Caste System
How a 2000 year old social delineation still hangs on today.
Through a long tradition, India has developed a system of social stratification; the caste system. The caste system assigns your class status, your place in the society, based on the family you’re born into. The system is tightly interwoven with Hindu religious traditions that assign an order to everything in the universe. There are four broad social levels in the caste system. From top down they are: Brahmin - priests; Kshatriya - rulers and warriors; Vaishya - mercantile and artisans; Shudra - service provides and laborers. Like everything in India the caste system is not simple. Firstly it’s illegal, and rightly so. It’s easy for us Americans to buy into “all men being created equal”. But in India it is not necessarily so. Secondly, everybody knows what caste they’re in and which castes are above them or below them. Each of the main four castes are broken down into sub castes or jatis and so there are literally thousands of castes, mostly related to professions, and some castes may only exist in certain states. Each caste reflects the karma of the person in their previous life. So a low caste person had bad karma in their last live so they deserve to be low caste in this incarnation. Low caste people have the worst professions and the least amount of respect. The real kicker is that there is a whole category of person that live outside the caste system. This caste that exists outside the castes system is called “untouchable” or dalit. These people get no respect and have the most hideous jobs. General acceptance of the caste system is low in big cities and urban areas and is highest in village areas. Most Indians will admit that the system is unfair and wrong. But the reality is that remnants of the system are still widespread. Unfortunately, due only to the status of their birth, a child may be doomed to a hard and unpleasant lifetime with no chance of change. Interestingly, some professions such as computer programmer or cable TV installer are so new that they escaped classification by the caste system.
A law was passed in 1950 that attempted reform and to make up for the past grievances of the caste system. A list or ’schedule’ of all the dalits and castes that had been disadvantaged by the caste system was drawn up, State by State. There are three schedules:
Scheduled Castes (SC) - a caste list of all dalits.
Scheduled Tribes (ST) - a caste list of tribal groups.
Other Backwards Castes (OBC) - a list of over 3000 low castes.
There are no schedules for high castes.
The most overt sign of the caste system today is the identification of caste as a factor in matching bride and groom in matrimonial ads (a whole other issue). These ads fill pages in the back of the Sunday paper, and online too: http://www.matrimonialsindia.com/
Education is a critical part to combat the prejudice of the caste system. The RISE UP INDIA school accepts students regardless of caste. Students from many caste levels attend at the school. Some students who are Islamic aren’t even in the caste system.
The so called “scheduled castes” have granted quotas or reservations and preferences given to them in government hiring as part of a government program of reverse discrimination. A backlash has occurred. This “reservation” program has been very contentious and many people think that they have been wronged by this program for not receiving a job.
Through a long tradition, India has developed a system of social stratification; the caste system. The caste system assigns your class status, your place in the society, based on the family you’re born into. The system is tightly interwoven with Hindu religious traditions that assign an order to everything in the universe. There are four broad social levels in the caste system. From top down they are: Brahmin - priests; Kshatriya - rulers and warriors; Vaishya - mercantile and artisans; Shudra - service provides and laborers. Like everything in India the caste system is not simple. Firstly it’s illegal, and rightly so. It’s easy for us Americans to buy into “all men being created equal”. But in India it is not necessarily so. Secondly, everybody knows what caste they’re in and which castes are above them or below them. Each of the main four castes are broken down into sub castes or jatis and so there are literally thousands of castes, mostly related to professions, and some castes may only exist in certain states. Each caste reflects the karma of the person in their previous life. So a low caste person had bad karma in their last live so they deserve to be low caste in this incarnation. Low caste people have the worst professions and the least amount of respect. The real kicker is that there is a whole category of person that live outside the caste system. This caste that exists outside the castes system is called “untouchable” or dalit. These people get no respect and have the most hideous jobs. General acceptance of the caste system is low in big cities and urban areas and is highest in village areas. Most Indians will admit that the system is unfair and wrong. But the reality is that remnants of the system are still widespread. Unfortunately, due only to the status of their birth, a child may be doomed to a hard and unpleasant lifetime with no chance of change. Interestingly, some professions such as computer programmer or cable TV installer are so new that they escaped classification by the caste system.
A law was passed in 1950 that attempted reform and to make up for the past grievances of the caste system. A list or ’schedule’ of all the dalits and castes that had been disadvantaged by the caste system was drawn up, State by State. There are three schedules:
Scheduled Castes (SC) - a caste list of all dalits.
Scheduled Tribes (ST) - a caste list of tribal groups.
Other Backwards Castes (OBC) - a list of over 3000 low castes.
There are no schedules for high castes.
The most overt sign of the caste system today is the identification of caste as a factor in matching bride and groom in matrimonial ads (a whole other issue). These ads fill pages in the back of the Sunday paper, and online too: http://www.matrimonialsindia.com/
Education is a critical part to combat the prejudice of the caste system. The RISE UP INDIA school accepts students regardless of caste. Students from many caste levels attend at the school. Some students who are Islamic aren’t even in the caste system.
The so called “scheduled castes” have granted quotas or reservations and preferences given to them in government hiring as part of a government program of reverse discrimination. A backlash has occurred. This “reservation” program has been very contentious and many people think that they have been wronged by this program for not receiving a job.
posted by Rising Up at 1:26 PM
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