Gurbani Summary 4

Annihilation of Caste

Annihilation of Caste was actually a speech written by Baba sahib as a speech that he was supposed to deliver at an anti-caste conference in Lahore. The reason why this speech was published as a booklet was that he was never able to deliver his speech at the conference because certain members of the conference thought that Baba sahib’s speech was very venomous and would mar the solidarity of the Hindus. The reason why this speech was never delivered and why and what Baba sahib wrote in his speech/book very closely concern each other.

Baba sahib was of the opinion that Hinduism is plagued by the caste system. He was of the view that the caste system has lasted so long and suppressed one section of the society for so long because the vedas themselves sanction the caste system and justify the atrocities on the lower caste in the name of religion. Therefore, to end caste we need to annihilate Hinduism or “dynamite” the vedas. We all in our lifetime have heard if not seen that the lower caste people are killed in the name of religion for trying to get inside a temple or fetching water from the community well. All this happens because this hatred is sanctioned by the vedas.

 He says that to do away with such discrimination and hatred is not in the hands of the lawmakers but in the hands of the society itself. He says that the caste can be abolished through inter-caste marriages, doing away with one's distinctive surnames and converting to other religions. I am very unsure about the last one as even though people who convert to Buddhism, Islam or Sikhism are not able to do away with their caste identity. Caste’s grasp on the Indian society is such that it has broken the religious barriers and infiltrated other religions. Therefore, Baba saheb believes that society needs to changes itself and its relationship with caste to annihilate it entirely.