Name- Anoushka Chowdhary

Roll No. – LA20MCE005

Book- Waiting for Visa by BR Ambedkar
Words- 943
Date- 15th Jan 2020, Time- 4:00 PM

How do you see class evolving in coming years?

Talking about how caste is going to evolve in the coming years. We as students first learnt and read
about the caste system in our school history books, most of us hadn’t really witnessed it. The last time
I read about it was in my 12 th grade English textbook, the chapter Memories of Childhood which talked
about two girls who had their experiences being a lower caste. After which I never really got a chance
to talk about or think about this topic until now. Before we go into what the caste system is now, let’s
talk about how it first evolved.
As per available literature, the caste system in India commenced sometimes approximately 3500 years
ago. Another term for caste is “jati”. Caste system has evolved along the years. According to the
ancient texts or as it’s called the vedas. There are four vedas in Hinduism namely Rigveda, Yajurveda,
Samveda and Atharvaveda. According to these, the division of the society was based on Brahma's
divine manifestation of four groups. These four groups which are the four basic varnas were to classify
the society based on each individual’s capability, intellect and interest. Priests and teachers were the
Brahmins, Rulers and warriors were Kshatriyas, Merchants and traders were Vaishyas, and Workers
and peasants were Shudras.
Caste was not only do describe a person’s interest and intellect but also their occupation, dietary
habits, interaction with members of different castes. However, over a period of time it became a norm
that the upper castes enjoyed the luxuries and opportunities, while the lower castes were expected to
do carry out the menial jobs with lesser opportunities. There existed a separate class outside the
varnas and the caste popularly known as the untouchables. People belonging to this class were
expected to do all the dirty work such as sweeping, toilet cleaning, garbage picking etc. The
untouchables would have separate entrances to homes, separate food to eat and drink water from
separate source.
In Hinduism, the four castes were arranged in a hierarchy where the highest varna were the brahmins.
These were the learned people of the society. Then came the kshatriyas who were the warriors and
soldiers, followed by the Vaishyas, these were the landlords and businessmen of the society. Last in
the ladder were the Shudras, which were the working class of the society.
The first three castes had privileges which the shudras and untouchables didn’t have. The upper caste
people had no physical contact with the lower caste and untouchables. They adhered to this and were
obliged to bathe even if they had the shadow of an untouchable over them.
It was not meant to be hierarchal and water tight that is, a person would be the member of the caste
in which he or she is born and would remain within the caste until death. They would get married in
the same caste, have interactions with members of the same caste etc. But unfortunately, people
mistook this system and transformed it into what we now know it was.

But over a period, after the independence government had outlawed caste discrimination and when
the constitution was being written, special protections for Dalits was highlighted because of the
constant caste related violence. The Indian Constitution provided a lawful agenda, which as on date is
the Article 15, for the freedom of untouchables and for the equality of all citizens. Developments did
take place when caste-based reservation quotas for college admissions, jobs etc were formalised for
the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Many social initiatives were taken for the improvement of
socio-economic conditions of the lower castes.
Most of us think that now, caste-based discrimination is illegal and the inequality doesn’t exist
anymore. I would love to believe this but, I will have to burst the bubble with today’s reality. We know
the recent Hathras gang rape and murder case of the 19-year-old Dalit woman and the saddest part is
it’s one of the thousand cases, half of which don’t get registered in files either. The laws of the
constitution are barely known to the people in the rural areas where untouchability and casteism still
exists and most of these cases regarding discrimination and other abuses take place. Till the time
people aren’t educated about the rightful norms of the society all these laws become theoretical.
According to me, if the present generation doesn’t make a conscious effort to change the way things
are going the caste system would probably evolve in a way that would be detrimental to both the
“lower castes” and the entire community of people. A lot of people are against reservation what they
don’t understand is that there is an entire structure in play and we need to reach an even ground
before it gets removed.
There are people who misuse these reservations by getting fake certificates, thus until there is a proper
even solution considering both the aspects, we can’t take any harsh measures that might increases the
disparities between castes. The only motive of having the caste system was to divide the people on the
basis of labour and it wasn’t about dividing the people and turning them to loathe each other.

I believe that in the coming future we would go back to the old system of division of labour, which
would be based on individual’s capabilities and people would stop spreading hatred on the basis of
caste. I hope that we reach a point in future where caste-based disparities are only of what we talk
about in history and we no longer have to write papers regarding the wormwood of the situations that
we are facing in the present.