Caste in Modern India — A Study
Starting in 2019, the Pew Research Center conducted a “face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults” to take a “closer look at religious identity, nationalism and tolerance in Indian society.” The results of that survey were published recently.
There’s lots in there to digest, including the fact that most Indians see themselves as religious, and that practitioners of all religions, including Muslims, see India as place that provides religious freedom.
This, despite social media and main-stream media’s constant accusations of India becoming anti-Muslim in the wake of a BJP government in the center.
What interested me the most, though, was the survey on caste. While the writers of the article said that caste was “an ancient social hierarchy” rooted in “Hindu writings” that continued to “fracture society”, I was glad (because it confirmed what I knew as my lived experience) to note that the survey proved that caste (or jaati) cut across religious lines. In short, it’s a Indian “problem” as opposed to a “Hindu problem.”
When I say “Indian problem” in the above sentence, I only put “problem” in quotes. Because I don’t consider choosing a mate, which is what the survey too finds is place where caste features, on the basis of caste, a problem.
How different is it than a beautiful person choosing a beautiful mate or a professional seeking a professional? How does that “fracture” a society. (And even if it does, what can anyone do anything to solve it? Government cannot mandate the beautiful marrying the “ugly” or rich marrying the poor!)
What I would vehemently oppose would be caste-based discrimination, but as the article states, “there’s not a lot of caste discrimination in India.”
Note: The one thing that did bother me about the article was its assertion that the caste system is “an ancient social hierarchy with origins in Hindu writings.”
Instead of relying on BBC’s incorrect (the Varna system is neither hierarchical, nor is it practiced in India; instead what one sees is Jaativaad & feudalism) interpretation of the Varna system, I would’ve preferred the writers took a look at the original Hindu scriptures to make that determination.
Anyway, that aside, the Pew Research Center’s findings are a timely and relevant take on India as far as religious freedom goes and the article is a mandatory read to allay the fears of those who are misguided by main-stream media reports.