The Truth About Caste & Other Essays

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'Caste' has been a burning issue in Bharat's social and political discourse for more than a century, but no serious attempt has been made to know about its use and misuse by academia and politicians-rather they have deliberately hidden the truth from us for their selfish interests.

The Truth About Caste is a serious attempt to expose the designs of all those who put all blame on caste for all the evil existing in Bharat today.

N K Vaid aka Academic Nomad (b. 1955) is a former journalist, social activist, writer, editor, publisher etc. He did his M.Sc. (Hons.) in Anthropology from Panjab University, Chandigarh (1976) and conducted research under Prof. S C Tiwari at University of Delhi. He has conducted extensive fieldwork among Bhotia and Raji of Uttarakhand as also among Birhor (Jharkhand), Pahadi Korba, Kamar and Saharia (Chhattisgarh).

He is actively engaged in Action Anthropology among some communities of Chhotanagpur. The Author feels that Indian social system has not been studied in proper perspective and therefore, through his YouTube Channels, is trying to 'Indianise' Indian social sciences.

It is only recently that I began to know Mr Naresh Kumar Vaid but I have no hesitation to admit that in the short period of our acquaintance, he has impressed me immensely. His sense of intense curiosity to learn, to explore, to get to the root of the cited sources and to challenge the so-called established concepts regarding Indian society are some of his qualities which attract attention towards what he writes and says through his videos.

I must hasten to add, as we are in the process of coming out of the colonial hangover, it is being increasingly realised that many of the concepts about the institutions of Indian society were based on partial or wrong understanding. Generally, the Western scholars had several limitations such as their belonging to the ruling class sloshed with the notion of belonging to a superior race, not able to grasp the antiquity, diversity and immense complexity of India's long history, society and its ethos. The Indian scholars who followed them came under the colonial umbrella. For a majority of them their knowledge and understanding remained borrowed, mainly for the reason that they did not take the trouble of going to the original sources. How it could be, where even Sanskrit and vernacular languages were taught through the English medium! It is easy to say this now but if one was looking for recognition from the centres of learning at that time dominated by the colonial thought process, there was no way but to succumb and follow. In this regard, anthropology as a discipline has been completely dominated by those thought processes. There are numerous examples. I need not detain the readers in discussing this issue here; just one will do such as labelling some communities as primitive.

Before proceeding any further, let me give an interesting quote from Vaid's book. Charles Darwin, in his famous book Descent of Man, 1874 writes, "There are no primitive people! I was incessantly struck while living with Fuegians on board the 'Beagle' with many little traits of character showing how similar their mind were to ours (p 113)." What Darwin could not find, the colonial scholars working on India found; many primitive people which was never seriously challenged by the Indian scholars. Once you are caught up in that kind of categorisation label, it works like coloured glasses. A whole category of people, their physical features, society, culture and values are put up in a tight compartment. Based on such faulty typologies, theories about their origin, their customs and practices are woven, completely overlooking the fact that such people have been a part of the evolving great Indian civilisation. While the scholars were busy in their academic pursuits, the other arms of the colonial forces were busy in expansion, appropriating their resources, enslaving them and also converting to 'save' them; in short were busy in implementing Macaulay's policy. While all these may be considered practices of a well- established power game, the anthropologists who learn from the people generally overlooked the intricacies of the Indian society or, at its worst, legitimised the biased colonial understanding. The imprint of such faulty understanding continues. Correcting that is certainly a colossal task; there are a variety of hurdles on the way. However, there are some notable exceptions like Vaid, who are sincerely and devotedly engaged in goading scholars to go to the rich depository of Indian resources, some of which may be quite ancient but certainly relevant in enhancing our understanding.

Those who may be interested to know more about Vaid, I strongly recommend them to read foreword of his book In Search of Ourselves: An Introduction to Social Cultural Anthropology (Delhi: Palaka Prakashan 6th Reprint, 3rd Edition, 2021) by Professor Vinay Kumar Srivastava whose writings are always a pleasure to read. Though Vaid was his immediate Junior, Professor Srivastava calls him his bosom friend, coming as it does from a senior for his 'student, indicates the high regard the eminent professor had for him. That foreword is a lively read on its own right but very successfully rounds up the personality of Vaid and his varied interests.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages