Caste Movement in Different Parts of India

  Caste Movement in Different Parts of India

 

Justice Movement

It was an intermediate caste movement launched in Madras around 1915-16 by C N Mudaliar, T M Nair and P Tyagaraja Chetti on behalf of intermediate castes (like Tamil Vellalas, Mundaliars and Chettiars; Telegu Reddis, Kammas and Baliza Naidus; and Malayali Nair's) and against Brahimin predominance in education, government service and politics.

They founded a new political party, known as the 'Justice Party' which exhibited its loyalty to the British government in the hope of getting more government jobs and representation in the new legislatures.

Self-respect Movement

It was a populist and radical movement founded in 1925 in Tamil Nadu by E V Ramaswamy Naicker popularly known as 'Periyar', against the Brahmin domination. It advocated weddings without Brahmin priests, forcible temple entry, burning of the Manu Smriti and outright atheism at times. Peiyar founded a Tamil journal, Kudi Arasa, in 1924 in order to propagate his ideas.

Nadar Movement

In the Ramnad district of south Tamil Nadu, an untouchable caste of toddy tappers and agricultural labourers, originally called 'Shanans', emerged as a prosperous mercantile class by the end of the 19th century, and began to call themselves by the prestigious title of 'Nadars' to claim Kshatriya status.

The organisation a 'Nadar Mahajan Sangam' in 1910, imitated upper caste customs and manners (sanskritisation), and raised funds for educational and social welfare activities.

Movement of the Pallis

In northern Tamil Nadu, the Pallis, a lower caste people, began to claim Kshatriya status from 1871. They called themselves 'Vanniya Kula Kshatriya' and imitated upper caste customs like the taboo on widow remarriage.

Ezhava Movement

The untouchable Ezhavas of Kerala, under the leadership of Nanu Asan (also known as Narayan Guru), began in the early 20th century a movement, known as the 'SNDP yogam' (Sri Narayan Dharma Paripalana Yogam). Its twin objective were to abolish untouchability and to build a simplified system of rituals regarding worship, marriage and funerals. They also imitated some of the customs of the higher castes. In the latter period they became the firmest supporters of the communists in Kerala.

Nair Movement

In the state of Travancore the intermediate caste of Nair's (numerically the dominant caste) started in the late 19th century a strong movement against the social and political domination of the Nambudri Brahmins and the non-Malayali Brahmins (Tamil and Maratha).

C.V. Raman Pillai organised the Malayali Memorial (1891) which attacked Brahmin predominance in government jobs. His historical novel Matanda Varma (1891) attempted an evocation of the lost Nair military glory. His group was, however, easily accomodated within the official elite by the late 1890's.

After 1900, however, a more energentic Nair leadership emerged under K Rama Krishna Pillai and M Padmanbha Pillai. The former edited the Swadeshabhimani from 1906 till 1919 when its attacks on the court and demands for political rights led to his expulsion from Travancore. Padmanabha Pillai founded the Nair Service Society (1914) which worked for the social and political advancement of the Nair's.

Western India

Satyashodak Movement

It was a movement started by Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra. Phule, through his book Ghulamgiri (1872), and his organisation Satyashodak Samaj (1873) proclaimed the need to save the lower castes from the hypocritical Brahmins and their opportunistic scriptures.

This movement was dual in character. That is, it had an urban elite-based conservatism (the trend representing the desire of the urban-educated members of the intermediate and lower castes to move upwards in the social ladder by sanskritisation) as well as a more genuine rural mass-based radicalism (the trend representing the desire of the rural Maratha peasants to do away with the evils of the caste system itself).

Mahar Movement

It was the movement of the untouchable Mahars of Maharashtra, under the leadership of Dr B R Ambedkar (their first graduate), which gained momentum in the 1920's. Their demands included the right to use public drinking water tanks and enter temples, abolition of the mahar watan (traditional services to village chiefs), and separate representation in the legislative councils. From 1927, some of them even started burning the Manu Smriti as a symbol of a sharper break with Hinduism.

B R Ambedkar (1891- 1956)

Bhimarao Ramji was born in the Mahar untouchable community at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh. His father, a subedar in the army, hailed from Ambad in Ratnagiri district of the then Bombay presidency. He took his surname 'Ambavadekar' from the name of his native village; it was, however, changed to Ambedkar in the school records.

In 1913, he joined Columbia University in New York, where two years later he took his M A in Economics. In 1926, he obtained a doctorate from the same university. Meanwhile, in 1916 he had moved to the London School of Economics and prepared for the Bar. A year later, however, he had to discontinue his studies owing to financial exigencies. In 1921 he resumed his studies in London and obtained an M. Sc. (1921) and D. Sc (1923).

1924 saw Ambedkar returning home to start legal practice at the Bombay High Court. In the same year he established the Depressed Classes Institute (Bahishkrit Hitkarnini Sabha) in Bombay for the moral and material progress of untouchables. In 1927, he started a Marathi fortnightly, Bahishkrit Bharat and in November 1930, a weekly, the janata. Another institution that Ambedkar founded, in 1927, was the Samaj Samata Sangh, its objective being to propagating the gospel of social equality among untouchables and caste Hindus.

In 1927 Ambedkar launched a satyagraha to assert the right of untouchables to draw water from a public tank at Malad, in Kolaba district. In 1930 he led another satyagraha to claim his community's right to enter the famous temple of Kalaram at Nashik.

Meanwhile he was emerging as a leader of the depressed classes, in which capacity he continued to be a nominated member (1926-34) of the Bombay Legislative Council. He was also an official nominee to the Round Table Conference. Following the British government's 'Communal Award', Ambedkar and Gandhi signed an accord called the 'Poona Pact' which provided for reservation of seates for the community in the general (Hindu) constituencies.

He founded the Independent Labour Party in 1936 which captured all the scheduled caste seats in Bombay presidency in the 1936-37, he organised the All India Scheduled Castes Federation as a political party. To promote the interests of his community he established the Peoples Education Society in July 1945.

Ambedkar served on the Government-General's Executive Council as member for Labour during 1942-46. Later, the Congress nominated him to the Constituent Assembly in whose deliberations he was to play a prominent role. Apart from being the law minister of the Constituent Assembly's drafting committee. He also made a signal contribution towards the drafting of the Hindu Code Bill, which made him known as 'a modern Manu'. His prominent works included Castes in India: their mechanism, genesis and development (1916) and Pakistan or Partition of India (1946).

In the late 19th century also the Mahars organised themselves under Gopal Baba Walangkar, an exserviceman and demanded more jobs in the army and other government services.

Northern and Eastern India

Kaivartas

Kaivartas of Midnapore in Bengal belonged to a lower caste but were economically well off. They began calling themselves 'Mahisyas', and started a 'Jati Nirdharani Sabha' (1897) and a 'Mahishya Samiti' (1901), which later played a prominent role in the nationalist movement.

Namshudras

Namshudras of Faridpur in Bengal, forming an untouchable caste of poor peasants, started developing associations after 1901 at the intiative of a tiny elite of educated men and some missionary encouragement.

Kayasthas

Kayasthas of northern and eastern Indian, having interprovincial professional connections, started the All-India Kayastha Association and a newspaper, the Allahabad based Kayastha Samachar in 1919. But on the whole, in northern and eastern India, Brahmin domination was less clearcut, which other high caste groups (like Rajputs and Kayasthas in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and Vaidyas and Kayasthas in Bengal) serving as buffers. Hence, mobilisation along caste lines came much later in these regions than in western and southern India. Further, movements of the lower and intermediate castes in these regions were not as prominent and powerful as those in western and southern India.

Causes for the Rise of Caste Movements

One of the major causes was the grievances of the educated men belonging to lower and intermediate castes. They raised their voice against a system which discriminated against them, as for instance in Justice movement in south India and Satyashodak movement (its urban aspect) in Maharashtra.

The desire of some of the lower castes to move upward in the social ladder through the process of sanskritisation (that is, castes asserting a higher status for themselves through borrowing customs, manners and taboos form groups traditionally superior) also led to these movements, for example, movements of the Nadars and Pallis of Tamil Nadu and those of the Ezhavas and Nairs of Kerala.

Further, the desire of some radical elements to improve the lot of the lower and intermediate castes by attacking Brahmin domination, and at times by challenging the very basis of the caste system, played a dominant role in these movements, for instance. Self-respect movement in Tamil Nadu, and the Mahar and Satyashodak movements (the latter in its rural aspect) in Maharashtra.

Finally, the British also contributed to the rise of these movements. Their contribution was indirect before 1901 (through their policy of divide and rule, that is, turning caste against caste) and direct after 1901 (the 1901 Census began the practice of classifying castes in a social hierarchical order which encouraged a flood of claims and counter-claims by different castes).