10 First, although increased status may in fact lead to improve in -group
favouritism, it appears that power is what makes discrimination possible in the first place. Second, it appears that status and power affect different group -relevant
variables: status differential explains most of the variance in in -group identification and intergroup perceptions, while power differential explains most
of the variance in actual discriminat ion. Thus, while consideration of the status differential in the social identity tradition may help to explain certain patterns of
beliefs about groups, a complete understanding of the actual oppressive behaviour is underlying group-based systems of hierar chy also requires us to more
thoroughly examine the role of power in intergroup relations 111. Ravi Nair, who heads the South Asian Human Rights Documentation
Centre in New Delhi, calls Indias caste system racist. Nair is also a veteran of human rights activist,
Quite clearly, caste is a form of racist behaviour, because, like racism, this is an issue dominance by one group against another, argues Mr. Nair.
Secondly, if I was born into a Dalit community - irrespective of whatever vertical mobility that I had because of my class background - I would still
not be able to change my caste hierarchy in the social pecking order, and because of that, it definitely is racist behaviour in the terms of how one
community has dominance over another.
B. Review on Socio-Cultural Background 1. Caste System in India
This study uses a novel, The White Tiger, as the subject matter. The White Tiger itself is a novel that takes place in India. According to Gokhale, in
describing the characteristics of Indian society, we could not deny the existence of
11 caste system in India. It is caste that distinguishes Indian society from its
counterparts everywhere 117. According to Encyclopedia Americana International Edition: Volume 5
117, the word caste derives from the Portugue se casta, meaning “breed”, “race”, or “kind”, and was first used to denote the Hindu social classification on the India
subcontinent. Caste itself is largely static, exclusive social class, membership in which it is determined by birth and involves particu lar customary restrictions and
privileges.
a. Caste in India as Organizational Structure Among the Hindus
According to some estimation, there are more than 3,000 castes in the Indian subcontinent, greatly varying in size from a few score members to million s.
According to Encyclopedia Americana International Edition: Volume 5 , originally there were only four classifications, which derived from Hindu prescriptions,
known as varnas meaning “colour” in Sanskrit. The first reference to the varnas is found in Rig Veda, one of the oldest Indian classics, dating from about 3,000
BC. According to Rig Veda, society is composed of five hierarchical divisions. The first four of the varnas are the Brahmans, or priests or scholars; the
Kshatriyas, or warriors and rule rs; the Vaishyas, or merchants, artisans, and husbandmen; and the Sudras, or servants and slaves. The fifth division is
composed of the outvarnas, or untouchables. The social status of an individual is determined by his caste 775. There is no evidence th at the caste system as a
whole has lost its grip on Indian society.
12 As cited in Caste in India: Its Nature, Function, and Origins , Hocart A. M
shows his opinion about varna. Certain colours are associated with the four varna -white with the Brahman,
red with the Kshatriya, yellow with the Vaishya and black with the Sudra; varna, as has been stated, means colour. It is possible that this colour
distinction is in some way associated with race, as one is reminded of the ancient Egyptian convention which show ed Egyptian red, Asiatic yellow,
Northerners white and negroes black 66.
According to Cultural Anthropology: Seventh Edition , caste is a matter of religious conviction in India that all people are not spiritually equal and that the
gods have established a hierarchy of groups 200. While according to Robert W Stern in Changing India Bourgeois Revolution on the Subcontinent
,
in the ideology of varna dharma all men are created unequal; that they are endowed by
their creator with unequal capacities in order to perform functions of unequal importance to Him. Their positions in His hierarchy are in accord with their
functions. For example, vaishyas are the best generators of wealth because they are naturally acquisitive. Shudras are the best servants because t hey are naturally
servile 56.
b. Caste and Education
According to Lamb, many Indian authorities are even more concerned with the problem of education quality in India 175. Furthermore, he says that
first; there is what might be called the technical a spects. On the whole, although there are notable exceptions, the teaching is not good, and the textbooks and
13 educational materials are inadequate in quality as well as quantity. Hence, Lamb
says that, The peasants had no desire to have their children educ ated. Village
children were needed to tend cattle and do other work in the fields. If they spent a year or two in school, they later forgot what they have learned
because they had no occasion to use it. By the end of the century, three out of four villages were still without schools, and only one -fifth of the boys
and a still smaller percentage of the girls of primary -school age were in school 180.
Lamb also says that when the British first came to India, their main contacts were with Brahmans, who, with a few other upper castes, were the first to profit by
British education 143. According to Human Rights Watch in a report for the United Nations
World Conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, such as high drop -out and lower literacy rates among lower caste
populations have rather simplistically been characterized as the natural consequences of poverty and underdevelopment. Though these rates are partly
attributable to the need for low -caste children to suppleme nt their family wages through labour, more insidious and less well -documented is the discriminatory
and abusive treatment faced by low -caste children who attempt to attend school, at the hands of their teachers and fellow students 17.
c. Caste and Occupation
According to Harris and Johnson, each caste and sub caste has a hereditary occupation that guarantees its members basic subsistence and job security.
Furthermore, according to Hindu scripture, an individual’s varna is determined by
14 a descent rule; that is, it corresponds to the varna of one’s parents and is
unalterable during one’s lifetime 201. In book of Caste in India: Its Nature, Function, and Origins which is
written by Hutton, Risley goes on to add that caste name is generally associated with a specific occupation 47. Thus, Lamb describes the relationship between
castes and occupation in India. Theoretically, at least, each caste in India has a hereditary occupation.
There are castes of washer men, gardeners, goldsmiths, moneylenders, potters,
oil-pressers, mat-makers,
leatherworkers, water -bearers,
carpenters, accountants, genealogists, barbers, tailors -the list is almost endless. Although there are also a number of large and important peasant
castes, agriculture is an occupation supposedly open to all-as is service in the government or the army.
The hereditary caste occupation is not necessarily followed by all the members of the caste or even by the majority of the members. Various
present-day forces tend to undermine the old caste occupati onal patterns. Even so, at least certain castes have a monopoly or a near -monopoly on
their traditional occupations 141.
In addition, Hutton describes Halwai as a caste of confectioners in northern India generally 282.
Furthermore, Hutton explains a bout the disadvantage of caste system in economic and freedom.
It is a possible further disadvantage of the caste system economically that it probably discourages organization from above by the entrepreneur, no
less than it forestalls ambition on the part of workman. Durkheim has suggested that the function of the division of labour is to give the
individual more freedom by substituting an organic for a rigidly mechanical economy, but the organic structure created by the caste system
would seem to have pr ovided for the division of labour on a plan ingeniously calculated to avoid giving just that freedom; for occupation is
determined by status instead of contract, and transition from status to contract, which Sir Henry Maine regarded as an essential feature of
political progress, is nullified and frustrated 124.
15 Caste system in India has disadvantage economically. As Durkheim suggests that
the function of the division of labour is to give the individual more freedom. However, caste system seems to avoid giving the freedom since the occupation is
determined by status instead of contract.
d. Caste and Daily Life in India
Lamb says that castes have elaborate restrictions on diet and on social intercourse. Some castes will eat meat such as mutton, goat, or ch icken; others
will eat fish but not meat. Some will not eat meat or fish but will eat eggs; others will not even eat eggs 138. According to Hitchcock, Rajputs of north India, they
may hunt game, eat meat, drink liquor, and eat opium 139. Hence, Hutton explained that Rajput is an aristocratic caste, widespread in western, northern, and
central India, whose traditional functions are fighting and ruling. They represent the ancient Kshatriya varna, and rank next to the Brahmans socially 293.
Hence, Lamb discussed the caste system challenged in India, There are three points about caste today that should be emphasized. First,
India is officially trying to create social equality, while deep -seated habits of mind work against it. Second, competition for improv ed status seems to
be on the increase. Although much of this competition takes on the form of intercaste rivalries, some possibility exists for the individual to rise above
his caste, to move into a new class if he can secure a good job. For this, higher education is essential 151.
Lamb said that at the bottom of the social ladder is a group of castes officially known as the “scheduled castes”. Thus it is by this title that they usually
refer to official documents of modern India. These lowest, most dep ressed castes are the outcastes or untouchables. They have suffered from a number of civil and
16 religious disabilities, which have now been prohibited by law but have not
entirely vanished in practice. Traditionally, they were not allowed to enter temples, pass through certain streets, enter certain parts of the villages, or drink
water from the common village well used by other Hindus. In various areas, they were forbidden to carry umbrellas, wear shoes, milk cows, keep domestic animals,
or use ornaments 144. Lamb explained, in a sweeping declaration, the Indian Constitution of
1950 abolished untouchability and forbade its practice in any form Article 17. It also prohibited an inclusive list of specific discriminations: the denial of access to
shops, public restaurants, hotels, and places of public entertainment; denial of the use of wells, roads, religious bathing places, and “other places of public resort”
Article 15. And it forbade the exclusion of the untouchables from educational institutions maintained by the state or receiving state aid Article 29. An
Untouchability Offenses Act passed in 1955 provides penalties for discrimination 146.
According to Harris, India’s legal system today discourages discrimination based on caste identity. Yet, cas te still plays an important part in people’s
everyday lives. Hindu religion continues to have powerful sanctions against those who violate caste prescriptions 202. It is, rather, that India has an extraordinary
profusion of such groups. Nonetheless, the caste system of India is fundamentally similar to the systems of other countries that have closed classes and numerous
ethnic and racial minorities.
17
C. Theoretical Framework
