The Caste System at the Pub

Reality: July 6^th, 2008

 

In the car with my Delhite interviewee, we picked up one of his friends on the way who’s a married Sikh Punjabi. He told me he’s a coconut-brown on the outside, white on the inside- and never learned the language. I found it  interesting how once we reached the pub, we were literally surrounded by Punjabi’s everywhere. He starts joking around with his friends and saying phrases in flawless taiht Punjabi—a village dialect of the Punjabi language- but earlier claimed that he does not speak the language!

An interview I had with a specialist on Punjabi culture in Punjab and the UK told me that with social science research, you must observe a person in a variety of situations because particularly with Indians, their personality changes from place to place. The way they act with elders is entirely different from the way they act with people their age, which again is entirely different with how they act with people from different religions and castes. I was about to see this behavior full fledged at the pub.

The majority of the group I was with was Punjabi with the exception of one first generation Zimbabwean girl, a Scottish girl, and an English girl. They all knew a lot about Punjabi culture, and had just gone to a Punjabi club the night before. The Zimbabwean girl started imitated Punjabi dance moves, included a very popular one called ‘The Lightbulb’, which literally looks like someone is twisting a lightbulb.  

The Scottish girl told me how she was in Scotland the week before and was thrilled to come back to England where there’s curry and naan. Driving to the pub, I saw signs advertising curry and beer. A government councilor told me that racists in the British National Party will lobby for a repatriation of South Asians and then go out to eat a curry afterwards. Apparently, all the white working class people on my street eat curry and other types of Indian food for dinner.  I don’t even eat that much Indian food!!

Being at the pub was fascinating because everyone was so different from the Indians I was accustomed to in Cleveland, OH. This was my first experience with second generation Punjabis in an informal setting. I talked with a lot of people and really enjoyed myself. Two conversations worth noting were with the CEO of a well established letting service (Letting= ‘renting’ in England). and a young fashion designer. 

It turns out nearly everyone at the pub was indirectly connected to his letting company which was founded with only 50 quid ( or so the story goes). Today, he’s a millionaire with minimal education and factory workers for parents. Of interest to me is the gang fights he talked of while in college that were all orchestrated along religio/cultural lines—Sikh gangs, Muslim gangs, West Indian gangs. He has large scar marks running through his shaven head from being clubbed with a crowbar by a Muslim gang and indents along his jaw bone from being punched with a chrome ring by again, a Muslim gang. His life story finally allowed me to see the clashes resulting from the deeply embedded religious problems South Asians in the UK have developed and now face. South Asian identity starting in the 80’s began to splinter off along religious lines and now it’s deeply cemented and dictatorial.

Another form of identity and grounds to discriminate was made apparent to me by the young fashion designer. I had read about but this form of discrimination but not yet witnessed it. While we were sitting around a table outdoors and chatting, the young fashion designer came to know I was Indian. She turned to me and asked, “What’s your caste?”

I was floored. What’s my caste? I had never been asked that before. It took me a few moments to reply and when I told her, it turned out we’re from the same caste. She immediately opened up entirely to me and we ended up becoming very good friends. It amazed me that someone so liberal could judge me based on my caste.

A few moments later, this caste nonsense happened again from a Sikh Punjabi. Sikh’s have a different caste system, even though technically it’s outlawed in the religion. The Indian culture has permeated not only Sikh Punjabis but also Pakistani Muslims which is the only Muslim country to have a caste system.

Here’s a sampling of the caste system intricacies, using myself as the example. My mom comes from a Hindu kshatriya family, which is the warrior caste, and my dad comes from a Sikh jatt family, which is a farmer caste. Supposedly, both are top castes, but both have never played even a slight role in my life… until I came to the UK. The idea of caste meant little in terms of my identity or social sphere. I came to know I was a kshatriya after reading  book and asking my mom what the word meant. I came to know I was a jatt simply because I’m not from the city. I can still recall my grandpa saying, “Village Sikh’s are loyal and true, City ones are sly and conniving.”  Knowing that I’m from a small village in Punjab, that I’ve visited many a time, I made a simple deduction that I’m a jatt. To be clear, this is not a proper understanding of the Punjabi caste system. As I would learn in England, it’s a lot more complicated than ‘jatt’ or ‘city’. To see caste distinctions so active amongst the youth in the UK conflicts me- is it abominable or is it natural?

During an expert interview I was warned that the caste system is very prominent amongst the South Asian diasporas in the UK but I never imagined it would be such a guiding force for young, second generationer’s.

The next day, I became more aware of the caste differences manifested in BritAsian institutions. A Ramgharia guruduwara for the lower caste Sikhs. The religious divisions on the immigrant filled Foleshill Road. The refusal by two of my interviewees to let their children marry out of their kshatriya caste. The ‘oohs’ and ‘aah’s I get when I say my boyfriend is a Kashmiri pundit. He’s not that great, I swear.

 

It makes me sad to see people bring such archaic ideas abroad. In Hinduism, there is the concept of dharma, which means life’s purpose. This idea was solidified in what’s called Hanuman’s Laws which essentially outlines different dharma’s and the way they should be followed. According to this interpretation, the universe is only in balance when people abide by their dharma. Thus, a carpenter will always be a carpenter, a shoe maker will always be a shoe maker, and a wealthy landlord will always be a wealthy landlord. According to my one intervieww, South Africa’s apartheid was influenced by India’s caste system as was Hitler’s concept of Aryan supremacy (Aryan’s are the supposed invaders, subjugators and civilization creators of India but this historical trajectory is starting to become recognized as a British colonial manipulation of fact. )

I guess it’s a catchy model to strive towards because of the immense advantages for those in power. I’m reading a book called A Fine Balance  by Rohinton Mistry and parts of the storyline show the treatment of the lower caste in India. Again, I was never aware of any of this before I came to England and it deeply affected me to see an India like that.  Examples of the caste system’s disgusting remnants in the 20th century: If a lower caste Dalit looks up at an upper class Brahmin, his eyes are gauged. If a lower caste Chamar overhears prayers coming form a temple, molten lead is poured in her ears. If lower caste Shudras touches the food of a Thakur, their hands are cut. It’s so appalling and violent, but the worst part is that it continues today in the villages.

As mentioned, the centuries of ordaining a strict social structure is even manifested in Pakistan, which is the only Muslim country in the world with a caste system. So I really should not be surprised that the caste system’s effects have seaped into the UK. I guess the real question is, why didn’t I notice it in America? Is it because I am surrounded by people of my caste naturally? When I thought about it, my parents social sphere consists entirely of educated, well-off jatt  Sikh Punjabi’s or kshatriya Hindu-Punjabi’s. Their friends from other regions (and perhaps castes) could easily be confuddled with acquaintances. So perhaps I never noticed the caste system abroad because my Indian community is pulled only from my caste?