“In the case of enlightened people who reject the caste system as evil, consciousness of caste subtly translates itself into consciousness of social status”, says Khushwant Singh
 
You must have noticed how peoples’ visiting cards and letter-heads mention their academic degrees (M.A.D. Ltt., etc.) and past achievements (ex. governor, ex. minister, ex. MP, IAS, IRS (retd) down to lambardar, zaildar. Such concern with status, past or present, obtains entirely in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. You will not come across it in Europe or America, not even in Japan where exchanging visiting cards is as common as shaking hands. Why?

I had never given it a thought till I read about it in The Indians: Portrait of a People by Sudhir and Katharina Kakar (Penguin Viking). There is a lot more in this remarkably perceptive analysis of Indian character than status consciousness e.g. persistence of communal tensions, double-speak, pretence of spirituality an what appears to others as a lot of humbug: in short what makes us Indians different from others in the world. I will come to them next week. Today I will restrict myself to what the Kakars have to say about our penchant to appear as people of some consequence, past or present.

Deeply ingrained in our psyche is consciousness of caste. In the case of enlightened people who reject the caste system as evil, it subtly translates itself into consciousness of social status. We Indians are the best examples of what Louis Dumont called homo hierarchus — humans conscious of hierarchy. Among ancient Hindus it was Brahmins, Khatreyas, Vaishayas, Sudras and touchables with many sub-divisions in each. Though much has changed with the times, it still determines our attitudes towards others. It has contaminated all communities: Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis. Muslims have ashraf (nobility), descendants of Arabs, Turks and Persians; at the base are Ajlaf (converts from Hinduism and the lowest are arzal. Muslim friends often quote Allama Iqbal’s lines to prove that Islam does not have any class distinctions: when comes the time of namaaz — ek hee saf mein khadey ho gaye Mahmood & Ayyaz — when comes the time for prayer, the Sultan (Mahmood) and the slave (Ayyaz) stand as equals side by side. Unfortunately that equality ends after prayer time — as do momentary equalities at places of worship of other religions. Indian Christians have Brahmin Catholics.

Sikhs have evolved their own caste system with Jats, who by pronouncement of the Lahore high court, are Sudras, are in fact on top of the Sikh caste hierarchy. Brahmins, Khatreyas (Khatri), Aroras (Vaishyas) are Bhaapaas and come second, Mazhabis (Dalits) are outcastes. Sikhs, who quote their scriptures to maintain they have no caste system, “Manas kee jaat sab ek hee pehchanbo — regard all mankind as the same caste,” said Guru Gobind Singh. However, all the ten gurus married in the permitted Khatri castes. Even Parsis have Dubras almost untouchables, because they are undertakers who deal with the dead to be disposed of in the Tower of Silence.
Consciousness of one’s importance is ingrained in our minds. Notice when a quarrel breaks out between two Indian strangers one or the other is likely to say “too nahin jaanta mein kaun hoon — you don’t know who I am!”

I had a distant relative, a most amiable man who had retired from service. Whenever he rang up someone, his introductory sentence would be “Main Sardar Bahadur Falaana, Falaana bol rahaa hoon, Too kaun hai?”

Source:Cybernoon