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Start date: 2021Subject: search.filters.subject.Caste

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    Society’s caste system: a philosophical analysis from Swami vivekananda’s vedāntic ideal of equality
    (University of North Bengal, 2024-03) Chowdhury, Arun Kumar
    Caste or varṇa system is still a live issue in the present era. Many socialists and philosophers try to explain the caste system in their own ways. Swami-Vivekananda is one of them. He accepts the caste system based on qualities. To him, we are created with three qualities or guṇas. That is why we are different from each other by nature. So, we should act according to our nature. These three guṇas make someone a brᾱhmaṇa or a kṣatriya or a vaiśya, or a śūdra. We should not treat the caste system as hereditary. For a long time, it has been interpreted in the wrong way. That is why there is more dissimilarity in our society. According to him, we differ from each other only in manifestations not in essence. We are the same in essence as Sat-Cit-Ᾱnanda Brahman. Through this paper, I will show how Swami-Vivekananda explains society’s caste system from the Vedᾱntic ideal of equality.
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    Caste, Untouchability and Social Conflict in Nineteenth Century Bengal
    (University of North Bengal, 2021-03) Chowdhury, Chanchal
    Caste system and untouchability were an integral part of social life among the Hindus and Muslims of pre-Plassey Bengal. These two customs were deeply rooted in selfsufficient villages where people lived with their fellow caste-men adopting their hereditary occupations. The social conflict, generated due to the hierarchical division of the caste system, was felt in the society just like mild waves. East India Company servants ruined the self-sufficient village economy of Bengal through their ruthless exploitation of artisans and craftsmen. Consequently, they had to move from their village abodes and adopt alternative occupations generated under the Company’s rule. Very soon, some ambitious individuals with low social backgrounds amassed huge wealth and began to claim higher social status for their castes. Leaders of many castes began to lodge protests against their low social position, and petitions were submitted before British authorities for approval of higher precedence of their castes on the social ladder. As a result, intensified caste conflict was produced in the society of nineteenth century Bengal.
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    Foraging the Nationalist Movement through Women’s Education: Decoding Savitribai Phule and the Cultural-reformist Critique of Caste
    (University of North Bengal, 31-03-2021) Ghosh, Anamitra
    Savitribai Phule is regarded as one of the towering figures of the nationalist movement for her pioneering role in women’s education which set the stage for the cultural renaissance of our motherland. Her passionate struggle for women’s empowerment, to build up the equality for men and women made possible for the growth of nationalist movement against the colonial rule. Savitribai dedicated her entire life to fight against the rigid patriarchal structures of the caste system with the help of her husband Jyotirao Phule through the establishment of the Satysodhak Samaj in Maharashtra that initiated the progress of women hailing from diverse corners of the society. The seed for social equality sowed against the practice of untouchability and cultural deprivation marked a ‘paradigm shift’ of such alternative principles with respect to tradition that brought women into the mainstream society. Sociologists interested in social movements have often conveyed about the guidelines of this “truth seeking” program as facilitating the creation a counter- ideological rubric of humanity that could be achieved only through the total annihilation of the Brahaminacal system. The present article intends to reflect upon Savitribai’s role in the work of this culturally homogenous and pluralist organization whose novel character helped in inducing a political upheaval replacing the patriarchal hegemony of caste by a new secure tradition.