‘Varnashramachar’ Strengthened National Integrity, ensuring Real Welfare

Sidney Lowe in his book, ‘A vision of India’ (1907) says, “There is no doubt that it (the Caste System) is the main cause of fundamental stability and contentment by which Indian society has been braced for centuries against the shock of politics and the cataclysms of Nature. It provides every man, with his place, his career, his occupations, and 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 to the Hindu is his club, his trade union, his benefit society, and his philanthropic society. There are no work houses in India and none are as yet needed. The obligation to provide for kinsfolk and friends in distress is universally acknowledged, nor can it be questioned that this is due to the recognition of the strength of family ties, of the bonds created by associations and common pursuits which is fostered by the Caste principle. An India without Caste, as things stand at present, is not quite easy to imagine”.

1. Basis of Caste (Varnashram Dharma)

ब्राह्मणोऽस्य मुखमासीद्बाहू राजन्यः कृतः I
ऊरूतदस्य यद्वैश्यः पद्भ्यां शूद्रोऽजायतः ॥

– Rigveda Samhita Purush Sukta (10/90/12)

His (Virata Purusha’s) mouth became the Brahmin, His arms were made Kings. What were His thighs, they were made into the merchants, and from His feet were the servants born.

The Virat Purusha is All-Consciousness from which entire Creation is evolved in four Varnas including animate and inanimate. Thus, appreciating and realising within our heart that all creatures are only His Manifestations :

सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म, नेह नानास्ति किंचन I – Observance of all material restrictions of आहार-विहार (Fooding, marriage etc.) should go hand in hand to respect His Maya (the law of contradiction).

2. Love and hatred, both products of Maya (Law of contradiction) are innate in man

Maya, or Principle of Contradiction – According to Hindu Shastras, this Universe is the result of Maya, the nature of which is contradiction – real and unthinkable.

युगपत् विपरीतत्वम् मायाया एकलक्षणम् ।

Maya is known only by simultaneous contradiction, by two positively contradictory things being true at one and the same time and in one and the same set of circumstances. This is unthinkable.

अवाङ्मनसगोचरम् ।
यतो वाचो निवर्त्तन्ते अप्राप्य मनसा सह ।

This cannot be realized by word or by the mind, i.e. by any of the senses. This is a region which neither word can express nor the mind can reach and from which mind and word turn back helplessly. What the mind can conceive is not Maya, however contradictory it may be.

The essence of Maya is the inability of the mind to comprehend it. Shastras have declared that a man who is ungrateful (अकृतज्ञ), devoid of Shastric discipline (अनार्य) , possessed of prolonged anger (दीर्घरोष) or is deceitful (अनार्जव) should be considered panchama (पंचम), outside the pale of four Varnas along with one who is born as panchama.

अकृतज्ञमनार्यच दीर्घरोषमनार्जवम् ।
चतुरोविद्धि चाण्डालान् जात्याभवति पञ्चम I

Punishment against sinful acts committed in previous or this life helps to chasten an afflicted mind.

3. Varna Vyavastha and colour discrimination are poles asunder

The Hindu concept of Varna vyavastha or sadachar to protect the society from vile association of sin is like a surgeon’s gloves. It is in no way comparable to colour discrimination and lynching of Negroes in Europe or America, torture and massacre of Jews in Germany by Hitler or the insane killing of so-called Kafirs (Non-Islamics) by Islamic forces all across the world in Europe, America, Africa, Arabia, India or South-East Asia where lakhs were killed, women and children dishonoured and raped over centuries.

Countries under Semitic religions unleashed genocide and torture over centuries against other religions.

4. The aim of the British was to wedge a Caste divide

All wiseacres or sabjantas have laid bare their analytical acumen on the prevalence of Caste amongst Hindus only, without a word on the existing various Castes within the Muslim and Christian community. The sole aim of the British was to wedge a Caste divide in the Hindu society so that they could prolong their rule through the implementation of their nefarious divide and rule policy.

They observed that Hindus abhorred Islam because they undertook very close relation marriage, had a lustful propensity towards women, would easily enter into property related conflicts even prepared for a blood bath and consumed beef.

Mr MK Gandhi and Congress purposefully coined these derogatory words like Dalit, etc. non-extant in the infallible Shastras.

5. Casteism in history

Speaking about historical India, the Nanda regime that ruled Magadha, the largest province of India, was a hairdresser by Caste. The Nanda dominion was commenced by Mahapadmanand, who was the king barber. Later, he became the Emperor and then his successor too. Later, all were named Kshatriyas.

After that the Maurya regime ruled the entire Nation. It commenced with Chandragupta, who was from a peacock-rearing household and a Brahmin Chanakya made him the monarch of the full State. The region was ruled by the Mauryas for 506 years. Then came the rule of the Gupta regime. They primarily ran horse cells and marketed horses. The Guptas ruled the country for 140 years.

Except for the 36 years of Pushyamitra Shunga’s rule, 92% of the period, in the region was ruled by those who are today called Dalits, undeveloped. So where did the segregation come from ? There is nothing that seems differentiating here either.

Then begins the period of Medieval India, which is from 1100-1750. During this time, Muslim rule was starting to gain dominance in many places.

At the end, the Marathas took over. Baji Rao Peshwa, who was a Brahmin, made Gaikwad, a cowhand, the Sovereign of Gujarat, and Holkar of the herder Caste, the Emperor of Malwa.

Ahilya Bai Holkar was the daughter of Mankar. She was a great proponent of Lord Shiva. She developed Indore and constructed various temple and gurukuls. Mira Bai was a Rajput. Her Guru was Sant Ravidas and Ravidas’s Guru was Brahmin, Swami Ramanand.

6. Hindu Educational System and Caste

As per Thomas Munro, the Governor of Madras Presidency’s report dated 10th March, 1826 submitted to the British Government with detailed Census and Survey Report – The geographical dimensions of Madras Presidency were from Ganjam District of Orissa to entire South India. The population was 1,28,50,941. There were 12,498 Primary schools.

Only 24% in these schools comprised of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. Shudras constituted a lion share of 65%. [The Beautiful Tree by Dharampal]

7. Caste not a doctrine of hate

Miss Cornelia Sorabji says, “Untouchability has no despising intention. A Brahmin himself is untouchable if he officiates at a cremation. A woman in child birth and a dead body are impure. Different Castes enjoy different degrees of proximity to the image in temples. The Caste Hindu associates with the out-Caste in all except interdining, intermarriage, and temples. A Brahmin may serve the out-Caste but may not accept the service of him”.

Sir John Woodroffe says, “The Hindus are not believers in the friendship of the stomach. The Castes mix with one another in a way unknown in Europe, even the proudest Maharaja will dine with a common servant, while a common servant will refuse to dine with the Maharaja”.

On 27^th December, 1941, Mr Ramanada Chatterjee, in the course of his presidential address at the Literary Conference held in Bishnupur (West Bengal) said –

“There is no denying the fact that we hate the illiterates and the semi-educated. When I was young, the person who used to milk our cows was of Bagdi Caste, Haradhan by name. We used to call him Haradhan dada. An uncle of mine, my father’s elder brother, who was an orthodox Brahmin Pandit and who would not touch water from the Bagdi’s hands, had much more in common with him. In spite of this orthodoxy than we can even imagine, such real fellow feelings with low Caste Hindus have disappeared in these days, who have been westernised and as it were a different class. I am now different. I can accept food and water from a Bagdi. But amongst us western-educated people, I can see an utter absence of community of feelings with the lowest Castes. This difference between the educated and uneducated has developed to an extent not imagined in those days.

Haradhan received no education, but by his association with Jatra parties and listening to katha-kata on the Ramayana and Puranas, he managed to acquire knowledge of many high truths of the Shastras. This gave him kinship with the most orthodox Pandits of Sanskrit and gave him ties of brotherhood with them which is impossible for us to appreciate”.

(To be continued)

– H.H. (Dr) Shibnarayan Sen

(H.H. [Dr] Shibnarayan Sen is a great scholar of our Dharmashastras. He is the Deputy Secretary, Shastra Dharma Prachar Sabha, Bengal and the Editor of Periodical ‘Truth’.)

The Hindu concept of Varna vyavastha to protect the society from vile association of sin is like a surgeon’s gloves !