The idea of a “caste census” seems to be the driving obsession of some political parties, while concurrently, certain other organisations advocate a casteless society. Both perspectives illustrate the consequences of trusting democracy and its elected leaders as the optimal form of governance. The truth is that, since independence, the social sciences in our country have completely failed to provide a healthy understanding of our culture and civilisation, which, at the very least, have endured for 5000 years.
Instead, the social sciences simply followed the colonial understanding of the caste system and perpetuated it in our academia by generating more data to fit the theories. This understanding of social sciences permeated our politicians, bureaucracy, and media, creating a distorted perception of Indian culture among those in positions of power. It demonstrates a complete disconnection between the real-life practices in society and the imposed caste narratives.
The only lived reality of India is its “Jatis,” which began as a small number and have grown over many centuries into the nearly 4000 that exist today. Individual ideas related to language, culture, food practices, worship of gods, reverence for gurus, occupation, and even gender shape the Jatis. Jatis evolve, merge, split, and go up and down on the socio-political-economic scales all the time. The administration of the country, from colonial times to the present, has never been able to establish a direct correlation between the vibrant and dynamic Jati arrangement and the four constant Varnas.
Nobody knows about the rules of Varna; there are no central organisations implementing them, and there has been no attempt to understand the concept of Varna, which is based on ideas like Swadharma, Swabhava, Guna, and Karma. Deeper connections exist between the four Varnas and the other two quartets—the four “ashramas” and the four “purusharthas.” Society’s main metaphysical beliefs, including karma, rebirths, and the Supreme Ideal (Self, Brahman, Purusha, Sunya, Avyakta, and so on), are at the basis of all the three quartets, in turn. Distancing Varna and Jati from the other quartets and the culture’s metaphysics results in significant harm to the culture, a phenomenon evident in today’s numerous flawed narratives.
Caste and subcaste developed in western contexts where class and hierarchy were the primary pillars, while Varna and Jati flourished in Indian settings. Surprisingly, Indian scriptures do not contain an equivalent word for caste. Over centuries, we have imposed caste, sub-caste, and even sub-sub-caste onto our Varnas and Jatis, resulting in severe misunderstandings and constant friction within Indian society.
There are three strands to the caste story in India: 1) The actual Varna and Jati arrangement, the rules of which are unknown but the latter (Jatis) have organically evolved; 2) The colonial understanding of the caste system as they experienced Indian culture; and 3) The post-independence political and bureaucratic hardening of the system by creating more and more classifications in its zeal for “social justice.”
Today, the entire narrative is mired in conceptual confusion, with some factions attempting to dismantle Hinduism itself to counteract the “evils” of the caste system, others striving to establish an unfeasible casteless society, and still others promoting censuses to guarantee “equal outcomes” in society. American philosopher Thomas Sowell elegantly demonstrates the eternal and impossible nature of the last dream. While we can achieve equal opportunities for all in a few generations, the history of the world shows that we can never achieve an equal outcome based on any grouping generally and specifically on caste in Indian society.
Therefore, it’s crucial to consider the motivation behind the creation of these censuses. Is the goal to ensure equality in opportunities or outcomes? As Sowell demonstrates, a disproportionate representation of a particular group will always exist in any profession, regardless of other factors. As an example, he quotes the predominance of blacks in basketball and whites in tennis in the USA. In the past, Germans, who made up less than 1% of the population, were considered the best pilots in Russia.
Establishing equal opportunities for individuals aspiring to pursue a career in a particular field differs significantly from advocating for equal representation of all groups in that field. It appears that the caste censuses solely aim to achieve equal outcomes, which could potentially lead to the most disastrous social engineering programs in modern India. At the individual level, the concept of creating equal opportunities and justice is fundamental. One can create level fields for everyone without making Varna or Jati the criteria but focussing on other parameters like economic deprivation or lack of access to available opportunities. Programs aimed at addressing past injustices and providing present-day reparations at the “group level” will significantly impact the social fabric of the country.
RANDOM MUSINGS 