The Indian caste system had 4 varnas and these 4 varnas are mentioned in Vedas and Bhagvad Gita. They are based on the vocational skills and each sub caste perfecting a particular skill. If the caste system has survived several thousand years there should have been an internal harmony maintained through the ages. This is because if any dissatisfaction was there definitely there would have been a revolt and the entire caste system would have been removed long back. Later came the 5th group known as Panchamas and this group was supposedly the criminals banished after being convicted. They are the present day dalits. The original 4 varna system later split into several castes and sub-castes. In the historical period i.e. more than 3000 years it is believed that lower caste people have been suppressed or oppressed. But the Indian caste system has the following 5 major categories: (i) Brahmins, (ii) Shatriyas, (iii) Vyasyas, (iv) Shudras and (v) Dalits. Among these the Dalits were originally considered to be the most affected by oppression and also following the practice of untouchability. They were not allowed to pass through certain streets or temples and not allowed to take water from village wells or lakes.
E.V.K. Ramasamy Naicker, fondly called as Periyar, belonging to 4th group was initially following the casteism. Then when he was denied a ticket in the Congress party and was asked to wait on certain occasions for party work or to visit the leaders felt insulted and started his own party. Then he also suddenly became a champion to work for the up-liftment of dalits and started a movement which later came to be known as Periyar Movement. For up-liftment of dalits the only thing that he knew or he adopted was to spread his anger against Brahmins, spread a message saying that Brahmins were responsible for casteism and torture them through his followers. Periyar went in public and gave hatred speeches in the Marina Beach throughout 60s and 70s and still escaped from the law of the land. If others go for a similar speech they would have been booked under National Security Act. Neither the central government nor the state government arrested him nor took any action as per the constitutional provisions. Then how did Periyar escape from Indian laws with so much of immunity and impunity. If a mature person above the age of 70 gives such speeches, which could have fumed friction among different communities, but still escaped, it was because the particular community against whom he had given such speeches was calm, composed, democratic, not aggressive, non-violent, etc. If he had talked like that against any other community he would have been finished in no time. He knew that the particular community against which he was abusing is normally weak, vegetarians, decent and mostly non-reactive. But a similar type of speech with 100 times less vigor, tenor, by a youngster like Varun Gandhi attracted all types of laws chasing him. Why this duplicity and double standards? The answer double standards is typical Indian way of dealing when it comes to people who are soft and non aggressive then they are made scapegoats (Brahmins) and all others who go into extremes are always scot-free (non-brahmins). If a person could publicly ask people to torture Brahmins and physically harm them is it an approach for the upliftment of dalits. On the contrary a real hero who fought for the upliftment of dalits in positive manner is Sri Narayana Guru of Kerala who took all the dalits to the temples and convinced everyone through peaceful means and he also showed a change in the people´s mindset. But the benefit of dalits upliftment has been hijacked by Periyar.
While the practice of casteism is still going on in several remote villages of India what is missing is the explanation as to who were the followers of this oppression. It is always the middle categories who strictly followed and are following the oppression against the dalits in the past or even now. The percentage of population of Brahmins is 1% or at the most 5% in one or two states of India. Brahmins are in general some what soft natured, lead simple lifestyle, vegetarians and hence are not aggressive, physically weak and spend time in intellectual activities including philosophy and spirituality. Unfortunately, however, for all problems that come out due to caste differences the safest and clever method adopted by the middle three groups viz. Kshatriyas, Vyasyas and Shudras is to make Brahmins as scapegoats and spread concocted stories as if the Brahmins were responsible for all clashes. This strategy by shudras has worked out well in the 3000 history as the hatred against the Brahmins has been so nicely spread and sustained that in all respects the Brahmins are now loosers and sufferers in the hands of everyone for no fault of theirs. The only thing that they know is to keep aloof and escape from the clashes or fighting. This aspect of theirs i.e. keeping away from problems is brandished as untouchability by others. The way untouchability has misused nowadays is as follows: The dalits or shudras would try to rape a Brahmin woman and if the woman protests, escapes, complaints or retaliates then the non-acceptance and retaliation are considered as un-touchability. That means if the girl agrees for the rape then there is no un-touchability. On the contrary if the person denies then it is un-touchability. If not like this how else can one interpret when a girl is approached by a person and the girl does not agree but the man keeps on pestering and torturing in different ways. When the girl does not like the person but is forced to marry that person by threatening, blackmail, etc. then it amounts to rape and if the girl is married to such a person then every day is a rape for her. As otherwise in cities every one is moving with everyone as people go in the same buses, hotels, hospitals, shops, water queues, colleges, schools, etc. There is no untouchability any where. The question of untouchability comes when the person imposes his likeness and threatens a woman to marry him and if she denies he will say she is following untouchability. This is the new definition of untouchability in India, right now.
Whle poor Brahmins have nothing to do with the oppression of dalits Periyar has always targeted Brahmins for mission. He simple strategy was that by threatening and torturing the poor Brahmins others would stop caste feelings. But his idea was wrong as none of the other castes have stopped their caste feelings. The other reason why he did not touch shudras was that if he had asked them not to show caste feelings or asked in public platform to physically harm 4th group they would have eliminated in no time. Hence he was afraid of asking them or pointing out their mistakes. Not only Periyar many others also always safely target Brahmins to become heroes. Poor Brahmins have nowhere to go but to silently absorb all atrocities. In fact nowadays the Brahmin population has been reduced so much so that most of them have settled in Singapore, Dubai, USA or other countries in search of jobs as they don´t get jobs in India due to reservation policy in India. Since Brahmin population is dismal and since they don´t have any influence on others (now or in the past) and since many of them have gone outside India, it is expected that casteism would have been uprooted, if they were responsible in any way as is put by many people like Periyar. But it is still rampant all over India. So whether it be Periyar followers or Periyar like people they have to change the mindset of other 3 groups (2,3, and 4) as the group 1 has nothing to do with the casteism. Once Periyar said that the Brahmins are from north India and they belong to Aryans. Due to this kind of spreading the Brahmins of Tamil Nadu who have contributed a lot to the literature and fine arts have become orphans in their state as they did not know where to go. It is not known this madness is still there in the Periyar followers. Many often the people of Tamil Nadu want the help and support of brahmisn whenever need arises. That should not be the case.
Very often non-brahmins connect castiem with marriages. Why should any one disturb the poor Brahmins going up to marriages. In middle 1980´s some sections of people of Tamil Nadu did not like news in national language aired in the national channel and have branded it as imposition of the national language on others, even if it was for one hour news in the evening, but ready to impose non Brahmins on Brahmins for marriages. This is not the way to remove casteism. The root cause of all the problems is jealosy. Everyone is jealous about Brahmins because they look different, they are simple in their life style, traditions, customs, knowledge, philosophy, spirituality, etc. Best advise could have been to ask everyone to just leave Brahmins alone. Since the powers are in the hands of other castes why not everyone concentrate on the developmental work instead of pricking and disturbing the Brahmins.
Irony is that all sections of the society even now abuse Brahmins without being questioned, scrutinized, examined, analyzed or booked by any laws. If this is the freedom of speech then would there be a similar kind of acceptance/tolerance if a person from the Brahmin community reflects his/her views against others? Then the people who always adopt double standards, immediately take refuge in saying that the speeches/ writings might precipitate into communal clashes. This is actually unfounded and oversmart interpretation since the Brahmin community has always been keeping calm and composure whenever things were written against them, then, why not others also follow a more democratic approach, even if they have any thing to protest. But they say their passions are uncontrollable and those of Brahmins are controllable because the latter are either (fools) "ilichavayis" or weak (not goondas or rowdies). If Brahmins don´t have numbers or strength to fight or even to raise voice against others that does not mean that all non-Brahmins can exploit Brahmins forcing Brahmins to accept such atrocities with a humble pie.
In a society we have high ranking officers, and then we have clerical cadre and finally the labour force. All the top ranking officers maintain certain dignity and distance and in fact there is a protocol that one cannot meet the officer directly. Does a peon, attender or sweeper enjoy similar attention? In fact protocols are maintained at each level. Now supposing a dalit has occupied a top position, would he change the system and bypass the protocols to mingle with everyone. He may not. In fact he will maintain the protocols several folds higher than an upper caste person. This is the present day reality. Is this not a new type of casteism. This is a neo-castism followed in the offices or other places. Interestingly the person who came through the reservation policy and not based on merit also behave as if he has come through merit. Most of the cases of corruption perpetuated in India seem to be by the people who come through reservation policy. So the type of violence on Brahmins suggested by Periyar nor the reservation policy adopted by the Government have changed the castiesm in India. Hence the solutions have to be found elsewhere. None of the newspapers would stop advertising matrimonial columns which ask for a groom or bride from a particular caste because they will loose revenue on one hand and also they know very well that caste selection in marriages has nothing to do with practicing casteism. This is because none of the caste groups other than Brahmins would like to go out of their caste in marriages. For example, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, a Madiga would not marry a person from Sweeper caste; a Mala does not marry Madiga; a Shudra does not marry a Mala; a Kamma or Reddy does not marry Shudras; Kshatriyas would not go out of their marriage. Similarly in the state of Tamil Nadu also, a Shudra would not marry a Dalit or a Chettiar would not marry a Shudra. In fact after conversion into Christianity people who claim that there is no casteism, follow castiesm more vehemently. For example a Nadar Christian does not marry a Dalit Christian. When all other groups follow castiesm so strongly is it justifying to ask Brahmins to marry other caste people? If such impositions or force is applied on Brahmins to marry non-brahmins, then, why not Brahmins marry a foreigner from west, since we are living in the age of globalization? Even such a move could be out of compulsions as otherwise Brahmins would prefer to marry their own caste people without disturbing others.
In a seminal paper published by Bamshed et al., 1998.(Bamshed et al., 1998. Female gene flow stratifies Hindu castes. Nature 395: 651-652. ) in the high impact factor journal Nature it has been shown that the Indian castes are naturally separated based on the mitochondrial DNA analyses conducted on all the 5 categories and parsimony analysis has shown that the distance between each group confirms the order (1,2,3,4,5) as the distance between the first and the last has been really too distant when compared to 1 to 2 or 1 and 3. Those who oppose the scientific basis of casteism as propounded by Vedas or Bhagvad Gita can now refer to the above publication for a scientific validation. People interested to know further details on the above article could go to the reference given above in the journal Nature which has an impact factor of 26.