muslims was the finely divided and graded society along bloodlines and purity. Such a fine, scientific and divine division labor produced a society where people could not link to each other because the bloodlines separated them with in caste. A demilitarized society of thousands jatis could not produce a homogeneous group of warring people large enough in numbers to tackle the militarized society of Islam where people were linked to each other in the name of Islam – the worshipiing is secondary in Hindu society not the stratification. The linking of society in India was provided by the caste not by the religion. The new religion of Islam promised equality to its followers and a share in loot to soldiers. The Islamic soldiers did not most probably understand the concept of equality but they fully understood the importance of a share of loot that prompted them to join Islam and Islamic army and a promise to go to heaven and live there with the Hoors if they were martyred in the cause of Islam. And there was no concept of dying for a cause in India. Therefore there is no equivalent to word “martyr” in Indian languages. There was no cause worth fighting for except political cause. There was indeed concept of killing and mutilating Shudras and untouchables for dharma. But there was no concept of giving up one’s own life for dharma. The absence of such a concept was also the contributory reason for outward tolerance of Hindu religion and absence of crusades in Sanatana dharma. Some castes were wiling to die for their honor but not for a cause. Nobody was willing to die so everybody got subjugated. Why die for a cause or for others? Absolutely there was no point. Willingness to die for their religion separated Muslims from Hindus. The Hindus fought for money, the valiant but purely mercenary soldiers.

In the presence of such situation, one alternative to avoid defeat was to have a large army of mercenary Hindu soldiers though finely divided into different non-inter dining jatis. The sheer size could have compensated for the weakness created by the irrevocable divisions in the Hindu society. The army that was big enough to repel the attacks was the need of the honor. The people who could not eat together could not fight together on sustainable basis though they could fight together on a temporary basis until some real danger presented itself. The only motive to fight was to provide sustenance to oneself. These people deserted the army whenever defeat looked...

The tolerance of Hindu religion - 2

 ...we have to see that why the Hindus who cannot tolerate the presence of an untouchable, pliantly capitulated before Muslims as if though it was their favored wish or it was in their destiny? Why they became so tolerant while maintaining intolerance about entry of untouchables into temples? The Muslims came and they plundered as they wished and came ultimately to rule over Hindus. Nobody really offered any effective resistance. The outsiders were welcome but not the people of their own villages.

The mightless people of Hindu society (untouchables) have never experienced Hindu tolerance as widely claimed. The tolerance was reserved for Muslims and British. The controls of society, state and economy were reserved for the higher Varnas. Special favors were reserved for special people, not for the people from bottom of the heap. The intolerance of Hindu society and religion is pretty evident in the ever hanging sword of violence over the heads of untouchables under the eternal guidance of the pious lawmakers, the Brahmans - the swindlers. The untouchables are friendless, landless, weaponless, statusless, hungry, isolated and permanently exploited people at the bottom of the heap of Hindu society; victimizing them is the natural order of the things. It is the eternal dharma.

The king cobra always raises its hood to its full height whenever any mice raise their voice in favor of equality or challenge it. It no longer remains a suppliant and compliant rabbit. After all, its honor is at stake - the untouchables dare to raise their worthless heads. The honor on which the foreign rulers treaded with impunity gets a sudden upsurge and evidents itself in full form. A frequent, quick and decisive violence is inflicted at the bottom portion of the Hindu society by the upper portion; tradition that is. The worthless dirty thick red water that flows out dying untouchables’ veins is a foolproof evidence of tolerance of Hindu religion. It is just a routine, nothing much to be talked about. Just in a day’s work. The tolerance does not mean that the bottom of the heap can revolt. One has to be out of his mind if one thinks so....

The tolerance of Hindu religion - 1

...the paeans are sung in praise of tolerance of Hindu religion. It is in contrast to intolerant stand of other two major religions, the Christianity and the Islam. The tolerance of Hindu religion is said to be very high. All the people coming to this subcontinent were assimilated into Hindu religion with the exception of Muslims and British. The Greeks, the Scythians, the Huns, the Parthians, the Kushans and others who came to India as invaders or migrants were ultimately assimilated in Hindu society to the extent that now they are not separately recognizable. They lost their original identities.

The invaders were co-opted by giving them Kshatriya status and poor migrating communities were assimilated as Shudras. There were Shudras who never knew when they became Shudras and became a part of Hindu society. These Shudras either came from outside or lived in the region of India which had not come under cultural hegemony of Brahmans. The assimilative powers of Hindu religion have been grand but they were ineffective in case last two major rulers of this mammoth land. These assimilations have taken place without any involvement of violence. There have been no crusades. The Hindu religion is not proselytizing. Nobody has gone converting people to Hinduism. There has been no prescribed method of converting a man to Hinduism.


The spread of Vedic religion has been patronage oriented. By and large the concept of Vedic and later Hindu gods seems to have been superior to the local gods of local people. Additionally the reincarnations were already there to appropriate local and tribal gods. If one patronizes Brahmans or protects them and accept their superiority and scriptural authority then he becomes a Hindu and that too a Kshatriya if he is a ruler. However, there have been real conversions in history to Vedic religion. If a poor migrating community starts worshipping gods from Hindu pantheon then over a period of time, then they automatically become part of Hindus. They become Shudras, if they are doing clean jobs and untouchables if they are doing unclean jobs. The Muslims and British refused to accept the superiority of Brahmans and thus maintained their separate identity.


The Hindu society and religion itself consist of groups that worship different gods and still live peacefully with each other. This is idol mode of worship that cuts across caste and deity lines in the Hindu society. The only condition is that the deities worshipped must belong to Hindu pantheon or be a reincarnation of them. The deities may be worshipped singularly or in groups. The Shudras and women are prevented from studying Vedas but not from idol worship. The religious dictums of Hindus do not prevent them from worshipping any god from Hindu pantheon. This worshipping of different gods by different people does not create any antagonistic feelings among the followers of different gods. One of the reason for existence of peace is that mode of worship is secondary in Hindu society and acceptance of traditional stratification primary. A Hindu from any jati has the freedom of choice in worshipping the god/s and/or goddess/s of his liking from Hindu pantheon but with two restrictions; one is that the priest of a temple can only be a Brahman and second is that every fifth Hindu (untouchable) is not allowed to enter the sacred and pure temples for the fear of defiling the undefilable god. The faith in any of the gods or deities has no bearing on jati or Varna of any individual. This can also not be a basis for exclusion from caste; the most powerful weapon in the hands of Varna dharma. So any person from any caste can worship the holy trinity of Hindus, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh as long as he believes in superiority of higher Varnas. The grouping in Hindu society is on the basis of jati not on the basis of favored deity. The identification of trinity with the Absolute eliminates any basic differences between them. Thus there are no differences and no antagonism. The concept of reincarnation takes care of local deities and also eliminates basic differences of deities. The goddess have been taken as being complimentary to gods and are usually their wives otherwise reincarnation of their wives. Thus basic difference problem among followers of different deities is amicably solved. All the loopholes that can provide basic differences are plugged. And then what appears is a tolerant religion.


However this tower of tolerance stands on the cries of untouchables. Their cries go unheard. These people living barely at sustenance level hardly receive any iota of tolerance. They are invisible to this persona of tolerance. The acclaimed tolerance develops myopic vision when it comes to fifth stratum. At their sight the tolerance turns into a king cobra looking at mice; the fangs outstretched.


However, the Hindu religion did not react violently to the entry of Muslims and British. The presence of Mosques and Churches was peacefully tolerated. In this calm scenario of peaceful coexistence one thing must be remembered is the relative capacity of Hindu dharma to react aggressively under adverse conditions. It looked at the small presence of Parsis and earlier catholic Syrian Christians with passive indifference bordering on smugness. Secondly these people were not violating Varna dharma since they did not have any. There were always chances of assimilating them through the system of reincarnations. However such hopes were belied but not destructive. Such was not to be the case with Muslims. In the presence of Muslims; the smug, powerful, lazy constricting python got converted into pliant tolerating rabbit mildly hoping to convert Mohammad into a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. Again the hopes were belied. However it kept its king cobra character for untouchables. The Muslims always treated Hindus as heathen idol worshippers since the idols do not have any actual power. They refused to take heathen Brahmans; the idol worshippers; as their superiors unlike earlier invaders; they derived their mental strength from their own religious dictum; the Koran. The earlier invaders had their tribal deities with limited powers related to nature which ultimately lost out to ultra powerful Hindu deities namely the holy trinity. Muslims also had their concept of all powerful Allah that was more than a match to Hindu concept of God. There was no way in which one Absolute could be proved superior to another Absolute. Thus nobody yielded totally though Islam, over the course of time, came to occupy about one fourth of the Hindu turf...

Spirituality 13

...However, such a spiritual community required a full community of born servants (the Shudras) to serve it. The Shudra are supposed to serve the Brahmans because of their fault of being born in an impure and powerless Varna due to faulty accumulated Karmas of their past lives. The Shudras are supposed to provide them with the same material comforts in which they are supposed to be disinterested in. A strange kind of spirituality prevails here. They needed all the land grants in the world for such otherworldly purpose. They needed all the plum administrative and judicial jobs to maintain their spiritual needs. This otherworldliness circulates around them and raises them to a higher level from where they can watch people committing atrocities on their behalf without sharing a bit of responsibility; it is all for the cause of dharma; they have nothing to do with it. They have to have all the top jobs with the kings. They have to be their guides. You see how astoundingly unworldly it is to be the guides of kings, have all the land grants and enjoy the facility of Niyoga. They are provided all these jobs and facilities through non-materialistic scriptures. The king who upholds dharma has to be secondary to them. Like all true materialists they do not believe in jobs giving them pittance. All the powerful jobs are reserved for them. Like all power hungry people they want indirect power through dharma and kings and of course through built up of tradition in their favor. But after all this they maintain their unquestionable spirituality. The impure lower strata do not have a right to question these pure, pious, honest, truthful, simple and spiritual people. These ancient lawmakers through their birth right would not hesitate in classifying their land and power jobs as being essential to upholding of dharma and hence spiritual. There is the real magic; everything is fair under the cover of dharma. And mutilating justice is also spiritual because it helps in upholding the dharma. Thus all the material things can be endowed with spirituality if they help in maintenance of divinely ordained social, religious, political and economic power structure. It is like crime committed by a Brahman is not a crime, so no punishment. But the same crime committed by a Shudra is a ghastly crime. It is just incidentally that they are forced to use all these materialistic things for the cause of dharma. This combination of spirituality and materialism was hard to beat. The now much hated materialism, was much endearing to Brahmanas, as is evident in land grants to them, in their control over sacred, money guzzeling temples, the power they yielded in the society and an army of born servants to serve them. Many temples had become richer than the richest Vaisya and even small kings. At the same time they accuse the Western society as being materialistic. The spiritual Brahmans were as near to crass materialism as a scavenger is near to garbage dump. One of the underlying assumptions behind criticism of Western (modern West) exploitative materialism is that they give a very humanistic treatment to Shudras and untouchables. However, it was a case of permanent exploitation of the lowest two strata. The masters of hatred could not do anything else. How much maximum humanistic one can be toward people whom he hates and despises? The answer is near to Nullity. And it is supposed to move in southward direction from that point and progress further down without break until sustenance level of Shudras and untouchables is reached. Remember these people were forced sometimes to eat the grain cleaned out of cow dung and bread made out of fodder...

Spirituality 12

...Further the Vedas are certainly fallible since they contain imperfect knowledge as evident in Purusha sukta. And divinity certainly cannot be said to possess imperfect knowledge. So the Rig Veda along with Purusha sukta has to be a handiwork of mortal men; it is totally artificial and there is nothing divine about along with other three Vedas. And certainly there is no reason to believe the fantasy of Purusha sukta. The imagination of Rig Vedic people was fertile but it was that only - fertile.

The concept of Bruhm is also imaginary, as nobody has come forward in thousands of years to show any evidence about it. Of course the truth depends on permanency. If the Bruhm exists then the proofs for its existence must exist. Simply the biggest entity cannot hide itself. The existence of Bruhm is axiomatic with unsearchable proofs that are supposed to exist. The theory of Karma is also without any substance. No propagator of this theory has been able to produce any evidences in favor of rebirth with any reliable statistics; barring some delusional people who claim to have taken rebirth. Exactly linking the specified rewards of this birth with the specified and confirmed deeds of last birth for a correctly identified soul has also not taken place. The speculative and deemed final results are axiomatic so one has to believe in the existence of evidences or proofs that nobody has been able to establish for thousands of years. They might not be verifiable. All the proofs are missing for thousands of years. One has to take the words of Vedas, Rishis and spiritualists as proofs for the existence of anything they say. However, this fertile piece of imagination of shifting of rewards to next life is a reality of Hindu psyche and has played havoc with the lives of uncountable people all through the Indian history. Actually this is a separation of rewards being reaped by higher Varnas from their actions in this life.

A Brahman is a man who can endlessly argue about the existence of non-existence (Bruhm) and the non-existence of existence (the world) and unification of soul with Bruhm and also about Karma theory. And through such evolved process he acquires spiritual knowledge sitting at the feet of his gurus. The greatest achievement here is the unification of non-existent (soul) with the non-existent (Bruhm). Second is the holding the victims responsible for their oppression through Karma theory. This spiritual development strengthens their social base where everybody acknowledges his superior and divine knowledge about the world and divinity. More was his spiritual authority more was his control over the society and its resources....

Spirituality 12

...Further the Vedas are certainly fallible since they contain imperfect knowledge as evident in Purusha sukta. And divinity certainly cannot be said to possess imperfect knowledge. So the Rig Veda along with Purusha sukta has to be a handiwork of mortal men; it is totally artificial and there is nothing divine about along with other three Vedas. And certainly there is no reason to believe the fantasy of Purusha sukta. The imagination of Rig Vedic people was fertile but it was that only - fertile.

The concept of Bruhm is also imaginary, as nobody has come forward in thousands of years to show any evidence about it. Of course the truth depends on permanency. If the Bruhm exists then the proofs for its existence must exist. Simply the biggest entity cannot hide itself. The existence of Bruhm is axiomatic with unsearchable proofs that are supposed to exist. The theory of Karma is also without any substance. No propagator of this theory has been able to produce any evidences in favor of rebirth with any reliable statistics; barring some delusional people who claim to have taken rebirth. Exactly linking the specified rewards of this birth with the specified and confirmed deeds of last birth for a correctly identified soul has also not taken place. The speculative and deemed final results are axiomatic so one has to believe in the existence of evidences or proofs that nobody has been able to establish for thousands of years. They might not be verifiable. All the proofs are missing for thousands of years. One has to take the words of Vedas, Rishis and spiritualists as proofs for the existence of anything they say. However, this fertile piece of imagination of shifting of rewards to next life is a reality of Hindu psyche and has played havoc with the lives of uncountable people all through the Indian history. Actually this is a separation of rewards being reaped by higher Varnas from their actions in this life.

A Brahman is a man who can endlessly argue about the existence of non-existence (Bruhm) and the non-existence of existence (the world) and unification of soul with Bruhm and also about Karma theory. And through such evolved process he acquires spiritual knowledge sitting at the feet of his gurus. The greatest achievement here is the unification of non-existent (soul) with the non-existent (Bruhm). Second is the holding the victims responsible for their oppression through Karma theory. This spiritual development strengthens their social base where everybody acknowledges his superior and divine knowledge about the world and divinity. More was his spiritual authority more was his control over the society and its resources....

Spirituality 11

...However the Hindu society is supposed to be highly spiritual and non-exploitative. The Hindu thinkers say that amassing so much wealth is not good for society. It also alienates a man from God. Actually finding God should be his true goal. A materialist man deviates from his true path. In addition such man is also exploitative or indulges in anti-human practices; you see it is all adharmic.

Maximization of profit leads to neglect of spiritual side and values. In maximization of profits a man forgets his fellow human beings and maximizes the profit at others’ cost. Actually Hindu society is far ahead; it permanently neglects human beings. The higher Varnas maximize their gains at the cost of Shudras and untouchables who form the majority. The cruel, inhuman and permanent exploitation of Shudras and untouchables is a standing feature Hindu society. They do it eternally on eternal basis. Anything below permanent exploitation is below their dignity. They have a mixed standing army of forever servants on heredity basis. Since these servants come on the basis of heredity; the Hindu society never runs short of manual and still lower level servants. The more will come from where they came from. It simply takes a group of families of a servant jati to perpetuate itself to serve the dharma and higher Varnas without really getting anything in return.

In Rig Veda it is said that “Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadanti”. It means that there is only one truth (God) or Sat but wise men call him by different names. Or there is only one Absolute called by many names by knowledgeable men. However the same Absolute created a born servanthood in India and the same Absolute created brotherhood in West. These two Absolutes cannot be the same since a man created in West is essentially the same as created in East. This difference implies either a difference in men or a difference in Gods. According to scriptures of Hindu society the Varnas were created by the God with their inherent functions, which translates into inherent inequalities. Thus there have to be two Gods. If there is only one God then the differences in Varna dharma are created by man. Thus Hindu dharma has no divine origin and it is totally artificial creation of its lawmakers with scant regard to any kind of God. The God is falsely invoked to justify the Varna dharma. However, if the religion in West is artificial and the true religion of the world is Vedic dharma then the God is fascist. It is a difficult choice; take your pick or make and/or create another choice. An atheist would like to ignore the issue altogether. The Rig Vedic statement about only one God is more like a pretension to better understanding of the concept of God or a compromise between different sects. The exact nature of God is not told, neither the exact way of functioning of God. It was simply because the Rig Vedic people themselves did not know it...

Spirituality - 10

...There are three major points in development of spiritual philosophy. One is the separation of soul from body , the second is the separation of rewards of this life from the efforts of this life or the sufferings in this life from the deeds in this life (through Karma theory) and the third point is the identification of soul with God and their ultimate unification. The separation of soul from body allows the concept of rebirth and reincarnation. The concept of rebirth makes room for Karma theory. The concept of reincarnation allows for appropriation of others’ deities as the deities of Sanatana dharma thus leaving others a little room to play. Others lose their gods also. This allows maximum room for Sanatana dharma. The appropriation of a Buddha as a reincarnation of Vishnu is a fine example. Thus Sanatana dharma becomes all encompassing. The unification of soul with God, which is supposed to be the ultimate aim of Santana dharma, allows for the shifting of dreams and desires to next world. The ambition of Moksha is so high that it can only be achieved in next world. Thus the general population need not be ambitious in this life. The real world and its wealth could be left to twice-born while the born servants can go around doing the extremely necessary job of serving the people born to rule. The born to be dishonored can go around respecting the people born to be honored. The separation of rewards of this life from efforts of this life led to justification of permanent exploitation in the name of Karma. The theory Karma shifts the causation on to victims and their previous lives thus absolving the oppressors. This enabled the Brahmanas to righteously enjoy power and comforts at the expense of impure Shudras and polluting untouchables. Actually it is their heredity function or right. The Karma theory successfully prevents creation of any sympathy for the untouchables and their divinely ordained wretched lives. The untouchables do not have to de to visit the hell; it is created for them here only; this life is a veritable hell for them. In terms of current life the Karma theory amounts to reward without work (Karma) for Brahmans and punishment without crime for lower two strata. The Hindus regard the modern civilization as Western civilization with its roots in materialism. The materialism with its pursuit of maximum profit is regarded as dehumanizing in which the fellow human beings are seen as instruments of furthering one’s own material interests. Spiritualism is supposed to be superior to materialism with its emphasis on spiritual side and inherent absence exploitation. Hindu society with its spiritual development is supposed to be superior to dehumanizing materialism of West. Actually many defenders of Varna dharma regard the West and its modern ideas of equality and liberty as a contaminating source which have actually polluted this grand, ancient, sacred, pure, pious, innocent, spiritual, and divinely ordained civilization. However even the modern Western ideas were unable to reign in the vicious animals of dharma and untouchability....

Spirituality - 9

...Further the Vedas are certainly fallible since they contain imperfect knowledge as evident in Purusha sukta. And divinity certainly cannot be said to possess imperfect knowledge. So the Rig Veda along with Purusha sukta has to be a handiwork of mortal men; it is totally artificial and there is nothing divine about along with other three Vedas. And certainly there is no reason to believe the fantasy of Purusha sukta. The imagination of Rig Vedic people was fertile but it was that only - fertile.

The concept of Bruhm is also imaginary, as nobody has come forward in thousands of years to show any evidence about it. Of course the truth depends on permanency. If the Bruhm exists then the proofs for its existence must exist. Simply the biggest entity cannot hide itself. The existence of Bruhm is axiomatic with unsearchable proofs that are supposed to exist. The theory of Karma is also without any substance. No propagator of this theory has been able to produce any evidences in favor of rebirth with any reliable statistics; barring some delusional people who claim to have taken rebirth. Exactly linking the specified rewards of this birth with the specified and confirmed deeds of last birth for a correctly identified soul has also not taken place. The speculative and deemed final results are axiomatic so one has to believe in the existence of evidences or proofs that nobody has been able to establish for thousands of years. They might not be verifiable. All the proofs are missing for thousands of years. One has to take the words of Vedas, Rishis and spiritualists as proofs for the existence of anything they say. However, this fertile piece of imagination of shifting of rewards to next life is a reality of Hindu psyche and has played havoc with the lives of uncountable people all through the Indian history. Actually this is a separation of rewards being reaped by higher Varnas from their actions in this life.

A Brahman is a man who can endlessly argue about the existence of non-existence (Bruhm) and the non-existence of existence (the world) and unification of soul with Bruhm and also about Karma theory. And through such evolved process he acquires spiritual knowledge sitting at the feet of his gurus. The greatest achievement here is the unification of non-existent (soul) with the non-existent (Bruhm). Second is the holding the victims responsible for their oppression through Karma theory. This spiritual development strengthens their social base where everybody acknowledges his superior and divine knowledge about the world and divinity. More was his spiritual authority more was his control over the society and its resources...

Spirituality - 8

The Hindus regard the modern civilization as Western civilization with its roots in materialism. The materialism with its pursuit of maximum profit is regarded as dehumanizing in which the fellow human beings are seen as instruments of furthering one’s own material interests. Spiritualism is supposed to be superior to materialism with its emphasis on spiritual side and inherent absence exploitation. Hindu society with its spiritual development is supposed to be superior to dehumanizing materialism of West. Actually many defenders of Varna dharma regard the West and its modern ideas of equality and liberty as a contaminating source which have actually polluted this grand, ancient, sacred, pure, pious, innocent, spiritual, and divinely ordained civilization. However even the modern Western ideas were unable to reign in the vicious animals of Varna dharma and untouchability.

However the Hindu society is supposed to be highly spiritual and non-exploitative. The Hindu thinkers say that amassing so much wealth is not good for society. It also alienates a man from God. Actually finding God should be his true goal. A materialist man deviates from his true path. In addition such man is also exploitative or indulges in anti-human practices; you see it is all adharmic.

Maximization of profit leads to neglect of spiritual side and values. In maximization of profits a man forgets his fellow human beings and maximizes the profit at others’ cost. Actually Hindu society is far ahead; it permanently neglects human beings. The higher Varnas maximize their gains at the cost of Shudras and untouchables who form the majority. The cruel, inhuman and permanent exploitation of Shudras and untouchables is a standing feature Hindu society. They do it eternally on eternal basis. Anything below permanent exploitation is below their dignity. They have a mixed standing army of forever servants on heredity basis. Since these servants come on the basis of heredity; the Hindu society never runs short of manual and still lower level servants. The more will come from where they came from. It simply takes a group of families of a servant jati to perpetuate itself to serve the dharma and higher Varnas without really getting anything in return.

In Rig Veda it is said that “Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadanti”. It means that there is only one truth (God) or Sat but wise men call him by different names. Or there is only one Absolute called by many names by knowledgeable men. However the same Absolute created a born servanthood in India and the same Absolute created brotherhood in West. These two Absolutes cannot be the same since a man created in West is essentially the same as created in East. This difference implies either a difference in men or a difference in Gods. According to scriptures of Hindu society the Varnas were created by the God with their inherent functions, which translates into inherent inequalities. Thus there have to be two Gods. If there is only one God then the differences in Varna dharma are created by man. Thus Hindu dharma has no divine origin and it is totally artificial creation of its lawmakers with scant regard to any kind of God. The God is falsely invoked to justify the Varna dharma. However, if the religion in West is artificial and the true religion of the world is Vedic dharma then the God is fascist. It is a difficult choice; take your pick or make and/or create another choice. An atheist would like to ignore the issue altogether. The Rig Vedic statement about only one God is more like a pretension to better understanding of the concept of God or a compromise between different sects. The exact nature of God is not told, neither the exact way of functioning of God. It was simply because the Rig Vedic people themselves did not know it.

Spirituality - 7

There are three major points in development of spiritual philosophy. One is the separation of soul from body , the second is the separation of rewards of this life from the efforts of this life or the sufferings in this life from the deeds in this life (through Karma theory) and the third point is the identification of soul with God and their ultimate unification.

The separation of soul from body allows the concept of rebirth and reincarnation. The concept of rebirth makes room for Karma theory. The concept of reincarnation allows for appropriation of others’ deities as the deities of Sanatana dharma thus leaving others a little room to play. Others lose their gods also. This allows maximum room for Sanatana dharma. The appropriation of a Buddha as a reincarnation of Vishnu is a fine example. Thus Sanatana dharma becomes all encompassing.

The unification of soul with God, which is supposed to be the ultimate aim of Santana dharma, allows for the shifting of dreams and desires to next world. The ambition of Moksha is so high that it can only be achieved in next world. Thus the general population need not be ambitious in this life. The real world and its wealth could be left to twice-born while the born servants can go around doing the extremely necessary job of serving the people born to rule. The born to be dishonored can go around respecting the people born to be honored.

The separation of rewards of this life from efforts of this life led to justification of permanent exploitation in the name of Karma. The theory Karma shifts the causation on to victims and their previous lives thus absolving the oppressors. This enabled the Brahmanas to righteously enjoy power and comforts at the expense of impure Shudras and polluting untouchables. Actually it is their heredity function or right. The Karma theory successfully prevents creation of any sympathy for the untouchables and their divinely ordained wretched lives. The untouchables do not have to de to visit the hell; it is created for them here only; this life is a veritable hell for them. In terms of current life the Karma theory amounts to reward without work (Karma) for Brahmans and punishment without crime for lower two strata.

previous

Spirituality - 6

...There three specific ways prescribed to attain Moksha, Gyan Marg, Karma Marg and Bhakti Marg.

In Gyan Marg which is the knowledge path to salvation, a man can achieve Moksha by gaining the knowledge that the soul and Nirguna Bruhm are non-different to each other as told in non-dualism or Advaitvad. There is no need to die to achieve Moksha and there will be no next birth. This kind of Moksha is available only to Bruhm Gyanis who can only belong to three threaded Varnas. Shudras are not eligible for achieving Moksha in this way.

In Karma Marg (or path of action) which is propagated in world renowned Gita, a man can achieve Moksha by following the Karma related to his Varna which is known there as Swa-dharma. Here all the Varnas are eligible for achieving Moksha provided they follow swa-dharma. The untouchables are not included. Here somebody is allowed Moksha because following Swa-Varna-dharma-Karma is following divinely ordained order of the society. Therefore anybody following God’s desired social order is helping the God in his work. This makes him eligible to attain Moksha. However a Shudra who is desirous of raising his standard of living by leaving his Varna dharma and following the dharma of higher Varna is not eligible for Moksha. For example a potter cannot achieve Moksha by studying Vedas; only a Brahman can achieve Moksha by studying Vedas. All the Shudras have to stick to their heredity profession.

In Bhakti Marg or path of devotion to attain Moksha, a devotee is eligible to attain Moksha through intense devotion. This follows from Saguna Bruhm School. Lord Vishnu represents Saguna Bruhm in this world and can grant Moksha to a devotee if pleased with his devotion. The Bhakti movement had Gurus from various castes. Incidentally the followers of each Guru usually came from the caste equivalent to him or from the castes lower down the scale. It is difficult to find the followers of a Guru who belong to higher Varna than him. It would have been totally adharmic subordination that goes contrary to Varna dharma. Varna dharma appears everywhere. None of the untouchable saints of Bhakti movement were eligible to enter any of the temples; the practice of untouchability continued with the spread of spirituality....

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Spirituality - 5

....However we have to see that why Moksha is necessary? Basic to Hindu society are scriptures, caste system, and concept of soul, the Absolute God, the Karma theory and Hindu pantheon. An eternal cycle of birth and death and rebirth goes on and on in this world. The indestructible soul keeps on moving from one body to another with each rebirth. And in between two births it keeps on wondering in this universe. The problem is created by the sufferings in this physical world. Anybody who enters this world has to suffer from body and mental pains. This world and the lives are overflowing with pain and sorrow. The pain of not having enough to eat., the worry of safety to body, the pain of losing one’s relatives and near and dear ones, the pain of sickness, the pain of wound, the accidents, the death etc. And the final pain is the pain and fear of one’s own death. It is a never ending chain of pain and sorrow. And basically everybody wants to live a painless, sorrowless and comfortable life. Everybody is bound by Karma so he has to suffer from his share of sorrow and pain. Secondly if everybody tried to find out the solution to his sufferings in this life then this will result in corruption of dharma. The social order or Varna dharma will break down. Now a man is in search of peace or getting rid of all his sufferings and sorrows; it is quite reasonable also. The theory of Karma implies that a man would never get peace in his lifetime. So the only way to get rid of the pain is to get out of the cycle of birth and rebirth. Again rebirth means another round of sorrows and pains. If rebirth could be avoided then all the pain could be avoided. This is possible only when soul loses its existence. The only way to have peaceful existence is to not to have any existence at all. How could something indestructible lose its existence? According to Hindu spiritual thought a soul can lose its existence only by merging with the Absolute or Bruhm. To a lay Hindu it is a permanent visit to Vaikunthdham, the abode of Lord Vishnu who represents Bruhm in this world. It is a one way ticket. This unification of soul with Bruhm is called Moksha or salvation. After this unification the soul leaves the painful cycle of birth and rebirth and lives eternally in eternal bliss in Bruhm or Bruhmlok. The mere thought that his soul will keep on wondering in this painful world forever can be quite unsettling to a devout Hindu and then he aims to achieve Moksha. It is a thoughtful way of keeping a Hindu man bound with his Varna dharma and still be hopeful. The hope is grandly deferred to next life or to unseen future of somebody else. In Hindu scriptures everybody is asked to follow properly his Varna dharma to improve his next birth; there is always hope but shifted to next birth. This hope is actually never available to anybody; this is real mirage. It is a result of fantastic thinking of Vedantic seers....