Has Maharashtra’s social reform movement failed to end casteism?

Has Maharashtra’s social reform movement failed to end casteism?

CAMIL PARKHE | Tuesday, 27 September 2016 AT 02:07 PM IST

    

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Camil Parkhe, Maharashtra, social reform, Ratnagiri, Veer Savarkar, casteism

When Veer Savarkar was interned at Ratnagiri from 1924 to 1937, being banned from undertaking any political activities, he utilised this period for ushering in social reforms within the Hindu community. One of his major initiatives during this period was building Patit Pavan temple at Ratnagiri with a view to open doors of temples to people even belonging to the then untouchable castes.

Savarkar was against the barriers of castes which had divided the Hindu community, banning physical contact with the Shudras, attending meals or entering into matrimonial ties within different castes of the Hindu community.

A few decades later, ‘Prabodhankar’ Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, father of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, too, was a strong proponent of eradication of the caste system. Fed up with the discrimination meted out to the Dalits under the centuries old caste system, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, had vowed not to die as a Hindu and three decades later embraced Buddhism along with thousands of his followers.

Many other social reformers have propagated various ways for abolition of the caste system in the country. Conversion to other religions was one of the ways to free oneself from the shackles of untouchability. But history shows that this remedy too has been a total failure. Tamil Nadu witnessed conversion of people from various castes to Christianity in the medieval period and today, 500 years later, these Christians continue to flaunt tags of various upper castes and also as Dalit Christians. Those persons belonging to the erstwhile untouchable communities who embraced Sikhism or Buddhism, too, have failed to get rid of the caste system and by virtue of this fact, are to this date eligible to get reservations and other facilities available to Scheduled Caste categories.

Some social reformers have advocated inter-caste marriages to uproot the caste system. This too has does not yield the desired results as in most cases, these persons’ offsprings continue the caste of the fathers, especially if it entails them a continuation of benefits of reservation.

This is especially true of most of Dalit male politicians and other leaders who have married high caste women. The list of such persons will read like the who’s who of the Dalit leaderships in the country.

Conversely, most important, even if one does not subscribe to the caste tenets, one’s surname is enough to betray one’s background in this regard. Surnames like Yadav, Mishra, Nair or Namboodiripad, Iyer, Sardesai, Kamble and Patel immediately stand out, leaving no curiosity among others about the caste status of these persons.

Untouchability is almost a thing of the past in Hinduism. This has been possible despite the fact that for centuries, it was maintained that this inhuman custom has the sanction of the holy scriptures. The Hindu society can also easily do away with caste system as it has been a divisive factor for society. It is rather surprising that no major influential organisation has dedicated itself to the annihilation of castes in the Indian society which includes Hindu, Sikh, Christian as well as Buddhist communities. Caste has little utility in the modern period. Besides, unlike the sects in Christianity or Islam, there are no special tenets or scriptures for each of the castes. Hence, it is high time for progressive elements in  society to work for the true eradication of the caste system.