By Dr. Arun Mitra
Indian society has historically been stratified not on the basis of an individual’s ability, merit, or achievements, but largely according to the family and caste into which they were born. While identifying a person by family or gotra may serve a social purpose, but using caste to establish a hierarchy creates deep and divisive inequalities. The caste system was codified in the Manu smriti, which divided society into four varnas and institutionalized graded inequality.
Caste was also closely linked to occupation. Those engaged in manual and so-called “polluting” work were branded untouchables and denied basic human rights despite their indispensable contribution to society. They faced severe social exclusion, including denial of education, access to public spaces, social interaction and even the right to share food or establish family relations with others. Centuries of such practices deeply embedded caste prejudice in social institutions and consciousness.
Yet caste oppression has never gone unchallenged. Buddhism and the Bhakti movement questioned birth-based hierarchy. The Buddha rejected Brahminical superiority and said that a person’s worth should be judged by conduct and actions rather than birth. Many Bhakti saints challenged caste based monopoly over religious and social life.
In the 19th century, Jyotirao Phule emerged as a powerful anti-caste thinker. Through the Satyashodhak Samaj, founded in 1873, he fought for the rights of oppressed castes. Savitribai Phule was a 19th-century social reformer who co-founded India’s first school for girls at Bhide Wada in Pune in 1848 alongside her husband, Jyotirao Phule. Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh were pioneering 19th-century Indian educators, close friends, and fellow social reformers. They collaborated to establish India’s first schools for girls and marginalized communities in Pune, facing intense social backlash together while laying the foundation for women’s education.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar gave the struggle against caste a historic and uncompromising direction. His seminal work Annihilation of Caste remains one of the strongest critiques of social inequality. He recognised that caste fragments the working people. At the same time, India’s independence created the political space to enact constitutional safeguards and progressive laws for historically oppressed communities. The Constitution, provided an important foundation for the continuing struggle for socio-economic equality. It is to Gandhi’s credit that the ideas against caste-based discrimination took an important place in Indian political scene. Jawaharlal Nehru promoted scientific temper and preached against discrimination of any kind including religion, region, caste and gender.
Communists and other progressive forces played an important role in challenging caste discrimination. Guided by the vision of a classless and exploitation-free society, Communist workers entered the homes of those considered “untouchable”, shared meals with them, lived among them and built bonds of solidarity. Many faced social ostracism for doing so.
From a scientific and materialist perspective, caste oppression is closely intertwined with systems of economic exploitation. Caste has historically served structures of feudal and capitalist domination. Therefore, the struggle against economic exploitation also confronts caste oppression. The emancipation of the working people through class struggle can weaken the material foundations of caste and create conditions for its eventual annihilation.
Workers and oppressed people must unite across caste and religious lines. Caste- or religion-based divisions within the working class weaken collective strength and can divert attention from the real structures of exploitation. Unfortunately, some political leaders have mobilised people primarily along caste lines in pursuit of power. Such politics can strengthen identity divisions without addressing the economic and social structures that perpetuate inequality. Genuine emancipation requires both social dignity and economic justice.
The Communist movement has therefore sought to unite all oppressed sections on the basis of class solidarity, scientific thought and opposition to exploitation. Caste contradictions must not be allowed to overshadow the fundamental class interests shared by all exploited people. The task is to sharpen the struggle against exploitation while weakening the social divisions that sustain caste.
The rational and progressive forces therefore face a dual responsibility: to advance class struggle and to fight caste prejudice and social discrimination. Scientific temper must replace superstition and inherited prejudice. The caste-oppressed and economically exploited must be empowered with knowledge, dignity and collective organisation.
The annihilation of caste will not come through caste conflict. It requires unity of all exploited and oppressed people, social reform, scientific consciousness and a sustained struggle against economic exploitation. Only by combining these forces can we move towards a genuinely egalitarian, caste-free and exploitation-free society. Workers movements led by trade unions have a big responsibility and stake in this matter. (IPA Service)
