Yamna Asim, Staff Writer

January 29, 2024

Caste in India: It Still Matters!

Albeit considerably new, our century can be defined as one ushering in an era of advanced technological development or one that is marked by the rise of globalization, but I argue that our century is ultimately marked by the unquestionable belief and progress in the idea of equality for all. 

Despite this progress, India has remnants of an unequal and discriminatory social practice, seeping into this century and making a comfortable home in modern-day Indian society. This practice refers to a particular form of social stratification called “the caste system.”

India’s caste system, oftentimes referred to as the varna scheme, emerged from the Hindu creation story. The varna scheme states that four castes were derived from a specific body part of the supreme being, and each body part represents an occupation that the caste is bound to. As such, there is a strict hierarchical structure put into place where the caste an individual is born into determines their occupation, which then determines their social status and identity. Social identity is very important as it tends to be the deciding factor in every aspect of an individual’s life, from determining their level of education to their potential spouse to their role in politics.  

After the Indian Independence Movement of 1947, caste identity lost the intense grip it had on Indian society and a decline in its importance has been observed. This decline can be attributed to the urbanization and the economization of India which provided opportunities to lower castes to relocate and improve their financial situation. The positive discrimination effects made by the Indian government also ensured that a percentage of public sector jobs were available to people from lower castes, but only the more privileged among these lower castes are able to secure these jobs. 

The caste system started to lose its immense influence in Indian society around the time India gained its independence, around seventy years ago. Seventy years is not enough time to remove the generational privilege that upper castes have nor the generational oppression that the lower castes have. Through the varna scheme, the upper castes gained dominance over the lower castes as they had better occupations like land-owning or being warriors, meaning they were financially better off and had access to resources like education, that further improved their lives and developed their social connections and most importantly, their social power. The accumulation of their social power meant that upper castes can easily dominate the political scene. This dominance is present today as even with the representation of lower castes in politics, upper castes still remain dominant in government due to their already accumulated social power and connections.  

In the varna scheme, what is considered upper or lower caste is based on an idea of purity. Lower castes (Shudras and Dalits) were bestowed occupations that involved touching and working with biological matter; something is considered to be dirty and impure in Indian society. Thus, through their occupations, these castes became synonymous with pollution and contamination, all the worst words you can use to describe a group of people, and they became known as lower castes. 

Negative stereotyping and discrimination against the lower castes is rampant in all aspects of Indian society. For example, Chamar is a Dalit caste, and there is a phrase, ‘Chamari-si’, which means acting like a Chamar, and it is used when someone is being embarrassing or lacking manners, implying that all Chamars are embarrassments and lack ‘proper’ manners. Phrases like these are detrimental to the people they refer to as they create this collective image of these people, and through these phrases’ continuous use, breaking that image becomes challenging despite the group’s efforts to break stereotypes. This image also fuels the bias other people have against this group, which can lead to overt and covert forms of discrimination. For example, aside from the inequalities and barriers present in attaining education, lower castes face discriminatory attitudes from their classmates and the school administration, leading to impediments in academic progress or lack of recognition of academic achievements for the lower castes. This contributes to the insecurities faced by lower castes and leads to adverse mental outcomes, including suicide.

The impediments in education adversely affect job opportunities and politics. It has been observed that there is still a link between certain caste groups and control over resources and businesses. The two castes dominating the business sector are the landowning and the merchant caste, as through their wealth and previous business and social connections, they were able to smoothly transition into the growing industrial and business economy in India. These two groups go on to form the main business sections in particular states (specifically states with rich capitalists’ coalitions like Gujarat), which makes them the core group of voters that politicians can rely on to get elected. This reliance on the core group means that most, if not all, policies will reflect the core groups best interests. Discrimination for lower castes is also rampant in the business sector as they are prevented from entering business and those who do enter face many obstacles in establishing businesses like struggling to acquire capital, business connections and even customers. Thus, in certain states, the lack of lower caste representation in the business sector leads them to be marginalized in the realm of politics.

India has improved from the country it was pre-independence, but there is still much more progress to be made. Lower castes have been mobilizing, especially in politics, and fighting back against the upper caste hierarchy. But, for now, caste as an idea still exists and holds considerable influence in Indian society.