Sociology

How has the state affected peoples sense of their own personal and collective identity in colonial and post-colonial South Asia Answer with reference to at least one (or more) of the following caste, gender, religion and family.

When one thinks of India, what comes into mind is the worlds largest democracy with people speaking over a hundred languages and even a hundred more dialects.  Despite its diversity, it is a society that is largely Hindu in religion and culture and one of the distinct features of this Hindu-based society is the caste system.  This system has been in place in India since the coming of the Aryans who had set up this system.  It is akin to the Confucian principle of knowing ones place in society but this place in society is determined not only be ones occupation or socio-economic status, but by race or skin color.  On top of this hierarchy are the Brahmins or Brahmans and Khatriyas trend to be the elites of society holding positions of leadership serving as priests (the former) and leaders (latter).  At the bottom of this hierarchy would be the Dalits or Harijans, known in English as the untouchables. These people tend to hold menial jobs or the kind of jobs considered dirty, difficult and sometimes dangerous or something that is beneath the dignity of the higher castes to do thus it is assigned to these people.   If one were to rely on general information with regards to the caste system, particularly outsiders, one may think that the caste system is a highly rigid system in the sense that it does not allow upward social mobility or even the mingling of different races of classes, especially with regards to marriage and that it fosters marginalization.  The rationale behind this is that the mingling of castes under any of the above-mentioned circumstances would result in the pollution of society, hence the need for social stratification in order to maintain that purity (Pavich, 2009)  (DSouza, 2009).  But this maintenance of purity is not only among the different castes, it is also within the caste itself as each caste member must strictly observe religious practices in order to maintain that purity.  Failure to do so would put them one level below a purer member who adheres to the practices (Chandra, 2005).  Furthermore, the only way one can move upward the next caste was primarily through karma and reincarnation where karma is defined as the rewards or punishments one would get based on how one lived his or her life which would result in being reborn or reincarnated in the next higher (or lower) caste in the next life should one die.  But despite these impressions or popular notions about the Indian caste system, some studies have shown that there have been signs of social mobility among the castes which would disprove these wrong impressions about the system.  According to these observations, one can elevate himself or herself by simply emulating the practices of the higher caste (Silverberg, 1969)  (Radcliffe-Brown, 2003).

When the British came to colonize India, they employed the divide and conquer strategy to make it easy to colonize the Subcontinent and in line with that, they took advantage of the caste system which complimented this strategy.  The British saw the native caste system as similar to their own class system where in their own society, people are divided or classified according to socio-economic status (Hobson, 2009).  Needless to say, the British colonizers regarded the caste system as something like their own class system which was why they did not attempt to eradicate this practice totally as they tried to recreate Indian society in their image and to civilize it as they tried to do away with the other Indian practices considered pernicious or uncivilized such as (arranged) childhood marriages or satidaha, the suttee where widows are burned alongside their deceased husbands and the ritual murder called thugee.  Despite these reforms, the caste system virtually remained untouched.  However, this was tolerated to a certain extent it was not absolutely embraced by the colonizers.  One of the aspects of the caste systems the British, especially the locally-established courts did not tolerate was the apparent discrimination among the castes.  This was true in the case of land ownership where British colonial policies somewhat disrupted the status quo in some rural areas and this allowed some degree of upward mobility but is limited in a particular locale (Chandra, 2005).

Another aspect of British colonial rule which had also affected the caste system of India was the introduction of western-style education to those fortunate to avail of it.  Several of Indias leading intellectuals came from the various castes and through western educational enlightenment started developing ideas on nationalism, among them was Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi.  Among Indias nationalists, Gandhi stood above the rest for his nonviolent resistance to British rule.  However, like other liberal-minded Indians, he too frowned upon the caste system despite coming from a higher caste.  He even called the untouchables Children of God (Harijans). Gandhi and his ilk felt that for Indias independence to be realized, there had to be unity among all people of India and the caste system was considered to be an obstacle to that unity and he and the other liberals tried to promote equality among all peoples of India which would continue even after India was finally granted independence in 1947 though it was a painful birth.  Not only because of the ongoing animosity with the Muslims of Pakistan but also the continued practice of the caste system.  In 1950, Indias constitution formally outlawed the caste system but despite this proclamation and enactment, the practice has proven to be resistant to change since it is a deeply-rooted practice that was not radically affected for centuries of conquest and occupation by the Muslims, Mughals and the British.

Nevertheless, modern Indian society felt that it is winning the struggle against the caste system though gradually.  The caste system remains very strong in remote rural areas of the country as production of goods in these areas are intertwined and to alter them would cause a disruption in the status quo as people in these mini-societies are interdependent on one another.  While this may be tolerable in the economic sense, it is not considered tolerable in the social and political sense.  Politically, the caste system tends to kill democratic practices of meritocracy where ideally, people are supposed to elect leaders whom they felt are competent to lead them but in one observation by a researcher, this practice was not true in his hometown when certain government positions became hereditary or passed on to a son.  This practive has been going on to the point it became natural or tolerable that no one in the grassroots level tried to challenge it (Chandra, 2005).  To a certain extent, there were instances of violence directed against the lower castes instigated by the higher castes who were not enthusiastic in being equals to these lower caste people.  These were rampant in the rural areas and were not only directed against lower castes of their own group but towards outsiders that includes non-Hindus such as Muslims, Sikhs, and especially Christians.  They too were victims of these hate crimes  (DSouza, 2009).

Nonetheless, Indias early leaders realized that education was perhaps the best solution to help do away with the anachronistic practices of their society to promote equality which was considered the key to progress in India.  Several Dalits have taken advantage of this, among them, B.R. Ambedkar, would rise to prominence as one of the leading advocates in the struggle to free the Dalits from continued marginalization.  The Indian government has also made efforts to give the lower-caste people the right to political representation as the Mandal Commission was established in 1979 to identify these marginalized classes and help provide them this representation by reserving for them seats in the Parliament.  In addition, efforts were made to provide more concessions to the lower-caste people in the education sector in an effort to uplift their socio-economic conditions.  Several of these untouchables have been able to take advantage of modern education and help improve their lot.

In conclusion, the caste system has proven to be one of the challenges for India as it strives not only to be a modern state, but also a developed state befitting its status as a nuclear power as well as a technologically advanced state as several of its people are getting into and excelling in highly technical courses such as the Information Technology industry.  One of the challenges the Indian government faces is the application of secular western politics which has proven to be difficult since it comes into conflict with deep-seated local traditions despite the successes in eliminating other anachronistic and pernicious customs.  But in the light of economic liberalization and globalization, these traditional beliefs and lifestyles are gradually being put into flight because these traditional practices were seen by modernists as promoting stasis or stagnation.  Nonetheless, the road to modernization is still a rocky one as some aspects of tradition still continue to hold out to the advance of society.

Despite the states desire to promote modernity, it still tries to help maintain Indian identity and not compromise it.  There are some cases when it cannot be applicable as in the case of making people change practices they are still allowed so as long as they tend to conform to civilized standards that is globally accepted.  Although there is the need to promote and preserve Indian identity, a modern secular state is necessary to act as a neutral party to help promote harmony among the diverse groups and ensure equality.