The Hindus often complain of
the isolation and exclusiveness of a gang or a clique and blame them for
anti-social spirit. But they conveniently forget that this anti-social spirit
is the worst feature of their own Caste System. One caste enjoys singing a hymn
of hate against another caste as much as the Germans did in singing their hymn
of hate against the English during the last war. The literature of the Hindus
is full of caste genealogies in which an attempt is made to give a noble origin
to one caste and an ignoble origin to other castes. The Sahyadrikhand is a notorious instance of this
class of literature. This anti-social spirit is not confined to caste alone. It
has gone deeper and has poisoned the mutual relations of the sub-castes as
well. In my province the Golak Brahmins, Deorukha Brahmins, Karada Brahmins, Palshe
Brahmins and Chitpavan Brahmins, all claim to be sub-divisions of the Brahmin
Caste. But the anti-social spirit that prevails between them is quite as marked
and quite as virulent as the anti-social spirit that prevails between them and
other non-Brahmin castes. There is nothing strange in this. An anti-social
spirit is found wherever one group has “interests of its own” which shut it out
from full interaction with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose is
protection of what it has got. This anti-social spirit, this spirit of
protecting its own interests is as much a marked feature of the different
castes in their isolation from one another as it is of nations in their isolation.
The Brahmin’s primary concern is to protect “his interest” against those of the
non-Brahmins and the non-Brahmin’s primary concern is to protect their
interests against those of the Brahmins. The Hindus, therefore, are not merely
an assortment of castes but they are so many warring groups each living for
itself and for its selfish ideal. There is another feature of caste which is
deplorable. The ancestors of the present-day English fought on one side or the
other in the wars of the Roses and the Cromwellian War. But the decendents of
those who fought on the one side do not bear any animosity—any grudge against
the descendents of those who fought on the other side. The feud is forgotten.
But the present-day non-Brahmins cannot forgive the present-day Brahmins for
the insult their ancestors gave to Shivaji. The present-day Kayasthas will not
forgive the present-day Brahmins for the infamy cast upon their forefathers by
the forefathers of the latter. To what is this difference due? Obviously to the
Caste System. The existence of Caste and Caste Consciousness has served to keep
the memory of past feuds between castes green and has prevented solidarity.
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