Caste and Race in India c13.2

c13.2

WE have seen that the practice of caste has changed, and also that a section of the Hindus have not only acquiesced in that change but have actively helped it. The orthodox Hindus do not like the modifications that have come about owing to changed circumstances. They actually deprecate them, and if they had the power they would fain reinstate the old situation. The progressive elements on the other hand not only welcome the changes but propose further modifications. Among these there are at least three, more or less clearly distinguishable, schools of thought. There are those who believe that the best way to bring about the desired end is to hark back to the imagined pure state of Hindu society which was characterized by the existence of only the four traditional castes, viz. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaiśya, and Śudra. The greatest exponent of this point of view is Mahatma Gandhi.¹ There are others who would go ahead rather than look back on the past in the vain hope of reinstating it under totally different conditions. But they think that the only way in which abolition of caste can be achieved as a concrete fact is, in the first place, to amalgamate the various sub-castes of a present day caste, which have much cultural unity and economic similarity. Then the castes which are approximately on a footing of equality should be consolidated, and the procedure may be followed till society becomes casteless. They contend that this process being slow would afford sufficient time for education and the formation of informed opinion, with the necessary adjunct of the requisite mental adjustment of those classes which are not yet prepared for a wholesale change in their agelong customs. The third point of view considers caste, especially in its present form, so degrading in some of its aspects and so anti-national in others, that it would abolish it altogether without any hesitation or delay.