Hinduism ≠ Casteism
The cause of Hindu antagonistic views of Indian leaders of the pre-colonial (and even post-independence era) such as Ramarayaningar can be understood by a study of the setting under which they grew. From the 1840s up until 1925, the Indian State under the colonial government evolved a pseudo-identity framework which faultily generalized the demographic census data into what was called castes, a Spanish word “casta”, used to mean a “lineage, tribe or class”.¹
This categorization of colonial citizens based on a faultily generalized identity that has resulted in violence is a global phenomenon as seen in the Rwanda Genocide which killed 500,000 to 800,000[2] Tutsis with total estimated death at 1,100,000.[3]
The origin of this classification both in India and Rwanda was not native to these countries, but a colonial trope[4].
The Rwanda Genocide that involved Hutu and Tutsi people, for example, was caused by a faulty classification system developed during a colonial census. The definitions of “Hutu” and “Tutsi” people have changed through time and location. Even during colonial times under Belgian rule, social structures were fluid throughout Rwanda. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi.
When the Belgian colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined “Tutsi” as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical feature of a longer nose, or a longer neck, commonly associated with the Tutsi. The Hutu and Tutsi spoke the same language, practiced the same religion, and participated in the same government, and having lived together for at least 400 years, had considerable intermingling and intermarrying, such that ethnographers claim that the two groups “cannot be called distinct ethnic groups”.[5] Rather, the two terms in contemporary setting merely referred to a colonial pseudo-identity framework in which the Hutu were primarily farmers and the Tutsi were primarily herdsmen.[6]
In a similar way, until the colonialization of India, the word caste in the present context was unknown to not just India but also the world. Until 1569, the Spanish word casta implying “lineage, tribe or class”, did not even exist in English[7], and was used only to describe mixed-race individuals in New Spain.[8]
In 1844, the word “caste” in India meant indigenous social structures that were seen by foreign evangelicals as “a wonderful institution” of guilds “merging in the wisdom and craft of man” [9].
In 1871, the word “caste” was used by the colonial government to force-fit people groups in a pseudo-identity framework based on surname, appearances, facial features, etc.[10]
The 1871 census data was used to create legislatures such as the Criminal Tribes Act (1871)[11] that made prejudicial negative stereotypes, which arbitrarily declared any person a criminal by the very nature of his birth in a certain people’s group, or by his professing a certain surname.
The Criminal Tribes Act (CTA 1871) deprived several people groups of their inalienable universal human right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (UN UDHR Article 11).
While the four Varnas that are defined based on Karmas (actions motivated by individual worldview and pursuits of life) and Gunas (activism, that is, number of active working hours per day) [12] are a form of self-declaration and subjective fluid classification, and the 3000 Jatis are endogamous people groups with 25,000 Upjatis[13] that include exogamous Gotra groups, the 1871 census and later literature faultily generalized[14] the 25,000 people groups into a force-fitted classification using the same verbiage as of four Varnas which was contrary to both practical indigenous lifestyle experience and written scriptures.[15]
This faulty generalization is described by William Robert Cornish, who supervised colonial government census operations in the Madras Presidency in 1871, as ”Whether there was ever a period in which the Hindus were composed of four classes is exceedingly doubtful”.[16]
Such faulty generalizations coupled with negative stereotypes were applied to various people groups such as to Hindu scholars and priests who were presumed to be nepotistic by the virtue of their birth, surname, or profession[17] , and similarly, all Hindu monastic orders (Sanyasis) were presumed to be criminal by birth as per CTA(1871).
Though the fight against discrimination, is a worldwide cause[18], as much as in the Indian sub-continent, the faulty generalization of Hindu social constructs coupled with negative stereotyping of Hindu communities had a severe undoable negative effect in multiple dimensions depriving various people groups of their basic human rights in front of the law by mere definition.
The pre-colonial indigenous education system was widespread[19] imparting education to every person even in the remotest village[20], it was economical[21] and inclusive, catering to boys and girls[22] of all sections of society with as many as 70% of students being from impoverished communities[23] that now are recognized[24] as OBCs, SCs, and STs[25].
The pre-colonial indigenous gurukul education system encouraged harmony amongst all social communities by recognizing the dignity of labor and respect for all professions, for example, the second verse from an ancient treatise on agriculture says, “Despite being learned of four Vedas (core Hindu scriptures) if a Brahmin considers agriculture inferior he is bound to be stuck in a cycle of poverty.” [26]
Despite the inclusive nature of pre-colonial indigenous education, and fluid nature of pre-colonial indigenous social structures, the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, Ramarayaningar, a strong advocate of westernization parroted a Hinduphobic[27] colonial trope[28] in one of his most cited interviews stating — “What did the Brahmans do for our education in the five thousand years before Britain came? I remind you: They asserted their right to pour hot lead into the ears of the low-caste man who should dare to study books. All learning belonged to them, they said.”[29]
The dangerous colonial caste constructs as seen in the Rwanda Genocide is also the basis for depriving Hindus of their religious rights, marginalization of various Hindu people groups, and the destruction of Hindu temples and monasteries.
References
[1] “caste”. Oxford English Dictionary
[2] Guichaoua, André (2 January 2020). “Counting the Rwandan Victims of War and Genocide: Concluding Reflections”. Journal of Genocide Research. 22 (1): 125–141 doi:10.1080/14623528.2019.1703329. ISSN 1462–3528.
[3] Reyntjens, Filip. ESTIMATION DU NOMBRE DE PERSONNES TUÉES AU RWANDA EN 1994. Available at:https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/oldcontent/container2143/files/Publications/Annuaire/1996-1997/10-Reyntjens.pdf
[4] Wylie, Lesley. “Colonial Tropes and Postcolonial Tricks: Rewriting the Tropics in the ‘Novela De La Selva.’” The Modern Language Review, vol. 101, no. 3, 2006, pp. 728–742. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20466906.
[5] (i) Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. 1998. (ii) “‘Indangamuntu 1994: Ten years ago in Rwanda this ID Card cost a woman her life’ by Jim Fussell”.
[6] https://www.beyondintractability.org/casestudy/fornace-rwandan
[7] Dictionarie in Spanish and English (1599 & 1623), an augmented version of Bibliotheca Hispanica (1591) by Richard Percyvall (1993 reprint: ISBN 3–89131–066–8)
[8] Ares, Berta, “Usos y abusos del concepto de casta en el Perú colonial”, ponencia presentada en el Congreso Internacional INTERINDI 2015. Categorías e indigenismo en América Latina, EEHA-CSIC, Sevilla, November 10, 2015.
[9] “Caste, In Its Religious And Civil Character Opposed To Christianity”, Joseph Roberts (1857), An address delivered in the Wesleyan Mission Chapel, Madras by Rev Joseph Roberts of the Royal Asiatic Society on 4 Jan 1844, page 10.
[10] https://censusindia.gov.in/DigitalLibrary/data/Census_1881/Publication/India/1A-Memorandum%20on%20the%20census%20of%20British%20India,%201871-1872.pdf
[11] Text of the Criminal Tribes Act 1871 at Columbia University
[12] चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः॥ तस्य कर्तारमपि मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम्॥Bhagavata Gita Chapter 4 verse 13॥
[13] https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/17/india.caste/
[14] Dumont, Louis (1980), Homo Hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications, University of Chicago Press, pp. 66–67 ISBN 0–226–16963–4
[15] Mahābhārata (Vana-parva, chapter 177, verse 20), “śūdre caitad-bhavel-lakṣma dvije tac ca na vidyate। na vai śūdro bhavec-chudro brāhmaṇo na ca brāhmaṇoḥ॥” “If someone born a śūdra possesses the characteristics of a brāhmaṇa and someone born a brāhmaṇa does not, that śūdra should not be known as a śūdra, and that brāhmaṇa should not be known as a brāhmaṇa.”
[16] Cornish, W R (1874): Report on the Census of the Madras Presidency, 1871, with Appendix (Madras: The Government Gazette Press), p 121, 122. https://www.epw.in/journal/2011/33/special-articles/census-colonial-india-and-birth-caste.html
[17] Diehl, Anita (1977). E. V. Ramaswami Naicker-Periar: A study of the influence of a personality in contemporary South India. Sweden: Scandinavian University Books. ISBN 978–91–24–27645–4.
[18] With the adoption of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, 193 United Nations Member States pledged to ensure “no one will be left behind” and to “endeavour to reach the furthest behind first”.
[19] House of Commons Papers, 1831–32, volume 9, p.468, Presidency of Bombay, G.L. Prendergast ‘there is hardly a village, great or small, throughout our territories, in which there is not at least one school, and in larger villages more.’
[20] House of Commons Papers, 1812–13, volume 7, evidence of Thomas Munro (Governor of Madras Presidency 1819–1827), p.127, The Beautiful Tree, Dr. Dharampal, (ISBN No.: 81–85569–49–5 republished ISBN-10: 8175310952), page 26.
[21] Collector of Bellary (A.D. Campbell) to Board of Revenue, 17 August 1823 (TNSA: BRP: Vol.958 Pro.25.8.1823 pp.7167–85 Nos.32–33), para 16. “The economy with which children are taught to write in the native schools, and the system by which the more advanced scholars are caused to teach the less advanced and at the same time to confirm their own knowledge is certainly admirable, and well deserved the imitation it has received in England.”
[22] The Beautiful Tree, Dr. Dharampal, (ISBN No.: 81–85569–49–5 republished ISBN-10: 8175310952), Chapter IV, “Education of Girls” page 43
[23] (i) The Beautiful Tree (Dharampal), Chapter IV, Table 3 — Caste-wise division of male school, student, republished here, (ii) Ibid see also pg 29, “while the Soodras and the other castes ranged from about 70% in Salem and Tinnevelly to over 84% in South Arcot” (iii) TNSA: Revenue Consultations: Vol.920: dated 2 July 1822
[24] Ibid Chapter IV page 22 “this included most such groupings which today are listed among the scheduled castes”
[25] OBCs — Other backward castes, SCs — Scheduled Castes, STs — Scheduled Tribes are some of officially designated groups of people in India that are considered disadvantaged and marginalized by the State of Republic of India.
[26] “चतुर्वेदान्तगो विप्रः शास्त्रवादी विचक्षणः। अलक्ष्म्या गृह्यते सोऽपि प्रार्थनालाघवान्वितः॥२॥” कृषिपराशरम् https://sa.wikisource.org/s/d9w
[27] Hinduphobia (anti-Hindu sentiments) — Long, Jeffery D. (2011), Historical Dictionary of Hinduism, Scarecrow Press
[28] Wylie, Lesley. “Colonial Tropes and Postcolonial Tricks: Rewriting the Tropics in the ‘Novela De La Selva.’” The Modern Language Review, vol. 101, no. 3, 2006, pp. 728–742. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20466906.
[29] Mayo, Katherine (1937). Mother India. New York. p. 178.
