The crime of caste by Subramanya Bharati

by Guest Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:18 pm

the following was presumably originally in tamil and it has been translated into english. The english translation has a few typos some of which i have corrected in square brackets. Notice that according to Bharati inter-caste marriages are in the National interest. This is something i myself have articulated several times in the past (although according to me inter-regional and even inter-religious marriages would also be in the national interest). I am glad to note that Bharati's thoughts are in smooth harmony with my own views on the subject.

-Rashmun
p.s. the website i give has many english translations of Bharati's writings.

And instead of the four Varnas, you have four thousand castes . And you sometimes quote ethnology, eugenics, hydrostatics, and what not, to support these four thousand castes! But, alas, the ignorant masses or our country have been made to believe that this caste chaos is a special divine gift to our country and whoever transgresses it has to go to hell. It is this belief more than anything else that makes people insensible to the injurious results of caste. If you really have your justification in ethnology or hydrostatics, then you have been cheating people during all these centuries by telling them a different story. No science can justify cheating.

The Sole remedy is in inter-dining and inter-marrying. The others are mere quack remedies of an anaesthetic character. There are many difficulties in the way of applying this remedy on a large scale. One very real difficulty is the fact that many members of the purely vegetarian sects cannot physically endure the smell of flesh and fish at a distance of five yards. But the vegetarian worthies, consisting both of Brahmnasa and non-Brahmanas, can marry among themselves. There is no National excuse for not doing that. I repeat there are many-but not insuperable[insurmountable?]-difficulties in the way of applying that remedy. But there is not othe [no other] remedy that the human mind can think of.

Sometimes people who seem half-inclined to admit the injustice and inutility of caste suddenly turn round and shout: “But they have similar prejudices ins [in] South Africa, North America and Oceania.”

If other people are fools, that is no reason why we should be so. If others to-day are thoughtlessly committing the mistake that we committed many centuries ago and became much degraded as a consequence thereof, it is our duty to warn them. But we ought not to make it an excuse for not rectifying the mistake for which we have been so signally punished by the laws of Nature.

“But the masses of people are quite content, “say some. “It is only the intellectual classes that are always harping on this old grievance. From Buddha to Vivekananda, many have been the sages who condemned this chaos. But it persists. It is in the blood of the Indian people.”

I reply that the people are not contented. That is proved by the very fact that for these two thousand and five hundred years great ones have again and again risen from the ranks of the people and condemned this caste in no measured language. During these two thousand and five hundred years it has lost most of its saving features. Little vitality is now left in it. The form remains with a shadow of life and a million bad wounds on it. Let none rejoice that caste takes a long time in dying, for its life will be all the ghastlier for that.

http://www.mahakavibharathiyar.info/English/the_crime_of_caste.htm

by Guest Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:03 am

it is ironical that Max used to mock my promotion of inter-caste marriages in India. Turns out his hero Subramanya Bharati did the same thing.

The crime of caste by Subramanya Bharati

The crime of caste by Subramanya Bharati

Re: The crime of caste by Subramanya Bharati