A comparison study of caste practices between North Indian Brahmins in Diasporic Societies, especially Singapore; and the homeland.

Introduction:

The current Indian Diaspora all over the world is made up of two main waves of immigration; one would be in the mid and late 19th century as part of the British policy of indentured labour; and the second would be in the mid 20th century, post-partition era where many professionals moved out of India to other more profitable areas, Singapore included.

In the first wave, the Indian indentured labourers were transplanted to areas such as Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, South America, Fiji, Surinam and Guyana. Many of these labourers were of North Indian Origin. Of these migrants, a significant number must have been of Brahmin origin . Other than the indentured labourers, there were a small number of immigrants who came to these states of their own free will, to set up businesses or provide professional expertise. This move across the dreaded “kala pani ” would have stripped them of all rights that their caste brought along with it, in fact stripping them of their high caste and rendering them ‘untouchable’.

However, these immigrants had little choice but to make the crossing as the need to feed and clothe their children was far more pressing. The economics of the situation outweighed any social stigmas that came along with it. However, upon reaching the new land, wherever it was, these Brahmins (yes, they still saw themselves as Brahmins), continued to fit in their caste practices and languages into their new lives. In fact, as this essay discusses, these immigrants hung onto their caste and cultural practices very strongly, relying upon them as an identity in a land where they were a tiny minority.

With time, India has moved on and matured as a society, discarding certain practices and modifying others; and these Diasporic groups, now labelled People of Indian Origin (PIOs) by the Indian government have become relics, left behind by the tides of time. It is rare to find now, in the motherland, a moustachioed, janeu-wearing, dhoti clad Brahmin man chatting away in Awadhi or Bhojpuri, or any one of a dozen Northern-Indian dialects, trying to find a good Brahmin match for his daughter. In fact, many Brahmins in India simply allow their daughters to work and find their own matches, the degree of freedom and gender equality in India is far greater than that afforded by Diasporic Indians to their female progeny.

The ‘fossilisation’ of certain practices has made these Diasporic groups outcastes all over again, both in India, which they have for so long revered and tried to be a part of by preserving the Indian culture of a hundred years back, as well as in their adopted lands, which they seldom, if ever, tried to become a part of.

This essay aims to examine the differences and similarities between North-Indian Brahmins in urban Indian societies and in the Diasporic group in Singapore. There is a significant void in current literature on the study of Brahmins in a modern society, especially in the context of the Indian Diaspora; as such the methodology of this paper will rely largely on interviews with Indians resident in India, through email and telephone; as well as interviews with local Brahmin leaders and Priests as well as local Brahmin laypeople. Yeo Chor Siang’s study of Singapore’s Bihari Dairymen provides a good guide for this paper; however due to space constraints, I will focus more on cultural practices of the Brahmins instead of their economic practices. This paper will examine the appearances of these two groups, as well as the languages and dialects they use and interact in, and their practices, social, cultural and religious.
Appearance:

“The home itself becomes, to an increasing degree, the only environment in which a traditional Hindu life can be maintained. ” In the Diasporic experience, there can be said to be a concentrated effort to maintain and retain the values which these migrants practiced in the homeland. In the Singapore Brahmin experience, we will analyse how the immigrants and their progeny differ from their counterparts in the homeland.

There are certain practices that Brahmins ought to maintain in order to be recognised as one; this section of this paper will examine and compare these traits across Singapore and India; especially the urban centres of the latter.

According to Pt. Ramji Shastri of Laxmi Narayan Mandir, the only North-Indian temple in Singapore, for males, these outward traits are the wearing of the sacred-thread (janeu), the maintaining of a little tail of uncut hair (churki), a mark of sandalwood paste on the forehead (chandan) and finally, the greeting of others with hands folded and a slight bending down (bandan). Finally, there has also developed a habit of not shaving the moustache of a male until the death of his father. With regards to female Brahmins, there are no outward appearances of their caste, but they are generally sheltered and have their head covered; this will be addressed under the section on practices and religion.

To begin with the moustache, my interaction with India-based Indians has revealed that the moustache is seldom maintained in urban centres today. It is perceived as being both messy and old-fashioned. In Singapore, the perceptions of the moustache are similar, but a casual glance around the male half of the prayer hall at Laxmi Narayan Mandir will show that many of them do maintain moustaches; including the younger generation. In fact, the need to preserve this outward mark of a socio-religious belief is so strong that many parents seek letters from the temple priests to certify that this is indeed a valid custom to present to school principals in a bid to exempt their sons from school rules regarding the prohibition of maintaining facial hair in schools.

The janeu has suffered similarly in the homeland context, where my respondents told me that is an embarrassment in intimate situations . There are two schools of thought with regards to the janeu, one being that it is better to skip it altogether than to wear it and desecrate it by not following the proper protocol attached to it . The other school believes in wearing it as a reminder of one’s identity, in the hope that the physical symbol will make it easier to maintain other, intangible, Brahmanic values. In Singapore and India, the ceremony where a young boy is made to wear the janeu is known as the yagyopaveet ceremony and this is celebrated with great pomp and splendour as this represents the “second birth” of the male concerned, this time as a proper Brahmin. The main difference in the two countries with regard to the janeu is the age at which the yagyopaveet is performed. In Singapore, the ceremony is usually performed when the male is grown-up enough to understand the meaning of the sacred thread and attempt to maintain the values attached to it; usually in the teenage years. In India however, this ceremony is often ignored until it is time for the male to marry . In India my respondents remarked that the janeu was usually ignored once the ceremony was over, worn only for religious rituals. In Singapore, the case is not radically different, but post-marriage, many Brahmin men do take to wearing the janeu daily, claiming that they then begin to lead a more ‘settled’ life and are thus not desecrating the janeu. This phenomenon is also noted in a discussion with Dr. Amit Mishra with regards to Brahmins in Mauritius and Fiji; the observation being that even among the Diasporic societies in those two states, the wearing of the sacred-thread is a common, every-day part of life.

With regards to the putting on of the chandan and performing bandan; both of these are usually practiced only in the temple; in both countries. However, the main difference between the two countries is that, in the Singaporean context, Indians are a minority and Brahmins a smaller minority within a minority; so performing bandan would be quite irrelevant in an everyday context, as the majority Chinese in Singapore would both be puzzled and would even treat the act as something beyond their comprehension. There is no such problem in the homeland, yet the fading out of this practice only goes to show that the ‘modernisation’ of Indian values has replaced the bandan with the handshake. The chandan shares the same experience, in Singapore it would be seen to be unprofessional and require extensive explanations, somewhat explaining its lack on weekdays; in India it is understood to be what it is, yet the homeland Brahmins choose to ignore it and classify these symbols as ‘backward’.

The churki is probably the most ‘invisible’ Brahmanic symbol; as often seen to be the most ‘backward’ of the lot. It is basically a little ‘tail’ of hair, which is not cut and usually tied up and camouflaged within the hair. It is seldom seen in either country now but it is still more prevalent in Singapore than in urban centres, among the older generation, it is however, common among the rural Brahmins in India. A simple explanation for this is that it can tend to look slightly messy and present an ‘unprofessional’ exterior for those working in big companies, a problem that the older generation in Singapore and the rural population of India do not face.

On the note on appearance, the traditional outfits of North India, the dhoti for men and the sari for grown women are both seldom seen in the urban centres of India and the business life of Singapore. However, on Sundays when most of the North-Indian community of Singapore gather at the temple, most married women turn up in saris and unmarried girls in salwaar-kameez. Although the men do not wear dhotis, most of them are armed with the knowledge of knowing how to wear one. My India-based informants told me that most of them did not know how to wear a dhoti or a sari properly; they were worn only on festival occasions and even then they were helped by their parents and family members.

The comparisons above go on to prove the thesis of this paper, that Brahmanic and ‘Indian’ symbols are far more common in Diasporic societies than they are in the homeland. A large part of this can be attributed to the love one develops for what one lacks in life. The Diasporic groups hang on to these physical signs of their culture and identity as they fear being merged into the mainstream group of Singapore Indians otherwise. Brahmin surnames are not known among the masses for being ‘Brahmin’, as such, the main feature of the Brahmin identity has already disappeared in Singapore, while most India-based Indians know the different caste-names, thus there is a less passionate need to maintain these other symbols of identity among homeland Brahmins. This is seen in the above comparisons but also in the importance that the head covering had to Diasporic women; it was difficult to get traditional Indian saris and salwaar-kameez in the early Diasporic settlements, as such they tended to wear the sarong-kebaya in Malaya and western dresses in the Caribbean islands; but they made it a point to keep their heads and thus their modesty covered. This is merely a custom among Brahmin women to protect them from the male gaze and not religious in nature, yet it remains an important part of their culture. These very same symbols are not so important to women in the urban areas of India, where they are merely viewed as cumbersome and a sign of backwardness and outdated caste-consciousness.
Practices:

Attire and appearances aside, the most important aspect of a study on any group of people would be their practices. It is a commonly acknowledged fact that in the life of a Hindu, there are 3 main events – birth, marriage and death. These three are celebrated on a grand scale and as previously mentioned, in the life of the Brahmin, in between the first two, there is also the yagyopaveet ceremony.

The marriage is definitely one of the most important ceremonies of a Hindu’s life, Brahmins notwithstanding. Marriage in the Brahmin community is a grand scale celebration. There is a lead up to the actual wedding with the search for the bride/groom, matching of horoscopes, picking of a date to exchange rings and finalise the match, discussions on issues like dowries and wedding locations, the engagement party, various pre-wedding ceremonies and finally the wedding itself.

The Brahman caste or class is divided into ten sections, all based upon geographical distribution, which differs in customs and standing and do not intermarry . The UP Brahmins can be divided into a further two groups, the Kanyakubj and Saryuparin Brahmins who are by caste-rules allowed to take daan , and the second group of Brahmins who are not. While caste and sub-castes are obviously important to Brahmins in relation to marriage, so are gotras. Gotra is the Sanskrit term for a much older system of tribal clans; it was initially used by the Vedic people for the identification of the lineages. Generally, these lineages refer to a line of patrilineal descent from the mythical sages or rishis among Brahmins; warriors and administrators among Kshatriyas ; and ancestors among Vaishyas

Within the Singapore community, we see a continuance of such practices and the importance of gotra and sub-castes in terms of marriage. In order to preserve this ‘purity’ of caste and sub-caste, there is a significant trend of ‘importing’ brides from rural villages of India, where the women are generally believed to be more unaware of worldly issues and rather more ‘untouched’. In the Singapore case, trends of dowry-giving and announcing the amount given during the wedding ceremony are not uncommon during Brahmin weddings. Age-old mindsets that good wives ought not work is another reason for the ‘importing’ of rural brides as these women are more amenable to working in the home and are generally not educationally qualified to join the Singaporean workforce.
In the urban sectors of India, marriage and its planning have changed drastically. A simple scan of Brahmin matches posted on any one of a dozen matrimonial sites will show that resident Indians are more open to inter sub-caste marriages than the Diasporic community. Inter sub-caste marriages are frowned upon in Diasporic communities until there is absolutely no choice in the matter, as one Saryuparin Brahmin respondent recounted that her parents agreed to her inter-sub caste marriage (to a Kanyakubj Brahmin) because there were no Saryuparin Brahmin boys of her educational qualifications single and available at the time when she was ready for marriage.

Family life is very highly valued in Diasporic societies and joint families and finances are more common than they are in resident Indian families. Yeo Chor Siang notes similar trends among Bihari Dairymen in her study on them . These trends have become ‘outdated’ in India as many couples marry and move away from the family home and set up nuclear families of their own. My resident Indian respondents noted that it was believed among their parents that nuclear families provided a more modern and cosmopolitan approach to life; whereas joint families were inherently political and held one back from moving forward in life.

In terms of the larger society, there are also various caste rules of purity that Brahmins are expected to follow; both within the home and outside. According to traditional rules of purity, a barber cuts their hair and nails, and is paid in cash for doing this polluting service, which traditional rules of purity do not allow caste Hindus to perform for themselves . This is practiced widely in the rural areas of India and among the older Diaspora in Singapore. The dearth of barbers willing to provide this service has ensured that most local Indians, as well as urban settled resident Indians go to hairdressers and modern barbers to get their hair trimmed. The cutting of nails has become a matter of personal hygiene as there are no more barbers willing to perform this service.

Caste rules also prohibit members of the ‘untouchable’ castes from entering the homes of Brahmins or temples where Brahmins attend functions for fear of polluting the space. In the early days of the Diaspora, both these rules were adhered to. Until the mid 1960s, there was no inter-dining and entrance into caste homes for non-caste Indians . In the south Indian Brahmin context, Mani comments:

It can be said that the caste situation was one in which the Indian social system was implanted with minor modifications. This system was kept revitalised by the constant journeys to… home villages after … [a] tour of duty in Singapore… [caste difference was further strengthened] by the fact that most caste-Hindus came [to Singapore] to earn a living as shopkeepers and itinerant labourers, whilst the Adi-drividas came largely to be employed as ‘coolies’ in the Municipality and the British installations .

The same situation applied to the North Indian, UP/Bihar community of Brahmins, a large number of Brahmins came as milkmen and traders under the free immigration laws whereas a large number of the non-caste Hindus came as watchmen and coolies. The situation has changed over time, one main reason being the move into HDB flats in Singapore. These flats are situated next to each other with no common space where a caste and non-caste Hindu can have a discussion , also the upward mobility allowed in Singapore placed members of many different castes on the same social strata, thus eradicating many of the traditional caste differences. As a result, in Laxmi Narayan temple today, you can see chamar women in the temple, sitting and worshipping with ladies of all castes. In this new ‘caste system’, there is respect for age and social station more so than for caste in Singapore; however, as mentioned above, respect while in its place, does not mean that intermarriage is encouraged. Similarly in the urban areas of India although rules governing entrance into temples are stricter and there are different non-caste temples built for the untouchable groups, a phenomenon impossible in tiny Singapore with such a small community of such people. Untouchability rules are however still prevalent in village setups and rural areas in India.

It is undeniable that ‘caste though changed, remains important to Indians ’. Mani comments that in the South Indian Diaspora, each caste “tried to insulate itself not by seeking ascendancy over others, but to help itself not to lose its identity. They ‘involuted’ by maintaining a strict endogamy, and they began to ‘compartmentalize’ their social norms with regard to each caste, other Tamils, and other Singaporeans ” The same situation applied to the UP/Bihar Brahmins who can be said to have compartmentalized their social norms and caste-rules, albeit with modifications, in order to maintain their identity.



Food habits:

A discussion of food habits of Brahmins between the homeland and the Diaspora is of the few areas where the resident Indian community will be seen to be maintaining stricter rules than the Diasporic communities; however, there is a very simple explanation for this, as well as a reversing trend.

Brahmins are by caste-rules strict vegetarians, abstaining even from ‘heaty and aphrodisiac’ foods such as garlic and onions. However in the early Diasporic communities is was very difficult to remain vegetarian given the limited food options, what more cutting out onion and garlic from food. Most of the local respondents have at some time in their lives been eating non-vegetarian food, especially in the families of the earlier settlers; i.e. those who came before partition in India. However, in their old age, many of these settlers and their families do revert back to vegetarianism. In India, it is much easier to preserve vegetarianism given the wider range of options available as well as the fact that there is a large family structure to fall back upon, with home-cooked food readily available. This latter option was not open to many of the early settlers who were either bachelors or men travelling alone, with their families left in India.

In current urban India, many Brahmins families are dual-income and lack the time to cook, while there is no dearth of vegetarian food options in India, fast-food and western non-vegetarian options are gaining popularity. On the other hand, in Diasporic communities, wider food options and more time for cooking are reversing the non-vegetarian trend and vegetarianism is making a comeback among the people.

Still on the discussion of food, Hinduism is a religion which is often practiced through a variety of fasts, Yeo Chor Siang notes in her study that over 40 fasts are widely known, while only about a quarter of these are practiced . The major Hindu festivals when fasts would be observed include MahaShivraatri and KrishnaJanamashtmi. These are two of the most major religious festivals of Hinduism and in both Diasporic and resident communities are celebrated on large scales. However, the small number of the Diasporic community could be one reason for the unity with which these are celebrated, with almost all members of the community turning up at the Laxmi Narayan temple to sing and celebrate together. Those members who are offering ‘Prasad ’ ensure that the forbidden foods are not included in the Prasad.

Other than these fasts, women maintain a certain repertoire of fasts unto themselves; these include the teej fast for their husbands, Saraswati Jayanti fast for their children and the chaath fast for their families. The teej is especially common in the UP/Bihar region and is widely practiced among the Singapore Diasporic community. Women fast without water and celebrate in the evenings with communal hymn singing in the temple and dressing up in new clothes and jewellery gifted by their husbands. Among the urban resident Indian community however, the teej fast is fast losing out to the more popular Karva Chauth fast; this fast has been popularised among the masses through television serials and Hollywood movies; thus making it seem more ‘upmarket and modern’ than the teej fast. These urban Indian women seldom practice the other ritual fasts also, the reasons for this are many, including the fact that many of them are working and find it difficult to abstain from food. On the same note, it must be noted that some of the Diasporic community women are also working wives, yet they make an effort to maintain their repertoire of fasts, as one respondent questioned, “if we don’t fast, what values and habits will we be passing on to our children”.

Women are also supposed to be deemed ‘impure’ while menstruating and ought not touch the prayer altar or enter the kitchen to maintain the purity of these places. This is slowly being phased out in resident Indian families settled in urban areas today; however it has long since been phased out among the Diaspora. This ritual is almost impossible to maintain due to nuclear families and the fact that there was only one woman in the household and if she were to abstain from cooking, the men and children of the household would have to forage for themselves. In most homes, only the altar on which the Gods are placed has remained true to the traditional rules of pollution and purity .

Religion:

“People seek contexts of religious activity in which they can communicate with religious specialists and other participants in their own language, and in which they have clear ideas of what to expect and what is expected of them. ” There has been a clear reduction in the amount of time available for ceremonial activity, with the result that religion becomes largely, an activity for weekday evenings and Sunday mornings. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that in the Laxmi Narayan temple, the largest turnouts are on Sunday mornings, followed by certain weekday evenings. The Tuesday afternoon hymn-singing sessions are attended only by retirees and housewives. The working hours and professionalism required by one in the Diasporic communities and urban areas in India has resulted in a subtle change in the ways one attends temple functions, work takes a priority to this outward expression of religiousness.

It has also changed the way that many religious festivals are celebrated in Singapore. “In recent times, only one widely-observed Hindu festival – Dipavali – has had the status of a public holiday. Other festivals unless they happen to fall on weekends, must inevitably compete with other obligations… The overall result is a situation in which many festivals must be celebrated in a reduced scale in the evenings. ” This situation is very different from that in the homeland where leeways are accorded for major religious festivals and holidays granted accordingly allowing these festivals to be celebrated as they ought to be, generally in the mornings.

The order of the Gods in the Hindu pantheon has also changed in the Diasporic communities, Henry’s study in UP shows that mother goddesses are usually worshipped by lower castes; although high castes still cannot escape the worship of mother goddess due to her malevolent nature if ignored . In the local context, more or less all castes perform mother goddess worship, but Brahmins were loath to sponsor private mother goddess prayers in the early years. However, in the current context, every Tuesday afternoon is dedicated to the worship of the mother goddess, by women of all castes in the UP/Bihar Diaspora community. One reason mentioned by my respondents for this phenomenon could be that the mother goddess is seen as a protector, which would be something that immigrants would have felt they needed in building their lives in a new land; thus her popularity among all castes, including Brahmins.

A similar explanation is available for the Hanuman Chalisa being sung by women in the aforementioned temple. The Hanuman Chalisa is a chant that is generally reserved for men as the monkey God is known to be worshipped for physical strength. He is also however, acknowledged as a protector. In the Diasporic communities, we often see a trend among the members of the community to be ‘as religious as possible’; possibly to steep themselves even deeper in their identity as Hindus, different from those around them. Also, women are always seen as the ‘religious’ symbols in families and since men in the Diaspora started out with demanding work hours, women took over the role of praying for them; thus one possible reason for the recitation of the Hanuman Chalisa by women in the Diaspora.

Religion is still something held very sacred even in urban Indian centres, although it is often ignored, it is still held sacred and resident Indians take pains to ensure that they do not listen to religious songs while lying down or performing impure acts. In the Diaspora these rules are relaxed and it is taken that as long as the heart is pure, the position one is sitting or lying in, is irrelevant to the worship of God.

There is also significantly less of a ‘temple culture’ in the Indian urban centres. The importance of the temple to Singapore is peculiar to Diasporic communities because the temple becomes a social institution as well, often the only North Indian Social institution in Diasporic settlements.

This oft-mentioned Laxmi Narayan temple in Singapore was set up in 1969 to cater to the religious needs of the Hindi-speaking community. Rather than a philosophical character, the form of Hinduism practiced in the temple veers more towards the folk-devotional . It was set up largely through donations from the community to instil a sense of cultural continuity in an environment very different from that they had left behind in India. Over time the religious institution has become a social and recreational centre, where the devotees meet to do more than just worship . It has become a form of social outing for the cloistered women of traditional Brahmin families and a chance to mingle and socialise, exchange news and gossip, and to catch up with friends and relatives . It is also an ideal place for families to get to know each other as well as new immigrants and as a result, has become the centre for the arrangement of marriages .

In the case of resident Indians, there is no need for such a strong temple culture, as there is no shortage of places to meet people of similar caste and backgrounds, as Indians are obviously a majority in that case, with social institutions already well woven into the social fabric. In the rural case, people are already well acquainted with each other and marriages and alliances are thus easier to arrange.


Conclusion:

In the words of Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, the former minister of Human Resource Development in India; travelling great distances in the search for knowledge or for economic reasons are not new, however most who travel, do not maintain contact with those they leave behind .

“But, greater the distance and the difficulties in keeping in touch, more were the chances for displaced communities to hold together and retain their identity. Even when loss of identity is rewarded or forced by the rulers who commanded their economic activities these communities had their own mechanism to remain frozen to a time vis-à-vis their belief and practices, while their brethren back home has invented and/or undergone many changes.”

Dr. Joshi’s observations are completely apt to the case of Brahmins in the Diaspora, especially with relation to the case of Singapore, as this essay proves. There have been very significant changes in the caste practices among the Saryuparin and Kanyakubj Brahmins in the urban centres of India with relation to their appearance, practices in marriages et al, as well as their outward expressions of religion and the role it plays in their lives, there is also a significant trend toward change in issues like fasting and rituals, as well as general food habits.

Inversely, the Diasporic community in Singapore has struggled to hang on to the very same notions of ‘Brahmanism” that the resident Indians are striving to shed in favour of western beliefs of modernity. The very fact that coming to a foreign land had apparently made them outcastes made the Diaspora all the more determined to protect the symbols that they saw to be the definition of their identity.


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