Can caste system be abolished?
Vaishya were associated with business .
Ethics in business were important. If Brahmins were revered for scholarly
achievements, Kshatriya for chivalry the Vaishya were revered for accumulation
of wealth by ethical means. They were shrewd, visionary, ethical, submissive
and moderate in nature.
A shoemaker of Mochi sub-Caste making shoes in a village near Jodhpur
No system can survive without degeneration
for centuries if the foundation of such system is not laid on strong rational
belief. The caste system in Hindu is one such belief which still stronghold the
Indian society. The society was dominated by Muslims and then by the British
for many centuries who did not support caste system. On the contrary, their
forced conversion of lower caste Hindus on the ground of discrimination, forced
upon them by upper caste Hindus. The caste system is the backbone of Hindus who
are in majority in Indian society.
The personal unconscious of a Hindu is
dominated by the collective unconscious of the caste that has peculiar
idiosyncrasies assigned to that caste. The grounds for "division of labour "
were not arbitrary but scientific. Manu was the first social scientist to
codify the prevailing order in the society. The order was established many
centuries before Manu-Smirti was written around the 2nd century BCE to
3rd century CE.
The caste allocation was based on many
physical and mental attributes of the individual. It later on became hereditary,
especially when it was codified and a 'status stigma ' was attached and caste
were discriminated as upper and lower on the basis of tasks assigned to them.
Brahmins did interpretation, analysis and
teaching of scripts written in Sanskrit. When caste became hereditary the
Brahmins born with inferior mental capabilities gave thrust on rituals. With
advent of materialism a caste which was supposed to depend on alms and charity
of affluent segment of the society also started extracting wealth by creating
fear of hell. This style has been followed in almost all religions of the
world.
The ego born by personal unconscious related
with superiority of caste is the hallmark of this caste. Scholarly achievements
and progress on the path of enlightenment were their major pursuit.
Kshatriya the warrior caste constituted the
Army. They invariably had a good physique and were obsessed with developing expertise
in the use of weapons. Bravery, chivalry, philanthropy and magnanimity were
inherent virtues of this caste.
Shudra which was servant class of the
society did all kinds of menial jobs. They were shoemakers, tailors, sweepers, barbers,
blacksmith and other hundreds of essential functions were assigned to them.
They were physically strong, meek, obedient and hard worker.
No caste was superior to another. They all
were equally important to the society.
Though in Rajasthan the caste has strong roots.
TISC has conducted some research in this
Emperor Jones fled to the forest in the play of Eugene O’Neill and was haunted by the illusion of being sold as slave
though in real life he had never been sold as slave due to collective
unconscious of Congo tribe that he belonged, similarly let us see what would
haunt different caste archetypes in similar situation .
A brahmin would be haunted by sexual crime,
even if he has not committed any, since there is lots of sexual suppression on
the path of enlightenment, Kshatriya would be haunted by an act of cowardice,
because he is supposed to prefer death to cowardice, Vaishya for earning money
by unethical means due to greed and Shudra for punishment for disobedience.
These fears have roots in their collective unconsciousness which surfaces when
they have no veneer of culture to protect them.
© Vipin Behari Goyal
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