The Evils of Caste
We reproduce below
excerpts from the work of one of the oldest authorities on the Marathas,
historian Jadunath Sarkar. In two books on the issue, the historian has dealt
with the ticklish issue of caste which affected Shivaji’s acceptance as a formal
ruler.
A deep study of Maratha society, indeed of society throughout
India, reveals some facts which it is considered patriotism to ignore. We
realise that the greatest obstacles to Shivaji’s success were not Mughals or
Adil Shahis, Siddis or Feringis, but his own countrymen. First, we cannot be
blind to the truth that the dominant factor in Indian life — even today, no less
than in the seventeenth century — is caste, and neither religion nor country. By
caste must not be understood the four broad divisions of the Hindus which exist
only in the textbooks and the airy philosophical generalisations delivered from
platforms. The caste that really counts, the division that is a living force, is
the sub–division and sub–sub–division into innumerable small groups called
shakhas or branches (more correctly twigs or I should say, leaves, they are so
many!) into which each caste is split up and within which alone marrying and
giving in marriage, eating and drinking together take place…
And each of
these smallest sub–divisions of the Brahman caste is separated from the other
sub–divisions as completely as it is from an altogether different caste like the
Vaishya or Shudra, e.g., the Kanyakubja and Sarayupari Brahmans of northern
India, the Konkanastha and Deshastha of Maharashtra. Personal Jealousy
Hindering Shivaji
Shivaji was not contented
with all his conquests of territory and vaults full of looted treasure, so long
as he was not recognised as a Kshatriya entitled to wear the sacred thread and
to have the Vedic hymns chanted at his domestic rites. The Brahmans alone could
give him such recognition, and though they swallowed the sacred thread they
boggled at the Vedokta! The result was a rupture… Whichever side had the rights
of the case, one thing is certain, namely, that this internally torn community
had not the sine qua non of a nation.
Nor did Maharashtra
acquire that sine qua non ever after. The Peshwas were Brahmans from Konkan, and
the Brahmans of the upland (Desh) despised them as less pure in blood. The
result was that the state policy of Maharashtra under the Peshwas, instead of
being directed to national ends, was now degraded into upholding the prestige of
one family or social sub–division.
Shivaji had, besides,
almost to the end of his days, to struggle against the jealousy, scorn,
indifference and even opposition of certain Maratha families, his equals in
caste sub-division and once in fortune and social position, whom he had now
outdistanced. The Bhonsle Savants of Vadi, the Jadavs of Sindhkhed, the Mores of
Javli, and (to a lesser extent) the Nimbalkars, despised and kept aloof from the
upstart grandson of that Maloji whom some old men still living remembered to
have seen tilling his fields like a Kunbi! Shivaji’s own brother Vyankoji fought
against him during the Mughal invasion of Bijapur in 1666.
Shivaji’s
religious toleration and equal treatment of all subjects He stands
on a lofty pedestal in the hall of the worthies of history, not because he was a
Hindu champion, but because he was an ideal householder, an ideal king, and an
unrivalled nation-builder. He was devoted to his mother, loving to his children,
true to his wives, and scrupulously pure in his relations with other women. Even
the most beautiful female captive of war was addressed by him as his mother.
Free from all vices and indolence in his private life, he displayed the highest
genius as a king and as an organizer. In that age of religious bigotry, he
followed a policy of the most liberal toleration for all creeds.
The letter which he
wrote to Aurangzeb, protesting against the imposition of the poll–tax on the
Hindus, is a masterpiece of clear logic, calm persuasion, and political wisdom.
Though he was himself a devout Hindu, he could recognise true sanctity in a
Musalman, and therefore he endowed a Muhammadan holy man named Baba Yaqut with
land and money and installed him at Keleshi. All creeds had equal opportunities
in his service and he employed a Muslim secretary named Qazi Haidar, who, after
Shivaji’s death, went over to Delhi and rose to be chief justice of the Mughal
Empire.
There were many
Muhammadan captains in Shivaji’s army and his chief admiral was an Abyssinian
named Siddi Misri. His Maratha soldiers had strict orders not to molest any
woman or rob any Muhammadan saint’s tomb or hermitage. Copies of the Quran which
were seized in the course of their campaigns were ordered to be carefully
preserved and then handed over respectfully to some Muhammadan.” (From
Jadunath Sarkar’s book, ‘House of Shivaji’).
The Coronation of
Shivaji And After (1674-1676)
Why Shivaji wanted to be
crowned
Shivaji and his ministers had long felt the practical
disadvantages of his not being a crowned king. True, he had conquered many lands
and gathered much wealth: he had a strong army and navy and exercised powers of
life and death over men, like an independent sovereign. But theoretically his
position was that of a subject; to the Mughal Emperor, he was a mere zamindar.
He could not claim equality of political status with any king. Then again, so
long as he was a mere private subject, he could not, with all his real power,
claim the loyalty and devotion of the people over whom he ruled. His promises
could not have the sanctity and continuity of the public engagements of the head
of a State. He could sign no treaty, grant no land with legal validity and an
assurance of permanence. The territories conquered by his sword could not become
his lawful property, however undisturbed his possession over them might be in
practice. The people living under his sway or serving under his banners could
not renounce their allegiance to the former sovereign of the land, nor be sure
that they were exempt from the charge of treason for their obedience to him. The
permanence of his political creation required that it should be validated as the
act of a sovereign.
Shivaji recognized by Gaga Bhatta as a Kshatriya
But there was one curious hindrance to the realization of this ideal.
According to the ancient Hindu scriptures, only a member of the Kshatriya caste
can be legally crowned as king and claim the homage of Hindu subjects. The
Bhonsles were popularly known to be neither Kshatriyas, nor of any other
twice-born caste, but mere tillers of the soil, as Shivaji’s great–grandfather
was still remembered to have been. How could an upstart sprung from such a
Shudra (plebeian) stock aspire to the rights and honours due to a Kshatriya? The
Brahmans of all parts of India would attend and bless the coronation of Shivaji,
only if he could be authoritatively declared a Kshatriya.
It was, therefore,
necessary first to secure the support of a pandit, whose reputation for
scholarship would silence all opposition to the views he might propound. Such a
man was found in Vishweshwar, nicknamed Gaga Bhatta, of Benares, the greatest
Sanskrit theologian and controversialist then alive, a master of the four Vedas,
the six philosophies, and all the scriptures of the Hindus, and popularly known
as the Brahma–deva and Vyas of the age. After holding out for some time, he
became compliant, accepted the Bhonsle pedigree as fabricated by the clever
secretary Balaji Avji and other agents of Shiva, and declared that Rajah was a
Kshatriya of the purest breed, descended in unbroken line from the Maharanas of
Udaipur, the sole representatives of the solar line of the mythical hero-god
Ramchandra. His audacious but courtierly ethnological theory was rewarded with a
huge fee, and he was entreated to visit Maharashtra and officiate as high priest
at the coronation of Shiva. He agreed, and on his arrival was welcomed like a
crowned head, Shiva and all his officers advancing many miles from Satara to
receive him on the way.n (From ‘Shivaji And His Times’ by Jadunath Sarkar).
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