Caste Based Communities on Orkut Mirror India’s Splintered Society

Comments 09 June 2009

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One of the main themes of my research on digital activism is that social technologies are value-agnostic.

At each of the four levels of Content, Collaboration, Community and Collective Intelligence, social technologies can lead to both good and bad outcomes.

I have written before about Shiv Sena’s militant approach towards Orkut communities critical of the party, its leader Bal Thakeray, or its Hindutva ideology. Caste-based communities on Orkut are another disturbing example of online communities mirroring the dysfunctions in Indian society.

For instance, there are more than 1000 communities for Brahmins on Orkut. There are 461 Brahmin communities listed under culture and community, 591 under religion and beliefs, 87 under activities and 117 under others.

One of the most popular Brahmin community, with 28, 726 members, randomly claims: “we r clever & hardworking .no one can fool us…” The Brahmans community with 41952 members and the Brahmins of India community with 30588 members are also very popular. Another group, Brahmin Culture and Tradition, with 5579 members, is “dedicated to the purpose of uniting Brahmins to revive, preserve, protect and propagate the Brahmin culture to descendants without intimidation or dilution from anti-Brahminical forces.”

The other popular Brahmin communities are those for the various Brahmin sub-castes like Gawd Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) (12,189 members), Kokanastha Brahmin (4038 members), Deshashtha Brahmin (4083 members), Garhwali Brahmin (3067 members), Daivadnya Brahmin (2654 members) and Gaur Brahmin (2055 members).

Interestingly, it seems that most of the threads under topics related to Brahmins have to do with defining the different types of Brahmins under various sub-castes.

There are also more than 1000 communities for Yadavs on Orkut, including gems like modern yadav girls and boys (5759 members).

Similarly, there are more than a 1000 Rajput communities on Orkut, including the Rajput the Royal Family community with 35,481 mebers, which asks people to join the group “if your soul justifies that you are Rajput both by soul and by nature.”

Dalits have about 200 mostly small communities on Orkut.

Perhaps, the low number of Dalit communities on Orkut says something about Indian society in general, and Orkut users in particular. Higher, more powerful, castes like Brahmins, Rajputs and Yadavs tend to have more money and easier access to the internet and old disparities are further accentuated by the internet.

Caste-based communities, however, aren’t unique to Orkut.

Brahminsamaj.org is “a global platform for the Brahmin Community where you will learn, share and find lot of information, knowledge and fun.” Thambraas Muhurtham wants that “all Brahmins should come forward to marry breaking the sects and subsects within Brahmins, particularly Brahmins of Thamizhnadu.” It also points out that “the entire sects and subsects of South Indian brahmin population are totally vegetarians unlike certain brahmins of other parts of India.” A couple on the homepage of Marry A Brahmin claim that its “focused approach on Brahmin matches helped us find each other as true soul mates.” Brahmin Connections is “proud to present an opportunity and a platform to our young Brahmins and their parents to connect with each other across the world for the matrimonial purpose.” Brahmins Matrimony says that “it is the right place to search for your life partner!”

There are dedicated websites for sub-castes as well. Sakhdwipi aims “to provide a common forum for the Shakdwipis to know each other and interact with each other.” KeralaIyers aims “to delve into the history, trace the roots, portray the life of modern day Kerala Iyers, and chronicle the achievements of this community.” iKalyanam claims to be “the only exclusive site for Iyer matrimonials.” Shivalli Brahmins wishes “to bring together all Shivalli Brahmins residing in different parts of the world, through meaningful discussions about their traditions.” GSBMatch is a matrimonial website for the Gowd and Saraswat Brahmin community. ModhBrahmin.org and BrahmanSamaj.org claim that “history proves that the people of Modh Brahmin Samaj are very enterprising and very resourceful” and aims to “bring all brothers and sisters of Samaj close.” Jangid Brahmin Samaj is a community for Jangid Brahmins. RSBNet is “a single stop source of information regarding the origin, customs, culture, history of Rajapur Saraswath Brahmins.”

Similarly, there are dedicated websites for other castes as well.

Kayastha Matrimonial is a matrimonial website for the Kayastha community. Rajput Samaj is “presently predominately taking care of the Rajputs of Rajasthan” but in near future aims to be “taking care of the Rajputs living in India, Pakistan and abroad.” JatLand, “the online home for the Jats” is especially proud of its wiki.

The Dalit community is fairly active on the internet, even though it’s miniiscule on Orkut. The International Dalit Solidarity Network, which has the most sophisticated of all these websites, “works on a global level for the elimination of caste discrimination.” Dalit Solidarity Network “brings together organizations and individuals in the UK who are concerned with caste-based discrimination.” Dalit India has “papers on various specific issues of the Dalits of India living in India and abroad.” Dalit Freedom Network “partners with the Dalits in their quest for religious freedom, social justice, and human rights by mobilizing human, informational, and financial resources.” Dalit Solidarity is “committed to the principles of justice and equality for all Indians, regardless of caste, race, gender or religion.” Dalit Voice claims that India is “the original home of racism” as Dalits and Tribals, who “constitute the core of India’s original inhabitants”, are kept enslaved by “alien Aryans”. Dalit Education aims to “transform lives and communities through the Christian message.” Indian Dalit Muslims Voice is a platform to discuss issues concerning Indian Dalit Muslims. Rohit Chopra has written about the tension between the elite Hindu nationalists and the disadvantaged Dalits on the internet.

In terms of content, the majority of these websites are focused on matrimonial match-making, but several of them seek to build international communities based on caste affiliations and offer tools like directories, bulletin boards and forums to their members. I have also noticed a tendency to establish a rather embellished history of the caste, with detailed biographies of the important personalities belonging to the caste. Ashok Kumar at Express India has a great description of the common features on these caste based websites.

Not surprisingly, Facebook has only 46 small Brahmin groups, 60 small Yadav groups, 126 smal Rajput groups and 41 small Dalit groups. The absence of caste based groups from Facebook is in line with its cosmopolitan user base. Orkut, on the other hand, should be a little concerned about its tendency to attract loonies of all types.

In the end, however, the cosmopolitanism of Facebook is an anomaly, and Orkut’s crude caste communities merely mirror India’s splintered society.

Cross-posted at Global Voices, Global Voices Advocacy and DigiActive.

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Gaurav Mishra

Gaurav Mishra - who has written 746 posts on Gauravonomics Blog on Social Media and Social Change.

As CEO of 2020 Social, I build and nurture online communities for Indian and international clients, connect their customers, partners and employees, and help them achieve their business objectives. Ask us how we can help you.

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Sriram

I can understand how narrow minded you are when you say "dysfunction" and "splintered".
If caste is the reason for above words, then Language and culture is equally a reason.
India is combination of many religions, castes, cultures and languages and at the sametime we are all united as one. We are Indians.
Its natural for people to group at different levels. whether it is Brahmins, Tamilians, South Indians, vegetarians, some place, some locality, some school or some college.
It doesn't mean if I am in a Brahmin community, I hate other communities.
Many prefer to call their schoolmate for their marriage than a friend made from a caste community. Why? Because even if one belongs to a particular caste, that doesn't naturally give priority. Indians have many castes but no other country has that many. And the reason for so many communities. I wish you had a better clarity before posting something. You may have data to prove there are many caste communities, but that doesn't prove we are splintered. You first analyze all the posts in those communities (whether they preach hatred and separatism) ..analyze how many people who are in caste communities are not in other communities and not participating in other community threads.

rama par

Mr Sriram

Language & culture is not barrier to any social development(marriage,job etc)as compared to caste that is most affecting. so caste is the main issue.

Arvind

Sriram - dude ...am sorry to say.. but how delusional are you??
Let me start by saying - India is not exactly what I'd call a "united" country. When you say "we're united as one", that sounds like just the kind of rhetoric and hyperbole I hear from bollywood!
When exactly do you suppose India has been united?
Let me highlight the fact to you that India became a "country" under British rule - because the British clubbed all kingdoms together.
THere was ALWAYS infighting. We have fought in the name of Caste, Religion, Region, Language... you name it.
We say the British divided us into India and Pakistan - this coming from a country that till THIS day discriminates on the basis of religion and caste!
Have you picked up a newspaper lately? Seen the number of lower caste or untouchables humiliated, raped, killed, etc. for some or the other completely obscure crimes?

You're talking about caste community groups not being a bad thing... have you looked at matrimonial sites?
We are still pretty medieval: last I checked.
If you think we're all living happily together as Indians - my good sir you're dreaming! Please wake up and smell the sewage that is the caste/religion/language/gender based divide.

rama par

everyone should condemn those community groups who formed on caste. political parties never interfere into the matter bcoz they loose their vote banks. people, NGOs have to build, organize creative programs to quash caste based discussions, quash 4 layers of caste system in India. India can be United India with diversified religions. but cannot go united with diversified caste communities. as a first step govt should insist on banning all caste based mutts and acquire assets and distribute it among poorer peoples under controlling policies. BJP is just talking about one minority called Muslim as a reason for defeat in the lokhsabha election but their introspection is wrong, they are out of the core issue which is caste.

Ramki B Ramakrishnan

It is certainly important that we (Indians) break the caste barrier, i sincerely feel there are significant changes happening towards that; at least in south India.

Even the use of surnames like Iyer, Sharma, Dube, etc is mark of caste; you can also contribute by dropping "Mishra" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishra)

Arvind

hear hear!!!
I like your point about dropping the surname sir!

kuffir

gaurav,

i've some objections to certain conclusions this post draws- the major grouse is the equating of dalit groups on social networks with caste-based groups.

dalit communities on orkut, fb - they're all open groups. only one group i know on orkut has a screening process- only to ensure that no potential member is a known dalit-hater etc.,

anyone can join the groups- i'm on the admin team of a couple (and i don't belong, technically, to any of the 'dalit' or scheduled castes) and i know i had invited many friends, non-dalits, to join them. and some have. and you'l find many brahmin, rajput, obc, muslim, christian members in these groups.

to call these groups caste- based is objectionable not only because of the reasons i'd talked about earlier, but also because i) the evolution of the term 'dalit' itself is rooted in resistance, protest against caste. dalit, simply put, means anti-caste.ii) there's no single dalit caste.

the term dalit is sometimes used to include, apart from the castes designated as scheduled castes, adivasis and obcs, many muslim, christian, sikh, buddhist communities/castes/sub-castes. if we consider only the scheduled castes- i know, there are 59 of them in the state i belong to, andhra pradesh. and over hundred in a few states. and nearly 500-1000 across the country.

when so many people from different castes, sub-castes, laguages, regions, religions seek to give themselves a single identity, dalit, they're rejecting their castes. so, how can they be caste-based, when, in fact, they're opposing caste, to put it mildly?

when brahmins or rajputs etc., form communities around their historically assigned identities, they're embracing caste, re-affirming their faith in it.dalit groups, by no stretch of imagination, can be equated with these groups.

many dalit castes, like the chamars, for instance, have a pan-india presence. just like the brahmins. if you wanted to check which are the largest communities in south india- you'll find that the madigas (ascribed occupation:leather workers) or arundhatiyars, found across andhra, tamil nadu, karnataka, maharashtra, orissa etc., would be among the top five. they're not coming together to form madiga communities on the internet. one needs to think about that.

i''ve been advised by some mutual friends that i should raise my objections here- that you'd respond reasonably. i am hoping you'd do so.

కత్తి మహేష్ కుమార్

I agree with Kaafir. The term DALIT doesn't represent caste. The very words means suppressed or oppressed. So, how can it be a caste based community? Its a rights (human rights) based community.

Vasanth

How you have identified the sites related to particular caste.
What is the methodology you have employed for collecting the data.
Please let me know . I wanted to do research in this area.

Web Hosting Services

It's true that any community based on human rights and respected social values. We should manage our social reputation during living in a commnity even online or people wide community.

Thanks