Some Thoughts on the Caste System

I generally avoid writing about controversial topics but am writing this one because many people have asked me to pen my thoughts on this issue. At the outset, let me clarify that the caste system or indeed any system of class/birth/vocation based stratification is outdated, outmoded, counter-productive, inherently unjust and most importantly impractical. It should be disposed of as soon as possible.

However, the one exception that I have with the prevalent thinking on this issue around the world, is that I am not ashamed of it, to be precise not ashamed of the fact that Indian and in particular Hindu society came up with this system. There is a lot of self flagellation and self hatred among Indians because of it, and this article presents a theory why it emerged and survived.

The Universality of "caste"

First of all its a mistake to assume that India is an exceptional society to come up with such a system. Indeed  until the Industrial Revolution, a class/birth based stratification system was almost universal. There may be a few egalitarian societies that are exceptions to this general rule - but precious few. The very fact that the Portuguese had a word "casta" to describe what they saw is an indicator that they were intimate with similar system. Japan had a caste system, as did Korea, China, Hawaii and Polynesia, as did the Arab world, most of Europe, and Latin America. So did Africa and well the rest of the inhabited world. Many parts including Europe also had untouchability. (Source - wikipedia and related links).

The severity of the stratification, the level of exploitation and the prospects for class mobility differed but was in many parts no worse than large parts of India. In certain parts of India at particular times - Kerala in the 19th century for example - the level of degradation reached mindboggling levels - but these were exceptions rather than the norm. In fact even within India the caste system worked in very different ways, in some parts much more benign than others. The Northeast of India and large tribal population groups all over have always been either free of caste or had a much less exploitative system.

And India never had slavery - never. It only was there for brief periods in early Muslim Kingdoms when they bought this ghastly institution along with them - and even that did not last long. Large parts of the West and particularly Arabia, Latin America and Africa had slavery until less than 200 years ago. In Saudi Arabia, slavery was officially legal until 1964, and according to many reports still survives in all but name.

Now an inquiring mind would immediately wonder - is it a coincidence that these systems were around universally and started diminishing around the same time. I have a few thoughts on this.

Time Travel

Let us turn the clock back a 1000 years. Assume you are the King of a middle sized kingdom in a random part of the world. Assume further, it is not a tribal kingdom, but one with settled agriculture and urban civilization.

Now as the King and thus the government in such a situation, what would (and should) be your first priority. As has been since the dawn of civilization, the first priority is survival.

Now you are probably in a situation where there are neighboring kingdoms - likely with porous borders not defined by natural defenses such as mountain ranges or rivers (in which case your situation is somewhat simplified). Moreover the modes of communication and transport are primitive. To maintain hold over your kingdom you need the support of a bunch of avaricious nobility that you depend on for administration and revenue collection. Most importantly - for survival one needs a large standing army - well trained, well equipped and modern (modern in the 1000 year ago context - you better have decent artillery - knowledge of gunpowder etc), apart from an elaborate system of defense infrastructure and plentiful supplies to withstand a long war or siege. Maybe you need a decentish modern navy too. In short you need a large defense budget.

How would you support the defense budget - well by taxing your people of course. And what constitutes your economy that can be taxed. There are only 3 sources of income - taxing agriculture, trade in specialized crafts/ mineral resources, and tariffs if you are lucky enough to be on a trade route. The richer your kingdom the more juicy prospect it is for attack, and the larger your defense needs.

Now without modern agriculture and all it entails, your Kingdom's GDP is inherently unstable. What with periodic droughts, floods, pestilence and epidemics that can kill large parts of your labor force, what you collect in taxes is highly dependent on the Gods. In short your labor productivity is very low. Maybe 10, 20, 50, 100 times lower than a modern economy today.

So to manage your defenses you need a system to squeeze a substantial part of this small labor productivity, to be snatched away from a poor population in terms of taxes. In effect to survive you have to exploit the poor.

In such a economic, technological and political paradigm, an egalitarian society is not feasible. We have all heard of instances in history where there was a benevolent king much beloved for his generosity to the masses. Invariably they were taken over by another kingdom with a less benevolent king.

By now dear reader, you must have figured out my theses. For sheer survival, either a 'caste', class or slavery system was inevitable and essential. And with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, as labor productivity soared, alternate more egalitarian systems became viable. And voila - one had the French Revolution, the American Civil War and other less spectacular but just as massive changes in other societies.

In a modern economy non-egalitarian systems are counter productive to the same defense needs. In modern political systems they retard both economic growth and defense capability. Therefore no need to beat oneself up about what we did in the past. But get rid of such systems asap from our societies and ultimately from our minds.

A number of pseudo-scientific theories have cropped up from those seeing some ancient wisdom in primitive systems. Caste superiority, eugenics, racism, Martial Race theory etc etc. Its all nonsense. Science has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the inherent capabilities of all groups of the human species are very very similar. Maybe Kenyans on average can run marathons better than others - but even such capacities only effect the physical aspects and that too on a proportional level - that is maybe a higher percentage of Kenyans can run the 2:15 marathon than the proportion of say Japanese or Indians, but there will be a certain proportion in all ethnic groups which can pull off the same feat. And this is true of all human endeavors - whether artistic, intellectual, commercial or athletic.

The fault, dear brothers and sisters, lies not in our stars, but in our minds.