India: Caste, Culture and Traditions

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The caste, though most important social institution of this country, is the most misunderstood one. It has undergone a lot of changes during last millennium, and to a large extent, it is a post-Turk phenomenon in its present form. The perception haziness about the caste, and about India's culture and tradition, is due to colonial myth- making and growing culture and tradition illiteracy of the educated Indians. The book deals with various aspects of caste, culture and traditions of India.

B.B. Kumar, (b. 1941), M.Sc. (Chemistry). M.Sc. (Anthropology). M.A. (Hindi), Ph.D. (Anthro.), an educationist and social activist, is former Principal, Sao Chang Government College, Tuensang (Nagaland), and Science College, Kohima. He was member, Executive Council, Academic Council, University Court, College Development Council, Examination Committee, School Board of Physical Sciences and other numerous committees of the North- Eastern Hill University, Shillong (India). He was Chairman, Hindi Board of Studies, and member, Board of Studies, of Science for Rural Development", Gandhigram Rural University, Tamilnadu. He remained associated with a large number of NGOs as President, Vice- President, Secretary and founding member. He was founder secretary of Nagaland Bhasha Parishad and Thinkers Forum, Nagaland, founder-secretary, Astha Bharati, New Delhi and founder member, India Central Asia Foundation, New Delhi, and Governing Body member of the Nagaland Peace Centre, the organization founded by Jai Prakash Narayan.

Dr. Kumar has written/edited/co-authored 135 books and more than 100 paper. Presently he is editing Quarterly journals, Dialogue (English) and Chintan- Srijan (Hindi), both published from Delhi, and Quest (Annual Journal of the Vivekanand Kendra Institute of Culture, Guwahati). His publications include 'Small States Syndrome in India, Tension and Conflict in North-East India, Naga Identity, Macro-Perception of Indian Tribal Societies and Illegal Migration from Bangladesh (edited), India: Caste, Culture and Traditions, and India and Central Asia: A Shared Past. He has written/edited 64 dictionaries, 14 outline grammars, 15 self-teachers and folk- tales of 4 tribal languages.

Caste, the most unique, yet the most misunderstood, social institution of India has been repeatedly subjected to colonial myth-making and misinterpretation. Previously, we had few castes, rather only four varnas; and we had gotras and the charanas, rather than the endogamous caste units. We had shrenis, i.e., guilds, which later on became endogamous castes. Thus, the number of the castes was limited. According to Al-Beruni, all the four social units used to dine together at one place. Thus, there was, practically, no untouchability. But positive and negative changed took place, and caste rigidity increased during last one thousand years. Thus, we can safely say that caste in the present form is a post-Turk phenomenon.

The caste, even in its present changed form, served the society in many ways. It prevented atomization of the Hindu society, helped in maintaining social values and norms through various caste councils, and prevented conversion to Christianity and Islam in a big way.

The colonial scholars and Christian missionaries labelled unjust charges of denial and exploitation against the system. The American universities are promoting deconstructionist studies with ulterior motives to promote intra-societal divide. The myths that higher castes denied education to the lower ones have been disproved. The country produced enough for each of us. It was only due to British colonial exploitation, that the country was left hungry, naked, illiterate and diseased. But, as the British myth-makers succeeded in confusing us intra- societal factors were searched, and propagated for our societal maladies.

The Census of India worked for the division of Indian society into castes and tribes. I have added nine chapters and three annexures, mostly related to the Scheduled tribes, in this enlarged edition of the book, keeping in view the need of removing perceptional haziness about caste- tribe continuum.

Lastly, I thank Dr. Lokesh Chandra, who has kindly written the foreword of the book, and Shri Ashok Kumar Mittal, owner of the Concept Publishing Company Pvt. Ltd., for publishing the second edition of the book.

The comprehension of the varna-jati paradigm or 'caste' has been conditioned by imperialistic illusions, tentative gropings of Western scholarship based on flimsy passages in texts, and the misunderstanding of the brilliant ambitions of India's social system. Stray literary allusions are overblown to find the 'caste system in overlaps of observations and unanchored vestiges. The ordering of society has been the constant endeavour of humankind. We find its echoes in the flamonium/regnum concept of the Romans, which reflects the Sanskrit brahmanya/rajanya conflation of the sagely and kingly. The Chinese sage Confucius speaks of the "sagely within and kingly without" as the normative ethos of the social order.

The word brahmana goes back to the Indo-European period. It occurs as foramen in the Celtic heritage of Irish. Ireland remained untouched by Roman influence and has been able to preserve this heritage which has been lost on the Continent. It resembles that of India in many points: cow is the measure of prosperity, Sanskrit sasya 'corn' is [s Jasia 'barley', Skt. arya is aire 'free man' in Irish, from which stems the name of the country as Eire.

The word brahmana occurs as flamen in Latin, and rajan as rex. The Rigveda speaks of brahma ca ksatram ca. These two living palladiums can also be seen in the Roman concept of the state. The parallel of rex/flamen with rajan/brahmana a fascinating element of ancient Sanskrit vestiges of the bipartite conception of sovereignty. At the height of its power the Roman rex or sovereign Numa split the essence of the regnum and of the flamonium. The two existed in a symbiosis, for values had to be inherent in the functioning of the State. There are astounding similarities between the oblications of the brahmana and the flamen:

The flamen cannot be made to swear on oath (Plutarch, Roman Questions 44: Aulus Gellius 10.15, Livy 31.50). The brahmana can never be cited as a witness (Visnu-smriti 8.2).

The flamen must not so much as look upon armed troops (Aulus Gellius 10.15). The brāhmaṇa must suspend his sacred knowledge whenever he hears the hiss of arrows, or is in the midst of an army, and so on (Manu 4.113-121).

The flamen apart from being forbidden any journey outside Rome, must neither mount a horse (Aulus Gellius 10.15; Plutarch, Roman Questions 40).

The brahmana must not study on horseback nor, it seems, sit on any animal or in any vehicle (Manu 4.120). The flamen must not approach a funeral pyre (Aulus Gellius 10.15). The brahmana must avoid the smoke from a funeral pyre and cease his sacred studies in any village where a funeral procession is passing (Manu 4.49.108).

The flamen must avoid drunkenness and abstain from touching fermented substances (Aulus Gellius 10.15; Plutarch, Roman Questions 109, 112). The brahmana must not consume alcoholic drinks (Manu 11.94, 96, 97).

Book's Contents and Sample Pages