CASTE SYSTEM IN MUSLIM SOCIETY OF INDIA, PART-I By Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari It is needless to say that the Muslim clerics, Christian priests and the Communists blame the Hindus for their caste system and according to them this casteism of the Hindus is inhuman, loathsome and discriminative and it provides a legal sanction for the higher caste people to oppress and exploit the lower caste ones. While these people discuss this issue, they never say Hindu Dharma, but Brahmanya Dharma or Brahmanism to show that the Brahmins were the creators of this despicable institution of casteism to be used as tool to oppress the people belonging to lower castes, particularly the Sudras, who belong to the lowest stratum of the caste hierarchy. But historically this casteism of the Hindus, not created by Brahmins but originated as a division of labour. A civilized society needs various kinds of goods and services; it needs cloths to wear, needs pots and utensils for storing food and water so many other things. So, in the process of development, some people engaged themselves in reading, writing and teaching for generations, acquired a special skill in their trade and ultimately formed a caste. The group of people who engaged themselves in trade and commerce for generations formed a caste of traders. In a similar manner the group engaged in spinning threads and weaving cloth formed a class of weavers; people engaged in making iron implements for agriculture formed a caste of smiths and so on. So, it implies that the caste system must exist in every civilized society where division of labour exists. But difference is that, their caste system is undeclared, whereas, caste system of the Hindus is a declared institution. In the early stage of civilization, the Hindu society was divided into four major castes or Varnas and these were the teacher and priest caste (Brahmana), the warrior caste (Kshatriya), farmer and trader caste (Vasya) and the caste of manual labourers (Sudra). As the society progressed, various type other castes and sub-castes originated. New separate castes also appeared due to inter-caste marriages and in this manner a long list of castes came into being. And this development shows that Hindu casteism is a product of civilization and the resulting division of labour. And hence it was a natural process, and hence a caste system, in some form or other, must exist in every civilized human society. The people who blame Hinduism, admire both Christianity and Islam and say that these religions, particularly Islam, is far more humane and socialistic as they do not have any discriminatory and oppressive institution like casteism, and where the rich and the poor pray alike, standing side by side, in a mosque. But the renowned historian Tara Chand, in his History of Freedom Movement in India writes, “All census reports (of India) before 1931 used to give a long list of Muslim castes and there is no doubt whatsoever that in the 18th century, the Muslim inhabitants in India followed the pattern that of the Hindu society. … This was un-Islamic but an awakening against it was impossible at that time” (Vol-1, p-100). As a consequence, the Muslim society of India is also divided into innumerable caste, and even today, there exist more than 20 Muslim castes in a village alone in Uttar Pradesh alone. So the Muslim reader, who said that there is no caste system in Muslim society of India, has told a dark lie. On the contrary, caste system among the Muslims is far more rigorous and rigid than that of the Hindu society. If a Hindu girl marries a lower caste Hindu boy, her parents, may at best, refuse to maintain any relation with her. But a Muslim girl, if marries a lower caste Muslim boy, she runs the risk of falling a victim of honour killing. Tara Chand also writes that the Sayeds were at the zenith of the Muslim caste hierarchy. Auragjeb had strong sympathy for the Sayeds and he believed that they should be respected and honoured by every Muslim and they must not be hurt either physically or mentally. In a nut shell, the position of these Sayeds was as it were for the Brahmins in the Hindu society. Almost all these Sayeds were foreigners from West Asian Muslim countries. When a higher caste Hindu converted to Islam, they were called Sahikhs and used to claim a higher position in the Muslim society. But the lower caste Hindus who, after conversion called Razils, were treated as lower caste Muslims. These Razils were considered no better than kafirs by the Sayeds or by other higher caste Muslims and entering into a matrimonial relationship with these Razils was unthinkable. In addition to that, Muslims object to Quadiani and Ahmediya Muslims being called Muslims at all and refuse to allow the burial of a Quadiani in their graveyards. Conflicts between Shia and Sunni, Hanafi and non-Hanafi are a regular feature in Muslim society. In many countries, including India and Pakistan, Shia villages are sacked, looted and razed to the ground by the Sunnis. It is also important to note that Shia-Sunni disputes in India and elsewhere are more frequent and more prolific than Hindu-Muslims riots. In Muslim society, as pointed out above, Syeds, Moghals, Pathans, Shaikhs and the Muslims of foreign origin are considered superior to converted Indian Muslims. These Higher caste Muslims do not enter into any social and matrimonial relations with low caste Muslims like Kalus, Jolas, Nikaris etc. The Christian priests too do not miss a single opportunity to blame Hinduism for its caste system. But, as a matter of fact, the Christian society also has its own caste system, both in India and in the Western countries. The lower caste Hindus after their conversion to Christianity are called depressed classes or Dalit Christians. These Dalit Christians in South India have to suffer all their previous disabilities they had before conversion. A recent incident in a South Indian Church, where Adi-Dravid Christians forcibly occupied seats allotted to caste Christians, led to effective segregation as Christians and untouchable Adi-Dravid Christians. In another incident, a Christian priest at Erode, on his Bishop’s instruction, segregated Adi-Dravid Christians from caste Christians in Church. The caste Catholics of Trichinopoly refused to allow celebration of a depressed Christian’s marriage in Church. Generally, European and Anglo-Indian Christian are separated from Indian Christians in a church – even their burial places are separate. In England, people use the word class in stead of caste. There are many such castes, namely the Lord class, Baron class, the Manor class, the trader class, the working class and so on. In some sense, the British caste system is more rigorous than the caste system of the Hindus. A few examples may help the reader to understand the extant caste system in England. Swami Purohit when on a visit to England said, “I have been in this country for last four years and the majority of hotels and boarding houses all over the country refused me accommodations. Moreover, thousands of English homes were barred to me because I was a black man” (Truth-II.732). Negro tourists in London are refused admission to hotels. Similarly tram conductors in London are rude to Indians and say – “a black does not deserve any better” (Truth-IV.294). “An English woman in Nairobi flogged her native servant to death for a petty theft. She was then sentenced to only one year’s imprisonment for her crime. Not only that, the government recommended her mercy petition for clemency” (Truth-II.389). In South Africa coloured people are precluded from traveling in Mail trains and other notified trains. Marriage between white woman and Negroes were prohibited. Whites and blacks form entirely different castes. A coloured man is punishable as a criminal if he sits in a railway carriage reserved for the whites. The renowned Islamic scholar Yoginder Singh Sikand has presented a detailed account of origin of Muslim caste system in India in his essay Caste in Indian Muslim Society. At the very outset, Mr Sikand Writes, “Although the Qur’an insists on the radical equality of all Muslims, caste (zat, jati, biraderi) remains a defining feature of Indian Muslim society, with significant regional variations. While the severity of caste among the Indian Muslims is hardly as acute as among the Hindus, with the practice of untouchability being virtually absent, caste and associated notions of caste-based superiority and inferiority still do play an important role in Indian Muslim society.” He further writes, “This disjunction between Qur’anic egalitarianism and Indian Muslim social practice has been theorized by Muslim scholars in different ways. While some have sought to reconcile the two by interpreting the scripturalist sources of Islam to support social hierarchy, others have pointed out that the continued existence of caste-like features in Indian Muslim society is a flagrant violation of the Qur’anic worldview.” To explain the origin of caste system in Indian Muslim society, Mr Sikand wrtites, “The vast majority of the Indian Muslims are descendants of converts from what is today called ‘Hinduism’. Individual conversions to Islam in medieval times were rare. Rather, typically, entire local caste groups or significant sections thereof underwent a gradual process of Islamisation, in the course of which elements of the Islamic faith were gradually incorporated into local cosmologies and ritual practice while gradually displacing or replacing local or ‘Hindu’ elements. ….Hence, even after conversion to Islam, marriage continued to take place within the original caste group. … And many of the converts retained several aspects of their local, pre-Islamic beliefs and practices.” (To be continued) Gauhar
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 20:14:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015