Casteism Meaning, Definition, and history

Casteism Meaning, Definition, and history

While traveling in India, if an Indian is asked about his caste, then it will not be a matter of surprise for him, because even after 71 years of independence, in this secular nation, whether it is to make a conversation for a few hours or for a lifetime. No relationship is fulfilled, only the issue of caste connects two people. That is why it is necessary to talk about casteism. Its definition is also not limited, only those who hide their selfishness within the word racism can explain it well in just one word. In fact, casteism is made up of two words that give it its direction, "caste" means a community that is bound together by economic and social relations, and "vada" means a systematic opinion or principle. It is not known when the excess becomes, in such a case, the word casteism, made up of caste + casteism, can affect not only a particular community but the whole society in a wrong way. And now it is used a lot in politics, that's why casteism is getting so much nourishment even in a secular democratic country like India.

In the words of Kaka Kalekar, casteism is the indiscriminate disregard by the powerful party which destroys the necessary elements for a healthy society such as equality and brotherhood. While in the words of "K.M.Panikkar" casteism is the sincerity of a caste or subcaste which has been translated into politics.

Origin and History of Casteism

It is difficult to say when casteism originated in Indian society. Because in the ancient times, humans lived in small groups. Again, it is not possible to trace the time when this group changed into a caste. But it can be understood how the stereotype of casteism will be born. When external attacks started on the country, casteism became complicated in an effort to save its existence. In this way, the caste started to be bound by some rules like rotibandi, betibandi. The name with the suffix "bandi" was formed because in both these words, roti means employment and beti means a limit for the marriage of the daughter. Roti-bandi means not to share one's food and one's employment with anyone outside one's caste. While in betibandi, the marriage of daughters out of the caste was prohibited. Due to this, many religions and religions in India have been classified into castes and sub-castes and even beyond that, but the justification for this is not necessary for the immediate circumstances.

Caste classification was a bit difficult in India, because there were many factors other than caste, which could determine caste. The caste system was basically based on 4 varnas - Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra.

In fact, it was a karma-based system, in which caste was determined by a person's karma. In which caste had no relationship with the ancestors of a person. For example, if the child of a Kshatriya was interested in the work of a Vaishya, then the child would get the character of a Vaishya, but in the course of time, all this changed and caste was determined genetically, for example, the children of Kshatriyas would be called Kshatriyas, in the same way. Children of other castes will also follow their father's caste and his deeds.

Casteism at Social Level

Due to casteism, it is not enough to divide the society into 2 parts, but its influence started to be ensured, when one of these 2 classes gained power, the influence of exploitation on the other class started to increase. Because of this, where one caste became advanced and prosperous, the other caste started to decline and all the ways of development started to be closed. According to RN Sharma, "Racism is the blind faith of a person towards his own caste who does not care about the interests of other castes. And they only care about fulfilling the social, economic, political and other needs of their caste."

Casteism in Politics

As long as casteism was at the social level, the problems related to it were certain and limited, but when casteism had an impact on politics, the country began to divide. Caste-based vote counting further divided the society. It was used to promote hatred and separatism. And all the anti-social activities started spreading, because caste stamps started helping any criminal to escape with the help of votes and notes. In this way, as the political equation became caste-based, the foundation of the constitution-based democracy began to shake.

Casteism signs

The idea of ​​casteism shows the importance of caste-and sub-castes honesty and integrity. It either does not pay attention to the interests of other castes or does not care. For any casteist, the principle of "men of my caste and only my caste are right or wrong" is everything. Racist people are against democracy.

Racism can only give justice to one side, which is beneficial for his race, even if it violates any limits of humanity. Racism is a very big obstacle for the development and progress of any country, and It is also against the constitution.

In casteism, the possibility of exploitation increases a lot. In this, one caste becomes superior and another caste becomes inferior, and in this way, the less powerful caste starts to be exploited. And there is no fixed area for the determination of this high-low. For example, money, knowledge and karma have been the main reasons for caste-based classification. They began to be victims of exploitation.

Reasons of Casteism

Protecting the honor of one's caste: A person is proud of his caste from birth, so he becomes so self-absorbed in his devotion to his caste that he forgets all dignity of humanity, and This class becomes the class of exploiters, while the exploited class wants to remain oppressed forever by living with their given deeds.

Inter-caste marriage:- In any community, this traditional marriage is not to be done outside the group, it gives more strength to casteism. Due to this, not only the social level shrinks, but also the gene pool of a caste remains limited and the genes cannot be diversified.

Urbanization :- Due to the lack of employment in the villages, a large number of people started living in the cities, but due to the ethnic diversity there, living and communication became difficult. Such casteism gained more strength, and those people who belonged to different villages started living together because of belonging to the same caste.

Social distance:- Those castes who considered themselves better than others started to keep a distance from other castes, due to which non-touching and social inequality started to increase and casteism started to prevail not only in these castes but also in that class which was affected by this inequality. She was being hunted.

Illiteracy and lack of opportunities :- The castes who gained power became educated, but those who lacked resources were oppressed by the upper castes, they also began to understand the importance of their caste and casteism.

Consequences of Casteism

Casteism is based on inequality and injustice. It would be wrong to say that casteism is a part of the system. In fact, these are the monsters that are swallowing the society. Because of this, even democracy has become a joke. At present, the possibility of hatred is strong in the society of every caste in India, in which it is very common for one caste to humiliate another caste or look at it with respect and due to this, the appearance of distances in both societies is very common. And if we look at the social level, the cases of honor-killing have started to increase due to the casteist ideology, in which the couple is killed for marrying outside the caste and if they survive, the family has to face social scorn. are In this way, it can be said that racism is the feeling of one-sided dedication of a person to his race, which can take any sacrifice from him.