Discuss Whitehead’s Contention that Caste has Potential to Displace Class and Colonial Contradiction.
(Paper: 2, Section- A, Year 2020, Unit 12: Caste System)
Discuss Whitehead’s contention that caste has potential to displace class and colonial contradiction.
(20 Marks)
| Introduction : Basic Idea About Caste System
Main Body : Caste Class Relations and Caste in Relation to Colonial Systems Introduced in India Conclusion: Relevance of Idea |
INTRODUCTION
According to WHITEHEAD, caste has existed in India even in pre-colonial period. However disciplinary rigidity in studying the caste starts with textually informed writings of colonial thinkers. They saw caste as timeless institution and most important defining feature of Indian society. It was seen as rigid and closed system all-encompassing system. Caste became the synecdoche of India, a single social institution that symbolized the character of the entire society
Main body
Caste Potential to Displace Caste
- Caste and class intersectionality exists because of historic access of higher caste to economic, social , symbolic and cultural capital. Yogerndra Singh has suggested that caste and class at upper levels and lower levels coincides. That means upper class majority is drawn from upper caste and lower caste is major proportion of lower class.
- Similarly A R Desai has highlighted that that caste has potential class character.
- The creation of organizations which are class based like All India Kisan Union etc. have strong caste dynamics interplay .
However these illustrations highlights how caste and class are intermingled but how caste identity reinforces the class divisions, but displacing the class system simply by caste is over exaggeration .
Class Caste Contradictions
- Middle Classes cannot be identified with any particular castes . It has people drawn from heterogeneous sections of caste, having only peculiar features based on achievement orientation of caste system.
- Political parties using all the castes equally for vote bank politics. hence having showing their only significant identity of ruling class beyond caste .
- According to Heera Singh , when Indian moves out of country they stop using their caste identities and nationalistic identity shapes their fictive kinship ties.
- The fact of brahmins being landlords represents secularisation of and deviation from the principle of religious hierarchy, highlighting how caste and class are already mingled in practice.
Hence at best that exists is caste class nexus but it is very difficult that caste will displace the class. This idea is simply can be seen as legacy of book view thinkers like Dumont who transformed real class and caste contradictions into oppositions in thought, which though looks like a critical understanding of the social relations which produce caste ideology, but is an apology for Brahminical Hinduism.
Caste and Colonial Contradictions
- Colonial rulers used caste as tool to divide the country and highlighted exploitative nature of caste to use it for their interest of getting support of so called ritually low caste groups. These contradictions even used today when caste seen as passport to politics.
- The colonial idea of separate electorate for lower caste today can be seen into transformed into demands for reservation by different caste groups.
Above illustrations highlights how colonial contradictions now being replaced by caste based ideologies. However apart from caste religious ideologies, regional imbalances, gendered discriminations and new proclamations of erstwhile invisible minorities like LGBTQ+ community shows it is not only caste but other social structures also there to either to reinforce or replace contradictions created by colonial rulers.
CONCLUSION
Whitehead’s analysis reveals the complexity of caste’s role in displacing class conflicts and colonial contradictions. While caste undoubtedly played a significant role in colonial narratives, Whitehead’s critique emphasizes the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the historical, cultural, and economic factors that contributed to India’s social landscape. Caste cannot be simplistically equated to a replacement for the multifaceted challenges posed by class struggles and colonial legacies.
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META TAGS:
Whitehead, caste, class, colonialism, India, Yogerndra Singh, A R Desai, UPSC, Sociology Optional, All India Kisan Union, Brahminical Hinduism, reservation, LGBTQ+, Perspectives on the study of caste systems, GS Ghurye, M N Srinivas, Louis Dumont, Andre Beteille, Features of caste system, Untouchability forms and perspectives,
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