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A positive look at caste?

Caste as Social Capital
The Complex Place of Caste in Indian Society
Prof. R. Vaidyanathan

Caste has been looked upon as a curse of sorts to the Indian society. It has been drilled repeatedly by the so-called Indologists as a demeaning curse to the nation. Scores of films and spreads of literature are shreds of evidence of this. It has been used as a stick to beat anything connected to Indian religions, customs and culture in the same way Holocaust has done to Austrians and Germans. Prof. R. Vaidyanathan (RV) is one of those who look at caste quite differently. 

Firstly, 'Caste' is a Western concept. It is a Portuguese word that made its way through the colonists. In traditional Indian varna (caste) system, people were classified not by birth but by 'gunas' (virtue, merit or excellence). The colonialist masters conveniently pigeon-holed the Crown's subject into a hierarchical system for statistics purpose to aid their 'divide and rule' administration. Conflicts usually arise amongst those in the lower rung of the ladder for their piece of the pie in a government job or entry to higher learning institutes.

RV labels advocates for a homogenous India as half baked intellectuals who try to put an individual-centric view of the West to a duty-based system. In the non-government concerns, non-corporate segments and service sectors, caste and community clusters play an essential role in unincorporated or partnership and proprietorship activities. Examples of these are the diamond industry in Surat, electrical works in Bangalore controlled by Mewaris from Rajasthan, etc. He looks at caste as social capital to uplift one's social standing in society. The drive for this 'Vaisyavisation' of India is more pronounced now than ever as the current economic push demands its previous government outlook of India's socialist model.

Prof R Vaidyanathan
India's top 50 most influential management thinkers
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The Anglo-Saxon paternalistic model for a nation is already showing disastrous effects. The family unit is torn apart as the State assumes the role of father, mother, and stands for what a community would do.  It provides like a spouse in terms of social security, as a filial offspring in providing retirement homes and an instigator to fight for children's rights to sue and divorce their parents. With his legal status as a State member, he stands alone stark naked with only rights as his imaginary clothes to deal directly with the State. The State also does not have the benefit of concentric circles of cushions to deal with individuals.

Rightly or wrongly, politicians are using caste as their tool as a vote bank. Many political parties are caste-based, and it just suits them fine as a means to keep governmental allocations and possible avenues for corruption within their communities. The push to continue this practice is more incredible now as these leaders are old. They want their progeny to continue prospering in the second oldest profession globally, which, is not different from the first.

Caste has played an essential role in the consolidation of business and entrepreneurship in India, particularly in the last seventy years. The economic development that has taken place in India Uninc. or the partnership and proprietorship activities has been financed by domestic savings and facilitated by clusters and caste and community networks. If caste oppression was really severe in the past, then there should have been many caste wars in the last 2000 years! But history does not provide information about large-scale caste wars. 

Something to ponder... Swami  Vivekananda, aged 34 then, in an address at Jaffna in 1897, 
"The older I grow, the better I seem to think of these (caste and such other) time-honoured institutions of India. There was a time when I used to think that many of them were useless and worthless, but the older I grow, the more I seem to feel a diffidence in cursing any one of them, for each one of them is the embodiment of the experience of centuries.”                                            

Excerpt From: Vaidyanathan, R. “Caste as Social Capital”.

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