We recognize caste based discrimination as a deadly disease our nation is still facing and hence are obliged to work towards eliminating the same by means of promoting necessary education and social awareness along with establishing and enforcing anti-discriminatory laws. We recognize and will work to reduce the existing opportunity gap resulted from systemic oppression over the past hundreds of years which is still being continued.

Malayalam: ജാതി അടിസ്ഥാനത്തിലുള്ള വിവേചനം നമ്മുടെ രാജ്യം ഇപ്പോഴും നേരിട്ടുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന ഒരു മാരകരോഗമാണ്. ആയതിനാല്‍ അത്തരം വിവേചനം ഇല്ലാതാക്കുന്നതിനായി തക്കതായ സാമൂഹിക അവബോധവും വിദ്യാഭ്യാസവും ഉറപ്പുവരുത്തുന്നതിനും ഒപ്പം തന്നെ വിവേചനത്തിന് എതിരായുള്ള നിയമങ്ങള്‍ ശക്തമായി നടപ്പിലാക്കുന്നതിനും ഞങ്ങള്‍ പ്രതിജ്ഞാബദ്ധരാണ്. നൂറുകണക്കിന് വർഷങ്ങളായി തുടര്‍ന്നുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന വ്യവസ്ഥാപിത അടിച്ചമർത്തൽ മൂലം ഉണ്ടായ അവസരവിടവ് ഞങ്ങള്‍ മനസ്സിലാക്കുകയും അത് കുറയ്ക്കുന്നതിനായി പ്രയത്നിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യും.

Update on 23/05/2021 - Added suggestion by @Kannan V M: "We recognize and will work to reduce the existing opportunity gap resulted from systemic oppression over the past hundreds of years which is still being continued."

Update on 24/05/2021 - Added Malayalam translation.

Update on 05/06/2021 - Extended the voting date to 21/06/2021 as we have another proposal on the similar lines.

Many narratives of caste inform you that varnas were merely occupational guilds, that they forged a well-functioning society, how only jāti, as classes within the varna structure, were restricted by birth and so on.

These blurred understandings of caste, are undoubtedly, those of someone looking at a structure of social inequality from the top, down. Those with sovereignty in a system of oppression can think of that system as stabilizing, but those condemned to the slavery of the system — will view it for what it is — exploitative and destabilizing.

It is really time that people begin seeing that, deconstructing some of these ideas through the combined lens of Bahujan lived-experience and scholarship, is the most relevant way to understand the structure and history of social inequality in the subcontinent.

While Dalit and Adivasis are some of the most vulnerable communities in a caste society, the majority of the people of the subcontinent are caste-bound and ruled by “upper”-caste minorities. The term Bahujan refers to present day Scheduled Castes (Dalits), Scheduled Tribes (Adivasis/indigenous) and Shudra (peasant) castes — cutting across religion, ethnicities and geographies.

The Purusha Suktha, the 90th hymn in the 10th Book of the Rig Veda, presents a cosmogony that describes the creation of man. From the head of a primeval God, arose the Brahmans (priests, scholars), from the arms, Kshatriya (kings, warriors), the thighs, Vaishya (merchants, cultivators) and the feet, Shudra (servants, slaves). While this visioning for society was not yet caste, it does implicitly and divinely ordain genesis directly into a compartments of graded inequality. It is very important to note that there is no neutrality in such a design. In other places throughout the texts and even today in most of modern South Asia, the head has always been considered superior and the feet lowly, ritually unclean and polluting.

A quote from the Chandogya Upanishad, which records deep contempt for Chandalas (outcastes/Dalits)

“Now, people of good conduct can expect to quickly attain a pleasant birth, like that of a Brahmin, the Kshatriya, or the Vaishya. But people of evil conduct can expect to enter a foul womb, like that of a dog, a pig, or a Chandala.”

We assert that both the Shrutis and the Smritis bear condemnable caste advocacy. It is emphasized that the dharmic duty of Brahmans was to be scholars, Kshatriyas, warriors and Vaishyas to be farmers and merchants. In dealing with the Shudras, however, Manu and his colleagues are especially cruel.

“But a Shudra, whether bought or not bought (by the Brahmin) may be compelled to practice servitude, for that Shudra was created by the self-existent merely for the service of the Brahmin. Even if freed by his master, the Shudra is not released from servitude; for this (servitude) is innate in him; who then can take it from him.”

Education, reading, writing and academic pursuits were off-limits to Shudras and the slightest attempts at access to knowledge were severely punishable.

“Now if he (a Shudra) listens intentionally to (a recitation of) the Veda, his ears shall be filled with (molten) tin or lac. If he recites (Vedic texts), his tongue shall be cut out. If he remembers them, his body shall be split in twain”

It is crucial to note that, in a varna society, penalties for “criminal” activities are meted out not proportional to the offense committed but specific to your location in the varna order.

“A Brahmin may take possession of the goods of a Shudra with perfect peace of mind, for, since nothing at all belongs to this Shudra as his own, he is one whose property may be taken away by his master.”

“Indeed, an accumulation of wealth should not be made by a Shudra even if he is able to do so, for the sight of mere possession of wealth by a Shudra injures the Brahmin.”

The Caste Structure was/is not Fluid. Why anyone would believe, themselves and their loved ones, to be most suited to peasantry and slave labor? If everyone had the choice, wouldn’t they have all chosen the seemingly respectable livelihoods of Brahmins and “upper”- castes? It is neither fulfilling nor dignifying to be bonded to a landlord, to be a village servant, to be cleaning up shit or disposing of rotting animal carcasses.

If mobility between varnas was in fact the norm, one must wonder why so much painstaking effort has then been put in by the authors of several Brahminical scriptures to legislate permanent social inequality between varnas, to condemn punish inter-varna relationships and to bastardize and excommunicate the offspring from such unions.

“On having intercourse with Chandala women, on eating their food or receiving presents from them, a Brahmin unwittingly falls; but if he does so wittingly, he comes to an equality with them.”

Another idea that contradicts the claims of a fluid caste structure is the Brahmanical belief of karma that states that the actions of your past life result in your jāti and fate in the present one. This is also profoundly offensive to Bahujans. It criminalizes people victimized by varna, celebrates oppressor varnas and accrues further social capital for them while freeing them from accountability for their actions.

None of these concepts indicate mobility. They reflect what we see in everyday life. Caste is tenaciously locked down by social and religious dictates.

The existence of caste and untouchability, have throughout the ages been recorded by people who were traveling into the subcontinent and people who have been resisting the structure. Fa Xian, the Chinese monk, in 4th century C.E details the prevalence of caste and untouchability as a subcontinental reality. Al-Beruni, the middle eastern historian, in the 11th century C.E compiled comprehensive sociology, Tarikh-al-Hind, that includes extensive descriptions of varna-jāti systems. The Bhakthi saints of the 11th-15th centuries C.E; Sant Guru Ravidass, Kabir, Tukaram, Peero Premam, Chokamela, Soyrabai; were all Dalit-Bahujan anti-caste revolutionaries who wrote extensive literature of the existence of caste and how to fight it. A whole religion of Sikhism was even founded on Guru Nanak’s proclamation of revolution against caste and untouchability and even then, Sikhs subsequently adopted and practice caste.

Confronting the Truth is the First Step

In order to confront the dark realities of caste, we need to first accept its roots in the fundamentally anti-social nature of Brahminism.

Adapted from: https://medium.com/@Bahujan_Power/the-dalit-bahujan-guide-to-understanding-caste-in-hindu-scripture-417db027fce6

20 June 21: Include suggestion from @Pirate Vik

"A whole religion of Sikhism was even founded on Guru Nanak’s proclamation of revolution against caste and untouchability and even then, Sikhs subsequently adopted and practice caste."