The Indian Caste System: Apartheid’s Big Brother

The Indian Caste System: Apartheid’s Big Brother

By

Ross Dix-Peek

I have always found the Indian Caste system to be an almighty blight upon the history of humanity, and yet it always seems to evade vehement criticism and censure. This is rather amazing, considering that the Indian caste system pre-dates the genesis of Apartheid by over two millennia, and still thrives to this day. Politicians, activists and apologists forever proffer Apartheid as the most infamous example of segregation, together with the European Slave Trade, and Colonialism , and yet conveniently choose to forget or avoid uncomfortable truths: among these the Arab Slave Trade, which lasted over a thousand years, and in essence still continues today, in Darfur, and the Indian caste System. Why is that?


Caste is defined thus ( according to the Oxford Dictionary): “Any of the main four divisions of Hindu Society, originally those made according to functions in society.”Foremost are to be found the Brahmins, or the sacerdotal class; followed hierarchically by the Kshatrya or Chuttree (the Military class); the Vaisya, or commercial class, and the Sudras, the servile class, also known as the “Untouchables”. These distinct sections of society can trace their origin back to the Laws of Menu, a very ancient code found in India. The Laws of Menu are said to date from at least 449 B.C., which in essence means that codified laws supporting segregation in a most complex and nefarious form, were practiced in India , at least two and a half thousand years ago! Galling, when one considers that India is also the birthplace of other gross violations of human rights, including the “Thuggee Cult” (whence derives the English word “Thug”), organized and fanatical murderers who considered their many victims, fellow Indians, as sacrifices to their gods, among them Kali, the Goddess of war, and the bloodthirsty wife of Siva (how charming!); the system of ‘Suttee”, which is the killing, through immolation, of a deceased husband’s widow (how barbaric!) and Infanticide, the deliberate murder of millions of innocent females, mere babes, in favour of male offspring, in other words, sons (how civilized!).


And yet, amazingly, very few people, are even aware of the existence, let alone the origins and history of these vile systems, while supposed sentinels of Human Right’s violations, namely the U.N. and other “August” bodies, including Indians themselves, have not, it seems, bleated even a murmur in protest thereof! Where are the legions of activists who assailed the blight that was apartheid? Why are they not frothing at the mouth in absolute disgust over the system of caste, a despicable form of segregation that, in comparison, truly makes apartheid, and other malevolent misdeeds , seem benign. It is interesting to note, that it was Muhatma Gandhi who apparently said, one could tell a country by the way it treats its animals. In the country of his birth, India, a cow is sacred, while legions of Indians, human beings, still live in culturally-endorsed slavery to this day.
Why is that censure is indeed selective?
Why is it that India, together with other nations, has escaped scrutiny, while other countries have been deemed Pariahs?
Again, hypocrisy reigns supreme!