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The Caste System in Statu Nascendi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

François Chenet
François Chenet*
Affiliation:
University of Paris-Sorbonne
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Within the realm of structures of society, the caste system, a unique example among all the aspects of human adventure, represents at the level of social morphology, that is in the manner of grouping characteristic of a society, India's most original contribution to human history within all great civilizations, to the point that India's civilization is generally identified by the principal feature of its morphology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 37 , Issue 148 , December 1989 , pp. 112 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 It is stated, for example, that in 1931 a group of Untouchables in the district of Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu), the Purada Vannan, was the object of public scorn and condemned to lead a nocturnal existence by the single fact that since they were launderers (dhobi) of the clothing of other Untouchables—the very height of abjection—the very sight of them was sufficient to defile any other Hindu. Moreover, the caste system is so firmly entrenched that Untouchables recognize untouchabili ty even among themselves. Certain Untouchables, if introjection is incorporation in an unconscious manner, introjected the system to the point of having to purify their dwelling after the visit of a Brahman, judged by them to be defiling! For the first example see J.H. Hutton, Caste in India. Its Nature. Function and Origins, London, Cambridge University Press, 1946, p. 71. It is still staated, for example, that bands of robbers or highway bandits (dacoits) roaming in certain areas are also organized into jati.

2 Quite indicative is the title of the work directed by L. Dumont's virulent oppo nent, E.R. Leach,. Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon and North-West Pakistan, Cambridge, 1960. The overview by D. Mandelbaum, Society in India, 2 vols., Ber keley, The University of California Press, 1970, summarizes these empirical, or rather "empiristic", approaches, to use L. Dumont's subtle distinction.

3 J.H. Hutton, op. cit., pp. 164-65.

4 Inaugural lecture at E.P.H.E., reprinted in La Civilisation indienne et nous, Ca hier des Annales No. 23, 1964, p. 89.

5 L. Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus, Gallimard, 1967, expanded re-edition, coll. "Tel", 1979, followed by Homo Aequalis I, Gallimard, 1977, second part of the diptych, and his Essais sur l'individualisme, Le Seuil 1983.

6 Inaugural lecture, ibid., p. 95.

7 We can measure the fertility of this conclusion by L. Dumont in the variety and scope of research that it has inspired and that in turn prove its validity. See T.N. Madan (ed.), Way of Life, King, Householder, Renouncer. Essays in Honour of Louis Dumont, Delhi, Vikas 1982, and Différences, valeurs, hiérarchie, essays in honor of L. Dumont collected by J.Cl. Galey, E.H.E.S.S., p. XX, XXI and XXIII.

8 Among the abundant and highly technical literature, special mention should be made of the remarkable work of J.L. Chambard on the village of Piparsod (Mad hya Pradesh), Atlas d'un village Indien, Mouton, 1980. It should be recalled that the population of a typical caste is generally between 5000 and 15,000 persons in a given area and that each village on the average in Northern India includes 10 jati (9 Hindus and 1 Muslim, except in rural Bengal where the situation is more fluid) and in Southern India from 15 to 20 (Kerala). Likewise, since the work of M.N. Srinivas a dominant caste or castes can be distinguished in each village that con trol(s) rights over the land and replace(s) the royal role at the village level, and ser vant castes (craftsmen and specialists, day-laborers, domestic help).

9 M. Biardeau, L'Hindouisme, anthropologie d'une civilisation, Flammarion, coll. "Champs", 1981, p. 10.

10 J. Baechler, La solution indienne. Essai sur les origines du régime des castes, P.U.F., coll. "Sociologies", 1988. This work is here designated by the abbrevia tion S.I.,

11 From his Origines du capitalisme (Gallimard, coll. "Idées", 1971), in which he already showed the essential role played by the political order in industrial de velopment, to Démocraties (Calmann-Lévy, coll. "Liberté de l'esprit", 1985), not to mention Le Pouvoir pur (Calmann-Lévy, coll. "Archives des sciences sociales", 1979) and his two articles "La Nourriture des hommes. Essai sur le Néolithique", Archives Européennes de Sociologie, t. XXIII, 1982, pp. 241-293 and "Aux origines de la modernité. Castes et féodalités: Europe, Inde, Japon", Archives Européennes de Sociologie, t. XXVII, pp. 31-57, a "plausible ‘histoire raisonnée'" ("La Nour riture des Hommes", p. 242; cf. La solution indienne, p. 8) has always been a key objective in the work of J. Baechler.

12 S.I, p. 189.

13 That so-called traditional societies are not static and mental in origin, accord ing to the structuralist hypothesis, but that to the contrary they are historical and political has been made clear by G. Balandier, for example, in the case of African societies. On the question of the mode of historicity proper to traditional societies, see G. Balandier, Anthropologiques, 1974, new ed. 1985, chap. IV, "Tradition, conformité, historicité". On the question of determining the proper place for a his tory of India, see the two articles by J. Pouchepadass, "India" in the Dictionnaire des sciences historiques under the direction of A. Burguière, P.U.F., 1986, and "En seigner la civilisation de l'Inde", Historiens et Géographes, no. 297 (Dec. 1983), pp. 421-437.

14 S.I, pp. 64, 142, 194.

15 O. Herrenschmidt, "L'Inde et le sous-continent indien", Ethnologie Régio nale II, Encyclopédie de la Pléiade 1978, p. 163.

16 For the Purusasukta. Rig Veda X.90 see P. Mus, "Où finit Purusa?", Mélanges d'indianisme à la mémoire de L. Renou, 1968, pp. 539-563.

17 S.I, p. 182.

18 O. Herrenschmidt, ibid., p. 174.

19 Max Weber, Essais sur la théorie de la science, French tr. by J. Freund, Paris, Plon, 1965, p. 319.

20 S.I., for example p. 147: "the disqualification of the morphology (kingdom or empire) that normally should have prevailed…".

21 S.I., p. 95.

22 J. Baechler carefully notes the insurmountable obstacles—geographic, climat ic and political—that have continuously arisen, century after century, on the path to imperialization. S.I., pp. 89-93.

23 It is not by chance that in Greece democracy, as "realm of the word", appeared and flourished in City States whose narrow territory was only a few square kilome ters in area.

24 S.I., pp. 78, 85-86, 107, 134.

25 S.I., p. 53.

26 S.I., p. 133.

27 S.I., p. 9.

28 S.I., pp. 136 and 194.

29 S.I., p. 131.

30 S.I., p. 60.

31 S.I., pp. 59-65.

32 This is the very presupposition at work in Démocraties, for example, p. 31.

33 S.I., p. 166.

34 R. Ruyer, Les Nourritures psychiques, Calmann-Lévy, coll. "Liberté de l'esprit", 1975, chap. XI: "Économie matérielle et économie psychique", pp. 137, 148.

35 It is not possible to envisage the extended family as psychosocial matrix of Hin du infancy. See S. Kakar, Moksha, le monde intérieur, enfance et société en Inde, Les Belles Lettres 1985, and L. Kapani and F. Chenet, "India and the Risk of Psy choanalysis", Diogenes, No. 135, Fall 1986, pp. 63-78.

36 S.I., p. 140.

37 J. Baechler makes a very brief allusion to this. S.I., p. 60 and pp. 140-141.

38 D. Riesman, The Lonely Crowd, Yale University Press, 1950.

39 Démocraties, p. 11.

40 "La Nourriture des Hommes", p. 283.

41 S.I., p. 60.

42 O. Herrenschmidt, loc. cit., p. 239.

43 Cfr. S.I., pp. 53, 71, 174, 187-188. In all of these remarks there is an odor of an opium of the people and clichés about its soporofic power.

44 S.I., pp. 68-69.

45 S.I., ibid., p. 68.

46 S.I., p. 137.

47 O. Herrenschmidt, loc. cit., p. 91. The Vedic definition of man, which we referred to earlier, is essential in this respect. On this subject see the splendid ana lyses by Ch. Malamoud in Cuire le monde, La Découverte, 1989, p. 8 and pp. 105-106.

48 S.I., p. 184.

49 S.I., p. 113.

50 See the article by T.Parsons' disciple E. Tiryakan, "Le mythologue et le so ciologue", G. Dumézil, Cahier pour un temps, 1981, pp. 83-100.

51 J. Cazeneuve, La Raison d'être, 1981, chap. I, "La leçon des insectes sociaux", p. 30.

52 S.I, p. 65.

53 See D. Dubuisson, "Structure sociale et structure idéologique: l'apport de G. Dumézil", G. Dumézil, op. cit., pp. 147-158.

54 G. Dumézil, Rituels indo-européens, 1954, p. 7 (n. 19), p. 23.

55 L. Dumont in Entretiens avec Le Monde, Vol. 4: Civilisations, p. 207.

56 S.I., p. 194.