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Is caste system really bad?


Most of us, if not all of us, have said at some point that caste system should end for the good of society. I don’t actually disagree with that and until recently I am a strong supporter of that idea. But after some thinking during recent weeks I started to have second thoughts about it.
Castes in the region I come from are mainly formed on the basis of their profession. Like priests are Brahmins, Gold smiths are Kamsali, Carpenters are Vadrangi and so on. This isn’t true for all castes but it can be fairly generalised. And in the days they are formed these professions are hereditary. So, this way of grouping similar profession people into a caste makes a lot of sense and in fact is very beneficial in providing unity and provides a platform to exchange new ideas and improve the professions. If the caste system remained to just grouping people from similar professionals it would have never gone into the troubled waters as it is now.
Caste system has become unpopular because of some obvious and some not so obvious reasons. The fact that caste system was and sadly is used for discriminating people is one of the very obvious reasons. Discrimination among humans based on anything should be absolutely and strongly condemned. So, in that respect caste system has no place to exist in the modern age. One of the not so obvious bad effects of caste system is the fact that some of the castes have got a rare gene disease because of lack of gene mutation which is a result of intra caste marriage system.
Along with these two there are many other problems caused by caste system which has no place in this age of globalisation.
Having mentioned the issues of caste system it is not all bad after all. Caste system has its own benefits even today. There are caste level organisations which provide services like free food, free education, subsidised training and others. Also caste system brings in the unity that it was initially intended for.
End of the day caste system is a kind of division system. If division based on religion and region are accepted then so is the division based on caste. If we are happy to fight for our region what is wrong by fighting for a caste as long as the fights are for a good cause.
There are currently numerous division systems based on religion, country, state, region, financial and social status and so on and so forth. Just recently one of the regions in the state I was born in was fighting with other and this is as bad as the discrimination in caste system. So as long as there are divisions in the world irrespective of what they are based on there will be trouble if they lose the ability to tolerate other divisions.
Caste system has the power to unite people from several parts of world. If this power is used for good purposes then caste system can have a very long future and it can turn out to be a good source of empowerment to various individuals.
So, if people who believe in caste system can increase their tolerance towards other castes and respect other castes then yes caste system can be good for the society and can be used for better purposes.

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