Most Malaysians have some kind of idea that Indians in Malaysia live by a caste system. It is very true indeed. However most of us may not be able to understand the impact of this system on the daily life of the ordinary Indian or Tamil worker. As poor as he is, he may be an outcaste too.

The English social system is based on the estate system, with the feudal king as the head, followed by the aristocratic nobles who own the land, the gendarme who lead the army, followed by the clerics, generally known as priests, then the civil servants and finally the commons (the ordinary people).

Though it is till today not at all easy for a cockney from South London to become a professor in Oxford University because of his class stigma, the system allows people at the bottom to rise.

In the Hindu social system, the Brahmins belong to the highest caste, they are usually the protectors of the temples and priests, followed by the Khsatria caste comprising kings, warriors and soldiers; they are then followed by the Vaishanva who are educators, businesspeople, writers, farmers and so on.

The last in the caste in the system are the Sudra. People in this caste are skilled workers such as masons, carpenters, sculptors and so on. However, the outcastes or the untouchables do not belong to the Hindu social system. They have never been allowed into the mainstream temples and are not allowed to perform the Hindu rites as the other caste members.

Having said this, most of the Tamil workers who migrated to Malaysia through the indentured labour system of the British since the beginning of the 19th century had come as outcastes. They had no social standing whatsoever in India. In Malaysia, they have always been excluded from the main temple committees such as the Sri Mahamariamman Devasthanam of Batu Caves.

Although they can pray, they cannot be committee members or surrogate priests. Hence, their social humiliation has continued unchecked in a nation where they are simply a minority. Their long tenure as institutionalised plantation and municipal workers had become a Malaysian social stigma of exclusion from the upper caste Hindus.

The politics of the Malaysian Indian Congress is one of the politics of caste. In 1955, the contest between KL Devasar, a Cambridge-educated lawyer and a socialist of Hindu Punjabi origin and VT Sambanthan, an arts graduate of the Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu, a planter and lover of Bianca, Lamborghini and Ferrari ended in the latter becoming the president of the MIC.

The Tamil Murasu paper from Singapore had actively campaigned for his victory based on the slogan that a Tamil must lead the majority of Tamils. However the late V Manickavasagam, who was a staunch supporter of KL Devasar was able to retain the deputy president's post.

VT Sambanthan came from the Kshatria caste. Though overtly he had put up a very egalitarian facade, he had covertly sowed the seeds of a strong authority of his caste in the mainstream areas of the MIC.

For example, he personally picked candidates from his caste to contest the elections, be they municipal, state or parliamentary. He also ensured that the branch leaders came from his group. Hence, in the delegates conferences he seemed to have the upper hand and authority.

In Negeri Sembilan, he had nurtured the late Muthucumaru, SV Veloo, Aiyakannu, A Ponniah and M Krishnasamy for state executive council, and for parliament V. Samy Vellu. Most of the field officers of the National Land Finance Society which he established also came from his caste and most of the directors, too, were hand-picked by him.

There was a strong sense of caste control over the outcaste and they had no representation via the MIC in the mainstream political power base. The Malays nor the Chinese knew nothing about this politics and left it to the Indians.

When V Manickavasagam (of the Vaishanava caste) took over from Sambanthan, he tried to bring in educated young leaders such as K Pathmanabhan (of Malayalee origin), S Subramaniam (of the Vaishanava Gounder caste) and a number of others to circumvent this cancerous caste stigma. There was a sense of relief amongst the outcastes.

However his tenure was shortlived and once again a Kshatria took over the helm of power of the MIC and this time it was S Samy Vellu. For the next 30 years he ensured that the politics of MIC would be the power of the Kshatrias.

As the power base received some very extraordinary challenge from MG Pandithan, a son of a municipal worker, Samy Vellu sacked him and made sure he never returned to the party. He reconstituted the party to ensure that he could appoint his own caste members at the divisions. His closest buddy for 30 years, V Govindarajoo, too, was sacked, for his caste and in his place he picked V Vadiveloo, who later became the president of the senate.

Vadiveloo was once an arch rival of Samy Vellu in the Selangor MIC and a supporter of V Manickavasagam. But the stigma of caste put up a superior force to bring them together.

The caste delirium moved more and more into the pinnacles of power as more and more children of the outcastes from the estates and the municipality got into the mainstream of development as teachers and civil servants through the provision of universal education. Government licences and scholarships were all recommended for the Kshatrias.

Samy chose his candidates in the party and later ensured that they too, were elevated to the state executive council. Veerasingam in Perak, the late Krishnasamy in Johor and for parliament, he ensured S Subramaniam, who is now the minister of human resources, from Segamat became the future leaders of the MIC.

This S Subramaniam must not be misconstrued for the former deputy president of the MIC. The former S Subramaniam remained a deputy minister for 20 years and never got elevated because of his caste. Samy Vellu has now ensured that his son would now be able to take over the helm from him and continue the legacy. Vel Parri is tipped to continue.

MIC needs to be relevant to the Kshatrias. How more filthy can MIC politics be?

Malaysian political leaders, whichever party they may belong to, must realise the real problems of the Indians as large numbers of them have been pushed to marginalisation not of their own making but because of sinister and ignoble political tendencies emanating from the Hindu social system. This is too difficult to digest and yet it is true.