Social media, especially Twitter has people taking extreme sides on castes, there are hardly any conversations but a lot of noise. Here's my attempt to give a perspective on where we are and the way forward.
Context
I'm a Brahmin by the standard definition of a Brahmin - born in a Brahmin family, brought up a Brahmin and I continue to try to be a Brahmin. I rever the Vedas and all the traditions - some of which aren't Brahminical. I can be stamped a 'trad' and my views can be brushed aside. If you are curious to understand the history, context, and everything in between, please continue reading further.
Some History
Historically we Hindus have been a segregated society. Everyone minded his own business and there were limited touchpoints between communities. A farmer and a merchant, a merchant and a warrior, and everyone with the other had limited interactions. There was no public transportation for people to interact with each other regularly. There were no big auditoriums for secular entertainment. If at all people congregated it must have been for temple-related events. They were once a year or so and the context was almost always religious. So, segregation or no segregation must have been agreed upon and would not have mattered much. Wells, crematoriums, access to the river, and choultries were all segregated for respective castes. People had limited consumption; so visits to the market were also limited. Effectively there were very few secular places where people mingled. Yes, there were taverns and gambling spots. Visitors to these places were looked down upon. Thankfully this view continues to some extent even today.
Sailors and foreign nationals were accommodated in separate colonies, away from the citizens. There was reverse racism. Locals considered sailors and European merchants as people with poor hygiene and manners before they became rulers.
Brahmins happened to be the most orthodox. Compared with the other communities, Brahmins had more rituals to follow so they were naturally more separated from the rest of the communities.
But there were a few Brahmin merchants, warriors, and farmers. They had a clear demarcation between their secular and ritualistic acts. An example was my grandfather who was a doctor in the pre-independence days. He treated people of all communities including those who were excommunicated nomads. He once got to visit the great freedom fighter - VOC. When he visited VOC, he was given rice and vegetables to cook for himself. He did not grumble that he was a doctor and not a cook. (It was likely that VOC had extreme anti-Brahmin views at that time; that didn't stop him from offering accommodation and food to a Brahmin doctor.) Such secular interactions were very few between castes.
An exception could be the army. Kings had armies consisting of warriors from multiple castes. We do not have an account of their daily lives when there were months-long campaigns.
Segregation was natural in that society. Non-segregation was for exceptional events.
Present
The present Indian society is in the middle of a long transition from a tribal to a global mindset. Transition is a mild word - it is more of churn. Different sections of society transition at a different pace and directions. People living in the big cities for their livelihood would find compelling reasons to shed their tribal mindset to be acceptable to others. Rural people may not have such urgency, as life continues to be more or less the same as a hundred years ago. So, their attitude towards castes and untouchability would undergo a much slower transition if at all it needs to.
A decade ago, globalization was the order of the day. Everyone was expected to shed his tribal practices and attitudes to be accepted as a global citizen. One pandemic followed by an economic slowdown turned this upside down. Mindless immigration is seen as a danger to the indigenous society. The voices of Indigenous people are no longer suppressed. In this churn, for comfort, people turn towards their forgotten traditions. Trads gain traction in social media and are assertive in their own way. Various 'sampradhayas' are rediscovered and people begin following them faithfully. It is very liberating if one becomes aware of the churn he is in. The churn could take him toward his traditions or away from them. There is no right or wrong.
To sum up - don't waste your energy on the past hundreds of years of social interactions that are hard to comprehend for the people of this generation. Judging them with urban lifestyle goggles is not just unfair but blatantly stupid. First, we must learn to be aware of our conditioning and context before we can understand lively societies.
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