By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Icy Tales
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Games
    • Gaming
    • Movies
      • Bollywood Movies
      • Hollywood Movies
      • Music
  • Icy Tales Exclusive
  • Food For Thought
    • Humanity
    • Inspirational
    • Issues that Concern Us
    • Personality
    • Environment
  • Living Life
    • Lifestyle
    • Fashion
      • Beauty
      • Hair
      • Makeup & Skincare
    • Fitness
    • Food
    • Health
    • Life Hacks
  • Stories and Poems
  • Student’s Corner
Search
  • Contact
  • Complaint
  • Advertise
© 2022 Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: The British Caste System and India, 5 Stages You Should Know
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
how school affects mental health
How School Affects Mental Health – 5 Important Points
January 27, 2023
The 5 Days of Diwali in India You Don’t Know About
January 27, 2023
British Christmas Movies. serials we grew up watching. MOST AWAITED HOLLYWOOD MOVIES OF 2016
Love, Rosie – A Story of Friendship and Love
January 26, 2023
Animal Crossing
A Quick Redd Art Guide: 5 Simpe Tips to Identify Real Vs Fake Statues
January 26, 2023
see deleted reddit posts
See Deleted Reddit Posts in 3 Creative Ways
January 26, 2023
Aa
Icy Tales
Aa
  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Icy Tales Writing Agency
  • Icy Tales Recruitment Help
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy (CA)
  • Terms & conditions
  • Code of Ethics
Search
  • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Games
    • Gaming
    • Movies
  • Icy Tales Exclusive
  • Food For Thought
    • Humanity
    • Inspirational
    • Issues that Concern Us
    • Personality
    • Environment
  • Living Life
    • Lifestyle
    • Fashion
    • Fitness
    • Food
    • Health
    • Life Hacks
  • Stories and Poems
  • Student’s Corner
Follow US
  • Contact
  • Complaint
  • Advertise
© 2022 Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
- Advertisement -
Icy Tales > Living Life > Society > The British Caste System and India, 5 Stages You Should Know
Living LifeSociety

The British Caste System and India, 5 Stages You Should Know

Saicharan ReddyAugust 15, 2015
Updated 2022/03/27 at 11:21 AM
Share
8 Min Read
SHARE

This Independence Day, let’s talk about something different, like how Britishers’ misinterpretation gave birth to the Indian caste system. This article will talk about The British Caste System and India. 

Invaders like the British tried to understand our society, culture, and language and failed rigorously. They interpreted our society with the presumption that India is a backward society with old practices and superstitions.

Her rich culture and dharmic principles were ridiculed in every possible way. All they wanted from their studies was to find loopholes in our system and to disparage our way of life. They wanted to spread the myth of superiority in the western way of living. Their main idea was to make us feel inferior and accept slavery.

The British Caste System and India, 5 Stages You Should Know 1
Source: Photo by Sharath G. from Pexels. Copyright 2021

Most bloggers, writers, journalists, and even the so-called think tanks of India talk only about the materialistic losses during colonial rule. Shashi Tharoor’s speech in Oxford went viral on the internet. But somehow, even he mentions and talks only about what India has lost financially.

Colonial rulers were efficacious in altering our society. The British caste system is one such thing that replaced Varna Vyavasta. But we lost something more important than that; we lost our educational system, culture, and philosophy.

Like many languages, Sanskrit is also a non-translatable language. One cannot replace the word “Yoga” with “Aerobics” though Yoga seems like a mere physical exercise, it’s not. Yoga has inveterate spirituality, whereas Aerobics doesn’t have any. Same with the word “Shakthi,” it cannot be replaced by “Energy” Shakthi is a divine form of energy.

When we consume food, we get energy but not Shakthi.

Such replacement of Sanskrit words will go wrong horrendously. Such replacement gave birth to the evil caste system in our society. That’s why I called it “THE BRITISH CASTE SYSTEM.”

 

the british system
Source: Elenaphotos21/Unlimphotos

The Sanskrit words “Jati” and “Varna” are replaced by “community” and “caste.” Jati is a group of people living together with something in common like language, profession, culture, etc. Varna is something that is decided by one’s Karma (actions) but not by one’s birth. In one Jati or even in one family, there can be people from different Varnas. Whereas the caste is something, one gets as a hereditary social class.

There were only four varnas, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra. One will be entitled to Varna based on his Karma.

Vishwamitra, known as Sage of Sages, was born to a charioteer (Kshatriya) but turned out Brahmin by his aptitude and qualities. Maharshi Satyakam, whose knowledge and wisdom are preserved in Upanishads, was born in a Sudra family, but his temperament and knowledge made him Brahmin.

What Does Bhagavad Gita Tell?

Bhagavad Gita states that Varna is conferred based on the intrinsic nature of an individual. In Mahabharata, Yudhisthira points out that a Brahmin is not a Brahmin just because he is born in a Brahmin family.

The British Caste System and India, 5 Stages You Should Know 2
Source: szefei/Unlimphotos

Of course, the ideal Varna vyavasta sluggishly transformed into a system based on birth, but it had only four Varnas, unlike today. Even the altered Varan vyavasta was successful without much rebellion because of the trust and tolerance of the people.

Britishers misconceived the concept of Varna as a hereditary one. Sir Herbert Hope Risley, a race scientist, a man who adores racism, was the in-charge of the formal application of the caste system to the entire Hindu population of British India in the 1901 census.

When British men arrived in India, the weaver community was 2 lakh members. But as the British levied more taxes on them, oppressed them, and even chopped a few weaver’s hands and made weaving a timorous job, the community shrank to 20 thousand within one decade.

This shows that even after the Britishers came, people had the freedom to change their profession, which is not allowed in a severe caste system.
It makes no sense to say all barbers belong to the Nayee caste, and their next generations must become barbers. But, that is what the mighty British Empire’s ethnographer, Sir Risley, had done to our society. The Britishers started to call Jati’s names caste names.

The British System

The British Caste System and India, 5 Stages You Should Know 3
Source: Morphart/Unlimphotos

The worst and most demonic part of this work came when Sir Risley started ranking these castes. The Jatis, which allied or worked for Britishers or were economically better, were given the top rank in the list. (Upper Castes)

For example, Many people in Reddy’s Jati from Andhra Pradesh (In Rayalaseema) were the ones who collected taxes for the British government. Now they are in the Open caste category. The same Reddy’s Jati in Karnataka comes under the backward caste category, maybe because its members didn’t labor for Britishers.

The upper caste was given the privilege of oppressing the people from lower castes. Caste was enforced by making it compulsory to mention any work in the government offices. And even after independence, our leaders didn’t change the bureaucracy. This moderately transformed into the stringent caste system today.

The main objective of Britishers behind this was to bring a division into the Hindu masses. Caste is not something indigenous to Hinduism. Even Christians and Muslims in India (in some areas) have a caste system.

In almost all temples, there is no discrimination based on caste, but in many churches in Kerala, lower caste Christians are not allowed to enter higher caste Christian churches.

Castes like Dudekula Laddaf, Pinjarra, Arekatika, and so on are all Muslim castes in India. Caste is a cooked-up part of Indian society (not just Hindu society) by the colonial rulers.

I hope all such systems which create differences will be thrashed and rejected by people shortly. Jai Hind.

By Charan Pailla,
saicharan.pailla2012@gmail.com

-Inspired by Rajiv Malhotra

 

References:
1. http://www.breakingindia.com/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hope_Risley
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Cnc_7Vupk
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WDFVMOtc5s
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India

The British Caste System and India, 5 Stages You Should Know 4

You Might Also Like

The 5 Days of Diwali in India You Don’t Know About

See Deleted Reddit Posts in 3 Creative Ways

What Exercise Burns the Most Calories? 9 Easy Exercises to Note

How to Remove Oil Stains from Clothing in 6 Easy Steps

How to Set Boundaries in a Relationship: 8 Foremost Healthy Ways

TAGGED: British caste system, Indian independance
Saicharan Reddy August 15, 2015
Share this Article
Facebook TwitterEmail Print
What do you think?
Love0
Sad0
Happy0
Sleepy0
Angry1
Dead0
Wink0
3 Comments 3 Comments
  • Anonymous says:
    August 16, 2015 at 1:22 am

    a nicely impressive article mama , keep on search new things, congregation

  • Anonymous says:
    August 19, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    Great job

  • Makarand Khare says:
    October 1, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    At least someone speaks the truth.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected

22.2k Followers Like
13k Followers Follow
11.6k Followers Pin
56.4k Followers Follow
334 Subscribers Subscribe

Latest News

how school affects mental health
How School Affects Mental Health – 5 Important Points
Issues that Concern UsJanuary 27, 2023
The 5 Days of Diwali in India You Don’t Know About
Living LifeJanuary 27, 2023
British Christmas Movies. serials we grew up watching. MOST AWAITED HOLLYWOOD MOVIES OF 2016
Love, Rosie – A Story of Friendship and Love
Take on LifeJanuary 26, 2023
Animal Crossing
A Quick Redd Art Guide: 5 Simpe Tips to Identify Real Vs Fake Statues
GamesJanuary 26, 2023

You Might also Like

The 5 Days of Diwali in India You Don’t Know About

January 27, 2023
see deleted reddit posts
Technology

See Deleted Reddit Posts in 3 Creative Ways

January 26, 2023
What exercise burns the most calories
Living Life

What Exercise Burns the Most Calories? 9 Easy Exercises to Note

January 26, 2023
How to Remove Oil Stains from Clothing
Life Hacks

How to Remove Oil Stains from Clothing in 6 Easy Steps

January 26, 2023
// @Icy Tales

A Property of Icy Media https://www.icymedia.ca

#1407, 3083 East Kent Ave N,Vancouver, V5S 4R2,

Canada

Whatsapp – +1-778-951-2734

Disclosure statement:

Every time you make a purchase from one of the products we talked about, we may earn a tiny bit of commission – at no cost to you! This doesn’t influence our decision-making; it just helps keep our small business alive!

  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Icy Tales Writing Agency
  • Icy Tales Recruitment Help
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy (CA)
  • Terms & conditions
  • Code of Ethics
Follow US

© 2022 Icy Tales. All Rights Reserved.

  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Icy Tales Writing Agency
  • Icy Tales Recruitment Help
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy (CA)
  • Terms & conditions
  • Code of Ethics

Removed from reading list

Undo
AdBlock Detected
Our site is an advertising supported site. Please whitelist to support our site.
Okay, I'll Whitelist
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

RegisterLost your password?