“Modern caste distinction is a barrier to India's progress. It narrows, restricts, separates. It will crumble before the advance of ideas.”

-Swami Vivekanand

Our forefathers, who lived in primitive tribes and who had not yet learned how to amass wealth and property, were rich people – one brother of the tribe would never thrive and prosper at the cost of the other. The barbarians of the Paleolithic societies had not yet learned the art of depriving one brother of his share of bread. Yes, civilization has robbed us of something very precious indeed and has built walls between brothers. One brother does not feel ashamed to enjoy special privileges while his brother starves and suffers and works for him day and night. But, the civilized privileged brother was not content with the walls; he wanted his privileges to become his birthright and he engineered the caste system which developed into a unique, highly guarded and ossified institution. Thus, the privileged brother asserted that he was “Brahman”, “Kshatriya”, or “Vaishya” by birth and therefore entitled to all the special privileges. He took pride in being socially, politically, economically stronger, rather than feeling ashamed of being so at the cost of his brother. Over the course of time, the caste matrix of India became impossible to break. Despite the history of the caste system is a shameful history of man’s exploitation and oppression by man, educated sections of the upper castes even in the twenty-first-century continue to take pride in being superior to the so-called “Dalits”.

In his poems, the great humanist writer, Rabindranath Tagore envisions a freedom, “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high/ Where knowledge is free/ Where the world has not been broken up into fragments/ By narrow domestic walls . . .” We have read these lines in our school books; but sadly, our caste-ridden education system has been unable to inspire us to live these lines and to practice them in real life. Instead of weakening with time, the issue of caste has only attained new dimensions. Caste-related violence has escalated in India in the past few years. In the year 1996, 31,440 cases were reported of violent acts committed against scheduled castes. In the past three years, things seem to have gone from bad to worse. The lynching of lower castes in the name of cow-protection is a new development in India. The suicide of Rohith Vemula also laid bare how higher castes terrorize and suppress lower castes in India even today.

All that can be said about the solution of the caste problem is that it lies somewhere in the holistic economic development of the entire society and that depends on the policies followed by the ruling political section. However, the economic policies of India’s ruling parties have so far only created deep economic disparity in the society. With a major section of the population deprived of education and job, and the government refusing to shoulder its responsibility, mutual strife and conflict amongst the unemployed people for jobs and facilities have become not only inevitable but have attained gargantuan proportions too. Government’s failure to provide employment and equal education to all its citizens has made the question of caste-based quota (who would get how much) a major question of our time and has given birth to caste-based vote-bank politics. Interestingly, though other castes are facing poverty and deprivation too, the inner squabble, hostility, and fight amongst castes for reservation has sidelined the necessity of a united fight for the right of all to live, work, and progress.

Vote politics has served to complicate further the caste matrix. Caste, after religion, has become the most reliable political prop of many parties today and has started serving the divisive agenda of many opportunist leaders. Today, many leaders of higher castes as well as lower castes are cashing in on the caste sentiments of the voters and projecting themselves as their messiahs. However, even after decades of aggressive caste-based vote politics and the rise of powerful Dalit leaders, the goal of the upliftment of backward castes remains unachieved. 

India needs strong pro-poor economic policies and their sincere implementation today rather than hypocritical sophistry, temporary sops, and sizzling speeches, because in reality, they have nothing to do with the root cause of the problem. The economic stagnation of the country and the caste problem are two sides of the same coin today.