| Caste is deeply ingrained in Hindi psyche and thus forms the collective unconscious of Hindu-society. The upper-caste mind simply refuses to come out of its fossilised attitudes in herited from ancestors. Therefore, Brahmins or even other upper castes for that matter, consider that it is their divine right to rule over low castes.
Caste-system was invented and per petuated by the Brahmins. The rest of the upper castes were just the tools to put the theory into practice. The reason why the caste-system has survived is that its ideological basis has never been attacked. Any attack on Brahmins is in fact an attack on Brahmanism, on which this system thrives.
Even in independent India, despite the policy of protective discrimination for low castes, Brahmins have monopolised every field of power and privilege. Brahmins as a single ethnic group represented 3 per cent in bureaucracy in 1935 which has risen to 75 per cent in 1990.
Age-old contempt against low caste is now getting crystallised in the form of bitterness for those 9.7 per cent representing in Group A services. Doubts are freely expressed regarding efficiency, integrity and honesty of scheduled castes, Scheduled tribes officers as if they have polluted the sacred precincts of services and educational institutions. This is the outcome of the emerging situation which has challenged the social order laid down by shastras’.
The perversities of social contra diction lie couched in our rituals and the sickness syndrome of Brahminical overlordship is plaguing the Hindu society.
It is high time they do some introspection. It is the common sense of civilised society, based on a willing ness to accept social change and the principles of equity, that can only re store sanity and order.
About the Author
Dr. R.C. Jiloha, Professor of Psychiatry at G.B. Pant Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical College, unlike other psychiatrists routinely confined to mental disorders and their treatment, is deeply interested in the social phenomenon of caste and its far-reaching consequences which impinge upon the mental health of low-castes. |
