Economic disparity among brahmins and the reverse discrimination in jobs
There seems to be a tremendous confusion about Hindu society. It is mistaken to be a monolith of four castes, based on birth, where people engage in constricted and pigeonholing vocations without pursuing anything else professionally or interacting with others through marriages etc.
The evidence and consequences of such flawed thinking can be clearly seen as people tend to consider caste system and casteism as the same thing (1) and government officials promote the caste based quotas and reservations for "lower" castes at the expense of others (2).
The misunderstanding about caste system and casteism being one and the same basically arises due to a person’s ignorance, mainly from his pathetic upbringing and education. Note that casteism (the caste based bias) is different from the caste system. Moreover, the caste system did not originate to represent one’s birth or heredity but it only expresses collectively the main vocations during ancient times (3).
Reservations and quotas to "lower" caste people, while denying similar privileges to others in the form of a reverse discrimination, are also based on the wrong assumption that brahmins etc. do not deserve government help because their ancestors used to be rich long ago. This needs a serious rethinking and reevaluation.
Majority of brahmins throughout history have been quite poor, earning only a meager living to support their families by performing priestly and non-priestly (manual and menial) tasks in the society. In comparison, only a small number of brahmins were able to lead a comfortable life if they were lucky enough to work as priests for a rich benefactor (king etc.) or as employees of the government.
People are thus mistaken when they assume that the entire brahmin community was economically well-off in the past. Moreover, not all the brahmins used to work as priests for the rich or as employees of the government. Consider for example the following situation.
Even though I have a brahminisk surname and might be considered as belonging to a brahmin clan, yet my family, instead of being rich or in priestly profession as some might think, has been quite ordinary economically, while engaging mainly in agriculture and farming for several generations.
A few years ago, I tried to explore my family’s lineage. I was able to trace my roots back to seven generations to the point where a number of my ancestors moved from a remote forested area to the flat valley below, where my kin still reside, and started living and farming there. Agriculture and growing things from land, not priestly work in spite of the brahmin surname, continue to be the mainstay of my family.
In addition, as probably true for majority of people around the world until recently, especially in rural and remote areas, the life for my ancestors was seldom easy. There were major calamities on the way too. Three of my grandparents (paternal grandmother, and maternal grandfather and grandmother) became orphans (losing both their mothers and fathers) before they were even teenagers and were brought up by their distant relatives. Everything in the end turned out okay though, perhaps due to some luck and their ability to work hard and endure great adversity. They not only managed to recover economically and socially, but also were able to raise decent families.
The above situation in my family was in no way unique. Many others (brahmins and non-brahmins) probably faced the same type of hardship and even worse.
Should the brahmins now be the victims of a reverse discrimination in jobs etc., according to caste based quotas (reserved for "lower" castes), because brahmins’ ancestors are wrongly presumed to have lived a life of luxury and comfort in the past? The answer is “absolutely not”, based on their plight shown in the above.
Footnote:
Reference in the above to “lower” in relation to certain castes is to maintain consistency with the nomenclature (lower) used by government in setting its policy for granting caste-based reservations and quotas, and nothing else. The intention of this essay is not to divide the society into upper and lower castes or promote any type of casteism. Note, in reality, the caste-based quotas and reservations seem to be having a negative effect on the society, even dividing it further and prolonging casteism: APPENDIX (added: November 16, 2008).
APPENDIX The biggest casteist paradox
People, belonging to the “low’ castes, wishing and striving socially for equality with others (belonging to “high” or “non-low” castes), and, at the same time, seeking and trying officially to have their present “low” status perpetuated by the government (for quota considerations).
Paradoxically, on its part, the government institutes laws against casteism and caste based discrimination to bring equality and justice to everyone in society, but then it discriminates against the “non-low” caste people in jobs etc. by granting quotas and reservations in education and jobs only to the “low” caste people.
In the name of redressing hardship and injustice long ago, real or imagined, against the “low” caste people, the government these days favors group entitlements (caste based quotas and reservations in education and jobs) to “low” caste people, instead of helping the needy, belonging to all segments of society, according to individual considerations (their present underprivileged economic condition and physical handicap etc.).
Needless to say, the government, instead of appearing to be a castefier and prolonger of casteist divisions in society, should scrap the caste based quotas and reservations in education and jobs, and replace them with individual oriented public assistance to the economically underprivileged and physically handicapped, etc.
Perhaps, the present Gujarat government can take lead in this, overhauling immediately the discriminatory, divisive and inefficient system of caste based quotas and reservations in education and jobs in favor of assistance to people on individual basis (their economic condition etc.).
References
(1) “Poor Anand - missed so much”, http://www.sulekha.com/groups/postdisplay.aspx?cid=3016&forumid=892952
(2) “TN says: Upper Caste should suffer now”, http://www.sulekha.com/groups/postdisplay.aspx?cid=224412&forumid=756930
(3) “Hindu Caste System & Hinduism: Vedic vocations (Hindu castes) were not related to heredity (birth)”, http://www.geocities.com/lamberdar/_caste.html
(4) Seva, "The biggest casteist paradox", Nov. 16, 2008, http://forums.sulekha.com/forums/philosophy/The-biggest-casteist-paradox-127168.htm
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By: Dr. Subhash C. Sharma
Email: [email protected]
Date: Aug. 18, 2007
link to: Related topics by the author