Sandeep
Kumar Singh
To Vivekanand caste
consciousness was a barrier to India’s progress. Because at times casteism
kills national consciousness. Although Caste loyalty is valuable as the firstly
step to nationalism, yet when it degenerates into sectarianism and checks the growth
of nationality, it becomes an unmitigated evil. Caste loyalty is a virtue but,
when it degenerates into passive disloyalty to the state, it becomes a positive
crime. Caste restrictions on actions likely to undermine the foundations of the
social structure are wholesome; but when such restrictions lead to disabling
inequalities and denial of social justice, as in the case of the untouchables
now mercifully called ‘Harijana’, they become a curse.
At one place Vivekanand
said, “Good Heavens: A country the big leaders of which have for the last two
thousand years been only discussing whether to take food with the right hand or
the left, whether to take water from the right side or the left if such left,
whether to take from the right side or the left if such a country does not go
to ruins, what other will? A country, where millions of people live on the
flower of the Mohua plant, and a million or two of Sadhus, and a hundred
million or so of Brahmins such the blood of these poor people, without even the
least effort for their amelioration is that a country or a hell.’1
Vivekanand also realized
that casteism “narrows, restricts and separates the noble bond of humanity”.
Even then be hoped that “It will crumble before the advance of ideas”.2 Signs
are bright the Vivekanand’s prophecy is on the way to fulfillment at no distant
date Fortunately some of the undesirable features have disappeared during last
few years, though some of them still persist. Casteism is still not unimportant
problem that baffles politicians, statement and social reformers alike.
Solution of the problem- It is not easy to find a solution of
the problem. Because the solution demands the death of the spirit of caste
consciousness. It requires a change in the fundamental notions of Hindu life, a
change in the values of the life and a change in outlook and attitude towards
men and things. Social reformers have expounded different theories to solve
this problem. Some say that intercaste-marriages an dinners may solve the
problem. Because such things will provide opportunities to the people on the
life and as such a feeling of oneness will necessarily follow. Others are of
opinion that sub-castes must be abolished because there is greater
dissimilarity in manners and status among the sub-castes then among the castes
themselves. But remedies are neither practicable nor effective and may prove to
be wrong, if tried. Vivekanand’s solution of the caste questions is not
degrading those who are already high up is not running ‘amuck through food and
drink, is not jumping out of our limits in order to have more enjoyment but it
comes by every one of us fulfilling the dictates of our Vedantic religion, by
our attaining spirituality and by our becoming the ideal Brahmins. He said,
“There is a law laid on each one of you in this land by your ancestors, whether
you are Aryans, or non-Aryans, Rishis, or Brahmins, or the every lowest
outcaste. The command is the same to you all, that you must make progress
without stopping, and that from the highest man to lowest pariah, everyone in
this country has to try and become the ideal Brahmin”.3 Thus, “The
ideal at one end is the Brahmin and the ideal at the other end is the
‘Chandala’, and the whole work is to raise the chandala up to the Brahmin”.4
It, therefore, becomes necessary for us to examine Swami Vivekanand’s
suggestions to raise the lower untouchable) until it reaches on a level with
the higher (Brahmin).
“My idea is first of all to bring out the gems
of spirituality that are stored up in our books and in the possession of a few
only hidden as it were, in monasteries and in forests In one word I want to
make it popular. I want to bring out these ides and let them be the common
property of all of every man in India”.5 in this way people will get
the information, they will get below surface of the problem and many misgivings
about caste system will be removed.
Secondly, Sanskrit must be
taught to them, because all our scriptures are in this language6 and
“this difficulty cannot be removed until, if it is possible, the whole of our
nation are good Sanskrit scholars”.7 Sanskrit alone can be helpful
in making the plan a success. To substantiate his argument he stated, “The
attempts of the great Ramanuja and Chaitanya and of Kabir to raise the lower
classes of India show that marvelous results were attained during the lifetime
of those great prophets; yet the later failures have to be explained, and cause
show why the effect of their teachings stopped almost within a century of the
passing away of these masters. The secret is here. They raised the lower
classes they had all the wishes that these should come up, but they did not
apply energies to the spreading of the Sanskrit language among the masses. Even
the great Buddha made on false step when he stopped the Sanskrit language from
being studied by the masses”.8
Besides knowledge, culture
is also essential. Until the masses are cultured there can be no permanence in
their raised condition. There will be another caste created, having knowledge
and the advantage of Sanskrit, which will quickly get above the rest and rule
them all the same. To this end Vivekananda appealed to Brahmins that” they must
work hard to raise the Indian people by teaching them what they know, by giving
out the culture that they have accumulated for centuries. It is clearly the
duty of the Brahmins of India to remember what real Brahmin hood is. As Menu
says, all these privileges and honors are given to Brahmin because ‘with him is
the treasury of virtue’. He must open that treasury and distribute its valuables
to the world”.9 He further said that “it was because he did not give
it to the people that the Mohammedan invasion was possible. It was because he
did not open this treasure to the people from the beginning, that for a
thousand years we have been trodden under the heels of everyone who chose to
come to India. It was through that we have become degraded, and the first task
must be to break open the cells that hide the wonderful treasures which our
common ancestors accumulated; bring out, and give to everybody, and the Brahmin
must be the first to do it”.10
The only rational
explanation of Vivekananda’s thesis on caste is found in ‘Mahabharata, which
says- that in the beginning of ‘Satya Yuga’ there was one caste, the Brahmins,
and then by difference of occupations people went on dividing themselves into
different castes. And, it is also there, that in the coming ‘Satya Yuga’ all
the other castes will have to go back to the same condition.
To conclude, it may be
said that Vivekananda upheld the noble tradition of Hindu Unity and harmony by
giving a synthetic interpretation of social relationship based on
Varanvyavastha, though he condemned conservatism and orthodoxy developed into
the behavior patterns of Hindu society. He favored Varna-system essentially and
originally based on natural dispositions and merits of the individual, and not
on birth. Thus, to him the true measure of man worth not birth.
Reference:
1.
Quoted
by Majumdar: op. cit., p. 138.
2.
Swami
Vivekananda Centenary Memorial, Vol. I, p.37
3.
The
Complete works, Vol. III, p.198
4.
Ibid.,
p.295.
5.
The
scriptures have been translated into may languages, of late, yet the importance
of Sanskrit cannot be ignored because the purest water can be had from the
source of the river.
6.
Ibid.,
p.290
7.
Ibid.,
pp.290-i
8.
“The only way to bring about the leveling of
the caste is to appropriate the culture, the education which is the strength of
the higher castes”. Vivekananda: Ibid. p 291.
9.
The
Complete works, Vol. II, p.297.
10.
Ibid.,
p.298.
Dr. Sandeep kumar singh
Assistant Professor,
Ancient History Dept.
S.V.N. P.G. College Kalan, Sultanpur
