History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.4
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.4
- Language
- English
v2.c19.4.1
The caste system has been highly eulogised and also most severely condemned by Western writers. Sidney Low in his ‘Vision of India’ (pp. 262–263, 2nd ed. of 1907) speaks of the beneficent aspect of the caste system in the following eloquent passage ‘There is no doubt that it is the main cause of the fundamental stability and contentment by which Indian society has been braced up for centuries against the shocks of politics and the cataclysms of Nature. It provides every man with his place, his career, his occupation, his circle of friends. It makes him at the outset a member of a corporate body, it protects him through life from the canker of social jealousy and unfulfilled aspirations; it ensures him companionship and a sense of community with others in like case with himself. The caste organization is to the Hindu his club, his trade union, his benefit society, his philanthropic society. There are no work-houses in India and none are as yet needed.’ Abbe Dubois, who wrote about 130 years ago after being in close touch with Hindus of all castes for 15 years as a missionary, remarks (in his work on the character, manners and customs of the people of India, translated into English and published in London in 1817) ‘I consider the institution of castes among the Hindu nations as the happiest effort of their legislation;
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and I am well convinced that, if the people of India never sunk into a state of barbarism, and if, when almost all Europe was plunged in that dreary gulf, India kept up her head, preserved and extended the sciences, the arts and civilization, it is wholly to the distinction of castes that she is indebted for that high celebrity’ (p. 14) and he devotes several pages to the justification of this remark. Maine in his ‘Ancient Law' (new edition of 1930 p. 17) characterises it as 'the most disastrous and blighting of all human institutions.' Sherring in 'Hindu tribes and castes' vol. III p. 293 says 'it is the most baneful, hard-hearted and cruel social system that could possibly be invented for damning the human race'. On the other hand Meredith Townsend in 'Europe and Asia' (edition of 1901 p. 72) wrote 'I firmly believe caste to be a marvellous discovery, a form of socialism which through ages protected Hindu Society from anarchy and from the worst evils of industrial and competitive life—it is an automatic poor law to begin with and the strongest form known of Trades Union'. There are others,⁵¹ though their number is small, that believe that the caste system was an invention, an artificial product, due to the machinations of crafty brāhmaṇas. Every great institution has its extremes of good or evil.
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This work will endeavour to steer clear of downright and hypercritical condemnation of the caste system due to relying on modern standpoints and conditions of society and unthinking adulation thereof. It will try to present and balance facts and though it cannot help passing judgments it will leave the reader free to judge for himself as far as possible. In the present work the discussion will be mostly confined to the evidence of Sanskrit literary monuments, ancient and medieval. An attempt will be made to trace the origin of caste from Vedic times, to exhibit theories of the Dharmasūtrakāras, other smṛtikāras and commentators on the subject and to describe the peculiar ceremonies, privileges, duties and responsibilities of Hindu castes as gathered from these works in Sanskrit. To discuss the feasibility or desirability of totally destroying the caste system or the ways and means of attaining that end is deemed to be outside the legitimate limits of this volume. It may, however, be expressly stated as the author's opinion, in order to avoid misunderstandings or fruitless speculations about his personal views, that he does not think that the caste system was an artificial product due to the intrigues, greed and cunning of brāhmaṇas, nor does he hold that it is feasible to destroy the whole edifice of the caste system in the near future.
v2.c19.4.4
In the cities we may find some people taking their food together but the real India is in the villages, where in spite of the loud denunciations of reformers for a hundred years, the restrictions on taking food and inter-caste marriages are almost as rigid as they once were. Our efforts must be directed to wide and rapid spread of literacy among the village people, the diffusion of the idea of one people and one nationality and gradual fusion of small subcastes into larger-similar units. We in India have no doubt reached a critical stage in our history when old ideals, institutions and habits are being shattered by the impact of new ideas and by the onrush of world forces. We have to decide whether we shall make or be able to make a clean sweep of all old ideals and institutions as so much debris and rubbish or whether while keeping the old ideals and some of the old institutions as foundations we shall build up a new social order and create and foster new habits of thought and action. It is beyond the scope of the present work to write more on this point.