Canada First Nations Sovereignty

Historical Facts & Events

1. Founding Nations France & Britain (1760s):
·Initially exclusively colonised by the French:
Jacques Cartier; Samuel de Champlain (Quebec in 1608;
Montreal 1609).
· Constant struggle with the British (Seven Years War).
Territories were ceded (but maintained French language,
religion and law).
2. Contact with Aboriginal peoples:
· Coureurs des bois: Adapted to native survival techniques.
· First Treaties in the 1870s:
Granting aboriginal peoples limited land rights (& fifinancial
compensation).
Indian Chiefs were reluctant to sign* & Members of the Métis
were not included in these talks.
Other Events/Facts
1. Inflfluence of fur trade:
·Highly appreciated commodity in Europe.
·Exchanges with native people (fur for alcohol, fifirearms, etc).
2. Gold Rushes: British Columbia (1858) & Klondike (1896-1899):
·Increase in immigration.
Impact on native population.
Disruption of balance between fur traders and native peoples.
3. Canadian Pacifific Railroad (1881):
·National symbol.
·Immigration.
Immigration
1. From British Isles, Eastern Europe…
·First wave: Great Migration from United Kingdom, 1815-1850).
·Second wave: Irish migration (peaked in 1840s).
·Third & Fourth Waves: European Origin, prior to WWII.
2. Policies imposed to face immigration:
·Discrimination against certain ethnicities:
Chinese Head Tax (1885).
Chinese Immigration Act (1923).
·Points system (1967):
Immigrants assessed according to certain criteria related to
their
skills, education, family situation, etc.
2. Apologies and compensations announced in 2006.

First nation
General Information
1. Common to call themselves by the name of their
tribes/communities.
2. Official Languages: Aboriginal (Nunavut, Inuktitut and
Inuinnaqtun), Canadian English & Canadian french.
·Inuktitut is a common vehicular language in government.
3. Religions: Christian, Anglican, Traditional beliefs.
4. The interactions between colonisers and First Nations, Métis, and
Inuit peoples were less combative and violent if compared to the
often violent encounters and genocides in other geographical areas.
5. Slavery:
·Conducted by First Nations who routinely captured slaves from
other
tribes.
·Act Against Slavery of 1793 legislated its gradual abolition.
Political Organisation
1. European Canadians established different institutions
(governmental, police forces, courts of law) which differed from
indigenous practices.
·Encouragement of assimilation of First Nations.
2. 630 recognized First Nation governments (Ontario & British
Columbia).
3. First Nations people have the right to vote in federal elections
without forfeiting their Indian status since 1960.
3. Nowadays political organisations are mostly Europeanised.
·First Nations organisations vary in both size, viewpoints,
organisation and political standing.
Living Conditions
1. A high number of unemployment rates, incarceration, substance
abuse, health problems & illiteracy (along with high levels of
poverty).
2. Reserve system:
·Mostly in Southern Canada.
·50% (approx.) of the Aboriginal population live on reserves.
·Lands set aside for exclusive use of registered (or “status
Indians”).
Only status Indians (registered and approved) can own land on
a reserve.
·Signifificant migration to urban centers as of 2006.
Mythology
1. Legends & Cultures.
2. Myths, teachings, storytelling and tales of creation:
·Elderly are responsible for their transmission.
Account of each group's origins, history, spirituality, lessons of
morality, and life skills.
·Descriptions of genesis are very varied (but all maintain that life
began on the North American continent).
3. Shamanism & Animism.
4. Figure of the Trickster:
·The Crow (most common manifestation).
5. Pow-wow.
6. Wampum.
Mythology (vs teachings)
“There is something inherently wrong about starting a traditional
story with “This is one of the myths that was passed down from our
grandfathers…” Literally translated, it means, “This is a lie that was
handed down by our grandfathers…” The prefered term these days
is “teachings”- as in “Our teachings say…” It’s certainly more
accurate, because it recognizes the fact that most myths exist for a
purpose- that there is some nugget of metaphor or message within
the subtext.”Drew Hayden
Taylor, Seeing Red Over Myths
Tale of Creation: Blackfoot - Earth Diver
Long ago there was a time when water covered the entire world.
Napi the creator wanted to know what happened below all of this
water. He sent a duck, an otter, then a badger, but all came up with
nothing. Finally, a muskrat dove beneath the water and was down a
very long time. He returned with a ball of mud in his paws. Napi took
the lump and blew on it until it dried and was transformed into the
earth. He molded the hills, valley, and mountains with his hands. He
created groves in the earth for rivers and lakes. The first people
were molded from this earth and Napi taught men and women how
to hunt and to live. Once Napi felt his work was complete,he climbed
up to a mountain peak and disappeared.” (Origins Canadian History
to Confederation. 3rd edition. R.D. Francis, R. Jones, D.B. Smith,
Harcourt Brace & Co. Toronto, 1996.)
Systematic Oppression
1. Treaties:
·Constitutionally recognised “agreements”between the Crown and
aboriginal peoples.
Originated on early “diplomatic” relationships on fifirst
contacts.
Exchange of land for other “valuable” needs.
Now believed to be invalid by most Aboriginals.
·11 treaties, fifirst in 1871 and last in 1921.
3. Residential Schools System.
Systematic Oppression
1. Political Actions:
 ·1920s & 1930s: Broken treaty promises.
·1970s: Redefifining place of Indigenous peoples in Canadian
history.
·1990s: Rise in militant behaviour: Oka crisis.
2. Indigenous Rights and fifight for sovereignty.
·Gradual Cultural and Political “assimilation”.
Sovereignty
1. Idea of unlimited power over something, of having independent
authority over a geographic area or territory.
·“Sovereignty is more than anything else a matter of legitimacy
[...that] requires reciprocal recognition. Sovereignty is a
hypothetical trade, in which two potentially conflflicting sides,
respecting de facto realities of power, exchange such recognitions
as their least costly strategy.”Immanuel Wallerstein
2. Closely tied to concept of ‘independence’.
3. Aboriginal right to land protected under section 35 of Canadian
Constitution Act, 1982.
4. Refusal by European descendendants to recognise Aboriginal
sovereignty and rights.
·From treaties to land claiming.
·Continuing resistance and activism.
From Reading Nanook's Smile: Visual Sovereignty,
Indigenous Revisions of Ethnography, and "Atanarjuat (The
Fast Runner)" by Michelle H Raheja (2007)
1.“Native Americans have no single shared culture, event, or series
of events, no Middle Passage, necessary to imagine a collective
group experience.”
2.“Sovereignty is an ontological and philosophical concept with very
real practical, political, and cultural ramififications that unites the
experiences of Native Americans, but it is a difficult idea to
defifine because it is always in motion and is inherently
contradictory.”
3.“…sovereignty is perhaps the most important, overused and often
misunderstood term employed in late twentieth/early twenty-fifirst
century”
4.“Sovereignty is a key term in the lexicon of Native American
studies because it demonstrates how indigenous peoples are
different from immigrant communities in the Americas…”
5.“…sovereignty indicates a powerful way to mobilize social and
political action through situational, sometimes temporary, solidarity
with the understanding that this solidarity is predicated on
consensus decision making that recognises individual
dissent.”
Understanding First Nations Sovereignty
The Chiefs of Ontario:
1.“The Chiefs of Ontario is a political forum and secretariat for
collective decision-making, action, and advocacy for the 133 First
Nations communities located within the boundaries of the province
of Ontario. Guided by the Chiefs in Assembly, we uphold self-
determination efforts of the Anishinaabek, Mushkegowuk,
Onkwehonwe, and Lenape Peoples in protecting and exercising their
inherent and Treaty rights. Keeping in mind the wisdom of our
Elders, and the future for our youth, we continue to create the path
forward in building our Nations as strong, healthy Peoples respectful
of ourselves, each other, and all creation.”
By the Chiefs of Ontario:
[Link] the sovereign Nations of Turtle Island, we possess inherent
rights to self-determination. Our right to self-determination
means we have jurisdiction (the right, power and authority) to
administer and operate our own political, legal, economic, social and
cultural systems.
[Link] inherent rights were not endowed by any other state or
Nation, but are passed on through birthright, are collective,
and flow from the connection to the Creator and our lands.

Understanding First Nations Sovereignty

[Link] land is the founding source of our identity and
[Link] responsibilities to protect and preserve the land have
been bestowed upon us by the Creator, and are captured in each
Nations Laws. Through Treaty our Nations agreed to share the
land, therefore, our free, prior and informed consent is required
before any development or decisions are made which may impact
our inherent and Treaty rights to land.
[Link] were made to establish how Nations would co-
exist, and granted rights and permission to the settlers.
Treaties are agreements made between our Indigenous Nations and
also with the Crown. They were
negotiated on the basis of mutual respect and the principles
of Peace and Friendship, and determine how lands and
resources are to be shared.
Treaties also outline responsibilities in areas such as education
and health.
[Link] are living, international agreements, which remain valid
today and continue to affirm our sovereign relationships. We are
and always have been original Nations that have never
relinquished our title, rights, language, culture, and
governance by way of Treaty to the British Crown or the
successor state of Canada.
[Link] possess a relationship to the lands, water, and air as
reflflected in our ceremonies and our laws for our protection and
perpetual use.
These lands are different from lands reserved for Indians,
whose
borders were imposed by the Canadian government. We
possess inherent and Treaty rights to utilize our traditional
territories today.
[Link] Nations possess distinct laws and governance systems,
language,
culture, territories, economic systems, a defifined
Peoples(citizenship), history and social structures. This is why we
are not “Aboriginal” – a term constructed by the Canadian
government which does not recognize the distinct rights of
First Nations nor the distinct identities of First Nations,
Métis, and Inuit Peoples.

Residential Schools
“If anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very
young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of
civilized conditions.” Nicholas Flood Davin.

1. Federally controlled under the Department of Indian Affairs.

2. Run by several Christian churches.
3. Attendance was mandatory.
·Assimilation into mainstream European-Canadian culture: “Killing
the Indian in the Child.”
4. Acculturation of children.
5. Belief in inability of aboriginal cultures to “adapt”.
6. “Perceived obligation”, under the Indian Act, to “provide an
education” to Aboriginal people.
7. Created around 1870s, most ceased to operate by the mid-1970s,
seven remained open through the 1980s.
8. Last school to close was The Marieval Indian Residential School in
Saskatchewan in 1996.
9. 130 schools located across Canada.
[Link] the years, approximately 150.000 First Nations, Inuit
and Métis children attended these schools.

“A 2001 report by the Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada

documents the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church, the
United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the
federal government in the deaths of more than 50,000 Native
children in the Canadian residential
school system.”

“The report says church officials killed children by beating,

poisoning, electric shock, starvation, prolonged exposure to sub-
zero cold while naked, and medical experimentation, including the
removal of organs and radiation exposure. In 1928 Alberta passed
legislation allowing school officials to forcibly sterilize Native girls;
British Columbia followed suit in 1933. There is no accurate toll of
forced sterilizations because hospital staff destroyed records in
1995 after police launched an investigation. But according to the
testimony of a nurse in Alberta, doctors sterilized entire groups of
Native children when they reached puberty. The report also says
that Canadian clergy, police, and business and government officials
“rented out” children from residential schools to pedophiles.”

Residential Schools: The System

• Segregated according to sex.
• Cultural practices prohibited.
• Not allowed contact with relatives, not even if they were in the
same institution.
• Mental and sexual abuse frequent, if not the norm.
• Some of the children ran away and never returned. Those caught,
would be punished.
• Poor living and health conditions.
• Deaths often not communicated to parents. Corpses buried in
unmarked graves.
Consequences
• Post traumatic Stress Disorder, Behavioral difficulties.
• Loss of cultural identity, language, tradition and spiritual growth.
• Poor bonding with relatives and community (but subsequent
lasting bonds with others in the system).
• Inadequate communication skills.
• Intergenerational losses:
○ Dependency roles and underdevelopment of personal growth
amongst Aboriginal communities.
• Personal memories, pain and identity reconstruction.
• Work ethics developed.
• Learning writing and reading skills.
• Strength & endurance.
Apologies & Compensations
• June 2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologises, for the
system, the abuse, and the neglect.
“a person is entitled to compensation for their time in residential
schools if they discuss what happened to them and give details of
their time in the schools.”
• Economic compensation, called “Common Experience
Payments”available to all residential schools students alive (May 30,
2005).
>$10,000 for the fifirst year or part of a year they attended
school.
>$3,000 for each subsequent year.
>By 2010, $1.55 billion had been paid (that is 75,800 cases).

A (very) Brief Introduction to the Indian

Subcontinent
Pre-colonial History
• First forms of civilization in the form of Indus Valley Civilization
(circa 3rdC BC), North-West India (today’s Pakistan).
• Vedic Age (1500-500BC) (name provided by earliest Indian writers:
the Vedas).
• Mauryan Empire (after 320 BC).
• Kingdom of Bactria (after 180 BC, Indo-Greek Kingdom, North
West, today’s Afghanistan).
• Gupta Empire (c. 300 AD) dominates Northern India, declines soon
after (c. 500 AD).
Society, Economics & Politics
• Barely any written records kept from the Vedic age:
>Known as dark age yet considered vital for the later
development of
the subcontinent.
·Hunter-gatherer lifestyle led to agricultural advancement.
>Iron-age farming: Urban civilization, city and population growth,
expansion of trade, literacy.
• With Aryan society emergence of organized states and kingdoms
(some
republics).
• Mauryan Empire impulses creation of provincial administration.
>Division into provinces, tax gathering and organization, road-
networks.
• Latter evolution into a less rigid form of administration, not as
centralized: collective kingdoms.
Pre-colonial History
• The Mughal Empire (1526-1857)
>Babur (descendant of Timurid & Genghis Khan) established the
Empire, which covered modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and
Bangladesh.
>Considered the most influential and richest dynasty.
>Tendency for brutal tactics, but attempts at integration with
‘Indian’ culture.
>Declined during 1720s and officially ended after the Indian
Rebellion of 1857.
• The Maratha Kingdom (1674-1818)
>Founded and consolidated by Shivaji, a Maratha aristocrat of the
Bhonsle clan.
>Wish to establish self-rule for Hindu people.
>Efficient system of public administration.
• The Sikh Empire (1799-1849)
>Maharaja Ranjit Singh consolidated many parts of northern India
into a kingdom and slowly added other provinces.
>The first and second Anglo-Sikh wars marked the downfall of the
Sikh Empire.
Colonial History
• Alexander the Great (327-326 BC), establishing trade.
• Portuguese (1502) establish first European trading centre (Kollam,
Kerala).
• Dutch & British (late 16th C) challenge the Portuguese. Creating
The Dutch East India Company and the East India Company (1600,
1602).
• French (1673).
• Brief Spanish (1493) & Japanese (during WWII) presence.

The (British) East India Company

• British joint-stock company which operated from 1600-1833,
founded
to trade in the Indian Ocean.
>Granted a charter in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth I, giving it right to
trade in the East Indies.
>Progressively gained enough power and right(s) to raise taxes
and
dispose of & claim lands.
>Eventually given power to wage wars on potential rival traders,
with its own administration & army.
• Factories > Trading posts > Commercial Towns > Settlements.
>By 1650, had 23 settlements (Bombay, Madras & Calcutta).
• With time, it seized the control of the entire Indian subcontinent.
Building the most powerful imperial-trading system known to date.
• From 1750s on, political control was obtained.
• By 1769, had gained control of all European trade in India (against
the competition of the French, Dutch and Portuguese).
• When the Mughal empire disintegrated, it began to be replaced by
regional states.
>India remained under the authority of the East India Company.
>Huge armies were created which were used to defend the
Company's territories, coerce neighbouring states and crush any
potential resistance.
• Distance meant that day-to-day decisions had to be made in India.
>Company’s Officials (“servants”) gathered increasing power.
>‘Cooperation’ between the Company and Indian people.
Colonial History
1. The Nabobs
·English people, mostly employees of the East India Company,
who made fortunes in the East.
·Early manifestation of Anglo-Indian hybrid cultures:
Nabobs developed a sense of identity that depended on the
material legacy they brought back to Britain from India.
·Problematized the concept of nation and empire.
2. Calcutta/Battle of Plassey (1757)
·British prisoners (and Indian sepoys as well as civilians(?)) held
overnight in horrifying conditions in what is known as the ‘Black
Hole of Calcutta’(1756) .
·The Nawab of Bengal (Siraj-ud-Daulah) had ordered British
extension and interference with land to stop; fifirst administrator of
Bengal (Robert Clive) bribery led to battle in Palashi and consequent
victory.
·More revenue, mightier military power, imposition of higher
taxes, power over other colonial powers (Dutch & French).
·Very relevant in that the ‘victory’ of the East India company is
what allowed the company to take over ‘full control’ of the
subcontinent and what marks what is considered as the “Imperial
era”.
1857 Indian Rebellion (or The Sepoy War)
[Link] to the East India Company grew as the company
became more powerful.
[Link] Rebels took in arms in 1857 in what is known as the Sepoy
War.
>Rebels were disorganized, had differing goals, and were poorly
equipped,led and trained (no support or funding). Brutally
suppressed.
 >As a result, the East India Company lost its powers of
government and
British India formally came under direct British rule, with an
appointed
Governor-General of India (or Raj) (Warren Hastings).
[Link] East India Company was dissolved in 1858.
[Link] 1877, Queen Victoria took the title of Empress of India.
British Raj (1858-1947)
[Link] of areas directly administered by British Empire (known
as ‘British India’) as well as “princely states” (ruled by indigenous
rulers but under the British government).
2.‘Changes’ in administration, legal system, etc.
[Link] of india, often attributed to failed government policies,
are some of the worst ever recorded:
>Great Famine of 1876–78 in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million
people
died.
>Indian famine of 1899–1900 in which 1.25 to 10 million people
died.
>Third Plague Pandemic in the mid-19th century killed 10 million
people.
Independence Movement
1. Rising nationalist movements, wishing to end British rule.
2. Organised Militant Movements:
>Bengal & Indian National Congress (1885)
>Muslims began to organise, founding the “All India Muslim
League” (1906).
>More radical approach on the first half of the 20th century.
Subhas Chandra Bose formed the Azad Hind (more
violent/radical approach)
Others (Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar)
participated in different acts:
3. Assassination of British officers, bombing Government buildings.
>Policy of non-violence and civil disobedience (Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948)) marked the second half of the movement.
>Rowlatt Act permitted indefinite detention:
Protests across the nation.
>Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (Amritsar) (Punjab protests against
incarceration of Independent Movement leaders were violently
suppressed).
Growing tension between Hindus and Muslims.
Partition of Bengal (1905-1911)
Partition, 15th August 1947
1. Essentially anticolonial.
 ·Wish for independent economic development.
·Wish for democracy and republicanism.
2. Partition of British India into sovereign states of:
·Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
and the
People's Republic of Bangladesh).
>East Pakistan independence, becoming Bangladesh, in 1971.
·Union of India (later Republic of India).
>Union of India remained a Crown Dominion until, in 1950.
3. Countries were founded on the basis of religion:
·Pakistan (Islamic state).
·India (secular).
4. Displacement of more than 12 million people & death of about a
million
people.
Postcolonial Culture
1. Diversity of cultures, languages, religions and traditions.
2. Strict social hierarchy (system of Caste) & patriarchal society.
3. Slow social change:
·Education opportunities for women.
·Possibility to work outside of the household.
4. Art of Dance:
·Communication and expression of emotions through the body.
·Kerala Christian community extending indian classical dance
(telling stories from the Bible).
·Adoption of international dance forms in more urban areas.
·Shiva Shambho: Bharatanatyam Dance (Southern)
·Nayantara Parpia - Kathak Dancer (Northern)
5. Music:
·Earliest account of musical hymns are the Samaveda (sung in
Vedic Śrauta sacrifices)
Samaveda (influenced by Hindu texts) known today as: Carnatic
and Hindustani music.
·Filmi and Indipop are contemporary musical forms.
Filmi is written and performed for mainstream cinema.
6. Cinema
·Mumbai-based film industry in India, commonly referred
as‘Bollywood’.
·Largest in the world in terms of number of films produced and
number of tickets sold.
India Religious Diversity
1. Hinduism
2. Islam
3. Jainism
4. Buddhism
5. Sikhism
6. Zoroastrianiasm
7. Judaism
8. Christianity
Religious Diversity
1. All religious communities: [Link] 100%
2. Hindus 827.578.868 80.5%
3. Muslims 138.188.240 13.4%
4. Christians 24.080.016 2.3%
5. Sikhs 19.215.730 1.9%
6. Buddhists 7.955.207 0.8%
7. Jains 4.225.053 0.4%
8. Other 6.639.626 0.6%
9. Religion not stated 727.588 0.1%
[Link] preamble to the Constitution proclaims India a "sovereign
socialist secular democratic republic".
>Mandates equal treatment and tolerance of all religions.
[Link] religious tension, even after independence.
Politics & Religion
1. Religious ideology continues to influence politics and society on a
daily basis.
2. Independence (decolonisation?) & partition deeply impacted
society
and its consequences remain:
>Major riots since Independence:
1984: Anti Sikh Riots in Delhi.
1992-1993: Bombay riots in Mumbai.
2002: Gujarat Riots in Gujarat.
2008: Kandhamal riots in Odisha.
2012: Violence in Assam.
2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in uttar Pradesh.

Caste & Untouchable (1935)

Caste Activity Responses （Articles’ Contents）
1. “I fifind this article more convincing than the other. Because it
has more arguments that support the idea presented than the other
article.”
2. “The second one. The previous one that puts the weight of caste
system on colonialism, itself declares that caste comes from the
ancient Hindu religious text.”
3. “I think what Chakvarti means by this comment is that people
associate things that were there since way before the colonisation
started to the colonisers, which in a way takes away the voice of
colonised people and the true meaning behind their customs and
traditions.”
4. “It was a very heterogeneous group but the British didn't create
anything, they just homogenized each group in order to have a
better control over them. We think she offers a similar view as she
puts emphasis that in order to make one group superior, there was
the need of homogenization.”
5. “Well, we have to understand that although some practices where
a bit enhanced because of colonialism, they could already be
existing in the country.”
（Postcolonialism）
6. “Yes, because it is possible that we have an idea of something
that in the reality it was distorted; it is possible that a lot of things in
which we believe or think that always have been in that way are a
“new version” created or manipulated over the years.”
7. “Not detrimental, but it can influence our thoughts since we've
grown up knowing the Western side of history better.”
8. “I think he is referring to the fact, that even though the comment
or statement that Chakravarti makes is untrue, he remained for
years because of the post-colonial world, because this statement
passed from one academic to another and like a rumour it extended
through post-colonial experts converting the untrue statement into
a true [one].”
9. “Yes, because some authors become kind of spokesperson of a
whole diversity of people and speak on their behalf.”
10.“Both, it will depend on what side of the story you are in. It will
not be as long as it exposes the facts as they were, not trying to
manipulate history so as to make it convenient for interested
people. But,
it will be if postcolonial academics are moved by interests that will
benefit them in one way or another.”
11.“That texts of postcolonial studies repeat theses that were
written about. That thinking in another direction seems difficult.”
(Generalisations & Caste Exploration)
12.“Before the British landed on the country, people there were
unified by a set of beliefs and traditions without a necessity to label
themselves. However, with the arrival of the British, they were all
labeled under the same name without taking into account the
different manifestations of given culture. It is a way to generalize
and consider people as a collective instead of treating people as
individuals, not considering that every single person is different
from another and that not everyone will experience things in the
same way than others.”
13.“Because even if the British didn't create it , they reshaped it.”
14.“...she defends that those social categories where actually
fomented by the British colonies”
15.“To better understand British impact and how they did not invent
anything, they exploited weakness of other empires.”
16.“We can relate that to the idea of “The Dangers of the Single
Story” because it is easy for us to be manipulated if we only listen
one source of information. When we take interest on a theme and
do some research hearing, listening or reading difffferent voices, we
start to see that maybe we had all our lives a wrong idea of
something.”
Defining ‘Caste’
1. Hereditary social classes established by the Aryans and
developed through Hinduism.
2. Restricts occupation of the members of each class.
3. Restricts association with other members of other castes.
4. Groups vary in size and are rigidly defifined.
5. Complex and multifaceted.
>Religious, social, political structures.
6. Segregation between and within groups.
7. Means of structuring society & occupation.
8. Provides social behavioural rules.

Origins
1. Caste is of Aryan origins, dividing society into rigid layers (marked
by religious rules & attempting to ‘control’ the population).
>Defining key roles in society.
>Assigning individuals to each group according to birth.
2. Varna fifirst appears in the Rigveda (concerning ‘colour’) a
collection of Vedic Sansksrit Hymns attributed to Hinduism.
>Hindu belief attributes the four castes to the body of the god
Purusha.
“11. When they divided Purusa how many portions did they
make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs
and
feet?
12. The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the
Rajanya
made.
His thighs became the Vaishya, from his feet the Shudra was
produced.”
“The Impact of European Colonialism on the Indian Caste
System” Ben Heath
“The caste system in India is an ancient part of Indian society.
Created through Indian religions, the caste system divides people
into four Varna categories; Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors),
Vaishyas (agriculturalists), and Shudras (servants). The Dalits
(untouchables) is a group that does not exist within any of the four
Varna categories. This section will demonstrate that this caste
system is part of the ancient
content of Hinduism and therefore should not be considered as a
British colonial construct and that British involvement and
contributions with regards to the caste system are typical of ruling
classes in Indian history.”
1. “...before British colonialism there was not a cohesive,self-
determined, large-scale‘Hindu’ religious group. This therefore would
contribute to the conclusion that the concept of a unitary
Hindu religion was, at some point, largely invented by British
colonialists.”
2. “Before British colonialism, those who would now be defifined as
Hindu existed without one collective identity and certainly did not
possess a unifified collective religious identity. The group now
defifined as Hindu can be said to have existed only because it was a
group
independent of Islam, Christianity or Judaism, although not
internally coherent.”
3. “This suggests that by not defifining others in religious terms,
Hindus
cannot be seen to have defifined themselves as one religious
group.”
4.“The British Empire utilised modern state institutions,
therefore determination of population identity was
important. Censuses and other categorising institutions
demonstrate British defifinitions of Hinduism. As Kind
demonstrates, “the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act, section 2(1) defifines
a ‘Hindu’ as a category including not only all Buddhists, Jains and
Sikhs but also anyone who is not a Muslim, a Christian, a Parsee or a
[Link] categorises Hinduism as an “all-inclusive rubric for
the non-Judaeo-Christian ‘Other’.This negative appellation
demonstrates the invention of Hinduism as a religion (having been)
defifined by the ruling British, not by being but by not being an
already existing unifified religion.”
5. “The predisposition to refer to Indian issues as “precolonial,
colonial, or postcolonial”[28] means that there is often an over
emphasis placed on the importance of the British in the construction
of Indian culture. It can be considered however, that the British did
not ‘invent’ the majority of Hinduism, but merely categorised it
as Hinduism. The most signifificant substantive contribution to
Hinduism’s creation exist long before any British inflfluence, and
Lorenzen’s argument demonstrates the reduced relevance that
British colonialism will have once it is not an aspect of recent
history.”

“Macdonell states that Caste “has been the chief

characteristic of the civilization of India for more than 2500
years, and has marked off Indian civilization from that of the
rest of the world as unique.”[29] This uniqueness could not
be signifificantly constructed or altered during the relatively
short period of British colonialism.
Caste is mentioned in the Rigveda, one of the Vedas which are
among the world’s oldest religious texts and the founding texts of
many Indian religions: “The Brahman was his mouth, of both his
arms was the
Rājanya made. His thighs became the Vaiśya, from his feet the
Śūdra was produced.”[30]
There is certainly a degree of arrogance involved in
suggestions that British colonial rule invented a system
which fifirst appears between 1700-1100 BCE and is
consistently prevalent in Indian texts up to the
era of British colonialism.
The arrogant nature of claiming the caste system to be a British
construction is well noted by Lorenzen, who states, “As the Hindi
critic Purushottom Agrawal recently quipped: “We Indians may well
have been
denied the capacity to solve our own problems, but are we so
incapable that we could not even create them on our own?””[37]
This demonstrates that modern India should not be viewed in a way
where even the most Indian of problems is considered to be the
product of its most signifificant interaction with the West, without
regard for centuries of independent history.”
A Colonial Creation?
“…the British took the existence of caste very seriously.
Successive censuses of India attempted to classify the entire
population by caste, on the assumption that everyone must
belong to some caste or other and that castes were real
identififiable groups. As a result, this objectifification of caste had
actually made it more real and liable to identifification…” (U.
Sharma, Caste. New Delhi: Viva Books, 2002, p.8)
“…the colonial rulers through a process of enumeration and
ethnographic surveys raised consciousness about caste. They
also produced social and intellectual conditions where ‘caste
became the single term capable of expressing, organizing, and
above all ‘synthesizing’ India’s diverse forms of social identity,
community and organization’.” (46)
Six Core Features of Caste System (by G.S Ghurye, 1932)
1. Segmental division of society:
a. Each social group is determined and fifixed by birth.
b. It is impossible to change from one caste to another.
2. Hierarchy:
a. Order based on purity and pollution.
3. Restriction on feeding and social inter-course:
a. Members of upper caste cannot take food or water (not even
interact) from lower caste members.
4. Civil and religious disabilities:
a. Unequal distribution of privilege. Higher caste members have
privileges, lower caste members have restrictions.
5. Lack of unrestricted choice of occupation:
a. Each caste has its own occupations (and forced to follow it).
6. Restriction on marriage.
Untouchables
1. Commonly referred to as Dalits.
2. Social position complex, not clearly defifined.
3. ‘Pollution’ concerns by upper castes.
>Banned from certain public spaces.
>Segregation in villages.
>Different treatment in different areas.
4.“Untouchability” was abolished under Article 17 of the Indian
constitution, but the practice continues socially.
>Progressive change has been perceived in other varnas/castes.
>Dalits/Untouchables continue to be more confifined to the
structures into which they were born.
Who Are the Dalits?
1. Terminology adopted in difffferent areas.
2. Caste discrimination affffects an estimated 260 million people.
3. We are not untouchable - End Caste Discrimination Now!
4. Difffferent situations according to country of origin.
5. In 2008, at a UN Delivery of Justice Colloquium, the Honorable Dr.
Justice Arijit Pasayat of the Supreme Court of India stated “there is
no bigger problem in India today than human trafficking”. In 2009,
India’s Home Secretary, Madhukar Gupta: “at least 100 million
people were involved in human trafficking in India.”
6. Key issues:
 Multiple discrimination towards Dalit women.
Dalit Children.
The Caste System Today
1. “How we know caste”
2. India’s Dalits Still Fighting Untouchability
3. “Day in the Life of an Untouchable Sweeper”
4. India -The Untouchables(Dalits): Breaking the barriers/silence
Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004)
1. Born in Peshawar.
2. Studied at Khalsa College and University College London.
3. PhD from Cambridge.
4. Relationship to the Bloomsbury Group.
5. Indian Independence Movement, Communism.
6. Founder of Marg magazine (1946).
7. Founder of All-India Progressive Writer’s Association (1935).

Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004)

“I had grown up in the ferment of a great moral and a political
movement in which I had learnt that alien authority constricted our
lives in every way. I can’t say there was no bitterness in my hatred
of imperialism,
because I remember how often waves of fury swept over me to see
hundreds of human beings go to jail daily after being beaten up by
the police for offering civil disobedience.”
Untouchable (1935)
1. Difficulties to publish it
2. A day in the life of Bakha, an untouchable.
3. Exploration of
Caste system
Mimicry
Female treatment
Modernism