concept of caste as an invention of colonial modernity

The second is a view of Indians, apart from so-called tribals and followers of minority faiths, as slaves to rigid, Brahman-centred caste values. However these similarities do not do enough to demonstrate that the Hindu religion has a complete and direct lineage from the Indus Valley Civilisation. E, The Hindu Pantheon, London, 1810, online, accessed  on 1st March 2012, , Narayan. A. This led to the unintentional invention of a religion that never existed before that point in a coherent form. That might have led them to construct a class-based discriminating society out of the multiple sampradayas and castes co-existing peacefully. E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team. This conclusion was reached through an assessment of the origins of the caste system which showed that caste existed in not just a religious context but was also socially implemented. It states as law “That limb of a Súdra with which he strikes a Bráhman shall be cut off.”[32] This example explicitly demonstrates ancient law focussed on the relationship between different castes. It will be shown that the caste system was part of Hinduisms social content and therefore not invented by Europeans, but simply adapted and utilised by British colonials. The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice. This integration with Islam can be exemplified through the study of dress in Vijayanagara which is widely touted as a Hindu area. Rather than a basic expression of Indian tradition, caste is a modern phenomenon--the product of a concrete historical encounter between India and British colonial … At first glance this may seem like British orientalists were aware of the difference between the different religions that use the Sanskrit language. The Orientalists generalised various Indian religious traditions into a coherent Hindu religion. The foremost of these Orientalists can be considered to be Edward Moor whose book The Hindu Pantheon is the preeminent early English-language collection of Hindu religion and culture. Any And what is further interesting is that D.P’s ideas about modernity have been discussed at length by T.N. When these works were completed several... Risley was by no means the only observer to suggest that caste opposed nationality. Caste, Colonialism and Counter-Modernity book. The reasons for Buddhism and Jainism therefore not being included within the British generalisation of Hinduism is because they were significantly larger than most Hindu denominations and, more importantly, largely self-determined as individual, separate religions. Here, secularism functions as the mirror twin of modern religion that welds together the two ends of modernity/coloniality. The arrogant nature of claiming the caste system to be a British construction is well noted by Lorenzen, who states, “As the Hindi critic Purushottom Agrawal recently quipped: “We Indians may well have been denied the capacity to solve our own problems, but are we so incapable that we could not even create them on our own?””[37] This demonstrates that modern India should not be viewed in a way where even the most Indian of problems is considered to be the product of its most significant interaction with the West, without regard for centuries of independent history. Coloniality, in other words, is constitutive of modernity — We have traced parts of the process whereby India was consigned to an otherworldly and decidedly premodern position, and have pointed out moments when reactions to colonial and Orientalist characterizations led to other versions of Hinduism as the indigenous cultural repository of identity and value. Although that struggle has been successful, it has not only been drenched in violence but it has also led to the general recognition that the effects of imperialism have by no means disappeared with the demise of formal colonial regimes of rule. support open access publishing. D. N, ‘Who Invented Hinduism?’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. The archive, that primary site of state monumentality, is the very institution that canonizes, crystallizes, and classifies the knowledge required by the state even as it makes this knowledge available to subsequent generations in the cultural form of a neutral repository of the past. The quote demonstrates attempts at legitimisation through Moor’s attempts to show Hinduism as monotheistic. E, The Hindu Pantheon, London, 1810, online, accessed  on 1st March 2012, , P.5, [19] William Dalrymple, ‘Gods and Monsters’, in The Guardian, 25th August 2007, online, accessed on 4th March 2012, , [20] Cannon. This unifying factor can be considered to be one of cultural as opposed to religious similarities for pre-colonial Hinduism. B.K, Was Hinduism invented?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, Porter. The first conclusion to be drawn is that the social group of the Indus river valley from where the name Hindu derives did not exist as a recognisably Hindu social group. For example, beliefs range between monotheism and polytheism in different denominations. S, Imagining Hinduism: A postcolonial perspective, Routledge, London, 2003, Talbot. 39, No. He states that “The colonizers were part of the Abrahamic tradition, which believes in homogenization, and the heterogeneous and non-conflicting Indian society would not have suited their design. 4 Milner, Compare Anthony, The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya: Contesting Nationalism and the Expansion of the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Under colonialism, Indian religion clashed directly with British Christianity. Hatcher does not refer to the debates, initiated by Rao et al (2001), C.A. Despite the self-serving rhetoric about political chaos and social involution, the British conquest was one of the most comprehensive, long-lasting, and successful campaigns in world history. King states that “describing religions of the East as ‘mystical’ is a way of differentiating the essential historical truth of Christianity from its inferior rivals.”[23] This attack contributed to the mass generalisation of many ‘mystical’ Indian religions into Hinduism. Dirks traces the career of caste from the medieval kingdoms of southern India to the textual traces of early colonial archives; from the commentaries of an eighteenth-century Jesuit to the enumerative obsessions of the late-nineteenth-century census; from the ethnographic writings of colonial administrators to those of twentieth-century Indian scholars seeking to rescue ethnography from its colonial legacy. This view found a steady refrain among colonial voices, for whom such an analysis was deeply comforting in its projection that Britain’s empire would not be threatened by a genuine nationalist movement for many years to come. G, ‘Sir William Jones and the Association between East and West’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. This essay will assess the nature of Hinduism and the caste system before, during and after the period of British colonialism in India, while assessing the changes that were brought about by colonialism. D, Making India Hindu, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007, Macdonell. P.B, ‘”Sultan among Hindu Kings”: Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara’, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.55, No.4, November 1996, [1] Orientalism and religion, Richard King, Routledge, London, 2006, P.98, [2] Fitzsimmons. 38, No. D. N, ‘Who Invented Hinduism?’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. During the period of British Colonialism there were three key contributing factors to the invention of Hinduism. All Rights Reserved | Site by Rootsy. The lack of religious coherence within the Hindu group is demonstrated by the fact that they did not view Islam in religious terms. D. N, ‘Who Invented Hinduism?’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. R, ‘Caste discrimination a British invention, bigger than steam engine’, in Daily News & Analysis, 26th February 2008, online, accessed on 5th March 2012, , Wagoner. A. The Invention of Caste: Civil Society in Colonial India: Social Analysis. (For EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Zotero, Mendeley...), Two Homo Hierarchicus: The Origins of an Idea, Four The Original Caste: Social Identity in the Old Regime, Five The Textualization of Tradition: Biography of an Archive, Six The Imperial Archive: Colonial Knowledge and Colonial Rule, Eight The Policing of Tradition: Colonial Anthropology and the Invention of Custom, Nine The Body of Caste: Anthropology and the Criminalization of Caste, Ten The Enumeration of Caste: Anthropology as Colonial Rule, Eleven Toward a Nationalist Sociology of India: Nationalism and Brahmanism, Twelve The Reformation of Caste: Periyar, Ambedkar, and Gandhi, Thirteen Caste Politics and the Politics of Caste, Fourteen Conclusion: Caste and the Postcolonial Predicament, Coda The Burden of the Past: On Colonialism and the Writing of History. 193, 2004, P.219, [37] Lorenzen. While Indian education was certainly Puranic[17], their teaching was not under a unified code of Hinduism, especially considering that Puranical texts exist additionally in both Buddhism and Jainism. Rather, colonialism involves various forms of resistance and subversion that emerge from colonial meeting (COOPER; STOLER, 1997). Madan in his work Pathways (1994). In 1862, a proposal that each district have a manual of its own was revived by the Government of Madras, which subsequently charged Mr. Carmichael, collector of Vizagapatam, and Mr. Nelson, collector of Madura, to compile model works for their respective districts. Porter states that, “With a caste organization the priesthood found means to increase their power by recasting scholastic systems, changing and adding to the injunctions they contained, and adapting them more perfectly to their own advantage.”[33] This demonstrates that the British were typical of any rulers, adapting systems to suit their own means. C, ‘Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self:  Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-Colonial India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. Modernity and tradition in a global era: the re-invention of caste in India Conceptual paper Abstract Purpose - this paper aims to explore the re-interpretation and justification of caste in India in the face of modernising influences and the efforts of legislators to disassemble its structures and traditions. The nature in which Hinduism was invented then needs to be established in order to understand how the vast content was generalised into one religion by the British. Caste is mentioned in the Rigveda, one of the Vedas which are among the world’s oldest religious texts and the founding texts of many Indian religions: “The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rājanya made. His thighs became the Vaiśya, from his feet the Śūdra was produced.”[30]. Colonial governmentality was not merely dependent on knowledge, it was also embedded in the forms of knowledge that provided the basis for the principal practices of the colonial state. This essay will establish the extent to which Hinduism and the caste system can be considered a European invention. The issue of caste invention can be concluded by stating that the caste system is part of the content of what British colonialists generalised as Hinduism. Moor states that, “Strictly speaking, the religion of the Hindus is monotheism. Furthermore it was demonstrated that British contributions to the caste system were typical of pre and post-colonial situations. 1, November 1970, P.11, [5] Talbot. The group now defined as Hindu can be said to have existed only because it was a group independent of Islam, Christianity or Judaism, although not internally coherent. There is certainly a degree of arrogance involved in suggestions that British colonial rule invented a system which first appears between 1700-1100 BCE and is consistently prevalent in Indian texts up to the era of British colonialism. You do not have access to this These conclusions were reached by studying these issues before, during and after British colonialism. Date written: May/2012, All content on the website is published under the following Creative Commons License, Copyright © — E-International Relations. Princeton University Press Radu Ban and Vijayendra. Most of these writings, like Caldwell’s monograph on the Shanars, concerned groups that either succumbed to conversion or were at least targeted for major missionary activity. The Great Rebellion had made it clear to the British that they knew far too little about the colonized populations of India. D. N, ‘Who Invented Hinduism?’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. The following section will highlight what aspects of the modern day interpretation of Hinduism existed before British colonialism. A, ‘The Early History of Caste’, The American Historical Review, Vol.19, No.2, January 1914, P.230, [30] Rig Veda, Book 10, Hymn 90, online, accessed on 5th March 2012, , [31] Macdonell. Due to the naturally Western approach taken by these academics, Indian religion was misconstrued, albeit unintentionally. (2011). eBook Published 7 … Dirks, Nicholas B. Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. Written for: Robert Bideleux When thinking of India it is hard not to think of caste. When V. D. Savarkar wrote his grand history of the Great Rebellion in 1909, he glossed the bloody events following the Meerut mutiny as the first Indian war of independence.¹ The national awakening that grew out of military refusal was an expression for Savarkar of the fundamental injustice of British rule in India. A, ‘The Early History of Caste’, The American Historical Review, Vol.19, No.2, January 1914, Moor. colonial discourse as the defining structural feature of Indian society. G, ‘Sir William Jones and the Association between East and West’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 8, No.1, January 1895, P.26, [34] Dirks. While doing so with good academic intentions, these Orientalists drew on the expansive materials of Indian culture in such a way that they were treated as connected parts of an overarching culture. Culture: - distinguishes human beings from animals - refers to music, dance, literature, architecture and other creative activities - suggests tradition and heritage - denotes civilization - indicates the commonly shared ideas and practices of a group of people - suggests diversity We also think of a variety of activities as ‘cultural’. N.B, The Invention of Caste: Civil Society in Colonial India, CSST Working Paters, The University of Michigan, October 1988, Eaton. A further example is located within the Athasastra in the 4th century BCE. But under British domination caste did become a single term capable of naming and above all subsuming India's diverse forms of social identity and organization. 1, November 1970, Lorenzen. Abdullah, Taufik has written in this respect an exemplary study on the Minangkabau. The missionary desire to spread Christianity came from the growth of evangelical Christianity and it was this evangelical trend that was most instrumental in the invention and systemization of Hinduism. Nationalism in India emerged under colonial conditions, conditions that put Indian civilization itself on trial as the principal impediment to modernity and self-rule. 8, No.1, January 1895, Rig Veda, Book 10, Hymn 90, online, accessed on 5th March 2012, , Sugirtharajah. ian notion of caste cafhe to preside along-side religion as an irreducible essence of Indian civilisation, amidst colonial profes-sions of the institution of equality.6 Modernity became the rhetoric rather than the project of colonialism. Try logging in through your institution for access. The earliest significant civilisation of the Indus Valley was the Harappan civilisation which existed between 3000 and 1500 BCE. This suggests that the popular uprising was Indian as opposed to Hindu. In this form, construction and invention of Hinduism developed through attempts to understand and categorise Hinduism. He states that “almost every building in Mohenjodaro has a bathing area.”[4] These similarities demonstrate that the modern Hindu religion has tangible religious roots in the region from where its name derives. This further supports the conclusion that the ‘actual’ content of Hinduism was not invented. Equally within various sects of Hinduism there are also notable disparities. An important aspect of Hinduism to emphasize to garner legitimisation in Western circles was elements of monotheism. The two forms of invention that took place due to orientalists were invention through legitimisation and through generalisation. The East India Company arrived in India to engage in trade for goods craved by Europe, only to find local political struggles irresistible, and opportunities for wealth—both private and public—incomparable. Some writings seemed to celebrate scandal, as we have just seen in the case of hookswinging; others focused on the more exotic customs of tribal and lowercaste groups. However it can be noted that while Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism contain many similarities, notably for example the belief in Karma, they also contain many differences. This is due to the fact that caste is an ancient feature of Indian culture and therefore caste is an aspect of the content which would be generalised by the British as Hinduism. First Published 2006 . A brief look at the situation after the period of British colonialism demonstrates further evidence of Hindu invention and also demonstrates the nature of this invention. Moreover, what they did know was far too unsystematic.¹ During the 1860s, a number of efforts were made to generate the basis for systematic and statistical knowledge collection and compilation. 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