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Jāti (in Devanagari: जाति Tamil:சாதி) (the word literally means 'thus born') is the term used to denote the thousands of clans, tribes, communities and sub-communities in India. It is a term used across religions. Each jāti typically has an association with a traditional job function or tribe, although religious beliefs (e.g. Sri Vaishnavism or Veera Shaivism) or linguistic groupings may define some jatis. A person's surname typically reflects a community (jati) association: thus Gandhi = perfume seller, Dhobi = washerman, Srivastava = military scribe, etc. In any given location in India 500 or more jatis may co-exist, although the exact composition will differ from district to district.^[1]

Professor Madhav Gadgil (1983) has described the reality of self-governing, closed communities, which are called Jatis, in India, based on his research in rural Maharashtra: "The Indian society is even today an agglomeration of numerous castes, tribes and religious communities. The tribal and caste groups are endogamous, reproductively isolated populations traditionally distributed over a restricted geographical range. The different caste populations, unlike tribes, have extensive geographical overlap and members of several castes generally constitute the complex village society. In such a village society, each caste, traditionally self regulated by a caste council, used to lead a relatively autonomous existence. Each caste used to pursue a hereditarily prescribed occupation; this was particularly true of the artisan and service castes and the pastoral and nomadic castes. The several castes were linked to each other through a traditionally determined barter of services and produce (Ghurye 1961, Karve 1961). These caste groups retained their identity even after conversion to Islam or Christianity. Each of the caste groups was thus the unit within which cultural and perhaps genetic evolution occurred, at least for the last 1500 years when the system was fully crystallized and probably much longer. Over this period the various castes had come to exhibit striking differences in cultural traits like skills possessed, food habits, dress, language, religious observances as well as in a number of genetic traits."

Under the Jati system, a person is born into a Jati with ascribed social roles and endogamy, i.e. marriages take place only within that Jati. The Jati provides identity, security and status and has historically been open to change based on economic, social and political influences. In the course of Indian history, various economic, political and social factors have led to a continuous closing and churning in the prevailing social ranks which tended to become traditional, hereditary system of social structuring. This system of thousands of exclusive, endogamous groups, is called Jāti. Though there were several variations across the breadth of India, the Jati was the effective community within which one married and spent most of one's personal life. Often it was the community (Jati) which provided support in difficult times, in old age and even in the resolution of disputes. It was thus the community which one also sought to promote.

The British, since 1901, for the purposes of the Decennial Census, fitted all the Jatis into one or the other of the varna categories as described in Brahminical literature. The Census Commissioner had this to say, "The principle suggested as a basis was that of classification by social precedence as recognized by native public opinion at the present day, and manifesting itself in the facts that particular castes are supposed to be the modern representatives of one or other of the castes of the theoretical Hindu system;"^[2]. This deliberately ignored the fact that there are innumerable Jatis that straddled two or more Varnas, based on occupation. As a community in south India put it,"We are soldiers and saddle makers too" - but it was the enumerators who decided their caste. The Indian society since pre-historic times had a complex, inter-dependent and cooperative political economy. One well known text, the Laws of Manu, c. 200, codified the social relations between communities from the perspective of the Varna castes. Although this book was almost unknown south of the Vindhyas, it gained prominence when the British administrators and Western scholars used it exclusively to gain an understanding of traditional Hindu law in India.^[3]

Crispin Bates noted in 1995 that

In India, anthropologists now more often speak of 'sub-castes' or jatis, as the building blocks of society [rather than castes]. However, unless there is a strong element of political control or territoriality associated with such groups these too tend to disintegrate upon closer inspection as soon as essentially exogamous practices such as hypergamy are taken into account. Needless to say, all such endogamous groupings are increasingly irrelevant when talking about modern India, where large-scale migrations are commonplace, where economic and social change is radically re-shaping society, and where marriage taboos are being overthrown at an accelerating rate.^[4]

All Jatis across the spectrum, from the so-called upper castes to the lowest of castes, including the Untouchables, tended to avoid intermarriage, sharing of food and drinks, or even close social interaction with a Jati other than their own. Indeed, for some of them, for example, the Tharu Boxas, even Brahmins were untouchable. The Jatis did not see themselves as socially inferior to the others. If at all, it was the other way round and many had folk narratives, traditions, myths and legends to bolster their sense of identity and cultural uniqueness. For instance, the Yadavs, a prominent backward class believe that "Even in the Vedic age the Yadavs were upholders of the Republican ideals of government.... The Mahabharata furnishes interesting details regarding the functioning of the republic form of government among the Yadavs.... It is now an agreed fact that Sri Krishna, the central figure of the epic narratives tried to defend the republican ideas against the imperialistic movement led by Jarasandha of Magadaha and Kamsa of Mathura" (R.V.K. Yadav quoted by Lucia Michelutti in "Caste and modern politics in a north Indian town"). Dalits also have "the stories that assert the glory of the caste, identify legendary figures who, the narrators imagine, have played pivotal roles in building their caste identity. The facts of the past are interspersed with myth and fantasy to create a new perception of a past that is glorious, pure and exclusive. This in turn is accorded historical status and imagined to have existed from time immemorial (Seneviratne1997: 5). This kind of history, which seeks authenticity from written sources and from the self-interpretation of so-called archaeological re-mains, is sustained by commemorations such as feasts, fasts, celebrations and the creation of new symbols like flags and emblems based on these..." (Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past" by Badri Narayan).

See also[link]

• Caste

References[link]

Rajiv Malhotra, born September 1950, is an Indian-American author, philanthropist, public speaker and writer on current affairs, world religions and cross-cultural encounters. He is the founder of the Infinity Foundation.^[1][2][3] He is also a former telecommunication entrepreneur. After a career in the software, computer, and telecom industries Malhotra took an early retirement to pursue philanthropic and educational activities.^[4] He founded the Infinity foundation in 1995.^[4]

Prema A. Kurien considers him to be at "...the forefront of American Hindu effort to challenge the Eurocentricism in the academia."^[5] He has been considered by Hinnells to lead the traditional Hindu criticism of Wendy Doniger's methodology for the examination of Hinduism^[6]

His criticism of American academia[link]

He considers that a positive stance on India has been underrepresented in American academia, this was derived from programmes staffed by Westerners, their "Indian - American Sepoys" and Indian Americans wanting to be white - whom he describes as "career opportunists" and "Uncle Toms" who in their desire to become even marginal members of the Western Grand Narrative sneer at Indian culture in the same manner as colonialists once did. Academia according to him promoted "a perscective on India using worldviews which are hostile to India's interests", and that "...Indian American donors were hoodwinked into thinking that they were supporting India through their monetary contributions to such programmes". He has claimed that American scholarship has undermined India by encouraging paradigms that oppose its unity and integrity, with scholars playing crirical roles, often under the garb of 'human rights' in channeling foreign intellectual and material support to exacerbate India's internal cleavages. He has accused the academia of abetting the Talibanisation of India, which would also lead to the Talibanisation of other Asian countries.^[7]

Appropriation of Indian symbols by the West and U-turn theory[link]

Malhotra states that by 1900 Aryanisation had been firmly established in German academic circles, German thinkers first glorified India as their cradle, then did a U-Turn and asserted German nationalism - its purity and the lower status of Indians. Despite the extent of German study of India, India's influence is barely mentioned in contemporary western texts on European History. According to him the use of Swastika has been symbolic of this appropriation.^[8]

Infinity Foundation[link]

The Infinity Foundation is an organization based in New Jersey promoting Indic studies.^[9] According to Prema Kurien, since 2003 it is one the most prominent and active Indic studies organization in the United States.^[4] The foundation defines "Indic traditions" as to include Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Hinduism.^[10]

The Foundation has given more than 400 grants for research, education and community work.^[1] The Infinity foundation has provided small grants to major universities in support of programs including visiting professorship in Indic studies at Harvard University, Yoga and Hindi classes at Rutgers University, the research and teaching of nondualistic philosophies at University of Hawaii, Global Renaissance Institute and a Center for Buddhist studies at Columbia University, a program in religion and science at University of California, and endowment for the Center for Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania, lectures at the Center for Consciousness Studies at University of Arizona.^[11] The foundation has provided funding for journals like Education about Asia,^[11] International Journal of Hindu Studies^[12] and in the establishment of Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Non-violence at James Madison University.^[12]

Criticism[link]

Martha C. Nussbaum describes him as a multimillionaire who is the mastermind of US based denigration of American scholars of history of religion.^[13]

Publications[link]

• Malhotra, Rajiv (2005). "India and Globalization". In Nagendra Rao. Globalization, pre modern India. Daya Books. 
• _____________ (2007). "The axis of neo-colonialism". Indian Journals 11 (3). ISSN 0971-8052. http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:wa&volume=11&issue=3&article=003. 
• _____________ (2009). "American Exceptionalism and the Myth of the Frontiers". In Rajani Kannepalli Kanth. The Challenge of Eurocentrism: Global Perspectives, Policy, and Prospects. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-61227-3. 
• Malhotra, Rajiv , Aravindan Neelakandan (2011). Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines. 
• Malhotra, Rajiv , (2011). Being Different. 

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Prothero, Stephen (2006), A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, The University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-5770-0 
• Campbell, James T. (2007), Race, Nation, and Empire in American History (EasyRead Large Bold ed.), The University of North Carolina Press 
• Kurien, Prema A. (2007), A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0-8135-4056-6, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ONMxZc5_saYC 
• Bloch, Esther (2010), Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism, Routledge, pp. 208, ISBN 978-0-415-54890-8 
• Martha C. Nussbaum (15 October 2008). The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03059-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=WS_0saaC-jkC&pg=PA214. Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
• Mittal, Sushil (2006). Religions of South Asia: an introduction. Gene R. Thursby. Routledge. 
• John R. Hinnells (2010). The Routledge companion to the study of religion. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-47328-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=RyuJ_BfJki8C&pg=PA52. Retrieved 22 January 2012. 
• Peter Wilberg (April 2008). Heidegger, Phenomenology and Indian Thought. New Gnosis Publications. ISBN 978-1-904519-08-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=rWE0HcgTmGAC&pg=PA49. Retrieved 22 January 2012. 

External links[link]

• rajivmalhotra.com
• List of articles
• Was the US Senate Attack on Hinduism an isolated Instance?
• Panel Discussion held at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver, Nov 17, 2001
• Outlook India
• Rediff