The Caste System & Untouchables: Setting the Facts Straight

Of Indian descent, but virtually a lifelong New Yorker, Anil Jethmal has been asked many times by American friends and acquaintances about the Indian caste system. Oftentimes, these people were not really asking, but instead were eager to deride Indians for the way they treat their “untouchables”.

“Caste”, Anil Jethmal explains, is not an Indian word. It was a word that Portuguese colonialist in India used in their colony of Goa, India. Derived from the Portuguese word Casta, meaning race, lineage or breed, the Portuguese used the term to crassly categorize Indians.

Not to be outdone, the British used the term “untouchables” to describe what they deemed to be the lowest rung of Indian society. It was an English word that was coined by, of course, the English, as part of their “Divide et Impera” (Divide and Rule) policy. Neither the word, nor the sentiments existed in India until the British began started their land grab and looting of India in the mid 18th century.

The actual Indian concept, Anil Jethmal proudly explains, goes back to the writings of the 3500 year Rig Veda. Each human life is brought into existence (jati) into a certain “varna”. A varna is a family or group of families whose duty it is to contribute to the betterment of the whole of society. A varna may be a merchant or might be military or could be religious (brahmins), etc. Those whose jati brought them into existence that had no varna were called Dalits. The British called the Dalits outcastes or untouchables. For an Indian, however, a Dalit means someone who, because of his/her jati, and hence varna, is oppressed. An Indian sees it as his sacred duty (dharma) to uplift the Dalit. In fact, in this spirit, Mahatma Gandhi used the term “Harijan” (children of God) to describe Dalits. When an Indian fulfills enough dharma over many lifetimes, he/she, as their just due, reach Nirvana (eternal bliss). That, Anil Jethmal triumphantly points out is “the Indian caste system”.

However, there are still some perverse Indians who subscribe to the derisive and crude English term “untouchable” even decades after the British red stain has been wiped off the Indian subcontinent. He views those with these Anglophilic tendencies as uncultured and uneducated, suffering from a type of Stockholm Syndrome.

Sadly, it is these people, while Indian in appearance, but British in manners and mentality, who carry on these false and unfortunate impressions of Indian culture and society.