The Correlation of Gender, Race and Caste System in the Society

Caste, class and gender are inextricably linked, they interact with and shape each other. Inequality is practiced using the system of marriage, reproduction and sexuality. Louis Dumont defines caste system as a system of consensual values; a set of values accepted by both the dominant and the dominated (Chakravarti, 2003). Uma Chakravarti argues that this definition is popular because it is convenient for the upper castes as it erases their own location within the hierarchical structure (Chakravarti, 2003). Ambedkar’s formulation of caste system is a system of ‘graded inequality’ in which castes are arranged according to an ascending scale of reverence and descending scale of contempt. This means that status and power increases with the upward movement in the scale and decreases as one goes down the scale because the lower castes have no power and are considered to be dirty and polluting. She argues that those who own the means of production have also tried to dominate the means of symbolic production. Thus, manipulating rules and regulations in their favour, so that the lower castes have no say. However, many members among the lower castes have tried to question their subordination and oppression. For example, Veeramma from Tamil Nadu. Gail Omvedt talks about caste as a material reality with a material base (Chakravarti, 2003). To understand the relationship between caste and class, it is important to recognize the two hierarchies that are present in the Indian context, one based upon the ritual purity with the Brahmana on top and the other based upon the political and economic status with the landlord at the top.

Endogamy plays an important role in the functioning of the caste system. Each caste has a specific position in the social ladder and the maintenance of this position depends upon the distinctiveness and separation from other groups that the caste group maintains and this can be ensured only through the practice of endogamy. Another reason for the preference of endogamy is that it ritualises female sexuality as the key to maintain the bounded nature of each group. Endogamous marriage is the norm of the Indian subcontinent. It is primarily because caste system, as it operates in India, expects to maintain separation in terms of purity and pollution. Therefore, a caste group in order to remain separate from other caste groups and maintain its social status, practices endogamous marriages i.e. marriages within one’s community. This also explains the relationship between caste and gender. According to Gayle Rubin, exchange of women in marriages shows that men have rights over their women and women do not have the same rights over their men. It is a system in which women do not have full rights to themselves. (Chakravarti, 2003). According to Uma Chakravarthi, after marriages the sexuality of women belongs the members of the family into which she is married and to the caste of the family. Eventually women herself becomes the property of the caste group of the family. Thus, resulting in her subordination.

Arranged marriages is preferred in India because endogamy is practiced in India. According to this two people belonging to the same gotra or pratisib cannot marry. Marriage is entered into and performed to ensure the immortality, continuation and purity of the male lineage or vamsa. Marriage is regarded as vital to the maintenance of one’s caste status. Therefore, marriage practices are inextricably linked to hierarchy. It is the purity of its practices that yields hierarchy. When a virgin woman is being gifted in marriage, it is not just her sexuality but also her matr shakti(femaleness) and her procreative power that is being gifted. The matr shakti is given to a man in order to start a lineage. Thus, women have to leave their gotra and vamsa they are born into and take up the new gotra and vamsa. Thus, the position of a man is fixed whereas women keep changing lines.

Since the central aim of marriage is procreation, it is children born of such union who carry the lineage forward. Therefore, purity of both the parents is highly important. Therefore, arranged endogamous marriages becomes important. Under Brahminical patriarchy, upper caste women are considered as gateways to the caste system. Caste system is maintained through controlling the sexuality of women. According to Uma Chakravarti, there are three ways of controlling the sexuality of women- pativrata or stridharma, violence perpetuated against them and control of the kings. The author opines that of all the three modes of control, pativrata is the best creation of the Indian system, where a woman controls her own sexuality. The mixing of lower caste blood and upper caste blood is strictly prohibited. Miscegeny or varnasamkara or hypogamous relationships represents break down of the social order and leads to pollution of one’s caste group. Thus, Brahminical patriarchy is obsessed with controlling female sexuality and ensuring the reproduction of pure blood.

The need to control female sexuality emerged with private ownership of property, prior to which female sexuality was accepted as can be seen in the images of mother goddess. According to Uma Chakravarti, in hunting-gathering societies, there were images of women collecting fruits and engaged in small games with two children hung on their backs. They were also depicted as combining their work with their roles as mothers. Thus, there was no rigid sexual division of labour. It can be said that although the roles of men and women were different they were not unequal. There was interdependency between the two.

An interesting aspect of control over the sexuality of woman was that women’s strisvabhava (innate nature) was in conflict with her dharma. This was not the case with other subordinated groups like the shudras. The innate nature of the lower castes was in harmony with their dharma prescribed by the brahmins i.e. to serve the upper castes. The innate nature of women as sexual beings was in conflict with their stridharma of fidelity to the husband.

As stated earlier, controlling the sexuality of upper caste women was highly important for maintenance of caste purity. The pre-pubertal marriage of the upper caste girls was again an important aspect of the caste purity. This was done so that the unpolluted womb of the wife becomes the sexual property of her husband. One of the main differences between upper castes and lower castes that can be observed today relates to widowhood. Widowhood among the upper castes’ women meant social death. A husband-less wife and especially a childless mother was not even considered a woman. She was expelled from the household and from the family unit. The main problem of widow in Brahminical structure is that a woman has no identity outside of her husband and her relationship with the husband was defined by reproduction, therefore, post her husband’s death an upper caste woman loses her identity. Most of the women end their existence with their husbands by jumping into the funeral pyre of their husbands.

Conversely, women of the lower castes did not suffer social death. There were varying practices of widow remarriage that was practiced by them. Among the jats in Haryana and Marathas in western India, a secondary marriage with distinctive rituals was permitted. The loss of a husband did not create the kind of panic and fear that could be seen among the upper castes. Women of the lower castes need not pray to be a sumangali all their lives as opposed to the upper caste women. There are many other examples of lower castes from other parts of India.

The upper castes did not stop the lower caste ritual of remarriage. They used it to maintain their ritual purity. It was one way of multiplying the labouring caste. The difference in widow marriage and widow mating patterns between upper and lower castes suggests that there are different patriarchies within different caste groups which are included within the broader framework of Brahminical patriarchy. It was a single framework which linked, caste, gender, and land control together. It included both the brahminised upper as well as less brahminised middle and lower castes. There were some castes which practiced hypergamy where a lower caste woman is married to an upper caste man thus enabling the woman’s caste to move up in the hierarchy (marriages among Namboodiris in Kerala). Other than such marriages, the upper caste men also had sexual unions with women of the lower caste for example the devadasi system. Upper caste men used dasis because they had material power over the dasis. Women of lower castes were not considered grihinis or family women like the upper caste women.

Kancha Illiah has pointed out that the possession or non-possession of material resources, in particular, in the form of property makes for fundamental differences between the lower caste and upper caste women. (Chakravarti, 2003). The lower castes by and large do not own property; therefore, they have to provide labour which includes both women and children. Upper caste women on the other hand have no such function. The only function of an upper caste women is reproduction. Thus, they only have to provide sexual labour. Their domestic management is highly important for the maintenance of caste purity. The domestic work of the upper castes’ women is not counted as productive labour and lower castes productive work is devalued by the caste system. Dalit thinkers have argued that dalit women do not face much oppression within the dalit castes, since they are not bound by the pativrata norm. Codes of izzat- honour, respect and shame prevents the upper caste women from talking openly about the oppressions they face. However, dalit women are not bound by such codes of izzat. This does not mean that dalit women do not face oppression. The best example is the devadasi system. According to Periyar, the Brahminical system forced the devadasi into sexual slavery. (Chakravarti, 2003)

The articulations of gender and caste in contemporary India are both complex and often contradictory. We have witnessed women’s compliance to Brahminical social order by subjecting themselves to the control of Brahminical patriarchy. The anti-Mandal slogans of women students are not independent incidents of women’s compliance to patriarchal-Brahminical order. Most women are located in a way that they can be both subordinated and also wield a degree of power. This is so especially if women belong to an upper caste and have access, through their menfolk, to economic resources and social power (p. 144). It has much wider reference to the relationship between caste and patriarchy, as well as women’s material location in a complex structure which expects compliance from women and also grants them some degree of power.

Uma Chakravarti argues that the manifestations of upholding/enforcing cultural codes is visible in arenas of marriage and reproduction. For instance, through a look at the Matrimonial Columns, analysis can be made as to how the institution of marriage is still governed by caste. Another area is food which plays an important role in maintaining caste purity and boundaries. Leela Dube, has argued that women are the key actors in maintaining caste boundaries through preparation of food and upholding its purity. “The concerns of purity and pollution centring on food begin at home” (Chakravarti, 2003, p. 147). Those women who conform to the rules pertaining to food preparation and maintaining food purity are respected and by doing so they perpetuate/reinforce caste restrictions at home. Marriage, reproduction, and food are different internal structures of the household under which the caste system gets reproduced. Apart from internal organisation of the household, the intersection of caste and gender has reference to the public domain as well. Thus, the problem of the bounded nature of the circulation of women is explicitly tied to the formation of caste (Chakravarti, 2003). Caste exists at a fundamental level as a system of hierarchy along with other hierarchical systems such as patriarchy and often, one is indistinguishable from the other.