‘Caste System’ Among the Igbo People of Nigeria and Dalit of India in the Age of Modernism

Abstract

Social inequality among people is a global phenomenon. However, the nature and dimension take different patterns. Apparently, the variations and divergent practices produce the same social disparity all over the world. It must be mentioned that social inequalities are naturally induced while others are artificially created or designed and insulated by traditions. A phenomenological appraisal of this cultural episteme represses ontological paradigms of fundamental global order. For instance, in plural societies like Nigeria and India, inter-marriages between different groups are encouraged to foster cordiality and unity. It is however true that caste system among the groups under consideration has defied this universal order. This paper focuses attention on caste system among the Osu of the Igbo stock in Nigeria and Dalit of India. The study explores tradition of their origin, nature and gravity of social deprivation they have been subjected to despite the enactment of laws and the declaration of the United Nations (UN), which appears to favor and guarantee equal protection of all citizens regardless of race, religion, sex or origin. It is paradoxically and universally an innuendo that these groups in question share similar experience of deprivation, torture and denial of social privileges. They are more or less second class people in their native homeland of origins. The study utilizes this conceptual framework to critically provide insight into the historical experience of the two groups through comparative study. It unravels how tradition and culture combine to produce a unique form of social bondage (caste), which in many circumstances has degenerated into violence, physical assault and humiliation. The methodology for this work relies on copious review of extant literature coupled with oral interviews conducted in Igboland and with some Indians in Nigeria.