Dharma

Dharma and Caste

Caste is often misunderstood as being simply the Indian social counterpart—albeit more pronounced and deplored—of class. However, as Louis Dumont has argued, caste has deeply religious and hence heavy moral and ethical dimensions that are [Page 410]enmeshed with concerns of purity and pollution, which are also hierarchized so that the highest caste is considered the most pure and the lowest the most polluted; those who fall outside caste categorization, such as tribal people, are considered beyond the pale altogether. In this, the proper observation of dharma formerly—in ancient times and as canonized in texts of the Veda—almost exclusively meant the proper execution of ritual karma, and this was the exclusive domain of Brahmins (the priest caste). Hence, it also had moral weight and consequences, and the relation between dharma and karma were extrapolated in the later Upanishads wherein proper or improper observation of dharma had the karmic consequence of rebirth into a high or low caste respectively, or ideally, moksha (salvation) from samsara. Thus, dharma connotes considerable moral weight regarding the caste identity that a person bears. Since early in the 20th century, when much agitation for national independence was under way, those at the lowest end, once called Untouchables and now termed Dalit (“oppressed”), have also been campaigning in creative ways to resolve their innumerable difficulties. As their situation pertains to the matter of dharma, conversion to Buddhism, Islam, or Christianity has been one means of resolution and one that entails total rejection of the system in which dharma is embedded. Conversely, resort has been made to a tradition called Adi Dharm, an ideology in which Dalits assert their identity as the indigenes of India and thereby carry the originary and hence more legitimate religion: the first dharma. In this philosophy, it is Vedic Aryans—Brahmins (priests), Kshatriya (warriors and kings), and Vaishyas (producers)—who are the usurpers, because they invaded India, destroyed Adi Dharm, forced caste on the inhabitants, and then codified their degradation and servitude.

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