Yuvhys: 2009

I remember watching an advertisement on TV of Canara Bank. The advertisement conveys the message of its transformation from old conservative bank to a new service oriented bank for its customers. In the advertisement a south Indian mother will be learning Panjabi because her Daughter-in-law, who is a Panjabi, will be coming home in few days time. It is shown that the mother is determined to learn the language and greets her Daughter-in-law in Panjabi at the airport on arrival. And the motto runs saying “We change for our loved ones”. This is one of the advertisements which best appeals to all the age groups across the country as Inter caste marriages in India are increasing. It looks simple of mother accepting a change and for some it looks like the Ideal Mother and Mother-in-law. But reality is pretty far from what’s been shown in the advertisement about the middle class south Indian Mother who has just witnessed an Inter caste marriage happening in her own family. I am pretty sure that most of the families with inter caste marriages call the advertisement as the heights of optimism, atleast at the initial stages of the marriage.

India is a developing nation. With increase in per capita income, GDP, economic activity, literacy levels, awareness about the world outside, disposable income and with many other constructive developments, the quality of living of Indians is being elevated to the next level. But one of the evils which still persist is the caste system. Castes in India are numerous and are still very prominent. Even the well educated young Indians believe in the caste system. Inter caste marriages are increasing but not all inter caste marriages are happy marriages. By one way or the other the couple should be ready to compromise. They need to make a trade off most of the times between being with the parents and marrying someone who is not his/her choice or going against the parents and marrying someone of his/her choice.

Origin of Caste System in India

Caste system in India had its roots five thousand years ago. Then the caste system was based on the colour of the skin. The lower castes are the one with the dark skinned. These are days of Aryans where the superstitions ruled than the science and technology. People used to assume the darkness as bad and brightness as good. Darkness at night leads to confusions and no one want to be in dark. As a result the dark skinned were labelled as lower class people and it was a sin to be born as a dark skinned.

The bases of formation of the caste system changed gradually. The type of work done by the individual determined his/her caste. There were four major castes accordingly, Bhramanas, Kshatriyas, Shudras and Vysyas.

Bhramanas job was to worship god. They were given a role of worshiping god for the common good of the country. Temple was their work place. There job was to worship god all the other caste respected them may be because of the fear they had of god. This very behaviour of the other castes towards Bhramanas made Bhramanas as the superior caste. The food habit of the caste was altered. All the Bhramans became vegetarian and started practicing it as a food habit. There was not much of the physical work to be done by this caste and hence they practised of having low calorie vegetarian food. The children in the caste were brought up with words like intelligence, faith and concentration.

Kshatriyas job was to guard the country against enemies. They were basically the soldiers and Kings who used to fight for the country. People in the caste were physically strong. The food that they had was a high calorie food so they were basically non vegetarians. The children in the caste were brought up with words like bravery, courage, sacrifice, and all the other macho words.

Shudras principal job was to cultivate crops needed for the country. They are basically the farmers. But the carpenters, cobblers, blacksmith and so on (each of it became a sub caste later) were included in the caste. The food habits of the caste was vegetarian and non vegetarian as well. The energy requirement was also high for the caste as they used to work in fields from morning till evening. The children in the caste were brought up with words like hard work and skills.

Vysyas were basically business people. Their job was to manage the trade aspects of the country. The caste was rich as they were dealing with the money. The food habits again here were vegetarian as the energy requirement was less. The children were brought with words like profit, loss, trade and business.

Based on the profession the food habits, the behaviour, the practices, the values and finally the culture of the castes was established. The child born in the respective castes was supposed to continue the profession of the caste. The compulsion of continuing the profession or work of the ancestors made the caste system relevant and prevailed for a long time.

But in today’s world the caste system should be out of time because the bhramans are in defence services, in farming, in business and are also worshipping god. Their profession now is not restricted to worshiping only. The food habits of the people in the caste have changed as per the energy requirements of the profession or work that they are into. The same is with Shudras, Vysyas and Kshatriyas.

Even today I hear some of the following comments and questions from my friends who are literate.

1. You are eating chicken being a Bhramin?

2. You are Gowda, and should be having farming land? Do you go back to agriculture after your studies?

3. Look at them. Its a intercaste marriage. She is a Christian and he is a Gowda. Sad right!

4. He is from a backward community and has still managed to graduate with flying colours. Fantastic right!

Well, I will be wonderstruck whenever I hear any of the above and many more and I wonder their level of literacy and awareness.

Caste system is one of the evils that still persist. The evil should be eradicated to remain in best interest of the developing nation. I think we should eradicate this evil from our house to start with. Always encourage any inter-caste marriages in the family, make elders and youngsters aware about the origin of our caste system and the repercussions that the evil has on the society and let youngsters to take their own decisions. Be the change you want to see and always see the good constructive changes.