Casteism and the need to re-frame the debate with reference to the viewpoint of Hindu scriptures

Casteism and Hindu religion are inextricably linked and though casteism is found in the Christian and Islamic following in India, it is doubtless an inheritance from Hinduism. However hard it tries, Hindu society is unable to get rid of this blot and stigma both in an ideological as well in the real sense.

While there is a grudging acknowledgement among even hard-core Hindu nationalist intelligentsia that Casteism in India is a serious issue, they would stop short of accepting it as a reprehensible social evil. The resort to evasion and camouflaging it as facet of culture and tradition or blaming it on factors and circumstances extraneous to Hinduism is typically a stock characteristic of Hindu caste apologetic.

There is also a  long and growing list of Hindu defenders who wrongly try to re-frame and misrepresent the connection between Hindu scriptures and social evils and oppression into a position where critics are shown to allege that Vedic texts sanction these evils and oppressive practices.

The proper critical position or perspective on this issue is that Vedic texts have contributed to and have also been used to defend and perpetuate these wrong practices. 

While this is surely debatable, it is not the same thing as the assertion of Hindu conservative apology that Vedic texts do not sanction these evils and oppressive practices.

These are two totally different positions

This wrong characterization of the critical/skeptical argument is sought to be forced into the mouths of critics by all kinds of fallacious and diversionary methods of argument, whether deliberate or unintentional from the opposing side.

There is a lot of internal evidence in the Bhagavad Gita itself that it is a manifesto of the endorsement of casteist agenda of its times. It is well known that Hindu conservative circles always cry foul at this accusation against the Gita. But there is too much damaging evidence of this overt and covert agenda of the Gita in first 9 chapters of the work, that just cannot escape the notice of valid criticism and condemnation. 

Also the Hindu defense is not forthcoming on whether Dharmasastras are part of the corpus of Vedic texts, which is part of their tactics of evasion of uncomfortable problems.

Manava Dharmasastra surely claims its lineage/parentage from the Vedic/Upanishadic textual pantheon in its very first chapter. It very clearly claims that its rules / norms / institutes  are all derived from sanction of the Vedas. 

It also provides a very good synopsis of Upanishadic philosophy (Brahman) and very strategically provides the injunction of its pursuit only at the fag end of social/community/householder life. 

There is not just one Dharmasastra (Manusmriti) but numerous ones, all of which invariably hold up the feudal and socially exploitative order of their times, that is still being fought even to this day.

Also the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and the Gita are attacked by critics and skeptics not just for any imagined culpability for the kind of culture and social system that we have inherited, but because they espouse many irrational ideas, opinions and superstitions like 

• Karma, 
• re-birth, 
• Gunas,
• souls, 
• blind subservience to faith etc.

while they hide behind the curtain and smoke-screen of high mystical and spiritual insights and philosophy and many other such deceptions. 

This kind of hypocrisy, delusion or self-deception or combination of them, since they help to sustain a religious/irrational/superstitious mode of thought among the Hindu masses and intellectuals, that is the enemy of social and cultural progress,and needs to be battled against.