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July 22, 2009
First Impressions of the Caste System
In the last entry, I sort of glossed over something that I’ve been thinking about a whole lot – the caste system. Dave’s comment about it helped to remind me of how to mention it in passing is to simplify something that probably shouldn’t, so I’d like to give it a go. I feel obligated to offer the disclaimer that I’m still far from understanding things, and that my perception of the system is always changing. Ok, so here we go:
Our family is in the Brahaman caste, meaning we should devote our lives to learning and not to material and worldly issues. We are also to preach and share the knowledge we gain, and to stay humble in the process. Our caste is the most revered, and is supposed to set the example for others to follow. Other castes, include traders, warrior/kings, and then the general/common caste, which is supposed to follow the example set by the other castes. Within each caste are further distinctions, and it seems that within those distinctions are even more, so the whole thing is pretty huge. Everyone is conscience of the caste system all the time – their role in it relative to others, and the lines seem to be drawn very clearly.
For the most part, I had decided about the caste system before I had experienced it – the caste system and the concept of equality are at opposite ends, and since I believe in equality, I must necessarily not believe in the values of the caste system. The first time my uncle mentioned it, a feeling of disgust welled up in me – it was the same way I feel about racism. In fact, I was pretty embarrassed to be talking about it at all, because I thought it was one of those things that anyone with any decency would realize was a mistake, and it was one of those unspoken flaws in Indian culture. Any institutionalized discrimination was inherently wrong, and must sow seeds of unrest and contempt into its society.
But the weird part is the sense of harmony that seems to run through the culture. Despite the divisions between the castes, there doesn’t seem to be resentment, and what’s more, there seems to be the opposite. It seems that with the caste system, which is dug deeply into Indian society, the attitude is more close to “you do your work and I’ll do mine” then “this is the hierarchy. Deal with it.” I don’t understand it, and I don’t like it, but that’s what I see when I look for it – a system that divides people and yet manages to create equilibrium.
“Well there may be a sense of harmony, but that’s because you’re in a rural area where the privileged ones on the top of the pile prevent the others from rising by making sure they don’t know any better. It’s an enforced ignorance.“ said the other half of my brain. But the more I look around, the more it seems that this isn’t the case – Indian culture places an incredibly high value on education. The person who ironed my shirt for 6 cents per has two sons in college, and my aunt whose life consists of cooking, cleaning, and trips to the market down the street has earned a Masters degree in Sanskrit. Most impressive to me are the kids, and their almost militant focus on studies – the conversation between two trilingual 10 year olds that were sitting on our couch a few days ago was about Ph. Ds. School runs almost ten and a half months of the year, 6 hours a day 6 days of the week. And in the important 10th grade, many students also attend tutoring that isn’t mandatory from 6 am to 8 am prior to school at 10. Voluntarily taking extra classes from 6 am to 8am. What?!
And this comprehensive education isn’t limited to any one caste – all caste types attend the same schools, with the same opportunities. In fact, there is a government enforced policy that ensures a percentage (somewhere around 10%) of all placement in colleges and universities – even the ridiculously competitive IIT schools - comes from the less fortunate castes. So it’s not as though the lower castes are forced to live in ignorance and excluded from any opportunities. Nor is it as though the higher castes are trying to hang onto their place in the sun – they have introduced ways to account for the disadvantages that lower castes face. And I haven’t seen any resentment in the upper castes towards these policies, so this further confuses the picture for me.
Another thing getting called into question for me is the message of the caste system. From what I understand, the caste system says we are born into a caste, and that caste defines us. My initial translation of this was “we are born to be certain people – our genetics demand that we be that type of person.” However after talking with several people, it seems like an alternative interpretation is “we are born into a way of life that places values on different things than other people, and growing up and operating in that environment, we will be better at operating with those values than other people, so it is our obligation to do so.” It’s sort of like saying we inherit certain values and skills from our upbringing, and it is our duty to uphold our inheritance and pass it on. Both interpretations point to being born into a societal position that we are confined to, but from different angles – nurture versus nature. And I don’t think this is so far from Western philosophy, except that in the west, these things aren’t explicitly stated. I think it’s very natural to take on the values of the environment you are brought up in, and to assume you will carry on the values. However, I do disagree with saying that it is one’s responsibility to carry on these values.
Also, people very openly discuss the caste system. It isn’t at all uncomfortable to bring it up at the dinner table or in the school, and no one seems to mind at all. What’s more, it doesn’t seems as though people in the higher castes think of themselves as being better than people in lower castes. I was walking back from a run with three guys slightly younger than me (all 18+), and I was asking them about the caste system in their group of friends. One of them said “No brother, it is nothing. We are friends with all castes. What does it matter what we are?” It’s as though the system is so deep and embedded, it simply is. It’s not right or wrong in the minds of the people I’ve talked to, it is just a thing that exists. It doesn’t make one person better than another, it just determines which types of work we will end up doing.
However, finally I have to question my own conclusions, and just as the GRE taught me, examine the premises that they are built on. I come from a privileged caste, and operate almost exclusively within it – do I really know how the less fortunate castes feel about the system? My main source of information is my uncle, a Brahmin with a very respected and successful career - are his views of society the same as his neighbor’s? I am in a rural southern Indian village- is that representative of the whole of the country? I am part of a healthy family structure free of the unexpected pregnancies and gambling problems that destroyed other lives in this neighborhood – would I discuss concepts like “harmony” and “equilibrium” the same way if things were different?
It’s so hard for me to remember that in many cases, culture isn’t right or wrong. It’s just different. Am I in a position to judge another people’s culture? And even if I am, do I want to? Last semester, I took a class about the Italian writer Primo Levi who writes about his experience as a prisoner in the Holocaust, and he said it is wrong to say such huge events are “right” or “wrong” because the events are too complex to be labeled. To do so robs of the event of it’s true nature and is a lazy way to get around really understanding the matter. If that’s a how a Jew felt about the Holocaust, can I be so quick to judge the caste system?
Man, it is a complex world.
Posted by avable at July 22, 2009 12:35 AM