The social
stratification called “caste” is a hierarchy at least two-thousand-year-old,
outlawed in 1950, but imposed on people at birth, marking their place in
society, the types of jobs they can seek, and who they can marry.
The Hindu
caste system has four varnas (classes) based on occupation:
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Brahmins are
knowledge oriented, the highest caste.
-
Kshatriyas are
warriors and aristocracy, second caste.
-
Vaishyas are businesspeople,
third caste.
-
Sudras are
laborers, the fourth caste.
https://www.asiahighlights.com/india/caste-system
The social
stratification and the caste system is believed to have originated with the
conquest of the Harappan people in the Indus valley by Sanskrit-speaking Aryans
who colonized the northern portion of the continent before 1000 B.C.
India was an
advanced civilization at the time, home to several cultures, but the illiterate
and nomadic, light-skinned Aryans who defeated in battle the darker skinned
tribes, believed themselves superior due to their military ability.
The Harappan
people had planned cities, irrigated their fields, had a script, arts, crafts,
but were no match militarily for the destructive invaders, the Aryans, who
enslaved them. Some historians believe that this multi-racial India gave rise
to the complex caste social structure.
Mohandas
Gandhi mentioned “the children of God,” the pariahs called the Untouchables, who
do the most menial tasks in society.
A census
report of 1911 mentioned that “They are so degraded that a twice-born Hindu
considers it necessary to bathe if he is touched by one of them… They are not
allowed to draw water from the village tank, the village barber will not shave
them, the village-washer woman will not wash their clothes.”
At the time
of the conquest, the Sanskrit-speaking Aryan communities were divided into
three castes: the Brahman (comprised of priests and scholars), the Kshatriya
(kings, warriors, and nobleman), and the Vaisya (merchants and workers). The
pre-Aryan Indians made up a fourth caste, the Sudra (farmers and ordinary
laborers).
The original
Aryan castes were entitled to be “twice born,” the highest state, in which
physical birth is followed by the symbolic birth, the initiation into the upper
caste.
It is
believed that the caste system may have been based on skin color since the
Sanskrit word for caste, “varna,” means “color.”
Aryan, the
word means “kinsmen” in Sanskrit, was actually the proper name of a group of
people, who spoke one of the Indo-European family of languages. The name Aryan
was used more focused on a group of people, land-hungry migratory population,
who had domesticated a wild horse from their homeland in southern Russia. They used
these horses to move, fight, and occupy anybody who stood in their way. They
took their language with them and mixed it with the languages of the peoples
they conquered along the way.
A racist
myth from the 19th century suggested that a white “master race” was
responsible for all progress of humanity which is certainly not true. Adolph
Hitler and his Nazis promoted this myth in the 20th century. The
truth was that the Aryans triumphed because of their fast horses, the use of
chariots in battles, and the element of surprise during their massive
invasions.
The
historical information of the early Aryan society comes from the Rig-Veda,
sacred hymns compiled around 1000 B.C., handed down orally through many
generations of Brahmans until the 14th century when it was written
down.
The Vedic
hymns detail the life of the Aryan tribesmen, their gambling, drinking,
charioteering, skill in battle, and how they adopted gods from the Sudras,
eventually settling down to farming. Their nomadic traditions of cattle
rearing, however, became the romanticized “golden age.” Thus, the worship of the
sacred cow in modern Hinduism was born during the Vedic times.
A thousand
years after the original Rig-Veda, the distinction of caste based on
skin color became impossible to make due to mixed marriages, so a new
distinction emerged based on occupation.
Sub-castes
called jati emerged from mixed marriages, and a person’s employment
became more important than a person’s caste (varna).
When new
immigrants arrived and rejected the caste system, they became part of a separate
new caste or sub-caste of their own making.
The
underprivileged adopted Islam when it arrived in India in the early 13th
century because it seemed to them that it was a casteless religion. In
practice, however, most Muslims followed caste restrictions. Jews and
Christians also formed their own groups like castes.
Industrialization,
with its new professions, gave rise to new castes. Politics, social and
political roles also formed their own castes. The democracy in India took
advantage of the caste system in order to influence politics and the interests
of their particular members in parliament. The Brahmans are still at the top of
the social ladder and the Untouchables at the bottom.
And most
Indians today, no matter where they may reside in the world, hire successful
matchmakers and astrologers to find their perfect bride or groom for a marriage
steeped in tradition and family within one’s professional class.
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