concept of caste as an invention of colonial modernity

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. The history of intensive western cognitive as well as political engagements in matters of caste had started in the early 19th century, with earlier antecedents. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries a great number of British writers— among them Dow, Elphinstone, Wilks, Malcolm, and Mackenzie—felt compelled to confront India’s precolonial history. Sanskrit was an ancient liturgical language used across many religious groups, which made it a standard by which British colonialists could define Hinduism. 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. 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. R.M, Reimagining Otherness: A Post-mortem for the Postmodern in India, 1998 Unpublished Essay quoted from, Lorenzen. 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. B, ‘Inventing Caste History: Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. In the face of Abrahamic religions, one unifying factor of pre-colonial Hinduism Is the use of the Sanskrit language. 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. Written at: Swansea University  4, No. 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. ‘Modernity/coloniality’ is a concept first used by Aníbal Quijano and later developed by Walter Mignolo. JSTOR®, the JSTOR logo, JPASS®, Artstor®, Reveal Digital™ and ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. Wagoner states that “adaptation of Islamicate dress at Vijayanagara was a fundamental part of a broader, far-reaching process of Islamicization, through which selected Indic cultural forms and practices were replaced in key “public” contexts with analogues drawn from a more universal, Islamicate culture.” [8] This suggests a lack of any strict Hindu coherence despite the fact that Vijayanagara and its culture would be largely defined as Hindu by British colonialists. Madan in his work Pathways (1994). 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. A primary theme seems to be that of the legitimisation of Hinduism in an attempt to demonstrate it as a genuine religion comparable to Christianity. Savarkar’s narrative emphasized the heroic refusal of Indian heroes, ordinary soldiers as... Victoria’s proclamation had announced, unambiguously, that the British would no longer seek to impose their “convictions on any of our subjects,” and that she would “strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects on pain of our highest displeasure.” She had further declared that in the “framing and administration of law, due regard would henceforth be paid to the ancient rights, usages and customs of India.” But although it was clear that the British intended by this never... For much of the nineteenth century, missionaries continued to dominate the production of ethnographic accounts of India through the sheer volume of accounts and reports they prepared, often to document the trials and tribulations of their labors in the midst of barbarism. 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. It is published as part of our mission to showcase peer-leading papers written by students during their studies. 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. colonial discourse as the defining structural feature of Indian society. It refers to the way in which the concepts (modernity and coloniality) are inseparable –two sides of the same coin. D, Making India Hindu, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007, P.271, [27] Lorenzen. British colonial construction of Hinduism occurred through categorising institutions such as censuses, and Christian Scholars utilised the generalisation of Hinduism in order to create a common religious antagonist due to their missionary nature. 4, October 1995, Vaidyanathan. Moor states that Brahma, now viewed as one of the most important deities of Hinduism, was not prevalent in Indian teachings. Due to recent efforts to dismantle caste in India the nature in which the caste system is altered can be exemplified in a different way. The only invention was the gathering of content under the definition of Hinduism. D.P. Pennington explains that, “Sometime between 1789 and 1832, the British perception of Hindu religious traditions underwent a seismic shift.”[11] This demonstrates that the modern understanding of Hinduism manifested during the British colonial period. Sanskrit was a useful political tool as it demonstrated a connection to the ancient religions of local populations. R, ‘Caste discrimination a British invention, bigger than steam engine’, in Daily News & Analysis, 26th February 2008, online, accessed on 5th March 2012, , [36] Narayan. A Hindu group never existed under a united religious identity, despite all the traditions of modern day Hinduism existing independently before British colonialism. This integration with Islam can be exemplified through the study of dress in Vijayanagara which is widely touted as a Hindu area. As Kind demonstrates, “the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act, section 2(1) defines a ‘Hindu’ as a category including not only all Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs but also anyone who is not a Muslim, a Christian, a Parsee or a Jew.” This categorises Hinduism as an “all-inclusive rubric for the non-Judaeo-Christian ‘Other’.”[22] This negative appellation demonstrates the invention of Hinduism as a religion (having been) defined by the ruling British, not by being but by not being an already existing unified religion. This work can be used for background reading and research, but should not be cited as an expert source or used in place of scholarly articles/books. 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. These conclusions are reinforced by observing the caste system, conclusions in this case that the caste system is part of the social content of Hinduism and therefore cannot be considered as having been invented by Europeans. J.H, ‘Caste in India’, American Anthropologist, Vol. C, ‘Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self:  Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-Colonial India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. amount, in any currency, is appreciated. When thinking of India it is hard not to think of caste. The most significant substantive contribution to Hinduism’s creation exist long before any British influence, and Lorenzen’s argument demonstrates the reduced relevance that British colonialism will have once it is not an aspect of recent history. A study into the existence of Hinduism before British intervention presents three conclusions with regard to whether Europeans invented Hinduism. In academic and common parlance alike, caste has become a central symbol for India, marking it as fundamentally different from other places while expressing its essence. 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. This is in support of the claim that multiple sources contributed to what was later generalised as the Hindu religion by British colonials. Dirks does not contend that caste was invented by the British. A. While this is arguably true this is a conclusion invented by Moor as opposed to divulged strictly from Hindu teaching. This essay will establish the extent to which Hinduism and the caste system can be considered a European invention. By Debjani Ganguly. The Orientalists such as William Jones and Edward Moor contributed through their academic systematisations and generalisations of Indian religion. Despite considerable association and integration with Islamic traditions in some areas of India, Sanskrit was still used as the one liturgical language used to demonstrate sovereignty despite the prevalence of other religions in India, notably Islam. British religion contributed to Hinduism’s invention by creating a coherent religious ‘other’ in relation to which Christianity could be viewed as superior. Nationalism in India emerged under colonial conditions, conditions that put Indian civilization itself on trial as the principal impediment to modernity and self-rule. The lack of religious coherence within the Hindu group is demonstrated by the fact that they did not view Islam in religious terms. 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. Aspects of ‘Hinduism’ before British colonialism to be observed will be its development from the Indus Valley, Hinduism’s tentative existence alongside Islam, and whether Hinduism existed in a religious form. Whereas the nineteenth century was the great century of imperial power, the most astonishing accomplishment of the twentieth century has been the struggle to consign colonial rule to the past tense. Journal of Historical Sociology, 24 (1): 27–44. E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team. 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. W, ‘Gods and Monsters’, in The Guardian, 25th August 2007, online, accessed on 4th March 2012, , David Kopf, ‘Hermeneutics versus History’, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. Problems arose however in his attempts at interpretation and assumptions on facts of Indian culture, Dalrymple for example notes that Jones, “passionately believed that the Hindus were a lost tribe of Egypt.”[19] This shows an earlier example of attempts to connect Indian culture to recognised ‘Western’ civilisation in the pursuit of Orientalists to legitimise Indian culture in the eyes of Western Christianity. 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. The Portuguese have been credited with the initial use of the termcastato refer to the social order of India, although according to at least one source the first use of the word was applied only to the lowest Indian classes in contradistinction to their overlords.¹ In the early sixteenth century, the traveller Duarte Barbosa reported some features of a caste order after extended stays in India, in particular on the basis of his stay in the great kingdom of Vijayanagara. of modernity was coloniality. Hinduism emerged in the encounter between modernity’s greatest colonial power, Great Britain, and the jewel of her imperial crown, India. In conclusion, while Hinduism as an appellation can be considered to be a colonial invention all of its content is the result of millennia of social and religious development. By doing so, we aim at submitting the logic of modernity to a post-colonial criticism. The ‘invention’ of Hinduism can be demonstrated by simply observing the contrast between modern day interpretations of Hinduism and pre-colonial European understanding of it. Nicholas Dirks argues that caste is, in fact, neither an unchanged survival of ancient India nor a single system that reflects a core cultural value. The third conclusion is that the Sanskrit language, which British scholars would use to generalise Hindus, is the liturgical language for many religious denominations where the majority have been generalised into Hinduism regardless of huge diversity between them. According to some accounts, Rajeev Goswami had initially only intended to stage a mock self-immolation; as soon as he struck a match his friends were supposed to have doused him with water, waiting only for a few photographs to be snapped. 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. The earliest significant civilisation of the Indus Valley was the Harappan civilisation which existed between 3000 and 1500 BCE. 41, No.4, October 1999, P.654, [28] Eaton. The caste system in India is an ancient part of Indian society. The modern term ‘Hindu’ more than likely derives from the name given to the people who lived in the areas surrounding the Indus River, located in what is now Pakistan. A. The first form of Hindu construction was that of the Orientalists, the primary examples being William Jones and Edward Moor. Before the 18th century, Indian culture was viewed as heathen. 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. 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. 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, P.702, [10] Orientalism and religion, Richard King, Routledge, London, 2006, P.99, [11] Pennington. Yet, Brahminical customs and way of life managed to spread not only among all Hindus but also among … An important aspect of Hinduism to emphasize to garner legitimisation in Western circles was elements of monotheism. languages. 4, October 1995, P.701, [8] Wagoner. The main conclusions drawn on the ‘invention’ of Hinduism by Europeans are twofold. 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]. It is, however, inevitable that the modern Caste situation is a direct descendant of the relatively recent events of British colonialism. God, thus adored, is called BRAHM: the One External Mind; the self-existing, incomprehensible Spirit.”[15] Considering that this statement is referring to the whole of Hindu culture, it can be considered an unreasonable generalisation. (2007). These observations means that the content existed before British colonialism at was at some point during the period generalised into Hinduism. Theory, Culture, and Society, 26 (7-8): 1-23. Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to At first glance this may seem like British orientalists were aware of the difference between the different religions that use the Sanskrit language. In Woman and Indian Modernity: Readings of Colonial and Postcolonial Novels, Nalini Natarajan, through readings of 20th century novels and (in some cases) their film versions, explores how ‘gender is reconstructed in the literary representations of modernity’ (p. 1). Although the putative divide between Muslims and Hindus became the more dominant colonial charge, caste division had been used throughout colonial history to explain India’s “lack” of politics, and when that did not work, to trivialize its politics as localistic, particularistic, and inherently divisive. While beseeching the Mughal emperor to treat them as a privileged vassal, they... History had not always been unimportant to the British in India. B.K, Was Hinduism invented?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, Porter. Log in to your personal account or through your institution. This argument is not as well supported as the argument that Hinduism was a British construction. The impact of colonial social and religious traditions on the invention of Hinduism was very significant. Some view it as an unchanged survival of Brahmanical traditions of India. revolution and nor was it a completely radical break with past tradition. This therefore would contribute to the conclusion that the concept of a unitary Hindu religion was, at some point, largely invented by British colonialists. Colonial social structures contributed by generalisations of Hinduism through bureaucratic means, and indigenous religious traditions contributed through their construction of Hinduism as a competitor to Christianity. 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 … No. 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. 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. The book also surveys the rise of caste politics in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the emergence of caste-based movements that have threatened nationalist consensus. Try logging in through your institution for access. Dirks does not contend that caste was invented by the British. Many thanks! The caste system also existed in a tangible social context, along with a purely religious context. 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. 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. 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. 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