Question

1. Mention two factors that led to the emergence of caste consciousness in
colonial India.



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Answer 1

Answer:

“Why does the caste system continue to dominate Indian society, in spite of centuries of moral critique and decades of reservation politics?” This is one of the most frequently asked questions in contemporary public debate in India. To understand the question, we must briefly sketch its historical background.

From the eighteenth century onwards, Protestant missionaries and European Orientalists described Indian society as a caste hierarchy consisting of four ranks or varnas (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishas, and Shudras) and the ‘outcastes’ or ‘untouchables’. They explicitly viewed caste as a religious institution – founded in Hinduism and dominated by Brahmin priests – which condemned the lower castes to lives without basic dignity and rights. Since colonial officials accepted this as a true description of Indian society, they also included it in the educational programmes of British India. Thus, generations of Indian intellectuals learned to reproduce this characterization of their own society. As a result, they started building ‘anti-Brahmin’ movements for ‘the liberation from caste tyranny’ in the era between the 1850s and the 1940s.

When India gained independence in 1947, some political leaders argued there should be redress for the historical injustices committed against the lower castes. Hence, they pleaded for the establishment of a system of quota or reservations in the Constitution: a certain percentage of seats in all government institutions (including students and faculty in universities) should be reserved for individuals belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), a series of castes and ethnic groups listed in a schedule of the Constitution. They succeeded: today almost 50% of all seats are reserved for certain caste groups; in some Indian states, the number is even higher.