The Back-Drop Scene

The advent of various tribes, groups, castes and sects in India, through the various periods of history since time immemorial, is now an established fact of history.

Now, how these tribes / castes / groups etc kept on coming on to the Indian soil, one after another through the centuries and got assimilated with the natives, is an interesting story. Even if we leave aside the Christians and the Muslims, there were at least 11 such Christians and the Muslims, there were at least 11 such ethnic groups / castes that had come to India and got mixed up with the ancient Indians so thoroughly that they ended up in becoming a part and parcel of what we speak today as the Aryan or Hindu society and culture. These groups/castes were Nigros blacks, Astriks, Dravidas, Itenanis, Yuchis, Shaks, Abhirs Huns. Mangols and the Turks coming before the Muslim invasion.

Thus, what is today called the Hindu culture is, in fact, a mixed product of the interaction of all these cultures inter-sect, as also their interaction with the ancient Indians.

The identification of the origin of a race is mainly done on the basis of the languages and the features of the physical structure as laid down by the Anthropologists. According to an analysis based on Skin colour, interesting people of all the three representative colours are available amongst the Indian populace. The first one are the white complexioned people branded as the Cocasians, the second are of the yellow colour of the Mangol types and the third are classed as Ethiopians.

Again, so far as the basis of physical structure for race classification is concerned India has the following four types.

The first type are the short-structured ones with black, wide nose and curly hair. They are aboriginals… The second are the short-structured, black, with wide forehead and thick hair. They are called Dravids. The third are tall, wheatish and white-skinned, with thick beard and moustaches, and broad forehead. They are Aryans. The fourth are blackish with a flat nose, scattered beard and moustaches. They ar Mangols. We find this type in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, North Bengal and on the northern border of Kashmir…

As per the analysis, Aboriginals, Dravids, Aryans, and Mongols were the races that were existing in India.

On the basis of language, we can categories Indians in following four type :-

• The languages of Mangols are Tibetian and Chinese.
• The languages of Dravid are Tamil, Malayalam, Kannad, and Telgu.–
• The languages of Aryans are Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Uria, Panjabi, Assami, and Kashmiri.
• The languages of Aboriginals of Agneya groups-Astrik.

INDIAN RACIAL DISCRIMINATION & HINDU CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIETY

In India, there are mainly two races. Aryan and Dravida. They have both got mixed up by marriages. This process of mix-up had become inextricable. Now we cannot identify / distinguish them separately. They are one, from the point of religion, culture, thought. Etc. They followed Aryan culture was one of the most cultured stock and their literature was highly developed. Which enhanced the Indian culture.

The Aryans composed Vedas in India. Vedas are four in number. The first is Rig-Veda. In Rig-veda, there is a description of war amongst ten kingdoms, out of which five are the main ones. They are Anu, Drudhv, Turrak, Yadu, and Pur

There were many creeds in India when Aryans came, but by and by they all vanished. In the beginning, there were no caste distinctions in the sense that there was were no caste distinctions in the sense that there was no caste system prevalent.

Later on, however, the society got re-organised into four categories called varnas based on the profession they pursued. The status of warriors became high and they were named the Kshatriyas.

At the time of composition of Yajur-Vedas, there were four castes. Kshatriya, Brahmin, Vaishya, and Shudra. The sages like Vishvamitra, Jagdamni, Bhardwaj. Gautam-Rishi, Aatri, Vashistha, Kashyap. Bhragu,etc… were all Brahmins. They were learned and were true teachers of knowledge.

The third were Vaishya, the business class, and the fourth were Kshudra or the service class. Magaldas Shashtri hold the view that the Brahmins were of white colour, Kshatriyas of red, Vaishyas of yellow and Kshudras were black in colour.

Bhratu-Rishi is of the view that they were not divided by the colour of the body but by their deeds and the virtues of their life. They were all happy, and had a great regard for each other.

Following are the different opinions of historians regarding the concept of castes:

1. The caste is no more than a fragment of the work, which as re-shaped the whole fabric of religion.
2. A caste is an aggregate of persons, whose share of obligation and privileges is fixed by birth-sanctioned and supported by marriage or religion.
3. A caste is a social group having two characteristics. (1) Membership is confined to those who are born of the members and includes all persons so born. (2) The members are forbidden by an inexorable social law to marry outside the group.³
4. When a class is somewhat strictly hereditary, we may call it a caste.¹

1. Caste is a system of stratification when mobility, movement up and down the status ladder, at least ideally, may not occur. A person’s ascribed status in his life time status.²
2. The birth dominates one’s occupation, place of residence, style of life, personal associates and the group from amongst which one must find a mote. A caste system always includes the notion that physical or some form of social system is also protected by law and sanctified by religion.³
3. It is urged emphatically that the Indian caste system is the natural result of number of geographical, social, religious, and economic factors.⁴
4. India has developed a system of castes, which as a scheme of social adjustment compares rather favorably with the European system of warring.⁵

Social Organization Page 11 by Cooley C.H. Green, Sociology Green, Sociology H.J. Hutton – Caste in India Page 188 Gilbert – People of India Page 82 Sherring – Hindu Tribes & Castes – Page – 279.

1. Castes promote cleanliness and order and are in a certain sense, a bond of union among all classes of Hindu Society.⁶
2. Democracy tries to break down the barriers of class and castes.1 But in the democracy that has been in practice in India for the last 50 years, the politicians have made the castes as their vote banks. This is so unfortunate. It was not expected of the politicians to have done so. Politics has poisoned the systems. Castes are not dangerous for politics but politics is dangerous for castes.¹