Caste of Relations : The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

I came upon this information during a conversation on casteism. The lady told me, “There has never been much caste problem in my home town [Jammu] )".

She continued:

“We recently discovered that a family belonging to the shudra caste is actually a brahmin family. The ____ (surname) were brahmins at one time and shifted to a lower caste probably to defend themselves.”

Here’s the backdrop; two families in Jammu have been friends for many decades thought they are from different castes. The shudra family learnt much from the brahmin family owing to the latter’s proficiency in arts and literature. Caste was never a barrier; they shared food and information.

“Then the elder of this family said casually that they were actually brahmins and not shudras. None of us knew about it. He did but he never mentioned this knowledge. But then there’s never been any problems between our families.

It was just a piece of information. So now we know about their gotra and their past and where they are coming from. That’s all.”

There’s no tale of strife between the strictly brahmin family–that must feed the cow before any member eats any food—and the shudra family. I am, of course, attempting to unearth more information about the two families and their relationships. I can’t name them or tell you about them; I am relying on spoken words.

I have read some historians’ account of ‘Many Hinduisms’; no single interpretation of sanatan dharma pervaded India. It is, hence, argued that caste abuse was a limited affair; an assertion markedly different from the popular notion of caste being a common factor throughout India. I find resonance in this story by Professor Meenakshi Jain

“As late as the 18th century, the hierarchical ordering of Hindu society was not an established fact over large parts of the subcontinent. As some eminent historians have pointed out, till that time alternative ideologies and styles of life were strong, indeed dominant, in much of India.”

I shall write more on the topic if assisted with information and permissions.

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Comments

Looks like you’ve picked on a sensitive, and likely to be controversial topic.

I think things would improve if we spoke of it out loud- we may be right or wrong, but what we think of it has to come out- this idea of sweeping everything into silence will do none of us any good. I hope you get a dialogue going.

Good luck.

Regards,

baskar

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[Reply]

posted by baskar on 01.24.10 at 17:04

[...] the first part on this page The respondent in unconcerned about the topic. She is unaware of discussions on casteism and racism [...]

posted by Caste of Relations-2 : The Young India on 01.25.10 at 10:34

The Young India

Caste of Relations

on January 23, 2010

“As late as the 18th century, the hierarchical ordering of Hindu society was not an established fact over large parts of the subcontinent. As some eminent historians have pointed out, till that time alternative ideologies and styles of life were strong, indeed dominant, in much of India.”

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