As we discussed in an earlier chapter, the rise,
decline and fall of the Shreni (Guild)
system echo the economic ups, down and end of an economic order that had made
India “Golden Sparrow” once upon a time. Gupta era is highly praised by Indian
Historians, but they hardly have realized that it was Gupta era that started
bungling up the economic strength of the Shreni’s,
whether craftsmen or Trader, by transferring the financial centers from guilds
to the Vaishnavait temples. Gupta kings were ardent supporters of Vedic
religion. An offshoot of Vedic religion, Vaishnavait cult flourished during
that era, many temples were erected, though Vedic religion originally was
not idolatrous. Vishnu too, was adorned with an entirely new character erasing
his original Rig Vedic form as a subordinate to Indra. Laxmi is not his consort in Rig Veda, rather he
has none, still she was associated with him. Vishnu and Laxmi suddenly became
the deities of the wealth. So the flow of the wealth was diverted towards the
temples and suddenly the guilds became just the creators of the wealth, but
management of the wealth no more was left with them.
We have seen how later on the rise of feudal powers
and political upheavals gradually brought limitations on the inland trade and
production. The series of foreign invasions, their discriminatory rule and a
series of famines was the final blow on the indigenous economic system. It
collapsed. There were no saviors. Islamic rulers imposed heavy duties on the
foreign trade on non-Muslim craftsmen and traders called ushr which forced Hindu traders in winding up foreign operations
too. From the seventh century onward overseas trade was usurped by the Arabs and other Muslim powers. Al Masudi in his "Meadows of Gold" reports he had seen over ten thousand Muslim traders settled at the Cheul port.
When the centralized production centers were
disintegrated, craftsmen started abandoning them. When one economic system
collapses, for want of survival people get engaged in building a new
order. Agriculture, the backbone of the
economy, too, was fractured, limiting creation of the wealth and so the local demands that eventually hampered the craftsmen, those produced
articles of their utility and fashion. The condition of the service providers
must be more pitiable.
This situation, pathetic though, forced the people
to change previous social modality, overall functioning, social relationships and ways of survival.
Indians invented a new order to survive through those odds. “Self reliant Village system” emerged gradually
by tenth century and became permanent by the twelfth century. Tough there are no written records available of emergence of this system and its exact time, we can infer from the circumstantial evidences those must have led the people to find new was of the life. Let us not forget that it is economy that commands the social models.How it could have happened? We can infer from the following circumstances.
1. In
the absence of the sufficient demand, naturally, production too suffers.
Supplies cannot be more than the demand as the economy cannot absorb surplus
productions. Under such circumstances, no profession can expect any kind of
competition from new entrants. Hence mobility from one to another profession
becomes highly difficult for the resistance from the people already engaged in
the same profession. We can find the same thing happening in modern era too everywhere where doors are closed to the new entrants when economy suffers form the recession.
2. In
the absence of regional or national marketplaces and the trade channels, the
production becomes localized and need-based.
3. Disintegration,
separation and Localization of the craftsmen, traders and service providers
were inevitable making them village oriented, where they could meet local
needs. A village could not absorb excessive craftsmen and service providers for
their limited demand. Farmers (whether landlords or the tenants) still were the
major component of the buyers, but were in a distressful economic condition,
since they too were suffering from the droughts and political upheavals.
4.
For survival, a new professional
relationship came to be established, called as “Balute” or “jajmani” system. In
this system seller had no bargaining power whatsoever or right to decide the price
of his products or services. However, his survival was assured. Suddenly
professions became of secondary importance; some lost their requirement making
them solely dependent on the mercy of the villages, accepted to do the menial
work as farm laborers, tenants or even undertook filthy jobs.
5.
Under the circumstances the status of
the every profession solely depended on the needs of the people and what they
were paid in return for their services. The disparity in the revenue of the
every profession, though required same labor and skills, brought social inequality
and dissatisfaction among the professions.
6.
The professional guilds appeared in a
new form, called as Jati Panchayat (Caste assembly) that started
governing the professional communities by designing new professional ethics,
restricting other caste men to enter their profession and vice versa, and by
making their own caste-men outcast or enforce excommunication, if the codes of the caste were broken. In a
way the guilds started interfering in the ethical and personal conduct of the
people belonging to their caste (profession) and gradually it seems it became
more tyrant and unjust. But it was accepted for the basic need to stop
competition, protect their rights, survive and solve professional issues.
7. Since,
it became almost impossible to enter another profession, it was but natural
that the castes became birth based and rigid. Also, since there was no
more competition there was no need to be innovative. Anyway, revenue would remain
the same. India was thrown into an abyss of Dark Age because the time killed their zeal of learning to
become more productive and innovative. In a way people’s life and horizons got restricted to
the villages making them almost careless about the rulers. It is important to
note that the fall of Yadava dynasty, that ruled over 300 years in Maharashtra,
do not reflect at all in the Saint literature of 13-14th century. In
a way it is miraculous, but is a fact.
8. The
circumstances made castes a close ended loop, where mobility was not possible
as the circumstances did not allow it to happen. There were absolutely no
chances to break the caste barriers to breath in the free atmosphere and choose
a profession of individual choice. The acquired skills from the past tradition
were transferred to the next generations. Barring a few professions, those
still had been in demand, too, become stern enough not to allow new entrants.
It is not that the Brahmins closed their doors against others first which was
imitated by the others, as Dr. Ambedkar opines. The fact is the process of
closing the doors against others had its roots in the changed political and
economic scenario. The people could not afford to be liberal when the survival
had become of prime importance. It had no religious relevance. It is impossible
that some authority could enforce such commands that would assassinate the sense
of the human freedom and the people accept them unopposed. It is against human
nature.
This was how the caste and sub-caste structure
became permanent. Financially, barring a few, all castes became almost pauper. Self-reliant
village system sounds good even to some today, but it was the system people
designed to survive through hard times. It killed basic human instinct of
competition and progress through it.
This situation occurred between the tenth to the
twelfth century AD and became stratified by the thirteenth century to become
unjust and cruel. The role of the Vedic
Brahmins was not in making that system, but in regulating it as priests/ministers of the
feudal lords and kings. Brahmins or the rulers never interfered in the
decisions given by the Caste Assemblies. Even the verdicts of the Gotsabha’s
(Brahmin caste assembly) were hardly declined by the rulers. In fact, every
caste assembly, old guild system in new form, too, remained defacto ruler of
the profession (caste) in new order too!
It is a common experience of the mankind that the
people become more fatalists in the time of the distress. Recently, in USA, in
2008, during the recession, it was observed that the attendance in the Churches
had phenomenally risen. Indians suffered from such period over a millennium, was
natural to become more Destiny-Centric and thus believing in divine command.
This broke the backbone of original Indian free
will. So many new deities emerged during this vast span of the time. Various
new rituals too were introduced by the acting priests, alien to Hindu religion,
Brahmins, for their own benefit. In Royal courts and with feudal lords they
formed a coalition that helped them to preach Vedic supremacy. They captured
many Shaivait shrines claiming them to be Vaishnavait. A fine example is of Vitthala of Pandharpur.
They didn’t stop here. The new philosophy got
prominent in this era of “Karmavipaka. Siddhanta”. This theory proposed that the distresses of present birth
were because of the sins of the past birth. Brahmins vehemently proposed and
propagated this theory making the people more religious and slavish to the
inevitability of the destiny. Many
Saints too fell to this fatal doctrine and echoed it in their writings. The
acceptance of the inevitable destiny was dangerous to the society, but Brahmins
found opportunities in it. They invented many selfish ritualistic remedies
those people followed almost blindly in a hope of ultimate salvation or better
next life.
We have many instances in the medieval history, how
the Vedic doctrine of inequality had started poisoning the peoples mind. Though
they didn’t create birth based caste system, they provided pseudo-divine
reasoning for its brutal existence. Hemadri Pundit, a Minister of Yadavas,
authored Chaturvarga Chintamani in
which over 2500 religious rituals was listed, most of which never existed
before.
The Vedicism and Vaidik Brahmins become an evil
force as they misused the religious authorities over the people those never
belonged to their religion. The
Fraudulent nature that persisted in them since the Gupta era, took disadvantage
of the changed circumstances. They used every tool to impose their supremacy that made their life easier. Even
they corrupted the religious scriptures. Rather, they imbibed the Vedic divine
order theory in the minds of the distressed people during this era. The social
inequality, they tried to connect with the Vedic ladder-like social order.
Varna system thus started plaguing Hindu’s and they too started to connect, like Varna system,
their superiority over some while inferior to another with their natural social
status of the time.
This situation created such a complex relationship
between the castes and subcastes that
even acceptance or rejection of food or even water from other castes became a preordained
custom. The inter-caste marriages became almost rare, and if conducted the
families of the concerned couple were thrown away from the castes or punished
heavily. These customs were made and enforced by the caste assemblies. Hence,
it can be said that the tyranny of the caste assemblies too were responsible
for the tightening of the caste-grip.
Though it had inherent limitations, the movements
against brutalities of the caste system begun by the 12th century to
break the caste barriers. To do so it was essential to overthrow the yoke of
Vedic dominance and doctrine of birth-based inequality. Though Hindu followed
their ancient religion in this era too, the Vedic philosophy had penetrated into
the minds of the people through the corrupted Puranic tales and new myths. Very
few saints realized this and tried to delink Hindu religion from the Vedic dominance,
but ultimately failed to do so.
(To be contd.)
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