Beyond caste jargon

 

Votes catch the eye of every politician in a democratic system and the present regime is no way different. The UGC bill 2026 for promotion of equity in higher education was promulgated by those who questioned such steps in the name of dividing Hindu community. The question that arises is how long will we continue to appease one section against the displeasure of the other. It is an irony that a person with just 4 marks out of 800 secured MS seat in orthopaedics at a government medical college in Rohtak Haryana. In the same 2025-26 Neet PG counselling candidates with negative marks e.g. (-12, -8, -5) were allotted seats in subjects like Md physiology and Md biochemistry. The national board of examination in medical sciences reduced qualifying percentile to zero for certain categories in third counselling. It raises doubts about the professional credibility of such doctors and the result becomes quite evident when people resist to get treated by such doctors. It also makes one to think how the upliftment of a few can lead to the betterment of the whole community, most of the times those who come out from such an environment desist from mingling with their compatriots. Are we not promoting incompetency and demotivating the meritorious students? Are we not following Macaulay in the garb of social upliftment of the weak? Why the present generation is being punished for a no fault of theirs? Will it lead to the good of the community or further divide it along caste lines? Is it the only way to uplift the weaker sections of the society? Do those getting benefitted come to the rescue of those who need it? Is it not that a class of beneficiaries is getting birth at the cost of merit and eligibility of someone else? Does it up- grade the social status of a person? Is it not the tacit admission that history has wronged certain sections of the society? Is it not the acceptance 24 of foreign rulers who started the caste divide the country? Are we not getting in the trap of thos who used such techniques to divide the Hin community? The big question is what type of Ind we are going to shape by repeating the sam mistakes for political favoritism? There is plethora of questions but let us concentrateс the nomenclature of the problem. It is often given a religious color to device the community but the facts convey otherwise Lord Ram was born as a Kshetra and h interaction with Kewath, Nishad Raj etc, ate the tasted Berries of Mata Shubri (who by prese standards were low caste people). Lord Krishan was reared by Yadav's - an OBC community b present demarcations and Ramayana was writter by Valmiki Ji a scheduled caste as per prese definition. Ved Vyas's mother Satyavati was fisher-women and had become queen after marrying king Shantanu. Varna's not caste figure in Hindu scripts and they used to be as per the profession of a person. People adopted new varme as per their will. There are numerous example to show that people willingly adopted a new varna with a change in their profile. Maharaja Agrase 5000 years earlier was born a Kshetria bu adopted Vaish Varna because he was agains animal sacrifice carried by Kshetra's of those times. People born in Brahman families turne into Shudras and reverse took place as per the Karma of the concerned person. History is a testimony to the fact that differe castes ruled India at different times. It was durin medieval period that caste was used as a too to divide the community and latter on feuda lords within the communities tried to protect the own groups. The myth that low caste people have been discriminated over the years is jus a fake narrative to divide the Hindu communit and has been used for religious conversion for strengthening a particular regime or to overrule the majority. The matter of the fact is that direct or indirect decedents of Shudra's ruled in different parts of India from ancient times till the independence of the country in 1947. Let us first talk of some prominent rulers of Shudra community: The founder of Nanda dynasty (c345-321 Bc) Mahapadma Nanda is considered as the first Shudra ruler of Magadha who expanded his empire. Chandra Gupta Maurya grew to be one of the largest in the subcontinent, Kakatiya dynasty ruled south India identified themselves as Shudra's in their inscriptions, Maratha empire Malhar Rao Holker ruled (1732-1766) were of Dhangar (Shepherded) origin. Koch dynasty kings like Nara Narayan and commanders like Chilarai, Gond dynasty rulers like Raja Judurai (garhamandala) and Raja Bakht Buland shah (Deogarh), Chero dynasty Maharaja Medina Ray, Raja Avanti Varman the founder of Utpal dynasty in Kashmir was from Chamar dynasty, Raja Suheldev who fought the battle of Bahraich is claimed as Rajbar and the list goes on and on. These examples make the very idea of discrimination against the community from ancient times as meaningless. During medieval period the foreign Muslim rulers did not discriminate people on the bases of caste but religion. They established caste in Muslims community in the form of Ashraf (people with noble and foreign lineage), Ajlaf (were local artisan,converts), Arzal (lowest castes/ Dalit converts) despite the fact that Islam does not believe in caste system; to prolong their rule in the region .The castes were formulated on the bases of profession their subjects carried, generally Sayeds and people with foreign lineage were preferred over others. It was a type of stateenforced casteism. During the Delhi Sultanate, rulers like Iltutmish and Balban actively enforced caste distinctions in government, with Balban notoriously refusing to appoint low-caste individuals to high offices, stating his "blood would boil" at the sight of them. The superiority of those claiming foreign, Arab, or Central Asian descent (Sayads/sheikhs), reinforced the social hierarchy and ensured that political and economic resources remained concentrated in the hands of the 15% elite - the Ashrafs. Some medieval scholars and jurists, such as Ziauddin Barni, provided justification for this, arguing that high-born Muslims deserved administrative posts while lowborn (Ajlaf /Arzal) should be denied education and high-ranking positions. It is no doubt that Some rulers, like Muhammad bin Tughlaq, occasionally broke with this tradition by appointing low-caste converts to high posts, which met with severe backlash from the established Ashraf elites. In many areas, the condition of the oppressed castes remained similar to their preconversion status, with some "low-caste" converts to Islam continuing to face discrimination from upper-caste Muslims and Hindus alike, including restrictions on entering mosques. British significantly formalized and politicized the caste system to divide and rule Indian society. British administrative policies transformed fluid social groups into rigid, ranked categories, turning caste into a primary marker of identity. They conducted regular censuses (notably under Herbert Risley in 1901) that forced individuals to identify with specific, rigid caste categories (Jatis). Their administrative policies like the Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900 classified certain castes as "agricultural" and others not, entrenching economic disparities. The British used caste divisions to hinder national unity, including granting separate electorates based on community, which furthered communal and caste consciousness in the country. Post Independence Era: In the post - independence era a provision for the upliftment of low castes were undertaken and initially reservation was confined fora period of ten years but subsequent governments failed to revert the provision after ten years and it continues till date. In order to cultivate the low caste votes political parties strengthened it. Political parties on caste bases came into existence and gradually used it as a tool to further their interests. It would have been prudent to uplift the weaker sections of society by providing them required facilities without killing the merit but a class within the weaker sections was created who benefits at the cost of needy.

DISCLAIMER: 

The views expressed in the Article above are MK Bhat views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy:    MK Bhat and Koshur Samachar- March, 2026