Opposing Varna
Varnashrma Dharma Vivisected (P. Krishna Iyer, B.A,)
This South India seems to be a fertile place for every species of madness and quackery. And of all the fads and mischievous insanities that abound here, Varnashrma Dharma is the insanest and most mischievous, since it is the oldest fad practiced. It will die hard; It may not die without a kick. “A theory lives long after its brains have been knocked of it” said Leslie Stephen. Varanshrma Dharma theory continues without its brains crushing and mangling its victims like a juggernaut.
Every sane man knows that this Varnashrama Dharma is midsummer madness; but there is a method in this madness as, in ‘Hamlet’. The theory does not lack logic and reason; only they wish consistently and systematically in an insane plane. It is reason run mad, as it does very often in maniacs. Varnashrama Dharma theory is evolved by a primitive and barbarous method of thinking. And it is supported by madmen logic and reason. Thus it is a hybrid between stark madness and primitives savagery.
The way to destroy a weed is to pull it by the roots. The roots of this Varnashrama theory lead to a fundamentally wrong method of thinking which is unscientific and primitive. So I will strike at the roots.
Modern science works from facts to theories, and so do all constructive thinkers worth the name. The Varnashramists work from theories to facts. The practical architect builds up from foundation; these insane theorists start from roof downwards. The test of a good house is that it must stand knocks; the test of a good theory is that it must fit the facts. The early Christians threw up Adam and Eve theory to explain the origin of man; Darwin set up the monkey against Adam. The Adamites worked down from theory to facts; Darwin set out to find the facts and stumbled on a theory. Whose theory survives?
The Varnashrmists start with a pet Utopia of their own full of tufted and pot-bellied bipeds and argue backwards to practical rules of conduct and ordering of society. When they find that the facts don’t fit their theory they thrust the facts to fit their fad. Thus they created the untouchable, caste, child marriage etc, to fit into their theory.
It is as if a tailor should come to you and say “Sir, l have an ideal garment much as angels wear; it may not fit you, but I will just chop off portions of your anatomy and fit you into my ideal garment.”
If the tailor fits the facts to the theory he is a criminal and goes to jail. The Varnashramists who have done the same on a much larger scale call themselves thinkers and idealists and are free as the air. The one who mutilates one mans is called a madman; the others who mutilate a whole society still call themselves sane thinkers. The first duty of a sane South Indian is to segregate these madmen in a new Bedlam.
The Chinese women cramped her legs and called it beauty; the Brahmin lady committed Suttee and was called dutiful; the Japanese committed hara-kiri and was called loyal. See these fitted facts to an insane theory. All these were martyrs at the altar of insane idealism. Then appeared the rebel against insane idealism who showed that beauty may be in normal legs, that a woman may be useful without committing Suttee, and a man loyal without killing himself.
Here comes the Varnadharmist and says, “my theory is perfect; so fit the facts to it; keep caste, untouchablity, etc., and work up to my ideal”. “But caste is inhuman says” the realist who sees the facts. “It is organismalness” (sic) says the idealist who can concoct phrases but cannot see the facts.
“Untouchablity is atrocious” says the realist”. “No, it is inter-organic distinctiveness” says the Idealist. And so they go on the realist seeing the naked facts, and the insane idealist, explaining away every festering sore of society with lovely mouthfuls of phrases, dictionary in hand. It is the way with all madmen; they are not concerned with actual facts. They are more concerned with sophistries and cobweb of their own sick-brains. What is the cure for this species of madmen? A cerebral operation? Or an ophthalmic mice operation to make them see actual facts? So far as I can see, the only practical and effective cure is in our idealistic tailor who fits his client into his garment. Reader if you happen to be a tailor, do unto the Varnashramist as he does unto society; i.e. Fit him into your ready made garments with a Jack knife – you are our only hope.
Revolt, 15 September 1929
The Curse of Caste: A Dialogue (between a Varnashramite and a Self-Respector) (By P.C.P.)
Varnashramite: I am glad that I met you. I wanted so much to have a talk with you. I heard that you have become a Self-respector and that you have begun to laugh at us, at our tuft of hair, at our caste-marks, at our holy threads, at our Sacred Books, at our temples and Gods, at our marital sacraments, at our widowhood. In fact, it seems you are now laughing at everything we have hitherto held ancient and sacred. Why are you making such fool of yourselves? May I know why?
Self-Respector: Why is the whole civilized world laughing at you and your caste? May I know why?
Varna: Oh! You mean by civilized world, Europeans and Americans, including Miss Mayo? Where were they and their civilization during the time of our Rama Rajyam? They were just prowling in the woods. Their civilization! A matter of yesterday! If they laugh at our Varnashrama, the most glorious thing in our civilization, it is just because it is Kali Yuga and nothing else.
S-R: But the Egyptians and Chinese and ever so many others seems to have had much hoarier civilizations than you can claim for yours. And yet nobody seems to laugh at them. Is it because they had no Varnashram or Caste among them?
Varna: Don’t harp upon it. You don’t know the secret of it. Everywhere in the world there is caste-system. Go to England, you will find caste there also. You may go to America or any other country which you consider civilized; there is no country which has not the caste-system or Varnashramam. They will call it class, instead of caste; that is about all. Who are the Lords in England? They are all high-caste Brahmins of that place. They don’t even sit with commoners. That will be pollution. They have a separate Legislative Chamber of their own, called the House of Lords. You must read Piche Lal Shastra. The Lords are the Brahmins of England. Do you think, in England, you can laugh at a high-caste Englishman – a live lord, for instance? You will be sent to jail at once; they are very strict there. But in India, it is Kali Yuga now and it is not Rama Rajyam; therefore you laugh at our order and our ways.
S-R: My dear Sir! If what you say is true, then that means, that in England and other civilized nations, any body can rise up to the highest caste, even though not one by birth. For instance, plain Mr. H.H. Asquith, the late Prime Minister, a Sudra Englishman by birth, if you please, became the Earl of Oxford – a very high Brahmin of Benares. And heaps and heaps of them. Why Jews, Christian Panchamas according to your notions of Varnashrama, like Benjamin Disraeli and Rufus Isaacs, became Lords and Brahmins. Agnostic John Morley even, became a Brahmin. An Indian has become an English Brahmin – a Lord! Don’t you think there is some stupid confusion in you as regards caste and class? You trace caste entirely by birth alone; while class may not have anything to do with birth, except it be accident and may be due to other things.
Varna: What is your authority for it? Is there anything in the Puranas and Ithikasas in support of what you say?
S-R: Yes, even Puranas and Ithikasas will support me, if it is worth while to go in for those silly things. But I have got a more modern and up-to-date authority. Have you heard of Mr. Hughes, Ex-Prime Ministers of Australia? Please listen to what he has said about your caste:
“Caste must not be confused with class – caste and class are essentially and entirely different. Western people do not understand caste – they have never known it. Slavery and serfdom they understood in the past, but long ago suppressed. Class they have always known and at times tolerated but more often denounced. In modern times class distinctions are much less rigid and with the march of democracy, society tends to become more fluid. In the Dominions, for example, there are no barriers between the child of the poorest labourer and that of the man of the highest position in the country. If he has the necessary qualities of mind and body, he may become the Chief Priest, the Chief Magistrate, the Political head of the Country – wealth, honours and position are within his grasp. There are no worlds he cannot aspire to conquer. And in England, although class distinctions are clearer cut than in Dominions, a son of the people can become a belted earl if his ambitions urge him to enter the narrow circle of the hereditary nobility. Class at is worst is a barrier which the individual may surmount, but caste is a prison from which he cannot hope to escape while life lasts. The child of a man born in a caste, the members of which are condemned to act as the scavengers of the community can look forward to nothing better a scavenger he was born and a scavenger he must live all the days of his life.”
Varna: You say the man who wrote this is an Australian. I don’t wonder. Do you know who the Australians are and who their ancestors were? Convicts! Have they any ancient Puranas, any Gita and Vedas to fall back upon? Are you Self-respectors going to sit at the feet of such people and learn their wisdom? And ignore your Sages and Rishis and their Smritis? Oh! What has India come to!
S-R: My Dear Sir! For thousands of years you kept to yourself all the wisdom then going. You said and acted as though it would be a sin to give it out to the people at large; like casting pearls before swine. But for the Westerner, we would never have got to know what you have hitherto held secret and sacred and which we find to be mere dross. And you cannot fairly accuse us of acquiring wisdom at the feet of other people, for when we were at your feet you used them to kick us with. There is really no just cause for complaint from you. On the other hand, we were merely handling for ourselves the well-known Law of Karma and to some purpose. There is absolutely no analogy between your idiotic caste-system and the fast disappearing class distinctions of the Western countries. They are as poles asunder in conception and in practice. The essence of your noble wisdom always has been “once caste always caste”.
Varna: When all is said and done, why bother about the caste-system? What harm has it done to the country? Are we not all sons and daughters of the same Mother India? Why waste powder and shot over the destruction of such a small thing as caste? Have we not better work, nobler work, to do?
S-R: I have no patience with you! Look at the outcastes, the depressed classes, the untouchables, and the 3000 (three thousand) sub-castes among the so called caste Hindus themselves! Are you not ashamed of it? Sons and daughters of Mother India! Forsooth! Where are the Fathers? And who were they? Mother India must have played the harlot, till now, to have produced such a diversity of castes and sub-castes and out-castes among her own children. India has not got and will not have any status anywhere in the world unless all her sons and daughters have an equal status in their own house and in the eyes of their own Mother.
Varna: Don’t get excited. Colour distinctions exist everywhere. Take America – there is the Negro problem. Take South Africa – there is the Asiatic question. What is colour bar but Varnam? Why should we run against Fate? As Aryans, our colour or Varnam is vastly different from that of other castes in India.You must admit our colour superiority. Do you think that our colour is of the miserable Sudras and outcastes? Don’t you think it is our sacred duty to keep up our colour or Varnam?
S-R: Then why do you sit up and howl at the top of your voices when these same Sudras and outcastes are treated in South Africa and other places in exactly the same way – perhaps better way – than you treat them here? Why do you preach nationalism, then, with the tongue in your cheek? Why do you hunt with hounds and ran with the hare? Is it not sheer hypocrisy?
Varn: Be calm, my young friend, be calm! It is not hypocrisy; it is what is known as scientific politics. I quite agree that as a matter of fact, no Varnashramite, including our venerable brother, Gandhiji, is permitted by the Shastras to say anything about the question of colour bar anywhere let alone South Africa and other places. I quite admit that; but there is our politics to be considered. If we Varnashramites, the most intelligent people in India, sit quiet over that affair, over the insults offered to our brothers and sisters in other places, do you think we would be getting any reforms in India? Who, in India, fought the Great War? Not we, the intelligentia, our hands are unsullied, guiltless of any blood. But while you are merely fighting, we were using our brains and got the greatest installment of reforms for India and a Declaration of Policy at that opportune moment, over which bones are being broken even now. Now the best thing you can do is to leave the game to us, as you have been doing it hitherto.
S-R: And what has been the net result of all? What is the good of all these reforms? It has hitherto resulted in Indianisation of services which is synonymous with Brahminisation. You fought through the Congress for equality of office hitherto held by the Englishmen to be given to you, on some pretext or other and further wanted that pay also which was given to them. The Englishman had conquered India; he had spent men and money in acquiring it; he is to have conveniences and comforts living in a different climate and surrounding; the cost of his living ,as also the standard of it is something different from that of yours or mine; and yet, you want the same pay, the same comforts or the same conveniences, even though the country can ill-afford to pay it and you know that also; nor are you prepared to serve the country accepting that which the country is in a position to give you. You say that your brain is as good as that of the Englishman and why not he pay in the same way.
You remind one of our Tenali Rama, the Court Jester. When the king told him in jest that the sugar spread before him was sand, the Court Jester took him at his word and ate up the sugar all the time lamenting that it was sand. Your worshipful leader the Right Honourable V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, who fought for it, stated on the floor of the old Imperial Legislative Council, that the Country always preferred the brown bureaucrat to the white one and got it.
You won’t take a pie less than that paid to the Englishmen; it would wound Indian susceptibilities and national self-respect, if less were accepted. You grumble at the inequality of it; you appear before the Simon Commission and put up a grumble or two; you might even do it at the Round Table Conference; you write to your national press; you start official Unions and cry in unison like widows; in your nationalistic fervour you fail to remember who has got to pay you.
The badge of your tribe when we suffered you was poverty; your today’s life-breath is unbounded wealth, undreamt of power and position and prestige. That goes against the grain; and that is the economic rub.
Varna: There you are, after all. The cat is now out of the bag. What did that volcano of a Sirdar Patel tell you? You, Self-Respectors are after all office hunters; selling your soul for the loaves and fishes of office. That is your game. We knew it the moment the Self-respect Movement came into existence. Under the guise of social and religious activities you are merely trying to strengthen the hands of the Justice Party men – your Mudaliyars and Pillays and Naidoos and Rajus etc. – for more and more office…And…
S-R: Go slow, please. We are not above confessing that we want official power and prestige, as much as any Brahmin does. We do not profess to indulge (as some pious friends among you do) in calling upon our Non-Brahmin brethren not to seek for offices any more – because you seem to turn up your nose at it. On the other hand, we want to wrest every office from the monopolist in order to share it with our brethren of the so called depressed classes, and untouchables and of whichever community it might be among the Non-Brahmins which has not had its innings till now. The Self-Respector, to talk high-brow, has given a new orientation to the theory and practice of the formula of communal representation. In plain vernacular, the Self-Respect Movement expects every one of the 3000 sub-castes among the so called Caste Hindus – including your so called Mudaliyars and Pillays and Naidoos and Rajus but barring the Brahmin – to give first place to the hitherto submerged classes. To them shall belong, if the Self-Respector can help it, all the official power and prestige in India. That is the creed of the Self-Respector. Hereafter, we are not going to fight amongst ourselves as to who amongst us is to get it. That is why we keep you out. And we know, once the Brahmin-Varnashramite is deprived of his monopoly, there is enough and more to go round – for one and all among the Non-Brahmins. And if it is going to be “inefficient”, it is not your funeral. Thank you, we shall manage ours.
Varna: Offices! Power! Prestige! Under British rule! Whoever thinks of it? That shows that all of you are political reactionaries; India’s greatest curse. Now, honestly, do you know who fought for Dominion Status for India, which is as good as achieved? Have you seen our nationalist journals? Do you know who is for Independence of India – complete severance from England? Do you know who does the trick? We Varnashramites; we intelligentia; we high castes; the cream of Hindu society and not your half-fed ignorant masses. Bah! And what have you Self-Respect reactionaries been doing all this time? Preaching there is no God; there is no temple; there is no religion; there is no caste. And look at us. Complete Independence for India! And that is where we are today.
S-R: As regards your Independence stunt, my dear friend, it is mere wash-out. It cuts no ice. You are at the end of your tether and you know it. Your fright at the Sarda Act has exposed your political pretensions. Hereafter, you cannot deceive anybody at any rate, in South India. From your own cry it is clear, you want the protection of the Englishmen’s religious neutrality to live in amity and peace with your Indian brethren. You have proclaimed from the house tops that for living in decent Indian society you want the protective arm of the Englishman. In South India, your Congress is dead as the door nail. You brought it about with your social and religious obscurantism. Who is going to take you seriously when you prate about Independence and all that tall talk? Tell that to the marines! Those days are over and done with. If you had any patriotism or nationalism left in you, you would have taken your medicine like a man and not howled over the Sarda Act. That Act was the acid test of your patriotism and your capacity to live harmoniously in any well-organized society ; and you have failed to come up to the scratch.
Varna: If it comes to it, that you Self-Respectors will not allow us to go our ways in peace in Dravida land, then we shall go back to our mother-land – Aryavartha. Sirdar Patel has promised us a warm welcome there. And even so many others. Do you know who the losers will be then? Not we. We brought our Aryan civilization from the north and humanised your ancestors, who were after all Rakshasas, Asuras and monkeys. Don’t you forget that. You are going to feel the loss only when we disappear from this land of yours. Not now. You will repent when it is too late. Now, what our Bagavan says…
S-R: Stop that rot! We care a tuppence for all your Bagavans put together! Now, attend to this.
You are no more Aryan than any Dravidian in South India is. History, ethnology and all the modern sciences are dead against those pretensions of yours. One eminent Brahmin Judge of the Madras High Court was candid enough to confess it in one of his reported Judgements: “Brahmana Hindus are not so predominantly Aryan in blood, as usually assumed”. Aryavarta is no more your native land than Australia. Give up all those ideas. You may take it from me nobody is going to welcome you in Aryavarta once they come to know you as well as we do. As it is they have got enough troubles there.
And besides, you can’t take your ladies to Aryavarta for historians say they are decidedly Dravidians coming of the old stock of Rakshasas, Asuras and Monkeys, even if are prepared to humour you as being Aryan. You can’t leave them behind. That will be a handicap for both of us. All things considered both of us have got to rough it out here. The only thing is, caste or Varnam, both yours and mine, is in the melting pot. What is going to happen to it will not be found in our Puranas. So let us part in peace, as we have got to live together in peace.
Varna: As a Non-Brahmin, your temper is short. But all the same, in spite of my caste sentiments and all that, which I cannot easily give up, I am a keen democrat in politics. I have always stood for political equality and independence. A bare look at our nationalist newspaper will convince you of that…
S-R: There you are at it again. Don’t be down-hearted. No Brahmin will give up his caste; not that he has any, but even the pretending to be high caste will not be easily given up. If only you knew what Mr. Hughes has said about your caste, nobody will expect you to give it up without a fight.
“The Brahmins devised the caste-system of India” says Mr.Hughes, Ex-Prime Minister of Australia, “to safeguard their privileges, to which, among the two-hundred and fifty millions of untouchables are the base of the caste pyramid, ten millions of Brahmins as its apex. These ten millions are the hereditary priesthood of India and by the caste system they found the vast population in chains of ignorance, superstition and poverty” – Can the Brahmin give up his caste? Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spot?
The Caste Hindu will meet democracy only in his cremation ground and not earlier. This is the curse of caste. Au revoir.
Revolt, 17 November 1929
