Caste among non-Hindus: Muslims, Christians and Sikhs

1. Why caste exists outside Hinduism

• Conversion without social change. Most Indian Muslims, Christians and Sikhs descend from local converts, who kept their jati, occupation and marriage rules.
• Living in a caste society. Neighbours, the village economy and patron-client ties continued to treat converts by their former caste.
• Group conversion. Whole caste groups converted together, so the group stayed endogamous.
• Distinction of origin. Among Muslims, descendants of foreign immigrants claimed higher status than local converts.

2. Caste among Muslims

Islam teaches the equality of all believers before God (the ummah). Yet sociologists, especially Imtiaz Ahmad (Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India, ed., 1973), documented a clear hierarchy.

Features.

• Endogamy within the group (biradari or zat); marriage outside is disapproved.
• Hereditary occupation among Ajlaf and Arzal groups.
• Caste councils (jamaat or panchayat) among occupational groups.
• Less emphasis on ritual pollution than among Hindus; mosques are open to all, and there is no priestly caste.
• The Pasmanda (“those left behind”) movement, from the 1990s, organises backward Muslim groups for political and economic rights.

3. Caste among Christians

Christianity also teaches equality, but caste persists, especially in south India.

• Syrian Christians of Kerala trace their faith to St Thomas and claim high status; they kept upper-caste customs and did not usually marry later converts.
• Converts from upper and middle castes (e.g. Nadars in Tamil Nadu, converted Brahmins in Goa and Mangaluru) kept their caste identity.
• Dalit Christians, converted in mass movements of the 19th century, faced separate seating, separate cemeteries and even separate churches in some places.
• Marriages are generally arranged within the caste and denomination.
• Among Goan Catholics, the categories Bamon (Brahmin), Chardo (Kshatriya), Gauddo and Sudir survive.

4. Caste among Sikhs

The Gurus rejected caste; the langar (community kitchen) and the common surname Singh or Kaur express equality. Yet Sikh society shows divisions:

• Jat Sikhs, landowning and dominant in Punjab;
• Khatri and Arora (trading castes);
• Ramgarhia (artisans);
• Mazhabi and Ravidasia Sikhs (of Dalit origin), who have their own gurdwaras in many villages.

5. Jains and neo-Buddhists

• Jains are divided into Digambara and Shvetambara sects and, socially, into endogamous trading jatis (Oswal, Porwal, Agarwal Jains); marriage with Hindu Vaishya castes of the same rank is accepted in some regions, which shows caste ranking cutting across religion.
• Neo-Buddhists, mostly of Mahar origin in Maharashtra, converted with Ambedkar at Nagpur in October 1956 precisely to escape caste. They reject caste in doctrine, but neighbours often continue to identify them by their former caste, and marriage still tends to stay within the community.

6. Legal position on Scheduled Caste status

Paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 provides that no person who professes a religion different from Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism shall be deemed a member of a Scheduled Caste. Sikhs were included in 1956 and Buddhists in 1990. Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians are therefore excluded, and many are listed instead as Other Backward Classes. Their claim to SC status is a recurring public and judicial issue.

How this is examined

For the 10-mark essay, give the reasons for persistence, then Muslims (Ashraf, Ajlaf, Arzal with examples and Imtiaz Ahmad), Christians (Syrian and Dalit Christians) and Sikhs, and close with the 1950 Order and the comparison above. For a 6-mark note, take Muslims and Christians only.