The role of Britishers introducing CASTE SYSTEM in India.
As beginning from my child hood I believed that India has a caste system from the time of Ramayana. So I was doing online research on how caste system was introduced in India. I found some fascinating truths. They are...
India never had a caste system before British coming India.
India never had the concept of untouchables or Dalits ( It was later introduced by British).
To prove my arguments and findings I thought of introducing some Characters who knowingly or unknowingly became a part of establishing a caste system in India. I also provide the links, pics, books to cross check my findings.
5. Simon Commission. 5.1. Introduction of Sheduled Caste/ Shedule Tribe in India by British. 5.1.1. Why people who actual know sanskrit didn't raise their voice against Britishers' wrong proaganda about VARNAS.
People should also remember that Britishers first came to India in 1608 and British raj, period of direct British rule over the Indian subcontinent from 1858 until the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947(so they almost stayed in India for 350 years and ruled us for 200 years. This is not a small period)
The British first landed in India in Surat for the purpose of trade. (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)
1. Inroducing the Characters.
( These give the basic and brief idea and terminology that I'm going to use in this entire blog. we will later discuss how each time-line incidents affects the other that resulted India having a Caste System.)
1.1. About Rigveda. 1500 BCE
We know that Rigveda is one among the four vedas(Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva). But there is no proper evidence to say who wrote these vedas like, how we do not have answer to who created life ? who created Universe ? etc .,
Hinduism began with the Vedas. The Vedas came first, so they are called the source scripture for Hinduism. Many other scriptures were written in ancient India, including the Ramayana, Mahabharat, and the Puranas. All of these scriptures were based on the teachings of the Vedas.
It is also important to note that vedas were writeen in vedic - sanskrit which are hard to understand even now. It is has a complex construction even sanskrit scholars found it hard to understand.
I found many explanations saying about the creations of vedas, However in Rig veda there is a concept of VARNAS. This concept is our main interest for now. Let us see VARNAS in detail.
1.1.1. VARNAS
There are two terms used in vedas, Jaati and Varna.
Jaati :means a classification based on source of origin or those having similar birth source form a Jaati.
For example, a particular jaati will have similar physical characteristics. All Elephants together form a jaati, all rabbits together form a jaati and all human beings together form a jaathi.
Varna:
we can find the concepts of VARNA in Rig-veda, Manusmriti, Mahabharat etc.,
‘Varna’ means one that is adopted by choice. Thus, while Jaati is provided by God, ‘Varna’ is our own choice. The word Varna itself implies that this is based on complete freedom of choice and meritocracy. “Var” also means a husband chosen by the girl. This also shows that in Vedic system the girl had complete rights to choose her husband
Meritocracy : Meritocracy is a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class.
Here I want to introduce purusha suktha from rigveda. I'm not getting deep into ot as it is irrelavant here.
The earliest application to the formal division into four social classes (without using the term varna) appears in the late Rigvedic Purusha Sukta (RV 10.90.11–12), which has the Brahman, Rajanya (instead of Kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra classes forming the mouth, arms, thighs and feet at the sacrifice of the primordial Purusha, respectively
Later in Manusmriti, Manu used these references and introduced Varnas. Let me also clarify one thing here, like how we have many authors for single subject ( for example if we take Mathematics we have many authors explaining the concepts in their own way, but every one has a same referenced and standard theories of mathematical origin). Like wise there are many people who wrote many smritis, different versions of mahabarat, ramayan.
The Varna system never said only Brahmins should be priests, scholars, only Kshatriyas should rule...etc.
for example if you are doctor/teacher you are under the varna of Brahmin no matter if you are a OC/BC/SC/ST.
If you are a Police/Military men/president/Prime minister you are Kshatriya. If you are a trader, business man etc.. you are Vaishya.If you are a labour you are Shudra, no matter if you're a bathroom cleaner/ CEO of Google you're Shudra.
VEDAS also tells the same thing, a sudra can become brahmin/Kshatriys/Vaishyas if he likes to change his occupation.
But Britishers mislead people by demeaning these concepts. Later they created term untouchables referring "Sudras" as untouchables also termed as oppressed people( later dalits).
In fact, there is no word in Sanskrit or in any of the current Indian languages that is equivalent to “caste”. The term “caste” is in fact, Portuguese for “race”. And “race” was at the peak of its popularity in mid 19th century Europe, especially after Darwin published his “The Origin of Species” [Darwin 1859] on the theory of evolution. Here is what the Skanda Purana [SP 18.VI.239] says about the trait Sudra:
Everyone is born shudra. You need to go through the discipline and rigor of years of training (dwija) before you can have the privilege of getting angry or pleased with another human.
# KK - Add your thoughts.
1.2.Sayanacharya. Died - 1387
Sayanacharya was a great Vedic and Samskrit scholar who lived during the reign of Vijayanagara Kings. His commentaries and works have been the foundation for many translations of vedas as of date. Early Indologists including Max Muller extensively referred to his Bhashya's or commentaries on the Four Vedas
Commentary: a set of explanatory or critical notes on a text.
Simply speaking Sayanacharya was one who made commentry on four vedas and made it easy to undersatnd. This helped Max Muller to easily translate vedas(which are in Sanskrit) to English.
I also found many allegations against Sayanacharya that he wantedly biased(in favour to) brahman in his commentaries
1.3. Max Muller (1823 to 1900)
He was a German scholar of comparative language, religion, and mythology. Muller'sspecial areas of interest were Sanskrit philology and the religions of India
He was appointed by the East- India- Company to translate sanskrit scripts which also includes the translation of four vedas. Hence he also translated Rig-Veda.(which is the subject of our interest) He was paid for his work.
As your see the above pic say "Commentary of Sayanacharya" .
I also found allegations on him saying that " Max Müller was a British agent, especially employed (in 1847) to write the translations of the Vedas in such a demeaning way so that the Hindus should lose faith in them. His personal letter to his wife dated December 9, 1867 reveals this fact."
So either of Sayanacharya or Max muller mis translated the concept of VARNAS, which later lead forming castes in India. Until max Muller introduced the term CASTE India never had this concept.
1.4. Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, (born April 14, 1891, Mhow, India—died December 6, 1956, New Delhi), leader of the Dalits (Scheduled Castes; formerly called untouchables) and law minister of the government of India (1947–51).
In 1947 Ambedkar became the law minister of the government of India. He took a leading part in the framing of the Indian constitution, outlawing discrimination against untouchables, and skillfully helped to steer it through the assembly.
he was as a boy humiliated by his high-caste school fellows, This is what that made him fight for dalit rights.
2. Why Max Muller Choose Sayanacharya's commentry instead of directly translating the vedas.
I want to explain this with an example. ( This example involves in reading telugu).The following lines are from amukthamalyada written by Sri Krishnadewaraya empror of Vijayanagara.
సాంద్ర మకరంద వృష్టి రసాతలంబుఁ
దొరఁగు పువ్వుల భువియుఁ, బూధూళి నభము
నీక్రమత్రయి మాధవుఁ డాక్రమించె
నురు విరోచన జనిత మహోష్మ మడగ.
Did anyone who know telugu able to understand this ? Amukthamalyada was written in Telugu but the present generation people cant understand it. Similarly the vedic sanskrit in vedas is so hard to understand. Hence Max Muller find Sayanacharya's commentry on vedas, easy to translate.
Britishers in a quest to rule us have done a lot of conspiracies to damage our social, cultural, economic and religious systems. Britishers realized that our culture and spiritual base was so strong that it is not possible to convert people just by giving lectures on Bible. They concluded that the only way to push our way of life, and rule them was to demean their backbone - spirituality. To carry out their plan, they created Asiatic society and hired many professionals who were send to India with sole purpose of demeaning and denigrate our religious philosophy as inferior, mythology, primitive, supporting animal and human sacrifice, imaginative and full of superstitions.
Then began a period of collecting manuscripts and then interpret them in derogatory way. They also paid lofty amount to Max Muller, who is often credited of interpreting vedas and bringing them to west and general public. Max Muller was also one of them who purposefully interpreted our shastras in derogatory way.
4. Aryan Invasion Theory 1850s
Again Max Muller played a key role in fraudulently spreading this theory. He says that some Indo - European came to North- India and destroyed Indus Valley Civilization and pushed native people to South India. Thus he categorised foreigners (Indo - Europeans) as Aryans and native people who were pushed to south as Drawidians. This is the root cause for regional difference that we still see between south India and north India.
He also fraudulently spread that the vedas were brought to India by Indo - Europeans. Promoting that Indo - European(aryans) are civilized and Drawidians are uncivilized and non- intelligents. This created superiority complex among Indians that later made British to establish caste system easliy.
Simon Commission, group appointed in November 1927 by the British Conservative government under Stanley Baldwin to report on the working of the Indian constitution established by the Government of India Act of 1919.
5.1. Introduction of Sheduled Caste/ Shedule Tribe in India by British.
The term ‘scheduled caste’ was coined by the Simon Commission (1927).
The expressions, ‘Depressed Classes’, ‘Exterior Castes’ and ‘Untouchables’
were commonly used for the scheduled-castes during the colonial period.
Gandhiji called them ‘Harijans’ (the people of God). But since the passage of
the Government of India Act of 1935, they have been generally referred to as
‘Scheduled Castes’
It is to be noticed that british translators created the words 'untouchables' , 'caste', 'aryans' and 'drawidians' which in later year led to misunderstanding of the word 'sudra' and people started making differences between among themselves. Later again britishers act like they were saving the dalits(untouchable) by introducing Sheduled caste/ Sheduled Tribe in to Indian Constitution.
5.1.1. Why people who actual know sanskrit didn't raise their voice against Britishers' wrong proaganda about VARNAS.
As in VARNAS, priests,teachers etc., are called as Brahmin. So people who know sanskrit were mostly brahmins. Some Brahmins didn't raise their voice as they see the british translation published were in favour of brahmins.
While other side, brahmins who tried to tell the truth to people were taken cared by british. Like whats now happening in AP. If someone questions the government....?
5.2. OBC.
Other Backward Class (OBC) is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially disadvantaged. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General Class, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCs and STs). The OBCs were found to comprise 52% of the country's population by the Mandal Commission report of 1980.
Until 1985, the affairs of the Backward Classes were looked after by the Backward Classes Cell in the Ministry of Home Affairs. A separate Ministry of Welfare was established in 1985 (renamed in 1998 to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) to attend to matters relating to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs.
6. How Max Muller's translation mislead Ambedkar views on Manusmriti.
As we already discussed how Max Muller mis translated vedas, which in-turn caused difference among the people in Inida. We also discussed britishers taken care to keep the truth hidden. So what happens here is Ambedkar From his writings I find that he missed the true meaning of Hinduism. May be he was influenced by western interpretations.( Translation by Max Muller that placed in public doamin). Even though he know Sanskrit but he learnt it from germany. However he misunderstood the concept of VARNAS. He even burnt Manusmriti in public.
6.1 Forming of dalit Chirstians and dalit Muslims.
As we all know how much Ambedkar did to dalits, by making a reservation system to SC/ST. Even before no dalit had ever achieved as Ambedkar, coz no one allowed dalits to higer studies. So he is hero to all the dalits. They were ready to do what ever he say.
We discussed how max muller translations mislead Ambedkar. He lost faith in Hinduism and told his people to change their religion whatever the religion may be but don't stay as Hindu. He himself converted into Buddism. So huge conversion took place many dalits converted from Hindu to Christians and Muslims thus forming dalit Christians and dalit Muslims. ( This was benifit for britishers coz many converted to Chritianity). Even now you can observe many SC/ST as Christians and every household you can see a photo frame of ambedkar.
6.2 Reservations for SC/ST and Annihilation of Caste.
Speaking of reservations Ambedkar played a crucial role. We can't blame him for bringing reservation in to Indian constitution, it was how he and his people were treated at that time. But it also true that eligible and talented candidates were left out even in spheres of govt. sectors where talent is required.
Coming to annihilation of Caste. I found many speeches and letters of Ambedkar speaking of Annihilation of Caste, even though he is against caste I didn't found any evidences or anything from constitution he making laws against caste. I found few arguments saying that Ambedkar made reservations for only certain period of time it is the politicians who prolonging it for vote banks. I also didn't found any evidences confirming this statements.
Even though India being Independent Nation there is no meaning in us still following the laws made by british. They were success in many ways even though they left India. There motto is "Divide and Rule" as we all know. They brought differences among ourselves be it aryan Vs drawidian or Brahmin Vs Sudra. They are successful.
8.Conclusion
So this is how our vedas our scripts in vedic - Sanskrit was mis understood/ mistranslated by some foreigner and thus creating a chaos in India. During my online research I found many articles blogs abusing our Vedas even they never read them. They are spreading false propaganda which Britishers wished for, they have no proper source or evidences claiming true for what they are writing but they are bluntly publishing as they really know what they were writing. They are simply trusting the rumours which are against our scripts.
Even now our books our education system supporting and teaching the same about our scripts. This is so pathetic. Sanskrit is the first emerged language on earth and we should be proud of it. Vedas are the only earliest books on earth we should proud of that. After knowing this all information I feel so bad that our past, present generations were learning/teaching English instead of sanskrit. You may think that Sankrit scripts has no advanced tech to study so people choose English and other languages to learn latest tech.
This is obsolutely wrong, we have the advanced concepts written thousand years back waiting to be discovered.
People don't know a thing about Sanskrit-scripts publishing info against Sanskrit.
Author : karikaaludu.
Special thanks to Kiran Krishna my friend helping me in research.
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