An important post from the new HC list:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From: "neelakandanaravindan" <neelakandanaravindan@...>
Date: Mon Mar 20, 2006Â 10:51 am
Subject: Caste-Colonialism-Capital and Dalits of Christian Germany Witzelian FatherlandÂ
Often Hinduism is criticized for its so-called rigid social stratification. The 'Caste' system has often been called the bane of Hindu society and some critics have gone to the extent of stating that this is the defining feature of Hinduism setting it apart from 'egalitarian' traditions like Christianity and Islam. Such critics of Hinduism also quote various Smrithis including Manu Smrithi. <b>However, such social-stratification with divine sanction can be seen everywhere. </b><b>In Europe as well as in Islamic countries such birth-based social stratification with demeaning position for certain manual professions have existed </b>and they have been justified with divine sanctions. Then how come today rigid 'caste' structure exists only in India. Answer lies in colonialism and capital drain. With colonial expansion of Europe, Europeans spread over three continents completely destroying the natives there. In this extermination of races the 'promised land' imagery set the framework for interacting with native cultures. Africa, or America or Australia was envisaged by white settelers as the cannaites and were supposed to be exterminated by the 'divine will'. <b>In association with this there was a tremendous capital creation which ushered in indutrial revolution and capitalism. All these helped Europe affordable to shift from birth-based divinely sanctioned social stratification to a class structured society. </b>Nevertheless vestiges remain. <b>But in the case of India, there was considerable capital drain during the corresponding period coupled with a colonial administration seeking to freeze the social stratification limiting all social mobility vertically and horizontally. </b>Yet i<b>t is to the credit of Hindu nationalism that soical stratification has been challenged even amidst capital drain which tends to make the society rigid and hinder social changes. </b>Varna is altogether different and can be seen as theoretical view of the functioning of society whether is caste based or class based.
This is my view of why the so-called caste still remains in India. i feel further convinced of this thesis with the publication of the following important book that deals with -<b>Dalits in the Christian Germany of Michael Witzel's ancestors- :</b>
<i>"Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany"</i>( Series: Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History) <b>author: Kathy Stuart </b>published by University of California, Davis.
<b>This book presents a social and cultural history of ââ¬Ëdishonourable peopleââ¬â¢ (unehrliche Leute), an outcast group in early modern Germany. Executioners, skinners, grave-diggers, shepherds, barber- surgeons, millers, linen-weavers, sow-gelders, latrine-cleaners, and bailiffs were among the ââ¬Ëdishonourableââ¬â¢ by virtue of their trades. </b>This dishonour was either hereditary, often through several generations, or it arose from ritual pollution whereby honourable citizens could become dishonourable by coming into casual contact with members of the outcast group. The dishonourable milieu of the city of Augsburg from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries is reconstructed to show the extent to which dishonour determined the life-chances and self-identity of dishonourable people. The book then investigates how honourable estates interacted with dishonourable people, and how the pollution anxieties of early modern Germans structured social and political relations within honourable society.
URL: http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/cata...isbn=0521027217
i request Sri Kalyanji to make sure Ms.Sandhya Jain gets this important publication. Its publication is due this March.
S.an<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From: "neelakandanaravindan" <neelakandanaravindan@...>
Date: Mon Mar 20, 2006Â 10:51 am
Subject: Caste-Colonialism-Capital and Dalits of Christian Germany Witzelian FatherlandÂ
Often Hinduism is criticized for its so-called rigid social stratification. The 'Caste' system has often been called the bane of Hindu society and some critics have gone to the extent of stating that this is the defining feature of Hinduism setting it apart from 'egalitarian' traditions like Christianity and Islam. Such critics of Hinduism also quote various Smrithis including Manu Smrithi. <b>However, such social-stratification with divine sanction can be seen everywhere. </b><b>In Europe as well as in Islamic countries such birth-based social stratification with demeaning position for certain manual professions have existed </b>and they have been justified with divine sanctions. Then how come today rigid 'caste' structure exists only in India. Answer lies in colonialism and capital drain. With colonial expansion of Europe, Europeans spread over three continents completely destroying the natives there. In this extermination of races the 'promised land' imagery set the framework for interacting with native cultures. Africa, or America or Australia was envisaged by white settelers as the cannaites and were supposed to be exterminated by the 'divine will'. <b>In association with this there was a tremendous capital creation which ushered in indutrial revolution and capitalism. All these helped Europe affordable to shift from birth-based divinely sanctioned social stratification to a class structured society. </b>Nevertheless vestiges remain. <b>But in the case of India, there was considerable capital drain during the corresponding period coupled with a colonial administration seeking to freeze the social stratification limiting all social mobility vertically and horizontally. </b>Yet i<b>t is to the credit of Hindu nationalism that soical stratification has been challenged even amidst capital drain which tends to make the society rigid and hinder social changes. </b>Varna is altogether different and can be seen as theoretical view of the functioning of society whether is caste based or class based.
This is my view of why the so-called caste still remains in India. i feel further convinced of this thesis with the publication of the following important book that deals with -<b>Dalits in the Christian Germany of Michael Witzel's ancestors- :</b>
<i>"Defiled Trades and Social Outcasts Honor and Ritual Pollution in Early Modern Germany"</i>( Series: Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History) <b>author: Kathy Stuart </b>published by University of California, Davis.
<b>This book presents a social and cultural history of ââ¬Ëdishonourable peopleââ¬â¢ (unehrliche Leute), an outcast group in early modern Germany. Executioners, skinners, grave-diggers, shepherds, barber- surgeons, millers, linen-weavers, sow-gelders, latrine-cleaners, and bailiffs were among the ââ¬Ëdishonourableââ¬â¢ by virtue of their trades. </b>This dishonour was either hereditary, often through several generations, or it arose from ritual pollution whereby honourable citizens could become dishonourable by coming into casual contact with members of the outcast group. The dishonourable milieu of the city of Augsburg from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries is reconstructed to show the extent to which dishonour determined the life-chances and self-identity of dishonourable people. The book then investigates how honourable estates interacted with dishonourable people, and how the pollution anxieties of early modern Germans structured social and political relations within honourable society.
URL: http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/cata...isbn=0521027217
i request Sri Kalyanji to make sure Ms.Sandhya Jain gets this important publication. Its publication is due this March.
S.an<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->