The Hindu Caste System and identification of Archetypes based on the collective unconscious

Can caste system be abolished?

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.

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.

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

We can assume that Brahmin represents the Super Ego, Kshatriya and Vaishya, Ego, and Shudra represented Libido.

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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Carl Jung's Theory and Literature

                                                 Wizards of Collective Unconsciousness

All fiction is but a dream, all dreams are but a reality. No other stream has contributed towards enrichment of Literature as compared to Psychology. They are inseparable in a way, and one was always confused for another. Sigmund Freud was nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature for his psychoanalysis.

Jung is lesser known than Freud. The magnitude of his work is still unexplored. Due to Eastern influence on his work of Collective Unconscious, he was not well appreciated by his contemporaries. West had a tendency to evaluate anything related to East as inferior. Only Arthur Schopenhauer could draw the attention of West towards rich philosophy of Buddhism. Siddhartha  by Hermann Hesse  also contributed in exploring rich Buddhist Philosophy. Romain Rolland  a Nobel Laureate in Literature was inspired by Sigmund Freud. Rolland studied Eastern Philosophy which is labeled as Eastern Mysticism  since it is not easily comprehensible. He had an "oceanic feeling" which prompted Freud to raise this issue in his further work. Mysticism does not aim at 'human transformation' but its object is self-actualisation. It is the transformation of human concepts from the Unreal to Real.

It requires a great deal of courage to admit that 'primitiveness' of eastern tribes is a sort of 'advancement' since it uses collective unconsciousness which is deeper, stronger and unique. Modern man has become so isolated that he finds it impossible to connect his personal unconsciousness with any other individual, so the wonders of collective unconsciousness are a distant dream for him.

Haggard in "She" and "King Solomon's Mines" and Mary Shelley in "Frankenstein" have made use of Jung's wonderful concept of three layered selfhood of personality -present consciousness, past and prehistoric or racial. All mythology  is also work of collective unconsciousness. Recently, some authors temper with mythology in order to create sensation. They are  playing with negative energies of the cosmos which always try to conquer positive energy.  Proceeding in one direction would create equal and opposite force and both would survive together.

The archetypes discovered by Jung have opened a treasure box for historians, anthropologist, scientist and authors to discover and base their work on different models of archetypes and their social and Psychological significance.

 If human civilization is endless and there is no imminent catastrophe, after a few centuries, today's man will be called primitive and would be despised for its greed by future generations. The word desire for Fire in the poem by Robert Frost is a soft version of greed.The fuss of Dream Analysis would never be over. Work of Freud and Jung would always be a landmark, but many new theories and interpretations are needed to understand the symbolism and  enrich the theme. A combined group of Social Scientist, Psychiatrist, Psychologist and Philosopher tuned with collective unconsciousness  can do miracle.

There is no Tabula rasa in the realm of collective unconsciousness. 

In“Emperor Jones” a modern play by Eugene O’Neill the personal and collective unconscious of Brutus Jones is revealed when his ‘conscious ego’ breaks gradually. He is trapped in the dark forest which is symbol of his psyche where the sound effect, hallucination and illusions have been used by O’Neill to depict the transformation of Jones. Mary T. David says “The gradual disintegration of his conscious ego,the revelation of his personal and collective unconsciousness and his flight from himself (the fundamental self from which the blind pride and its self image have so long separated him and which inevitably comes into its own) constitutes the dramatic movement.”Brutus Jones’s mind contain ideas of human race in general  and inherited traits peculiar to his own race, tribe and family.Theses all archetypal symbols and patterns are thus collective unconscious which remain latent in a man. It is projected in Jones when he hallucinates the racial memory of being sold as slave and faces Congo witch doctor.The collective unconscious is projected under the influence of fear.

Readers are requested to post comments.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Advocate,Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur