CASTE SYSTEM: Demands for equality and justice

 

CASTE SYSTEM: Demands for equality and justice

Gradually, by the second half of the nineteenth century, people from within the Non-Brahman castes began organising movements against caste discrimination, and demanded social equality and justice.

The Satnami movement in Central India was founded by Ghasidas who worked among the leather workers and organised a movement to improve their social status. In eastern Bengal, Haridas Thakur’s Matua sect worked among Chandala cultivators. Haridas questioned Brahmanical texts that supported the caste system.

In what is present-day Kerala, a guru from Ezhava caste, Shri Narayana Guru, proclaimed the ideals of unity for his people. He argued against treating people unequally on the basis of caste differences. 

According to him, all humankind belonged to the same caste. One of his famous statements was: 

“oru jati, oru matam, oru daivam manushyanu” (one caste, one religion, one god for humankind). All these sects were founded by leaders who came from Non-

Brahman castes and worked amongst them. They tried to change those habits and practices which provoked the contempt of dominant castes. They tried to create a sense of self-esteem among the subordinate castes.