India and the Caste System

1. India and the Caste System Alternative Form of Neo-Kinship

2. Outline: India • 1) Social system • Caste and its Origins • 2) Origin of caste system • Original technology: iron age • 3) Political level • Short-lived imperial dynasties – feudal: Why? • 4) Compare • China – social structure • Greece – technology • 5) Beliefs: Karma, Reincarnation • Bhagavad-Gita

3. 1) Caste System is a Kinship System • A caste (varna) is an intermarrying group • Kinship; hereditary membership • A caste eats together • A high-caste Brahmin does not eat with someone of a lower caste; different diets for different castes • Divided by occupation: priest, warrior, merchant, peasant • Legal status, rights based on caste membership • Gandhi was refused permission to study in England • Visible identifiers of caste, • e.g., the “bindi” colored dot between the eyebrows

4. Religious origin of caste hierarchy • Dismemberment of Purusha (276) • Head (mouth): Brahmin (priest, teacher) (white) • Arms: Kshatriya (rulers, warriors) (red) • Legs: Vaishya (landlords, businessmen) (brown) • Feet: Sudra (peasants) (black)

5. Outcasts • Pariahs -- Untouchables, outcastes • –polluting work (dealing with cowhide, excrement, scavengers, landless laborers, etc.) • 200 million today • Phoolan Devi, “The Bandit Queen” • Dalit (oppressed); “Harijan” (Gandhi: Children of God)

6. Development of Castes: Jati • Subcastes of religious-based varna-castes • Evolution of division of labor • Occupations multiply: school teachers, brick layers • Marry inside jati caste; observe eating, dietary codes • “tens of thousands” of jati-castes today • Spodek 277

7. Advantages of Caste System • Problem of alienation in West; Middle East • People from different kin groups move to cities • Work with strangers • Legal identity is external; abstract • Caste system precludes alienation • Live, work with fellow kin • Side-by-side with other kin groups • > Requires tolerance of different groups

8. 2) Origin of Caste system • Varna = color • Note colors assigned to each caste • Variety of theories: • “Apparently, the Aryan invaders were even then thinking of a social system that separated people by occupation and sanctioned that separation through religion.” (276) • =System of separation of Aryans (light-skinned, twice-born) and others (darker skinned, once-born) (Dravidians)

9. Neo-kinship • Kinship + hierarchy = neo-kinship • Kinship adapts to “civilization” • “Twice born” castes • Brahmin; Kshatriya; Vaishya • Ritual rebirth • “Once born”: Sudra

10. Cultural Cohesion in a Divided Subcontinent • Subtitle of chapter eight (241) • Geographical size and complexity • But also isolated; easy to defend from outsiders • Narrow mountain passes: Khyber Pass • But India is vulnerable to outsiders • Sociological diversity before Aryans • Hunter-gatherers (“tribes”) • Advanced civilization of Indus-Valley Dravidians • Waves of “Aryan” immigrants • Caste system = adaptation to diversity

11. Early Republics • “The leadership of the territories was centered in specific family lineage groups, and as these lineages grew larger and as they cleared more forest land to expand their territorial control, the janapadas [populated territories] began to take on the political forms of states with urban capitals and political administrations. Some constituted themselves as republics, others as monarchies.” (246) • What was the time-period of the early states?

12. Iron Age neo-kinship civilization • Clear the forests with iron tools • Lineage groups = kinship • Extend control over others (non-Aryans) = neo-kinship: caste system • States that emphasize kinship democracy: republics • States that emphasize hierarchical control of one kinship group over others: monarchies

13. 3) Political weakness, cultural strength of India • “For the following fifteen centuries [after the Maurya Empire from 324-238 BCE], comparatively brief but influential empires alternated with long periods of decentralized and often weak rule. India nevertheless retained a strong sense of cultural unity, based in large part on the intermediate familial, social, economic, and religious institutions that brought cohesion to both ancient and modern India.” Spodek 247

14. Short-lived dynasties • 700-600 early states • Iron age republics; monarchies • 324-185 BCE Mauryas (Spodek, 244) • 320-540 CE Guptas (Spodek, 244) • Conquests by Hunas, Muslims, English • => Weakness of political system: feudalism • Corollary of difference in forms of neo-kinship

15. Feudal decentralization • Recall Egypt’s and China’s long periods of centralized rule, • with short periods of feudal decentralization. • In India, the reverse is the case: • feudal decentralization predominates • = Rule of local powers • Evolution: from early republics (within ruling group emphasized) to later monarchies (rule over others emphasized) • Recall China: clans rule over clans

16. Indian Indifference to Politics • Caste business of Kshatria: rule the state • Caste business of Sudra: work, service • => outside Kshatria caste, indifference to politics: none of your business • Highest caste: Brahmins – superior to rulers • => politics is not the highest • => difficulty of rule

17. 4) Compare to Confucian China • Long-lasting dynasties • Politics starts in the home: everyone’s private business is the business of state • “Mandate of Heaven” = religious basis of state > right of revolution • =Political religion; religious politics

18. Unity v. Diversity • China’s neo-kinship system unifies • Clans conquer other clans with similar culture • Head of ruling clan: father of all • Unites society under ruler • India’s neo-kinship system divides • Aryan group rules others of dissimilar culture • Aim: preserve unity of ruling group versus assimilation by others • Divides society into different groups

19. Comparative civilizations • 1) Regarding technology • Iron age civilization • Early republics found along Ganges: freedom! • So: like Greece and Rome • 2) Regarding social structure – neo-kinship • Like China in preserving kinship • =>Neo-kinship society that emphasizes freedom of the individual

20. 5) Arjuna’s Crisis • Scene of battle field of Kurukshetra • Arjuna: man of action, perfect Kshatria nobleman warrior • Discovers that he cannot perform his duty (dharma) • He must kill his kinsmen—for what?

21. “Better to live on beggar’s bread • With those we love alive, • Than taste their blood in rich feasts spread • And guiltily survive!”

22. Crisis of kinship morality • Focus on moral consciousness, duty • As warrior • Ordinary goals of warrior: power, wealth, pleasure • But this action leads to conflict with kinship relations • As brother, nephew, cousin • How enjoy victory at such cost? • Compare to Antigone: did Antigone’s brothers cry over having to fight each other? • Who cried? Explain • Appeals to charioteer Krishna for guidance • Divine “avatar”

23. Solution to Arjuna’s problem • Do your duty as a warrior prince – your destiny in this life • Without attachment to consequences (joy over victory, sorrow over deaths etc.) • Get off the emotional rollercoaster! • What is killed is not the true Self, but the shadow, the illusion – which does not really exist anyway • What is real, the truth Self, is unkillable

24. Karma and Reincarnation • Karma (= action): we make our own reality • Recall Greek idea of self-determined destiny • We are free, but because of our blindness, we produce what we don’t want • “But I’m not responsible for being be born in my (lower) caste” • Yes you are, because of actions in a previous lifetime

25. Different concepts of Reincarnation • Plato’s NDE of Er • Ulysses chooses quiet lifetime • Freedom is to determine one’s own life • Later concept of empire: freedom is affirmed in unfreedom • Stoicism in powerful Roman empire: You can’t determine external events • Hinduism of Indian feudalism: yes you can

26. Debased conception of Karma/Action • 1) Debased conception of action/Karma as justification of caste system • Purusha is divided into four castes as justification of hierarchical state system • Scientifically educated modern person discovers: “I am not the feet of Purusha!” • Why you are poor, lower caste • Because of sins in past life

27. Higher conception of Karma • 2) Higher conception of Bhagavad-Gita: Four parts of Purusha represent four basic spiritual personalities, without hierarchy • (1) Intellectual, spiritual personality • – head, Brahmin • (2) Government, protection, police, army • arms, Kshatriya • (3) Social relations, exchange, trade • Legs, Vaishya • (4) Work, making things • Feet, Sudra

28. Karma and Duty/Destiny • (Bad) Karma: letting worry over external consequences decide one’s action • Arjuna worries about killing his relatives • Unlike Polynices and Eteocles • Arjuna is like Antigone! He cries too! • Duty—Destiny: deciding on the basis of one’s duty: • Arjuna is a warrior, and should do his duty, follow his destiny, without concern for consequences