Introduction
India's caste system assigns individuals a
certain hierarchical status according to Hindu beliefs. Traditionally,
there are four principal castes (divided into many sub-categories) and
one category of people who fall outside the caste system—the Dalits. As
members of the lowest rank of Indian society, Dalits face discrimination
at almost every level: from access to education and medical facilities
to restrictions on where they can live and what jobs they can have. The
discrimination against the Dalits is especially significant because of
the number of people affected; there are approximately 167 million
Dalits in India, constituting over 16 percent of the total population.
Within the Dalit community,
there are many divisions into sub-castes. Dalits are divided into
leather workers, street sweepers, cobblers, agricultural workers, and
manual "scavengers". The latter group, considered the lowest of the low
and officially estimated at one million, traditionally are responsible
for digging village graves, disposing of dead animals, and cleaning
human excreta. Approximately three-quarters of the Dalit workforce are
in the agricultural sector of the economy. A
majority of the country’s
forty million people who are bonded laborers are Dalits. These jobs
rarely provide enough income
for Dalits to feed their families or to send their children to school.
As a result, many Dalits are impoverished, uneducated, and illiterate.
Dalits have been oppressed, culturally subjugated, and politically marginalized. The
principals of untouchability and “purity and pollution” dictate what
Dalits are and are not allowed to do; where they are and are not allowed
to live, go, or sit; who they can and cannot give water to, eat with,
or marry; extending into the minutia of all aspects of daily life.
Moreover,
discrimination for Dalits does not end if they convert from Hinduism to
another religion. In India, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity (among
other religions) maintain some form of caste despite the fact that this
contradicts their religious precepts. As a result, dominant castes
maintain leadership positions while Dalit members of these religions are
often marginalized and flagrantly discriminated against. For example,
Dalit Christains are provided seperate burial areas from non-Dalit
Christains.
The origins of the caste system
The
word Dalit—literally translating to “oppressed” or “broken”—is generally
used to refer to people who were once known as “untouchables”, those
belonging to castes outside the fourfold Hindu Varna system. According
to the 2001 census, there are some 167 million Dalits (referred to in
the census as “Scheduled Castes”) in India alone, though there are tens
of millions in other South Asian countries, as well.
The caste system finds its origin in functional groupings, called varnas,
which have their origins in the Aryan society of ancient northern
India. In their creation myth, four varnas are said to have emanated
from the Primeval Being. The Creator’s mouth became the Brahman priests,
his two arms formed the Rajanya warriors and kings, his two thighs
formed the Vaishya landowners and merchants, and from his feet were born
the Shudra artisans and servants. Later, there developed a so-called
“fifth” varna: the Untouchables.
This caste system became fixed
and hereditary with the emergence of Hinduism and its beliefs of
pollution and rebirth. The Laws of Manu (Manusmitri), which date roughly to the 3rd
century A.D.—and parts of which form the Sanskrit syllabus of
graduation studies in Gujarat even today—preach the sanctity of the
varnas and uphold the principles of gradation and rank. They refer to
the impurity and servility of the outcastes, while affirming the
dominance and total impunity of Brahmins. Those from the “lowest” castes
are told that their place in the caste hierarchy is due to their sins
in a past life. Vivid punishments of torture and death are assigned for
crimes such as gaining literacy or insulting a member of a dominant
caste. Among the writings of Hindu religious texts, the Manusmitri
is undoubtedly the most authoritative one, legitimizing social
exclusion and introducing absolute inequality as the guiding principle
of social relations.
Dalits in South Asian Countries
India’s caste system
finds corollaries in other parts of the sub-continent, including Nepal,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Indeed, as Hinduism spread from
northern India to the southern part of the peninsula establishing itself
as the dominant religion by the pre-Christian era, so spread the caste
system and its ideology justifying the superior standing of the system’s
aristocracy. Caste even migrated with the South Asian diaspora to
firmly take root in East and South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname,
the Middle East, Malaysia, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and North
America. Nevertheless, Asia remains the continent with the largest share
of Dalits. There are today in Asia well over 200 million men, women and children enduring near complete social ostracism on the grounds of their descent.
In
both Bangladesh and Nepal, the types of discrimination faced by Dalits
are very similar to those existing in India. Notions of purity and
pollution are prevalent within society, social restrictions, and
discrimination in access to public places or jobs are therefore commonplace.
Nepal’s situation is noteworthy as not even a fringe of the 4.5 million
Dalits (over 20% of the Nepalese population) has been able to
significantly emancipate itself. With no affirmative action measures,
there are practically no Dalits in Nepal’s legislative assemblies. The
literacy rate of Nepalese Dalits is only around 10%, while that of
Nepalese Dalit women is even lower. Over 80% of Nepal’s Dalits find
themselves below the official poverty line; their life expectancy is not
higher than 50 years.
In Pakistan, as well as in Sri Lanka
(except Tamil regions), the caste system is somewhat less rigid in the
sense that it does not hold any ritual pollution concepts. However,
features such as social distance and restricted access to land are still
very much a reality. Moreover, the Swat region in northern Pakistan
also practices extreme forms of humiliation against Dalits, and
especially Dalit women.
source: navsarjan.org
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