India’s Caste System

I. Caste=Rigid social system.

15% of India’s population=160 million Indians are…

A. Origin of the Caste System1. The cattle rearing Aryans invaded India in 1500 B.C.

2. The Aryans (fair-skinned, blue eyed foreigners) dominated the Dravidians (darker skinned, original residents), making them subservient.

Aryan priests divided society into four parts, putting their class at the top as earthly gods.

3. “When the gods divided the Man, into how many parts did they divide him?

What was his mouth, what were his arms, what were his thighs and his feet called?The Brahmin was his mouth,

of his arm was made the warrior, his thighs became the Vaisya, of his feet the Sudra was born.”~Vedic Poem.

The four original castes subdivided and over 3000 castes exist

Brahmins=Mouth

Kshatriyas=Arms

Vaisyas=Thighs

Sudras=Feet

The Untouchables

VaisyasHerders, land owners,

merchants, craftspeople

Brahmin

Priests

Kshatriyas

Warriors

SudrasFarm workers, servants, laborers

UNTOUCHABLES: Polluted Laborers

= Non- Aryans

4. Social Hierarchy

A High-Caste Brahmin Wedding

B. The Caste System is supported by Hinduism.

1. 82 % of India is Hindu

2. Obeying caste rules= Reincarnation into a higher caste.

Lower-Caste Women

Work all day picking weeds for a wage as low as 50 cents/day.

C. Jobs of the Untouchables1. Jobs that involved ending a life.

3. Any contact with human emissions.

2. Kill/dispose of dead cattle.

Blind man playing flute through nose

A typical low-caste village family may have only one sari for all its women. While one woman wears the sari, four other women must wait inside.

Reform MovementsD. Many Groups unsuccessfully tried to reduce the rigidity of the caste System”Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 B.C.), founder of Buddhism.

Muslim rule (1206-1862).

Gandhi (1869-1948)

Christianity and Judaism.

1. Creed: passive resistance against injustice.

2. Frequently jailed for his protests.

3. Assassinated by a Hindu Fundamentalist.

E. Gandhi: The caste system is "inherent in human nature, and Hinduism has simply made a science of it." 

F. The Caste System Today

1. Caste discrimination is illegal!

2. With education & industrialization the caste system is slowly disappearing.3. Unfortunately, religious discrimination still exist.

The caste system identity still plays a major role in Indian society. Blue is traditionally a color of the

Brahmins.

Brahmins paint their homes Blue.

Elephants need baths too!

Social Distinctions Still Exist

A Brahmin physician wraps a Sudra’s wrist with a cloth before taking his pulse, so he will not to be "defiled" by touching the Sudra's skin.

Low-caste people are forbidden to use the wells in villages that high-caste Brahmins use for fear they will pollute the water.

A low-caste family is refused the right to bury a family member near their village, where both high and low castes live, because of the belief that the person's ghost will haunt the high-castes.

Migrants flock to the outskirts of cities to find

work.

4. The Reservation System: Entitles a percentage of

government jobs, elected offices, and positions in college to go to

the lower caste people.

5. This reverse discrimination is similar to the U.S. system of…

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Pots line up next to a dry public water tap. Most towns in India have Internet access, but do not have water and sewage systems

Amit is a 17-year-old boy in New Delhi, India’s capital. He takes pride in being a member of India’s highest caste – the Brahmins. He lives in a middle-class neighborhood, where he rides a motorcycle, wears stylish clothes and listens to rock music. He also takes yearly vacations with his entire family. Amit plans to study art next year in the south Indian State of Tamil Nadu and travel on his school breaks.

Shushma is a 14-year-old girl who lives outside Delhi. She is an Untouchable, the outcastes of India’s traditional social structure. Last year her father decided to leave his ancestral village and move closer to the city in hopes of getting more work. Shushma shares a mud hut with her parents, four sisters, and one brother. There is no electricity. She is not allowed to play with the upper-class children living nearby. She too would like to study Art but as a low-caste girl, she has few options for the future.

Students like Amit fear that he be “discriminated” against. “We Brahmins feel cheated because of the special privileges other castes have been given,” says Amit. “This is not the sort of system you should have in a democracy.”

The quota system has caused tension. The competition for jobs and education is intense in India. Middle class Indians say the quota system has given low-caste Indian opportunities at their expense.

Higher-class Indians even pretend to be “backward” castes in order to land government jobs and college acceptance.

Outraged by the wage and land-reform demands of Untouchables, the Ranvir Sena, a militia led by landowners, has been implicated in the

massacres of more than 500 Untouchables.

The attackers have gone largely unpunished.

A woman prepares dinner on the street

1. List three Characteristics of the Caste System.a. b. c.2. How does the caste system provide a sense of order?

3. Why are the untouchables excluded from the Social Pyramid?

4. Who can untouchables be compared to in other civilizations?

5. Why do you think it is more difficult to combat the Caste System more so than other types of racism?

6. What are some suggestions you could offer the Indian Government to help stop this problem?

Questions to Ponder