Mourning Called Caste

Chidananda Sali

(The expression of sorrow for someone's death. ಜಾತಿ ಎಂಬ ಕೊರಗು)

Introduction

Chidananda Saraswati (24 September 1916 – 28 August 2008) was President of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh, India. He was well known in India as a yogi, dhayani and spiritual leader. He succeeded as President of the Divine Life Society in 1963, after the death of his predecessor, Sivananda Saraswati, who founded the Society.

Chidananda's birth name was Sridhar Rao. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola College, Chennai. He took to a life of renunciation in 1936, and joined the Sivananda Ashram run by Sivananda Saraswati in Rishikesh in 1943.

He was appointed General Secretary of the Divine Life Society in 1948. He was initiated into the Sannyas order by his guru, Sivananda, on Guru Purnima day, 10 July 1949. It was then that he received his monastic name "Chidananda", which means "one who is consciousness and bliss".

He was elected President of the Divine Life Society in August 1963, upon the death of Sivananda. Chidananda Saraswati died on 28 August 2008, at 20:11 pm.

Mourning Called Caste Chidananda Sali

(The expression of sorrow for someone's death. ಜಾತಿ ಎಂಬ ಕೊರಗು)

Introduction

Chidananda Saraswati (24 September 1916 – 28 August 2008) was President of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh, India. He was well known in India as a yogi, dhayani and spiritual leader. He succeeded as President of the Divine Life Society in 1963, after the death of his predecessor, Sivananda Saraswati, who founded the Society.

Chidananda's birth name was Sridhar Rao. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola College, Chennai. He took to a life of renunciation in 1936, and joined the Sivananda Ashram run by Sivananda Saraswati in Rishikesh in 1943.

He was appointed General Secretary of the Divine Life Society in 1948. He was initiated into the Sannyas order by his guru, Sivananda, on Guru Purnima day, 10 July 1949. It was then that he received his monastic name "Chidananda", which means "one who is consciousness and bliss".

He was elected President of the Divine Life Society in August 1963, upon the death of Sivananda. Chidananda Saraswati died on 28 August 2008, at 20:11 pm.

Mourning Called Caste

Baslingu is a character from the Kannada short story 'Muttisikondavanu' (He who was touched) by P Lankesh. Baslingu is an upper caste farmer, whose eye sight is fading. He goes to Dr Tippanna, a Dalit eye surgeon, seeking treatment. After surgery, the ophthalmologist advises him not to pour water on his head for two weeks, to protect his eyes from infections. Baslingu does not know the surgeon is a Dalit. Baslingu's wife Sidlingi, however,has learnt about it somehow. He wonders how she knows this vital fact, that he has no clue of. The woman of traditional ways is upset that her husband has been treated by an untouchable. She decides to purify him bygiving him a head- bath of hot water. This has the exact opposite effect. The water that fell on his head leads to infections and complications and he suffers badly.

I feel India's condition today is no different from that of Baslingu. It tends to sacrifice its health-hygiene and dignity, discards advice by the wise and gets caught in the deadly whirlpool of caste, only to suffer, endlessly.

At a safe distance, the question of caste seems small and insignificant. It is not so. Its influence is evident on our food and demeans our, dress, language and other aspects of our life. All these are matters of personal choice, but caste is not. The pride of belonging to an upper caste or the inferiority attached to a so called lower caste is meaningless as our religion and caste identities are decided before birth. But the society continues to consciously drill these concepts in our minds.

A Dalit friend of mine has a young, chirpy daughter. One day she returned from school and announced "Pappa, it seems all non Brahmins are Shudras. So, now, we are Shudras". This instance reveals how the collective crisis of identity works in various ways among the deprived communities.

In the short story 'Basalingappa and David Sahebaru' a Dalit character by Nataraj Huliyar, pleads with an officer to issue a certificate that he belongs to one of the upper castes, just to make his daughter happy. The tragedy is that this menace has extended its dark paw to the children, our future citizens. The nightmare that their elders. Suffered, seems to have continued beyond their generation, to be woven into the next generations, as if it is one of their DNA strands. All the economic or political successes that India achieves, would be meaningless, as in the saying 'Teru Singara Gali Addara' (The temple car has decorated domes, but weak wheels).

Carl Marx made a simplistic division of the society into classes of owners and workers. That was based on economic exploitation. But the situation in India is different. It is not limited to economic classes here. We have divisions based on religion and regional inequalities along with divisions based on economy.

To top it all is the discriminatory system of caste that spreads across the body politic of India, from its head to toe like the white patches of vitiligo. Caste system seems to have cut this society into pieces and thrown them around. Caste decides whether you get a house on rent, whom you marry, the job you get, whether you get promoted and other things. What is more, it also determines whether you attain Moksha, the eternal big myth.

On the face of it, it seems very simple and straight forward- the society is divided into Brahmins, Lingayats, backward classes and Dalits. But the hierarchy is not linear. The Smartha Brahmin suffers discrimination within his caste, as do the lower castes among Lingayats, like the Hadapad and other sub castes. The Scheduled Tribes suffer humiliation by the other backward classes and the Scheduled Castes suffer humiliation from the Scheduled Tribes and so on. Among the Scheduled Castes, the right hand and left hand communities are not treated as equals.

Among all communities, being the most discriminated and harassed the women are at the bottom rung. This is a complex web. The flies and mosquitoes who are caught in this are the small communities. Some other privileged communities who have money and power, are like the giant spiders of the Amazon forest, who manage to break off the web easily. The bigger species like elephants and tigers are never caught.

Money seems to be changing things a little. The feeling that the rich belong to the upper strata of the society, irrespective of which communities they are born into, is slowly changing caste equations. Money seems to have acquired the character of a separate caste, by itself. Those who treat you for who you seem to be, on face value, do exist in society. They have been around for long and will be there in future.

The Sanskrit saying 'Sarve Gunanam Kanchanam Ashrayanti' means that all wealth tends to accumulate virtues around it. It is interpreted as: "If you have enough money, you are considered a Pundit even if you are a fool, sophisticated even if you are a brute and of high birth, even if you are not! Thus, the suffering is doubled when a person from low caste belongs to a poor family. I feel that the upper caste poors suffer even more. Essayist Vasudhenndra sensitively portrays the woes of a disabled child in his short story 'Namma Vajinnoo Atakkae Karakolro' (Please play with my Vajee). On the other hand is the argument that only the unity of the lower classes can defeat the hegemony of the upper castes. This in line with the saying only two devious people spar'.

I don't drink tea and my friends ask me why. One of the reasons may be the caste based discrimination I suffered in my childhood. All through the holy month of Shravana, the village Sahukar hung swings in his house. We sat on the lap of his daughter, whom we affectionately called Gourammakka, as she swung forcefully, with joy. It was funny, fearful and exciting. Then they would serve tea to all. My mother, who accompanied us, washed our cups without remorse or hesitation. I would feel bad about it. But she would wash my cup too. As I grew up, I stopped drinking tea. But my mother, who knew that her caste compelled her to wash our cups at the Sahukar's house, expected the same from those below her. One of her women friends, who belonged to a Dalit community, was in our neighbourhood. They had internalized the fact that they were Dalits and maintained a distance even when they visited us. My mother served them tea, but expected them to wash the cups after they finished drinking. I tried to tell her that change begins with us. But her Dalit friend did not agree, just as my mother accepted her role and status at the house of the Gourammakka. I feel that the real change has to be in the mindset of those who belong to the upper castes (or those who believe in the myth of their caste being superior).

If we believe that someone is inferior to us, there is already someone who believes we are inferior to him. If we don't feel guilty about the discrimination that we mete out to others, then we cannot talk about the caste based discrimination that we face. We have no moral right to do so. This needs to be understood, mainly by those communities who are neither considered upper castes or lower castes.

it is very much possible that he who considers himself superior to all others, may in reality by the worst of all. I am reminded of the situation where poverty drives a proud Brahmin to give up his false prestige and secretly eat Uppittu (rice porridge), from the novel 'Sanskara' by U R Ananthamurthy.

It was expected that gloablisation would lead to an end of the castes. It was also argued that money would act as a tool of social mobility and there would be only two groups in the society -the rich and the poor- in the end. A class struggle would ensue and rid the society of all groups, leading to a casteless society. But the tragedy is that with the rise of money power and increased education levels, the clutches of the caste system are growing. Kancha Ilaiah, India's foremost scholar on caste feels that caste system is eternal and the only way to face it is by creating and strengthening awareness about it. But the problem with this solution is that it is easy to kindle the spark of fire, but difficult to avoid being burnt. A few years ago, a caste based association provided food and clothes to the victims of the flood in Raichur. The society may benefit ultimately, if each caste group were to help its own poor and destitute. But if the united force of a caste were to fall on another, leading to violence between the groups, then it would be a disaster. Professor lliah's ideas may prove fruitful only if every community were to realise the follies of such brute force and develop the wisdom of creative unity.

And then there are some healthy minds who advocate inter caste marriage as the panacea for the social evil. But it does not seem to be so. The venom of caste seems to devour us all of us       I and young alike. One day, a friend joked about his six year old son: "Chidu, I will get my son married to a girl from America". The child stopped playing and came back to ask:" Does America have people of our caste?” The father, felt sorry that the idea of caste had entered the mind of the innocent child, even though it never mattered to him and he had married out of his caste. His eyes glanced at the picture of Sri Basavanna, who led an anti caste movement 900 years ago, that included inter caste marriages. Among our tragedies is limiting to particular castes, the Sharanas, who fought against the caste system all their lives. The social leaders of the 12th century Vachana revolution are categorized into castes now. Confined to their castes are sages like Sarvajnya, who famously said "Is light from a lamp in the house of the low caste, lowly too?" and Kanaka Dasa who asked men not to fight over caste as no one knew the roots of their castes.

In several ways, names, colour of the skin, features and nature of persons tend to acquire the colour of caste. I was a tenant of Mr Kulkarni, who was my teacher in primary school. He was a head master and I was a high school teacher in a nearby village. I had progressed from his student Chidanand to 'Chidanand Sali, the writer'. Every evening, we used to sit near a well and chat while he smoked. One day, I was getting ready for school and I heard a tap on my door. Mr Kulkarni, drapped in a sacred loin cloth, had come to invite me for lunch. He said "We have a pooja at home today. We cannot eat without you, a Aiyya (a member of the Lingayat priestly class)."I told him I was not a Aiyya and I would have accepted the invitation if he had called me without that reference. He was in a fix now. He forced me to have lunch, saying caste should not be a factor for eating together. It was difficult for both of us. But I did eat. He asked me to keep my plate near the wash room later.

There was another similar embarrassing situation. I was invited to recite poems at the Navaraspur Utsav in Vijayapura. I went to the house of a senior officer for lunch. He wore bold Vibhuti on his forehead and pushed the Vibhuti cup towards me, expecting me to follow suit. I was not sure. He sensed my confusion and helped me out: "I know you are a writer and you don't believe in caste related rituals. I understand!” he said and took back the cup. That writers don't believe in caste is a blind belief of the modern era.

More than half of them practice nepotism. They see that their children don't opt for inter caste marriage and force them to marry within their caste, sub caste and Gotras (sanguine clan). Even today, it bothers me to think of the reasons behind my relations with the people mentioned in both the above situations and which of the factors had sustained them.

In the cities, now days, people find new ways to find out your caste. First they ask you your name and then your surname. If you have initials instead of surnames, then they will ask you to expand them. That will indicate your caste. If not, they ask you if you are a vegetarian. That is the ultimate weapon in their quiver, the box carrying arrows. Once they deduce this, most of their doubts are settled. The problem of such crazy people is their enthusiasm in knowing about your caste origins, is not the same in fostering relationships. They want to know about your caste, even if it were to upset you.

And if you say you are a non vegetarian, then they say you don't look like one. "Looking at your culture and language, I thought you are either a Brahmin or a Lingayat'. That is a cue for you to spell out your caste. This will soothe the inquisitive mind of the inquirer. It is notable that it is usually the upper castes who seem more interested in knowing your caste. That castes can be divided into upper and lower castes is a systematically peddled myth. But still, when the upper caste person asks a question and the answer is expected from a person from the lower castes, it can be a humiliating experience.

In some cases and religious groups, the names are self explanatory. Their names reveal everything about the members of the groups. The problem lies with the non obvious ones. Some young men seem to have got smart. Timmappa has taken the name of Timma Reddy, Tayappa has become Tayaraj, Yallappa is Yallalinga, Ramanna is Ramkumar and Hanumanti has morphed into Anita. Some others have camouflaged their caste identities by cutting short their surnames or names of villages into initials. My friend and writer Mahantesh Navalkal paints a picture of Amarya, a Dalit boy who becomes Amar Das, who tries to hide his childhood identity, when he meets a zamindar, his former employer. We may recall veteran actors like Dilip Kumar and Madhubala who were forced to change their names. There are some people of honour who have spoken for all, after successfully erasing their own caste identities. I recall Pandit Taranath, P Lankesh and Shantarasa. They supported and nurtured talented youth from all castes and communities. There are some others who openly express their caste identities and show that their names or surnames don't push them into servility. Such people have helped remove the inferiority complex from their communities and infused self respect. Primarily, I recall Basappa Madar, Gangaram Chandal and Subbu Holeyar. I pray to the almighty that the ranks of both these categories swell and lead us.

At one time, caste was indicative of profession as, each community had a vocation attached to it. The two were intertwined. But now there are no community based vocations. You can find all kinds of people in all kinds of jobs. You can't infer caste from vocation, nor vocation from caste. However, castes tend to have some shared characteristic features. The tendencies to fight, seek adventure or peace, accumulate wealth, or hanker after food, are found in some groups. The Sanskrit saying 'Vruddhopi Vapanahati Najahati Labham' means that a trader never loses his lust for greed, even in old age.

There are mutts who feed people of different castes in different rows, teachers who discriminate among students of different castes, religious leaders who preach communalism. Such forces slowly inject the caste poison in the society, leading to its fall. Within their limits, institutions like the Siddaganga mutt of Tumkur and the Veereshwar Punyashram of Gadag who have embraced the poor of all communities and fed and educated them.

I feel that teachers have a great role to play in eradicating caste based discrimination. Their primary duty is to shape the character of students. Imparting knowledge comes next. The ill effects of caste will be significantly reduced if school and college teachers give their children lessons of life. I also feel that women could change the society if they behaved in a non discriminatory manner. But in my experience, women can be as discriminatory, if not more, than men. If women don't practice discrimination, the world would be a better place.

I am reminded of three of my former women colleagues. One of them would share her lunch box with us daily. But she would never accept food from us. We realised that it was her sense of caste superiority that made her do that. When we began boycotting her, she realised what it means to be discriminated. Another one refused to accept Prasad from a colleague, saying she would not accept the holy offering of another faith.

We told her that it was the only food that she could get in that Godforsaken place, but she remained adamant and declared. She would observe a fast! If the teacher discriminated among food based on religion, you can imagine the life lessons she could offer her children. Another would gang up children from her community against others. Such teachers can be very bad influence on children. Officers who implement their personal beliefs into their workplace should realise that they are in public service where all the workers and general public belong to one caste and their religion is their work.

Now days, each community has a Seer. Caste rallies are shows of political strength. Caste based representation is gaining strength. It may be a good idea that each of us is reminded of our identities and existence. But no caste is in a situation to accept sincere criticism. If you recall all the writing, cartoons, and statements that have created caste based controversies, you know how sad the state of public discourse has become. Such developments disturb public peace.All public performers like actors and writers, even the secular ones, have open or closeted fan associations, based on their caste. This leads to others suspecting the statements of such actors or writers. Behind this is the cunning ways of the puritan class and politics without principles. Another disturbing trend is the rise of caste - wise housing schemes in some cities. The real estate market is being built around caste. The old wine that was fermented in villages is served in new bottles in the cities.

An elderly relative once told me not to neglect people from my own community, as they were the folks I had to rely on, in bad days. I felt bad. I knew that we could not live on our terms. Was it not possible even to die on our terms? I recalled that when some of our foremost secular intellectuals died, their relatives or caste fraternity cremated them as per their caste rituals. But then, they had not mandated it. They had lived as per their terms. That is why they continue to inspire us even after they are gone. Over a millennium ago, Adi Kavi Pampa, pioneering Kannada writer said: 'Manushya Jaati Tanonde Valam', which means "All human kind is one caste. Is it not?” We need to understand the spirit of this statement.

Does anyone cut off his buttocks because it excretes material that is considered dirty? No. That part of the body is cleaned every time. The entire society, including all the communities, should learn from this. If one community is the face of the society, another is the anus. Both are essential to the well being of the human being. It is natural that both are treated equal. It is said in the Rig Veda that the Brahmin was born from the face, the Kshatriya from the shoulder, the Vaishya from the stomach and the Shudra from the feet. Why should anyone believe such hearsay, when all of us are born from the uterus?

No one has chosen to be born into a particular caste. If it was so, why would anyone choose a caste that would lead to a lifetime of humiliation? It is obvious that superior or inferior character of anyone is an acquired feature and not a consequence of his or her birth. This is why caste based superiority or inferiority is both meaningless. The feeling that a Brahmin is superior just because of his birth deserves sympathy and not appreciation. People who hold such beliefs (not all though,) have never been votaries of the work culture. Nor do they represent a species that made great creative contributions.

The Sanskrit saying "Prathar Dyoot Prasangena/ Madhyahnet Stree Prasangata/ Ratro Chora Prasangena/ Kalou Gachchate Dheemantaha" means that the dignified pass their time studying about the Mahabharata in the morning, Ramayana in the afternoon and Bhagawata at night. Those who believe in the superiority of the Brahmin should realize who the authors of these epic classics are. However, such things never matter to those Brahmins who are of pure heart and who find the good in others. Similarly deserving of sympathy is the Shudra sentiment of the Shudra communities. Some members of the Shudra communities tend to remain oblivious of the virtues of Brahmins and keep them out, just because of their caste. Even if we cannot eradicate caste, we can eradicate such regressive mindsets. Reduced advocacy of such blind belief would reduce the social evils it promotes.

Let us come back to the short story by P Lankesh. Baslingu, the upper caste farmer, has suffered pain and suffering for having washed his head, under his wife's orders. His eyesight is worse than before surgery and is deteriorating. He realizes that his false prestige, his caste, his mutt head, and the lies that he lives by, will not save him. He goes back to the Dalit Doctor Timmappa with the same sincerity and innocence that he had before treatment. The surgeon sympathizes with him and begins preparations for another surgery, after a strict condition that he should not bathe on his head again.

The caste ridden Indian society could shed its arrogance and false pride. It should embrace the dark corners of its own house that are filled with treasures. Only then can man, the only animal with the power of critical thinking, become an intelligent being.