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Unit 8: Changing Trends and Future of Caste System

and the back-ward classes. No more individual’s caste is recorded in census. In spite of these changes Notes
in the last several decades, and particularly in the last two decades, casteism and the evils of caste
have not been rooted out. Asirvatham (A New Social Order, 1957) was of the opinion that “whatever
uses caste might have had in the past, it is a hinderance to progress today and therefore we should
oppose it tooth and nail”. D.N. Majumdar had also maintained in 1950s and 1960s that just as the
broken or the poisoned finger is amputated and not the whole hand, similarly untouchability,
exploitation of one caste by another, and such other harmful concomitants of the caste system should
be done away with and not the whole system.
It is true that the caste system is a stumbling block in attaining the material and spiritual prosperity
or in the social and national development. So long this cankerous system holds sway, we cannot
achieve our social ideals. Hence, sooner its death-knell is sounded, the higher our prospects of progress.
Yet it is a fact that it is not easy to abolish this system. We can only adopt some remedies to mitigate
its evils.
The question arises, how to uproot or weaken caste? Some measures suggested in this regard are:
1. Inter-caste marriages need to be encouraged. For this, what is required is freedom to individuals
in mate-selection, and proper opportunities to young people to come in contact with opposite sex,
for example, co-education and co-work.
2. Well-supervized and guided clubs and recreation centres in big towns and cities for the youth of
both sexes along side of hostels for students should be established. In these centres, they will
forget such extraneous considerations as caste and transcend castebias in social interaction and
social bonds.
3. The practice of recording caste and sub-caste as surname has antisocial potentialities and should
be abolished. This will break the vitality of castefeeling.
4. Caste should not be exploited for political purposes (say for seeking votes or assigning political
positions, etc.) Unholy alliance of caste and politics jeopardizes not only the (communal) peace
but even the security of the country.
5. Brahmins cannot be permitted to act as monopolist of priestly services. As such, a central
organization with provincial branches may be started to impart training in priesthood. Iyer
Commission in 1950s on Religious Endowment also recommended the institution of such a centre.
Narmadeshwar Prasad in his study of three areas—industrial, non-industrial and rural—was given
a few remedies by his respondents (1,225) to weaken the caste system. These were: education and
proper opportunity to all (39.1%), inter-caste marriage (35.3%), removal of untouchability (12.2%),
and treating people on the basis of equality (13.4%). But will these measures really help in abolishing
or even weakening the caste system? Perhaps not. Even the Supreme Court on giving its verdict on
the implementation of Mandal Commission’s report in November 1992 had virtually implied that
caste alone would be the basis of reservation.
What are the properties and functions of caste which account for its continuance in the contemporary
society? Two functions appear to be crucial today: (i) it provides opportunity for power, and (ii) it
makes social mobility feasible (if we accept Srinivas’s view of the possibility of sanskritization of a
caste). Mobility—occupational, economic and social—in modern societies depends on education,
training, material resources, nepotic networks available, personal influence, social refinement, as
well as caste rank.
According to Harold Gould (1988: 162-164) castes functioning as adaptive structures in a modernizing
Indian society (which make their future stable and secure) can be examined at three levels—political,
economic and social. At the political level, both in cities and villages, caste, communalism and political
factionalism are inextricably interwoven. Parliamentary democracy, linked to the secret ballot, has
meant that the manipulation of numbers and the resources and favours which successful election to
office confers, now occupies an important place. Since democratic politics is a competition among
interest groups for the positions and spoils of power, it seems but natural that in India the formation
of the interest groups would reflect the deepest lines of cleavage and solidarity in the society—those
dividing castes and ethnic communities. Casteism affects political issues and political decisions. Caste

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