Is Caste India's Brand of Racism?

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Finally the U.N. has woken up and is moving towards declaring the  caste system as racist and discriminatory.

What is India’s response? Defensive and unconcerned.  Surprise! Surprise!
Some argue it’s just a form of “social organization.” That’s what Gandhi said too. He opposed its abolishment.  But is that so?

The Sanskrit for caste, ‘Varna’ literally means ‘color.’ India’s ancient texts designate caste on basis of color and race.  The supreme brahmin is ‘white,’ and the lowest caste, also sometime called dasa (slave) is ‘black.’  In between you have the browns and yellows. Hindu scriptures are littered with pretty little epithets like "bull-lipped," "nose-less," "goblin," and "demoness." Indian scholars spend lots of time trying to explain these away as "not racist."

Through centuries of mixing India now is a conspicuous brown cocktail (of many hues), but not so to the Indian eye! A Brazilian journalist from the magazine  Super Interessante, while interviewing me last year, said that some Indians have explained how she can spot caste.  The highest caste are very fair.  The lowest are very dark.  I challenged her to randomly pick out a few people from the streets and test that theory.


The only real give away to caste in India today is a person’s last name.  When an Indian politely asks another Indian for "your good name,” they are trying to figure out where precisely they fit in the whole caste scheme, and how exactly they want to interact with them.

A few years ago, at the British Council in Calcutta, a very articulate young woman from an NGO that works for the empowerment of lower-caste women, described to the audience, how random strangers who are very friendly towards her at first, immediately turn away soon as they hear her last name. The occasion was the launch of British author, Valerie Mason-John’s book Broken Voices, a personal account of the lives and experiences of India’s “untouchable” women.

“Untouchable” of course is used not as in “fragile” or “delicate,” but as in “I think you are filthy like the rats and vermin” sentiment.  Even today this scourge thrives. The ‘untouchables’ are not allowed into many temples and homes.  People will not hire them.  And in villages if a low caste person drinks from an upper caste well the whole clan is punished through rape and murder and their homes are burnt down.

But how would India’s educated elite respond to caste?  Here I was sitting in the British Council in Calcutta among the crème de la crème of India’s intelligentsia listening to women talk about how they have been treated because of their caste.  When it was the turn of the audience – quite a few asserted they were Brahmins and needed to protect the purity of their lineage through marriage.

And then a discussion ensued that was flabbergasting!  It was on what last names represented the kuleen Brahmins – the highest of the highest.  Many on the panel, academics and their likes, jumped in enthusiastically.  Not one person objected to this highly obscene and insensitive response.  The three women on the panel who had just shared their first hand experiences watched through this proceeding without uttering a word. At one point I interjected. "Caste," I said, "is a created category.  A brahmin is the highest caste only because it is socially designated that way.  If  we want, tomorrow we can designate it as the lowest caste."  The audience looked displeased.  One woman said,"I don't understand what you are saying." After the discussion, the audience was invited to drinks and cocktails.  I had a good conversation with the two women from the NGO and we talked about their tying up with my own campaign The 50 Million Missing. But what I noticed with interest, was that though everyone was running for the free Vodka and Whiskey, hardly anyone walked up to the three main guests, not even for a little chit-chat.

Here's another example of India's caste based attitude. Some time ago an ugly little exchange on caste had erupted on my flickr photo site – this was a response from a middle-class, English speaking, internet savvy, Indian.  So given all this, what is my take on caste-based reservation? That will be another blog!
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