RSS chief: Image makeover? On February 6, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat declared that the caste system is outdated. He said that the system was created by pundits, not god, who created all human beings equal. He was addressing a birth anniversary celebration of Sant Ravidas in Mumbai, who is revered by Scheduled Caste communities.
Bhagwat’s concern about casteism is welcome. But such remarks rarely translate into action — they seem like the “chunavi jumla” of a politician, playing to the gallery.
Bhagwat blamed the caste system on “pundits”. In doing so, he seems to be on the same page with B R Ambedkar and social reformers like Prabodhankar Thackeray (father of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray) and Sant Gadage Maharaj, who used to say that god does not reside in temples, but the stomach of the priest does. Bhagwat asserted: “What some pundits say on the basis of shastras is a lie. We are misled by caste superiority and this illusion has to be set aside.”
According to Ambedkar, the Varna system metamorphosed into the caste system in three stages. In Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Ancient India, he wrote that the original varna system was not based on birth, but on the aptitude of a person to become a Brahmin, Kshatriya or Vaishya for four years. Those who did not qualify became Shudras. In the second stage, the Gurukul system evolved — boys lived with the teacher for 12 years after which the guru performed the Upanayana ceremony. The guru determined the students’ varna for their entire life, but this status was not hereditary.
The Upanayana ceremony was, subsequently, taken over by orthodox Brahmins and the father of the student replaced the Gurukul Acharya. The student was sent to the Gurukul after his varna was designated by his father. “It is by divesting the guru of his authority to determine the varna and vesting it in the father that Brahminism converted varna to caste,” Ambedkar wrote.
Ambedkar used to say that he was not against Brahmins, but the tendency of orthodox Brahmins to subjugate others by claiming divine sanctity. Some Brahmins were, in fact, his trusted lieutenants. They included Gangadhar Nilkanth Sahasrabuddhe, who was at the forefront of burning the Manusmriti at the Mahad Satyagraha in 1927; Shantaram Shankar Rege, who was associated with People’s Education Society founded by Ambedkar; and Sridhar Balwant Tilak, Balgangadhar Tilak’s son, who died by suicide after being persecuted by the Brahmins of Pune. Ambedkar also had Brahmin mentors like N M Joshi, the teacher at Elphinstone High School, Mumbai, who not only reprimanded casteist students who protested when Ambedkar was called to the blackboard to solve a math problem but also shifted the young Bhim Rao from the back bench to the front bench.
The RSS does have the power to convince Hindu religious heads to disown and discontinue texts like the Manusmriti — or at least its controversial portions. Disowning or amending outdated religious texts has the potential to erase the “divine sanction” to caste and gender discrimination. But can this remove the illusion of “caste superiority”? Will upper caste people discontinue symbols of caste superiority — the janeu (sacred thread), or shendi (tuft of hair at the back of the head)? Or will the use of such symbols be universalised? Will there be Shankaracharyas from different castes and genders? Will women be appointed as RSS chiefs? Will the yardstick of determining a person’s worth by his or her birth, and not merit, be scrapped?
Remarks, like those by Bhagwat, should be followed up by meaningful action. At the same meeting, the RSS chief is reported to have said, “pay attention to all that is happening around you, but don’t leave your religion under any circumstances.” How does one view this statement in light of the anti-conversion laws of several states where the BJP holds office? There are also drives against “love jihad”.
The RSS has repeatedly said that in India, everyone is a Hindu, irrespective of their religion. In recent times, it has also talked of communal harmony. At the same time, none of the 303 Lok Sabha members of the BJP is Muslim. SC and ST representation in Parliament is largely due to political reservation. The political reservation for OBCs is on hold and the demand to include a caste census of OBC communities in the national census (delayed since 2021) has been rejected by the government.
What the RSS, the BJP and the Hindutva brigade do at the grass root level to cleanse Hinduism of its social evils is more important than mere rhetoric — religious and political.
Courtesy Indian Express