Sathya Sai Baba, defender of the caste system

“The system of Varnas is ordained by the Vedas and so there can be no injustice in it; it is not an artifice invented by man.” (Sathya Sai Baba in Geetha Vahini, Ch. IX, p. 46 )

Sathya Sai Baba promotes himself as an unsurpassed renewer of moral and human values come to save India and the whole of humanity, while he is a regular defender of the caste system. He has cited the age-old laws of Manu (see the relevant description here), which insist on a divisive, unjust and virtually racialist exclusion of those deemed ‘casteless’, – involving a very repressive ‘caste hygiene’ (actually a kind of ‘racial hygiene’ against the indigenous non-Aryan and Hindu population among others) all of which is still a major scourge in India. It is of note that Nietzsche enthused over the laws of Manu on castes (and we know what Nietzsche’s philosophy was used to support!).  The caste system is a bastion against social equality. Besides, in numerous statements Sai Baba has argued against the social ideal of distribution of wealth (Sanathana Sarathi January 1986 p.11) and has rejected the common ideal of social equality as unrealistic, rather asserting that everyone is equal only before God!

Despite his much publicised teaching of non-discrimination due to colour, creed, caste & religion he not only speaks favourably of the four-caste system (even as primitively stated as it was by Manu) and he does not publicly criticise any specific caste discrimination.  Both in his discourses and actions, he tends strongly to support the basic religious ideas underpinning even the present caste system. For example, he has NEVER spoken out about the huge and terrible injustices that the Dalits suffer… he has, for example, never instructed his followers to help these ‘untouchable’ casteless to have access to wells, nor has he criticised the continued pseudo-religious organized prostitution of thousands of female temple dancers.

Sathya Sai Baba has very great influence on most of the Prime Ministers and Presidents of India for three decades – and on the Supreme and High Court judiciary [whose key founding figure Bhagwati is on the borad of his Sathya Sai Central Trust] – yet he has evidently not insisted that they make proper efforts to stop the injustices against the Dalits. This illustrates the frequent divergence of his preaching and practice..

In strong contrast to Sai Baba, P.L. Mimroth is as intelligent and courageous a defender of the casteless as was Ambedkar. He is a lawyer and president of an organization that tries to help India’s casteless, the Dalits.

Based in New Delhi, Mimroth often travels to Rajasthan, his native state. Everything there is the same as ever, the houses, families, castes. Even the village well is still only open to people of caste and closed to the casteless! Now as ever, they are forced to trudge off to the water hole four kilometers away. They are denied access to temples in many villages, and sometimes they must even go to the city to get a haircut because caste people refuse to touch them!

Statistics show that 90 presented by the casteless continue to sweat their traditional low-status jobs in that only five per cent have managed to advance themselves into service professions – and that even fewer have managed to reach the truly high status of doctor or lawyer.

The unrighteousness of Rajasthan has lasted for over 2,000 years with the rest of India not far behind. India’s caste system has existed nearly as long as Hinduism. The world’s largest democracy has 160 million casteless. On paper, they have the same rights and obligations as everyone else, but the reality is different.  Mimroth says that ancient ideas can’t be removed by decision and powerful pressure groups.

See also The caste system of India & Sathya Sai Baba

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