Social philosophy of Swami Vivekananda

by Baruah Debajit | 2017 | 87,227 words

This study deals with Swami Vivekananda’s social philosophy and his concept of religion. He was the disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Important subjects are discussed viz., nature of religion, reason and religion, goal of religion, religious experience, ways to God, etc. All in the context of Vivekananda....

Chapter 2.1c - Social Reforms: Caste Problem

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[Summary: Social Reforms of Swami Vivekananda (c): Caste Problem]

Vivekananda, did not try to abolish caste from the India society. Rather he praised the caste system of India. He says “caste is a very good thing. Caste is the plan we want to follow.”^[1] He again says “Though our caste and our institutions are apparently linked with our religion they are not so. These institutions have been necessary to protect us as nation and when this necessity for selfpreservation will no more exist;they will die a natural death.”^[2] In religions there is no caste. A man from the lowest may become a monk in India, and the two castesbecome equal. Vivekananda says that caste is a social custom and it is not religious institution. He criticized all the great preachers of India who have tried to break it down. He says “beginning from Buddha down to Ram Mohan Ray every one made the mistake of holding caste to be a religious institution and tried to pull down religion and caste all together, and failed.”^[3]

Social stratification is found in every society. Stratification or gradation means a process by which the people and the groups are classified in a hierarchy from the standpoint of social status. Every society categories its members in many ways. Every society provides some opportunity to its members so that they may effect change in their social status. A society which offers opportunity in that way is called open class system. There are, however societies which does not offer any opportunity and favour any movement from one class to another and this type of society is known as closed class system. Hence, the social system is of two kinds. One is open class system and the other is closed class system. In a closed class system individuals have no scope for movement from one class to another. The modern Indian caste system is an example of this type of social system. In a closed class system, the social status of the individual is predetermined. Again, individual gets the status by birth. Such class is closed caste.

Thus we can say that the caste system in modern India is a close class system which does not favour any movement from one class to another class.

We now have a look to the origin of Indian caste system and Varnasharma dharma. The word ‘Vamashrama’ is a combination two words ‘varna’ and ‘asrama’. The word ‘Varna’ means colour or class, and ‘asrama’ meansa stage of life. And the word ‘Dharma’ indicates duty or right conduct of an individual. Hence the phrase ‘Varnasramadharma’ means the duties of the different stages of life of the four classes of people. Indian History tells us that originally the people of India had only two colours, fair and dark. The Aryan who had come to India fromsomewhere in Central Asia was fair complexioned. While the aborigines of the country were rather dark. There were originally two classes in India. One of them was the Aryans and the other were the natives of the country. But ‘Varnasharma’ in its earlier use meant the different stages of life of the four classes of people Brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya and sudra. These four together constituted society. However, in its later use, the word meant for four castes having these four names. This four-fold organization of Vedic society later became the caste system of Indian society. Each of four classes was determined by its peculiar social function. One who was pure in heart and intellectually alert could become Brahmana. One who was physically strong enough to take part in the defence as well as administration of the country became a Kshatriya. Those who were expert in trade and commerce became Vaisyas. Those who lived only by serving or only to serve the other classes were called the Shudras. This four-fold organization of the Vedic society had a scientific basis that to organize society on division of labour. There was a stage of the Vedic people when there was no functional division among them. Even the Rig Veda points to this stage. At that time individuals, especially the heads of the families which are said to have been patriarchal in type, did all sorts of work.

Production of food, family worship and defence of the homeland etc. were included in their work. But as the time went on, the circumstances in which they lived became complex. It became too difficult for one man to do multifarious works. At this time arose the need to organize society on division of labour. Those who had the aptitude for earning wisdom and worship were grouped into one class. This class was called the Brahmins. Those who were physically fitted for defence of land were entrusted with this work and were called Kshatriyas. A third class of people had their allotted task, that of producing food and wealth and were called the -Vaisyas. The fourth class was formed by the Shudras. These Shudras were the aborigines absorbed in the Aryan society. They were just labourers. Their only duty was to serve the other three classes. Then it was efficient socio-economic order, based on division of labour.

This four-fold organization of Vedic society was maintained also in order to avoid unnecessary competitions among the members of the society. New individuals came into three upper classes in virtue of the requisite qualities they possessed. But now the classes petrified. The process of their formation by proper quality stopped since the emphasis was now laid upon birth. That to say, the class, on individual belonged to, come to be determined by birth, not as before, by quality.

Vivekananda analysed the caste system by handling the source of its origin. He observed that, “No caste in Satya juga, all Brahmans. We read in the Mahabharata that the whole World was in the beginning peopled with Brahmins, and that as they began to degenerate, they became divided into different castes and that when the cycle turns round, they will all go back to that Brahmanical origin. This cycle is turning round now, I draw your attention to this fact.”^[4] Thus in origin all were Brahmins. He observed even after formation of four fold organization of Vedic society, there was an organic relation between the upper classes. One class was incomplete or ineffective without the others. One class was higher than another, but not superior to another. The transition from class to caste could be effected only by shifting the emphasis from quality to birth, that is, making birth, the standard of social rank.

According to Vivekananda caste system has created an efficient organization of society. Butthis caste system must not create class frictions and factions. It must be based on the efficiency of the individual to adopt a particular business. It must not be rigid which ultimately leads the society to untouchism. Vivekananda explained and analysed all circumstances from the point of view of Vedanta. Vedanta states that we all are eternal spirit irrespective of our caste, class and sex. At bottom all are one. Caste system is ought to be avoided when it is based on birth. It rises to a setup that one class is superior to other. Superior neglects and hates the inferior. It is said already that Vivekananda is not in favour of total and permanent abolition of the caste system. According to him total breakdown of caste system neither desirable nor practicable. He opines that one of the causes of India’s down fall is to give up the actual meaning and role of a caste to formulate a healthy society on the basis of inherent quality. In India it is a great evil, grinding the poor through caste. Vivekananda dearly states untouchism, restriction which is based on negligence and hatred in no way related to actual caste system. Caste system is a social organization for the development of the whole society.

Vivekananda opined that liberty is the condition of growth and according to the quality of the individual each individual must have liberty to serve for society. He never upholds that caste system is based on heredity. There should not be any privileges depending on heredity. What he accepts is the original four-fold division of labour of Vedic period in accordance with quality of the individual. In his view India fall because it prevailed and abolished caste, from proper functioning. Vivekananda warned us not to mix castism (in its deviate form) with religion to justify its validity. No religious scripture asserts that some portions of human beings are inferior to others. All religions.declare that all human being are divine, even divinity of animals or plant kingdom. We all are jivas, reflection of Brahman. Caste is not a religious institution. Considering caste as religious institution is a great mistake. In this regard Jawaharlal Nehru had commented, “Passionately, Vivekananda condemned the meaningless discussion and arguments about ceremonials and especially the touch me-notism of the upper caste. Our religion is in the kitchen. Our God is the cooking pot, and our religion is “don’t touch me, I am holy”^[5] Vivekananda declares, “Don’t touchism is a form of mental disease.”^[6] Therefore it should be kicked away.

Vivekananda believed that real caste is individuality, a way to express its latent potentiality. It is not a predetermined factor by patriarchy. According to Vivekananda that forgetting the actual role and meaning of caste system we put a narrow sense to it. Vivekananda observed that the transition from class to caste in Hindu society was a derivation from the path of reason. Towards the end of the Rig Vedic period the transformation of class into caste was complete, that the status and rank of an individual was determined solely by birth. Families were now fixed up as Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra families and individual born into them were respectively called so. These castes, as they were called now, were put in a hierarchy with the Brahman at the top and Sudra at the base, and every caste was considered inferior to one or ones which were above it. In course of social evolution the emphasis was shifted to difference rather than on the organic relation between them, with the result that fourfold order ceases to be dynamic.

Now discuss how Vivekananda tried to reform the caste system in India. Among the four castes Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishay and Shudra, the Brahmans are recognized as the highest class. The rest three classes are lower than Brahmin. The Brahmins are the highest, then comes the Kshatriya, then the Vishay and the lowest is the Shudra. In India, says Vivekananda,if we read the history of it we will find that attempts have always been made to raise the lower classes to the higher and then to the highest class i.e. Brahmin. The plan in India is to make everybody a Brahmin, the Brahmin being the ideal of humanity. Our ideal is the Brahmin of spiritual culture and emancipation. According to Vivekananda ideal Brahman hood is that in which worldliness is altogether absent and true wisdom is abundantly present. A Brahmin is he who has killed all selfishness and who lives and works to acquire and propagate wisdom and the power of love.

Vivekananda in the traditional style says that the son of a Brahmin is not necessarily always a Brahmin though there is every possibility of his being Brahmin, he may not become so. According to him the Brahmin caste and the Brahmanya qualities are two distinct things. Vivekananda says as there are Satta, Rajas and Tamas-one or other of these gunas more or less in every man, so the qualities which make a Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra are inherent in every man; more or less. But at times one or other these qualities Predominates in him in varying degrees and it is manifested accordingly. Naturally it is quite possible for one to be changed from one caste into another. Vivekananda refers here to Vishwamitra, a Kshatriya who became a Brahmin and Parashurama, a Brahmin, who became a Kshatriya.

The solution of the caste problem is not by bringing down the higher to the level of the lower, but by raising the lower up to the level of the higher. And in his view it is the duty of the Brahmin to raise the lower classes to their standard. For this they must work hard. He says “our solution of the caste questions is not degrading those who are already high up, is not running amuck through food and drink, is not jumping out of our own limits in order to have more enjoyment, but it comes by everyone of us, fulfilling the dictates of our Vedantic religion, by our attaining spirituality, and by our becoming the ideal Brahman.”^[7] This lines of Vivekananda directly shows us that he wanted to establish a society in India which would be inhabited by the Brahmins. And to become a Brahmins means attaining spirituality or realizing our divine nature. And, if everyone become Brahmin in any society then that society will be perfect. He says that if a country is inhabited by such Brahmin, it is not strange to think that, that country as being above and beyond all law. Government is not necessary to govern them. Because everyone is good, everyone is noble.

Vivekananda boldly declared that sound and healthy four-fold organization of society has turned and degraded to just a separation. According to Vivekananda it is out of spiritual tyranny of the priesthood and the ever increasing ceremonials. He fought against such separation and to pick up caste system as a mean for social mobility and progress. At last by following Vivekananda we can say, “Such is our ideal of caste as meant for raising all humanity slowly and gently towards the realization of that great ideal of the spiritual man who is non-resting, calm, steady, worshipful, pure and meditative. In that ideal there is God.”^[8]