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Unit 8: Changing Trends and Future of Caste System

purely for administrative reasons and not because it wanted to abolish the caste system. Ghurye Notes
(1961: 190) also writes that most of the activities of the British Government were dictated by prudence
of administration and not by a desire to reduce the rigidity of caste.
Some of the social movements of social reformers also attacked the caste system in this (British)
period. The Brahmo Samaj movement founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1820 and raised by K.C.
Sen and D.N. Tagore rejected the barriers of caste divisions, worship of idol, and sacrificial ritual and
stood forth for universalism and the brotherhood of man. The Prarthana Sabha movement started in
1849 in Maharashtra as Paramhansa Sabha and later on changed into theistic organization called
Prarthana Samaj and chiefly supported by Justice Ranade also devoted its attention to social reform
such as interdining, inter-caste marriage, and remarriage of widows, etc. Later on, it was from this
Prarthana Samaj that the Society of the Servants of India, which took a leading part in promoting
social reforms, sprung up.
Far different in character were two other reform movements which took their inspiration from India’s
past and derived their basic principles from her ancient scriptures. These two movements—Arya
Samaj and Ramakrishna Mission—led to the revival of aggressive Hinduism.

The Brahmo Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj were largely the early outcome of the
renaissance products of ideas associated with the west and represent the Indian response
to western rationalism.

The Arya Samaj founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883) was the first to preach militant
Hinduism. It rejected Smritis and Puranas, decried polytheism and accepted the philosophy of “one
Veda, one religion and one God”. The Samaj raised voice against caste and its prohibition of sea-
voyage and started the suddhi movement or re-Hinduizing the fallen—the outcastes, the converts
and other externals. As a proselytizing sect, with great urge for social service, the Arya Samaj is still
an important factor in the Hindu resurgence in northern India.
The Ramakrishna Mission represents the synthesis of the ancient or oriental and the modern or western.
Started ten years after the death of Ramakrishna Paramhansa by his disciple Swami Vivekananda
(1861-1902), it preached that the caste system is for those who are away from God and it should
therefore be abolished. It holds up pure Vedantic doctrine as its ideal and aims at the development of
the highest spirituality that a man is capable of. Vivekanand’s bold proclamation that caste has nothing
to do with Hinduism or religion or birth and that Hindu culture and civilization is the most superior
one had in fact astonished the world and infused a refreshing consciousness of inherent strength
among Hindus whose attitude then was marked with a tone of apology and inferiority towards
European culture and civilization.
All these attacks, however, did not succeed in removing the rigidity of the caste system in this period,
though some structural features of caste were definitely affected.

The Lingayat movement started by a Brahmin Vasava in South India also preached
against the superiority of the Brahmins, abolition of idol-worship and giving up of
the caste system.

8.2 New Trends Found in the Caste System of Modern India

New trends in Caste System: the disorganisation of the Caste System has led some to infer that in the
future the Caste System will cease to exist. But some scholars have refuted this doubt. According to

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