Question प्रश्न 38

वर्णवाद और जातिवाद   

Classes in the Society,

and the Castism.

Question प्रश्न  :

Compare the attributes of the जाति / "the Caste", and the वर्ण / "the varNa".

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Answer : उत्तर :

The verbal roots of  words Cast and Society could be treated as the cognate of and traced from the Sanskrit origin as : शास्त शोषयति शोषयति इति 

The Vedika approach towards these is as under :

वर्ण वर्ग व्यवसाय जाति।।

गुण कर्म आजीविका ख्याति।।

Accordingly all life-forms according to their respective origin have their birth in specific Yoni and prompted by their qualities behave accordingly. The  गुण / guNa denotes गुणसूत्र / the genome, - the genetic  origin. Genome further could be traced to Sanskrit root √जन् जन्म, जाति, जनयति But the humans are given with a quite different aspect of consciousness that is the attribute of contemplation, the quality  √मन् मन्यते and this enables him to think and associate the spoken words and sounds with ther words and sense. So man is capable of translating a word into yet another word, though the word itself has no sense at all. For example, the word 'water' is such word that has a sense and the sense could be shared by different words in different languages like  वात / वात्र / जल / आप / नीर / अम्बु  all denote the same substance and the material. But the word 'God' has no such intrinsic sense at all, and though translated into many other languages, the sense could not be conveyed at all  enough well through any of these many words. The simple reason is : 'God' is an idea only, an imaginary word given to something neither felt, experienced nor known through senses. 'Sense' means : the physical bodily senses / organs like the eyes, ears, nose, touch or taste.

These 5 senses are less or more of use to all sentient beings. But only the man is an exception and has invented and developed 'thought' and 'language'. The two are though the two aspects of the same phenomenon, we tend to believe that somehow the two are related to each-other.

The language and the thought, no doubt greatly help in communicating the idea and the sense well enough, sometimes do fail in communicating the exact and true sense and the assumed meaning of the spoken word.

This indicates that the birth of spoken language is based upon the phonetics. Here, 

पातञ्जल योग-सूत्र / Patanjala Yoga-Sutra is of great help.

विभूतिपाद :

शब्दार्थप्रत्ययानामितरेतराध्यासात् संकरस्तत्प्रविभागसंयमात् सर्वभूतरुतज्ञानम्।।१७।।

संस्कारसाक्षात्करणात् पूर्वजातिज्ञानम्।।१८।।

प्रत्ययस्य परचित्तज्ञानम्।।१९।।

न च तत्सालम्बनं तस्याविषयीभूतत्वात्।।२०।।

The direct sense of the above aphorisms point out the  "रुत" - as is in "सर्वभूतरुत" -  the Phonetics of all the creatures.

I'm not surprised in the least, that the word "root" in the English is indeed the  cognate  / सज्ञात / अपभ्रंश of the word "रुत" in Sanskrit, as the sense, meaning and Phonetics are the same. 

The very next aphorism points out the  "जाति" / the species.

Aphorism 19 suggests that according to the apparent gestures the sense प्रत्यय of the spoken word as is in the mind चित्त of the other person or the creature could be grasped and understood. But may not the object that caused the word, and is there in the mind of the other.

(I think this has become a bit clumsy, so please get at at the point.)

Now let us again come to the वर्ण, वर्ग, व्यवसाय (आजीविका), जाति :

चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः।।

तस्य कर्तारमपि विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम्।।१३।।

(Chapter 4, verse 13)

Though according to the attributes like The गुण guNa कर्म karma, Creator created the four-fold "varNa", He is neither the doer nor gets stained with this his act of creation of the universe and its various attributes.

न मे कर्माणि लिम्पन्ति न मे कर्मफले स्पृहा।।

इति मां योऽभिजानाति कर्मभिर्न स बध्यते।।१४।।

(Chapter 14, verse 14)

In conclusion, in what-so-ever caste or  the "जाति" one is born, one at the same time has also a"varNa" according to the inherent tendencies only, but may not according to the race, clan, creed, or even the species.

The way of earning one's livelihood is also likewise according to the inherent "varNa".

In Mathematical Statistics, During my  graduation and post graduation studies I learned about :

"Association of Attributes"

If that may be a criteria, I would like to say that the "Caste and varNa" are totally mutually independent attributes.

Therefore saying that :

Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra is a "Caste" is not only misleading but also politically motivated opinion.

"Caste" is an attribute, - exclusively a professional class, while the "varNa" is an all-inclusive attribute. 

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