Caste- A Relic of Past: Ajay Brahme
In ancient India the concept of Varna system was introduced with a view to promote division of labour. Division of labour is the basis for inter-dependence, cohesiveness and collectivism in the society. Within a Varna there were various castes who would do similar nature of jobs. Incidentally the initial division of labour was not hereditary and we have examples of people graduating from one Varna to another. As the society developed so did the category of jobs, which may not be categorized or put within the four Varnas. In such a developing society Varna and/or caste as a parameter for the 'ancient division of labour' therefore becomes irrelevant. The varna/caste system, which was introduced with such a noble philosophy of division of labour became polluted primarily because of the brahmanical tradition of marriage within a caste. Though a 'casteisation' based upon jobs has become difficult yet the vice attached to the caste system is still ruling us from the grave. The politicians in this country have very wisely manipulated this vice to serve their political ends. Today caste serves only two purposes; firstly narrowing down the search for prospective match for marriage and secondly, widening the scope of political manoeuvring. This politicization of caste and casteisation of politics (To quote Professor Rajni Kothari) is starkly against the 'ancient varna/caste system' much less the philosophy of division of labour. Recent brouhaha about the reservation for Other Backward Castes (OBCs) falls into the second category mentioned above. The cause for concern is—whether under the garb of affirmative action as prescribed under the law of the land, such a political manoeuvrings which makes caste a permanent feature of our society be allowed. The framers of the Constitution had never envisaged such a situation. The policy of the Constitution is to do away with caste and to strive to create a casteless society. Such a casteless society can however be created only by the will of the individuals as it directly affects the age-old practices within the society. However, the fact is that the reality of backwardness of the people in this country cannot be ignored. Hence, affirmative action is a good measure towards upliftment of such poor sections of the society. The most important factor in the present socio-political scenario is to identify as to who requires the Affirmative action. In the present day society caste may not be a good reference point for affirmative action inter alia for the following reasons: Firstly, the caste lines have blurred to a great extent in the cosmopolitan India; secondly, even amongst the SC/ST/OBC the people belonging to lower strata have not been able to access the benefits provided by the reservation. Similarly the economically weaker sections of the society despite belonging to the castes falling in the general category continue to remain on the periphery of the society. The need of the hour is therefore to extend the Affirmative action to those who need it. Such Affirmative action can be extended by firstly identifying such individuals on economic basis, secondly by providing infrastructure (both hard and soft) especially in the rural areas. In such a model caste as a reference point seems to be nothing more than an anachronistic anomaly since even a Brahmin at rural area may need Affirmative Action. The simple corollary of the above discussion therefore is that let Affirmative Action be class, region based rather than the caste and/ or religion based. Realisation of such a model is however dependent upon the will of the individuals only. Hence going back to our argument of withering away of caste it would be apt to suggest that inter-caste marriages need to be encouraged. Let the caste wither away as it is not serving any purpose for the society. Apart from socio-economic reasons mentioned above justification for argument in favour of withering away of caste can be found even in the depleting Parsi community, which had been discouraging marriage outside their community. Once such a model is realized in the country then we can even extend it to the world at large and talk about withering away of the religion. After all today even the religion is serving only one major purpose—i.e. of dividing the people. There has been large-scale politicization of the religion, which has led to the interpolation and pollution of the whole concept of religion itself. The concept of religion, dharma and spirituality are actually quite distinct concepts. So the theme for the new society should be 'to envisage a caste less, religion less world and to strive towards the realization of Vasudhaiv kutumbakam.
