I should state two things clearly at the very outset. The material available in the CED archive made two of my convictions clearer: The daily violence in our society is a fact. There is no doubt that people are being exploited. And, probably, some jatis (castes) face more exploitation than some other jatis. And, our understanding of violence is afflicted to a great extent by the faulty theories of the caste system. Such faulty and unscientific theories of caste system are an injustice (that is both epistemological and political injustice at the same time) to the ‘oppressed’ people of our society.
We know that the violent incidents that the reports on the caste system in India refer to do exist. However, it is distressing and strange that we have no clear understanding of the problems, nor the causes of these problems. One way to present this is to point out the circularity in the arguments about the caste system. The arguments about caste violence, whether scholarly or popular, begin by discussing the incidents of violence which they claim to be the manifestations of the caste system. To put it in other words, we are told that
atrocities are committed against Dalits simply because they are considered ‘untouchables’ and therefore, according to the caste rationale, have no rights. (Dalit Human Rights Monitor-2000 2000: pp. 7-8)
However, when they have to explain the caste system, they in turn invoke these incidents as an explanation of the immorality of the caste system. That is, the caste system is explained using the incidents of caste violence, and the incidents of caste violence are in turn explained by the caste system. This is a problem of petitio principi; a logical fallacy where the argument assumes what it has to prove, or is trying to prove.
If so, where to look for an answer to our question about our alleged lack of understanding of the caste problems? The only place we can look for an answer, I insist, is the nature of our understanding of these problems. Though, problems such as murders, or economic exploitation of people is a brute fact, the same cannot be said about all the problems that writings on the caste system discuss. We will have more to say about it later in the article. But, for now, it is enough if I point out that the caste problems such as ‘untouchability’ or ‘caste abuse’ do not share all the properties of a violent incident like murder or rape. Therefore, let us dissociate these problems from their descriptions, to begin with. This will help us to see if these problems exist as their descriptions claim them to be.
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