The untouchable caste in India: description, history and interesting facts. Castes in India Traditionally in India there are such castes as
India's caste system continues to attract interest. Castes in India are a truly curious social phenomenon, but a tourist traveling to India is unlikely to encounter it; there are many Indian travelers who live there for months, but are not interested in castes because they are not necessary for life.The caste system is not exotic, it is part of the complex organization of Indian society, a multifaceted phenomenon that has been studied by Indologists and ethnographers for centuries, dozens of thick books have been written about it, so I will publish here only 10 interesting facts about Indian castes - about the most popular questions and misconceptions.
1. What is an Indian caste?
Indian caste is such a complex phenomenon that it is simply impossible to give an exhaustively complete definition!
Castes can only be described through a number of characteristics, but there will still be exceptions.
Caste in India is a system of social stratification, a separate social group related by the origin and legal status of its members. Castes in India are built according to the principles: 1) common religion (this rule is always observed); 2) one profession, usually hereditary; 3) members of castes marry only among themselves, as a rule; 4) members of the caste generally do not eat with strangers, with the exception of other Hindu castes of significantly higher social position than their own; 5) caste members can be determined by who they can accept water and food, processed and raw.
2. There are 4 castes in India
In India there are not 4, but about 3 thousand castes, they can be called differently in different parts of the country, and people with the same profession can have different castes in different states. For a complete list of castes by state, see http://socialjustice...
What nameless people on tourist and other near-Indian sites call 4 castes are not castes at all, they are 4 varnas - chaturvarnya in Sanskrit - an ancient social system.
4 Varnas (वर्ना) is an ancient Indian class system. Varna brahmins (more correctly a brahmin) historically are clergy, doctors, teachers. Varna Kshatriyas (in ancient times it was called Rajanya) are rulers and warriors. Varna vaishyas are farmers and traders, and varna sudras are laborers and landless peasants who work for others.
Varna is a color (in Sanskrit again), and each Indian varna has its own color: the Brahmins have white, the Kshatriyas have red, the Vaishyas have yellow, the Shudras have black, and before, when all representatives of the varnas wore a sacred thread - it was just the color of their varna.
Varnas correlate with castes, but in very different ways, sometimes there is no direct connection, and since we have already delved into science, it must be said that Indian castes, unlike varnas, are called jati - जाति.
Read more about Indian castes in modern India http://indonet.ru/St...
3. Caste Untouchables
The untouchables are not a caste. During the times of ancient India, everyone who was not part of the 4 varnas automatically found themselves “outside” of Indian society; these strangers were avoided and not allowed to live in villages, which is why they were called untouchables. Subsequently, these untouchable strangers began to be used in the dirtiest, low-paid and shameful work, and formed their own social and professional groups, that is, untouchable castes, there are several of them, as a rule, this is associated either with dirty work, or with the killing of living beings or death, so that all hunters and fishermen, as well as gravediggers and tanners, are untouchable.
At the same time, it is not correct to assume that every untouchable is uneducated and poor, this is not true. In India, even before it gained independence and the adoption of a number of legislative measures to prevent discrimination against lower castes and tribes, there were untouchables who were able to achieve outstanding success in society, an example of this is the most famous untouchable of India - an outstanding Indian political, public figure, human rights activist and The author of the Indian Constitution is Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who received his legal education in England. And just recently, not just a Dalit, but also a hijra became the mayor of a city in India http://indonet.ru/fo. ..
4. When did Indian castes appear?
Normatively, that is, legislatively, the caste-jati system in India was recorded in the Laws of Manu, which date back to the 2nd century BC.
The Varna system is much older; there is no exact dating. I wrote in more detail about the history of the issue in the article Castes of India, from varnas to modern times http://indonet.ru/ar ...
5. Castes have been abolished in India
Castes in India are not abolished or prohibited, as is often written.
On the contrary, all castes in India are counted and listed in the annex to the Indian Constitution, which is called the Table of Castes. In addition, after the population census, changes are made to this table, usually additions; the point is not that new castes appear, but that they are recorded in accordance with the data indicated about themselves by the census participants.
Only discrimination on the basis of caste is prohibited, this is written in Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, see the test at http://lawmin.nic.in ...
6. Every Indian has a caste
No, this is also not true.
Indian society is very heterogeneous in its structure, and besides the division into castes there are several others.
There are caste and non-caste Indians, for example, representatives of Indian tribes (aboriginals, adivasis) with rare exceptions do not have castes. And the part of non-caste Indians is quite large, see the census results at http://censusindia.g. ..
In addition, for some misdemeanors (crimes) a person can be expelled from the caste and thus deprived of his status and position in society.
7. Castes exist only in India
No, this is a fallacy. There are castes in other countries, for example, in Nepal and Sri Lanka, since these countries developed in the womb of the same huge Indian civilization, as well as in Bali. But there are castes in other cultures, for example, in Tibet, and Tibetan castes do not correlate with Indian castes at all, since the class structure of Tibetan society was formed independently from India.
About the castes of Nepal, see Ethnic mosaic of Nepal http://indonet.ru/St ...
8. Only Hindus have castes
No, this is not the case now, we need to go deeper into history.
Historically, when the overwhelming majority of the Indian population professed Hinduism - all Hindus belonged to some caste, the only exceptions were pariahs expelled from castes and the indigenous, tribal peoples of India who did not profess Hinduism and were not part of Indian society. Then other religions began to spread in India - Buddhism, Jainism, India was invaded by other peoples, and representatives of other religions and peoples began to adopt from the Hindus their class system of varnas and the system of professional castes - jati. Now there are castes in Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Christianity, but they are different from the Hindu castes.
It is curious that in northern India, in the modern states of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, the Buddhist caste system is not of Indian, but of Tibetan origin.
It is even more curious that even European Christian missionary preachers were drawn into the Indian caste system: those who preached the teachings of Christ to high-born Brahmins ended up in the Christian “Brahmin” caste, and those who communicated with untouchable fishermen became Christian untouchables.
9. You need to know the caste of the Indian you are communicating with and behave accordingly.
This is a common misconception, propagated by travel sites, for no known reason and not based on anything.
It is impossible to determine which caste an Indian belongs to just by his appearance, and often by his occupation too. One acquaintance worked as a waiter, although he came from a noble Rajput family (that is, he is a kshatriya). I was able to identify a Nepalese waiter I knew by his behavior as an aristocrat, since we had known each other for a long time, I asked and he confirmed that this was true, and the guy was not working because of a lack of money at all.
My old friend started his working career at the age of 9 as a laborer, cleaning up trash in a shop... do you think he is a Shudra? no, he is a Brahmin (Brahmin) from a poor family and his 8th child... another 1 Brahmin I know sells in a shop, he is the only son, he needs to earn money...
Another friend of mine is so religious and bright that one would think that he is a real, ideal Brahmin. But no, he was just a sudra, and he was proud of it, and those who know what seva means will understand why.
And even if an Indian says what caste he is, although such a question is considered rude, it will still give nothing to the tourist; a person who does not know India will not understand what and why things are done in this amazing country. So there is no need to be puzzled by the caste issue, because in India it is sometimes difficult to even determine the gender of the interlocutor, and this is probably more important :)
10. Caste discrimination
India is a democratic country and, in addition to prohibiting caste discrimination, has introduced benefits for representatives of lower castes and tribes, for example, there are quotas for admission to higher education institutions and for holding positions in state and municipal bodies.
The problem of discrimination against people from lower castes, Dalits and tribal people in India is quite serious, casteism is still the basis of life for hundreds of millions of Indians outside large cities, it is there that the caste structure and all the prohibitions arising from it, for example, in some temples, are still preserved India does not allow Indian Shudras, it is there that almost all caste crimes occur, for example, a very typical crime http://indonet.ru/bl ...
If you are seriously interested in the caste system in India, I can recommend, in addition to the articles section http://indonet.ru/ca ... on this site and publications on the Hindunet, reading books by major European Indologists of the 20th century:
1. Academic 4-volume work by R.V. Russell "Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India"
2. Monograph by Louis Dumont "Homo hierarchicus. Experience in describing the caste system"
In addition, in recent years, a number of books on this topic have been published in India; unfortunately, I myself have not held them in my hands.
If you are not ready to read scientific literature, read the novel “The God of Small Things” by the very popular modern Indian writer Arundhati Roy, it can be found in RuNet.
The first castes appeared in India at the stage of state formation. About one and a half thousand years BC, the first settlers appeared on the territory of modern India. They were divided into four classes. Much later, called varnas, this word, literally translated from Sanskrit, means color. The word caste itself carries a semantic concept as a pure breed.
Belonging to some community of people in power has always been highly valued among all nations. It’s just that in ancient times, intertwined with Indian religion, this concept acquired the status of an unshakable law. At the very beginning, these were brahmins, priests, in their hands was the right to interpret the word of God. Thanks to this, this caste occupied the highest position. Because above them there was only a divine essence with which only they could communicate. Any word they said was law and was not subject to discussion. Next came the kshatriya warriors. Very numerous and powerful caste of India. At all times and among all peoples, professional military men have participated in government. Only on the territory of India did they become a separate group of people who passed on their skills and traditions.
How people's lives differ in different parts of India, read more:.
The caste was so closed that for many centuries ordinary people could not even imagine becoming a soldier. Such heresy was punishable by death. Vaishyas included traders, farmers, and cattle breeders. This caste was also numerous, but the people who were part of it did not have any political influence, since representatives of the highest castes of India, at any moment, they could deprive them of all their property, home, family, simply by saying that it pleases the gods. Shudra servant worker. The most numerous and powerless caste, the people who belonged to it were actually equated to the level of animals. Moreover, some animals in India lived much better because they had sacred status.
Further divisions into castes in India
Later, after quite a long time has passed. The first castes began to be divided into smaller ones, with even more strict assignment of certain privileges and rights to a certain group of people. Religion played a big role in this division. In Hinduism, it is believed that after death, the soul can be reincarnated into a person more high caste india, if he strictly observes all the rules of this division during his lifetime. If not, he will be reborn into a lower caste. It was impossible to leave the caste limit; even if a person had some excellent qualities, he could not rise during his lifetime.
As time passed, this system of building society only became stronger. Neither the conquest of the people by the Mughals, who brought with them the Muslim religion, nor the later conquest by the British, could shake the very foundations of this system. The very nature of caste seems quite logical. If the family is engaged in farming, then the children will do the same. Only the Indians have abolished the very possibility of making a decision in this matter; everything is decided only by birth. Where you were born is what you will do. To the main four, another one was added, the untouchables. This is the lowest caste. It is believed that communication with members of this caste can pollute anyone, especially members of the higher castes. Therefore, they never directly communicated with representatives of the untouchables.
Modern caste division
In modern India there are a huge number of castes. Priests, warriors, merchants and even untouchables have their own division. It is quite difficult to understand all these intricacies. Yes, with the advent of the possibility of leaving the country, young people are increasingly beginning to think about the appropriateness of this order of things. But in the provinces in the interior of the country these laws are treated very jealously. And at the state level, this tradition is supported by the government of the country. There is a Constitutional Table of Castes. So, this is not medieval savagery and a relic of the past, but an absolutely real, state structure. Each state has its own division into castes. No matter how visitors feel about it, this whole cumbersome mechanism works. Perfectly fulfilling its purpose.
It should be noted, since modern India is a democratic state, all freedom rights associated with obtaining Caste certificates are very strictly observed, various methods of state support are provided for the maintenance of lower castes. Even to the point of setting quotas for special seats in parliament. Currently, all peoples living in India recognize the caste division and follow this tradition. Even the Spanish and British priests who remained on the territory of the state after the departure of the colonialists created their own Indian caste system and stick to it. This emphasizes that with the right, competent approach, any system of government can work, no matter how conservative and orthodox it may look in the eyes of visitors. In modern India, a change of castes has become possible. It is enough for one or several families to change their occupation and that’s it, a new caste is ready. In modern reality, especially in large industrial cities, such changes are treated quite loyally.
Before traveling to India, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the cultural characteristics of the country, for more details:.
The Untouchables
This is a completely separate category of people. It is considered the lowest, people whose souls sinned greatly in the previous incarnation go there. But even this last rung of India's social ladder has its divisions. At the very top there are working people or those who have some kind of craft. For example, hairdressers or garbage collectors. The bottom of this staircase is occupied by petty thieves who make their living by stealing small livestock. The most mysterious thing in this hierarchy is the group of hijras; it includes representatives of any sexual minorities. It is amazing that representatives of these seemingly dregs of society are invited to weddings and births of children. They are often felt in numerous church ceremonies. But the worst thing in India is considered to be a person without a caste, even of the lowest rank. Such people are called pariahs here. These are people born from other pariahs or as a result of inter-caste marriages and not recognized by one of the castes. More recently, you could become a pariah simply by touching one of them.
Indian castes, video:
Recently I was preparing an anthropology essay on the topic “Indian Mentality”. The creation process was very exciting, since the country itself amazes with its traditions and characteristics. If anyone is interested, read it.
I was especially struck by: the plight of women in India, the phrase that “The husband is the earthly God,” the very difficult life of the untouchables (the last class in India), and the happy existence of cows and bulls.
Contents of the first part:
1. General information
2. Castes
1
. General information about India
INDIA, Republic of India (in Hindi - Bharat), a state in South Asia.
Capital - Delhi
Area - 3,287,590 km2.
Ethnic composition. 72% Indo-Aryans, 25% Dravidians, 3% Mongoloids.
The official name of the country , India, comes from the ancient Persian word Hindu, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit sindhu (Sanskrit: सिन्धु), the historical name of the Indus River. The ancient Greeks called the Indians Indoi (ancient Greek Ἰνδοί) - “people of the Indus”. The Indian Constitution also recognizes a second name, Bharat (Hindi भारत), which is derived from the Sanskrit name of the ancient Indian king, whose history was described in the Mahabharata. The third name, Hindustan, has been used since the time of the Mughal Empire, but has no official status.
Indian territory in the north it extends 2930 km in the latitudinal direction, and 3220 km in the meridional direction. India is bordered by the Arabian Sea in the west, the Indian Ocean in the south and the Bay of Bengal in the east. Its neighbors are Pakistan in the northwest, China, Nepal and Bhutan in the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. India also shares maritime borders with the Maldives in the southwest, Sri Lanka in the south and Indonesia in the southeast. The disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan.
India ranks seventh in the world by area, second largest population (after China) , currently lives in it 1.2 billion people. India has had one of the highest population densities in the world for thousands of years.
Religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism originated in India. In the first millennium AD, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam also came to the Indian subcontinent, which had a great influence on the formation of the diverse culture of the region.
More than 900 million Indians (80.5% of the population) profess Hinduism. Other religions with significant numbers of followers are Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%) and Jainism (0.4%). Religions such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Baha'i and others are also represented in India. Animism is common among the aboriginal population, which makes up 8.1%.
Almost 70% of Indians live in rural areas, although migration to big cities has led to a sharp increase in the urban population in recent decades. The largest cities in India are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Kolkata), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In terms of cultural, linguistic and genetic diversity, India ranks second in the world after the African continent. The gender composition of the population is characterized by an excess of men over the number of women. The male population is 51.5%, and the female population is 48.5%. For every thousand men there are 929 women, this ratio has been observed since the beginning of this century.
India is home to the Indo-Aryan language family (74% of the population) and the Dravidian language family (24% of the population). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, the most widely spoken language in India, is the official language of the Indian government. English, which is widely used in business and administration, has the status of an “auxiliary official language”, it also plays a large role in education, especially in secondary and higher education. The Constitution of India defines 21 official languages that are spoken by a significant part of the population or that have classical status. There are 1652 dialects in India.
Climate humid and warm, mostly tropical, tropical monsoon in the north. India, located in tropical and subequatorial latitudes, fenced off by the wall of the Himalayas from the influence of continental Arctic air masses, is one of the hottest countries in the world with a typical monsoon climate. The monsoon rhythm of precipitation determines the rhythm of economic work and the entire way of life. 70-80% of the annual rainfall falls during the four months of the monsoon season (June-September), when the southwest monsoon arrives and rains almost incessantly. This is the main Kharif field season. October-November is the post-monsoon period when the rains mostly stop. The winter season (December-February) is dry and cool, at this time roses and many other flowers bloom, many trees bloom - this is the most pleasant time to visit India. March-May is the hottest, driest season, when temperatures often exceed 35 °C, often rising above 40 °C. This is a time of sweltering heat, when the grass burns out, leaves fall from the trees, and air conditioners work at full capacity in rich houses.
National animal - tiger.
National bird - peacock.
National flower - lotus.
National fruit - mango.
The national currency is the Indian rupee.
India can be called the cradle of human civilization. The Indians were the first in the world to learn how to grow rice, cotton, and sugar cane, and they were the first to raise poultry. India gave the world chess and the decimal system.
The average literacy rate in the country is 52%, with the figure for men being 64% and for women 39%.
2. Castes in India
CASTES - division of Hindu society in the Indian subcontinent.
For many centuries, caste was determined primarily by profession. The profession that passed from father to son often did not change throughout the lives of dozens of generations.
Each caste lives according to its own dharma - with that set of traditional religious instructions and prohibitions, the creation of which is attributed to the gods, to divine revelation. Dharma determines the norms of behavior of members of each caste, regulates their actions and even feelings. Dharma is that elusive but immutable thing that is pointed out to a child already in the days of his first babble. Everyone must act in accordance with his own dharma, deviation from dharma is lawlessness - this is what children are taught at home and at school, this is what the brahmana - mentor and spiritual leader - repeats. And a person grows up in the consciousness of the absolute inviolability of the laws of dharma, their immutability.
Currently, the caste system is officially prohibited, and the strict division of crafts or professions depending on caste is gradually being eliminated, while at the same time a government policy is being pursued to reward those who have been oppressed for centuries at the expense of representatives of other castes. It is widely believed that in the modern Indian state castes are losing their former meaning. However, developments have shown that this is far from the case.
In fact, the caste system itself has not gone away: when entering school, a student is asked about his religion, and if he professes Hinduism, his caste, in order to know whether there is a place in this school for representatives of this caste in accordance with state norms. When entering a college or university, caste is important in order to correctly estimate the threshold score (the lower the caste, the lower the number of points required for a passing grade). When applying for a job, caste is again important in order to maintain balance. Although castes are not forgotten even when arranging the future of their children - weekly supplements with marriage advertisements are published in major Indian newspapers, in which columns are divided into religions, and the most voluminous column is with representatives of Hinduism - to castes. Often under such advertisements, which describe the parameters of both the groom (or bride) and the requirements for the prospective applicants (or applicants), the standard phrase “Cast no bar” is placed, which translated means “Caste does not matter,” but, to be honest, I doubt a little that for a bride from the Brahman caste, her parents will seriously consider a groom from a caste lower than the Kshatriyas. Yes, inter-caste marriages are also not always approved, but they do happen if, for example, the groom occupies a higher position in society than the bride’s parents (but this is not a mandatory requirement - cases vary). In such marriages, the caste of the children is determined by the father. So, if a girl from a Brahmin family marries a Kshatriya boy, then their children will belong to the Kshatriya caste. If a Kshatriya youth marries a Veishya girl, then their children will also be considered Kshatriyas.
The official tendency to downplay the importance of the caste system has led to the disappearance of the corresponding column in the once-a-decade population censuses. The last time information about the number of castes was published was in 1931 (3000 castes). But this figure does not necessarily include all local podcasts that operate as independent social groups. In 2011, India plans to conduct a general population census, which will take into account the caste affiliation of the inhabitants of this country.
The main characteristics of the Indian caste:
. endogamy (marriage exclusively between caste members);
. hereditary membership (accompanied by the practical impossibility of moving to another caste);
. prohibition on sharing meals with representatives of other castes, as well as having physical contact with them;
. recognition of the firmly established place of each caste in the hierarchical structure of society as a whole;
. restrictions on choosing a profession;
Indians believe that Manu is the first person from whom we all descended. Once upon a time, the god Vishnu saved him from the Flood, which destroyed the rest of humanity, after which Manu came up with rules that would henceforth guide people. Hindus believe that it was 30 thousand years ago (historians stubbornly date the laws of Manu to the 1st-2nd centuries BC and generally claim that this collection of instructions is a compilation of the works of different authors). Like most other religious instructions, the laws of Manu are distinguished by exceptional meticulousness and attentiveness to the most insignificant details of human life - from swaddling babies to culinary recipes. But it also contains much more fundamental things. It is according to the laws of Manu that all Indians are divided into four estates - varnas.
Varnas, of which there are only four, are often confused with castes, of which there are a great many. Caste is a fairly small community of people united by profession, nationality and place of residence. And varnas are more similar to categories such as workers, entrepreneurs, employees and the intelligentsia.
There are four main varnas: Brahmanas (officials), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants) and Shudras (peasants, workers, servants). The rest are “untouchables”.
Brahmins are the highest caste in India.
Brahmins appeared from the mouth of Brahma. The meaning of life for brahmins is moksha, or liberation.
These are scientists, ascetics, priests. (Teachers and priests)
Today Brahmins most often work as officials.
The most famous is Jawaharlal Nehru.
In a typical rural area, the highest stratum of the caste hierarchy is formed by members of one or more Brahmin castes, constituting 5 to 10% of the population. Among these brahmanas there are a number of landowners, a few village clerks and accountants or accountants, and a small group of clergy who perform ritual functions in local sanctuaries and temples. Members of each Brahmin caste marry only within their own circle, although it is possible to marry a bride from a family belonging to a similar subcaste from a neighboring area. Brahmins are not supposed to follow the plow or perform certain types of manual labor; women from their midst can serve in the house, and landowners can cultivate plots, but not plow. Brahmins are also allowed to work as cooks or domestic servants.
A Brahman has no right to eat food prepared outside his caste, but members of all other castes can eat from the hands of Brahmans. When choosing food, a Brahmin observes many prohibitions. Members of the Vaishnava caste (who worship the god Vishnu) have adhered to vegetarianism since the 4th century, when it became widespread; Some other castes of Brahmans who worship Shiva (Shaiva Brahmans) do not in principle abstain from meat dishes, but abstain from the meat of animals included in the diet of lower castes.
Brahmins serve as spiritual guides in the families of most high- or middle-status castes, except those considered "impure". Brahmin priests, as well as members of a number of religious orders, are often recognized by their “caste marks” - patterns painted on the forehead with white, yellow or red paint. But such marks indicate only membership in a major sect and characterize a given person as a worshiper of, for example, Vishnu or Shiva, and not as a subject of a particular caste or sub-caste.
Brahmins, more than others, adhere to the occupations and professions that were provided for in their varna. Over the course of many centuries, scribes, clerks, clergymen, scientists, teachers and officials emerged from their midst. Back in the first half of the 20th century. in some areas, brahmins occupied up to 75% of all more or less important government positions.
In communicating with the rest of the population, Brahmins do not allow reciprocity; Thus, they accept money or gifts from members of other castes, but they themselves never make gifts of a ritual or ceremonial nature. There is no complete equality among the Brahman castes, but even the lowest of them stands above the rest of the highest castes.
The mission of a member of the Brahmin caste is to study, teach, receive gifts and give gifts. By the way, all Indian programmers are Brahmins.
Kshatriyas
Warriors who emerged from the hands of Brahma.These are warriors, administrators, kings, nobles, rajas, maharajahs.
The most famous is Buddha Shakyamuni
For a kshatriya, the main thing is dharma, fulfillment of duty.
After the Brahmins, the most prominent hierarchical place is occupied by the Kshatriya castes. In rural areas they include, for example, landowners, possibly associated with former ruling houses (for example, the Rajput princes in North India). Traditional occupations in such castes are working as managers on estates and serving in various administrative positions and in the army, but now these castes no longer enjoy the same power and authority. In ritual terms, the Kshatriyas are immediately behind the Brahmins and also observe strict caste endogamy, although they allow marriage with a girl from a lower subcaste (a union called hypergamy), but in no case can a woman marry a man from a subcaste lower than her own. Most kshatriyas eat meat; they have the right to accept food from Brahmins, but not from representatives of any other castes.
Vaishya
They emerged from the thighs of Brahma.
These are artisans, traders, farmers, entrepreneurs (layers that engage in trade).
The Gandhi family is from the Vaishyas, and at one time the fact that it was born with the Nehru Brahmins caused a huge scandal.
The main motivation in life is artha, or the desire for wealth, for property, for accumulation.
The third category includes merchants, shopkeepers and moneylenders. These castes recognize the superiority of the Brahmins, but do not necessarily show the same attitude towards the Kshatriya castes; as a rule, vaishyas are more strict in observing the rules regarding food, and are even more careful to avoid ritual pollution. The traditional occupation of Vaishyas is trade and banking; they tend to stay away from physical labor, but sometimes they are included in the management of the farms of landowners and village entrepreneurs, without directly participating in the cultivation of the land.
Shudras
Came from the feet of Brahma.
Peasant caste. (farms, servants, artisans, workers)
The main aspiration at the sudra stage is kama. These are pleasures, pleasant experiences delivered by the senses.
Mithun Chakraborty from "Disco Dancer" is a sudra.
They, due to their numbers and ownership of a significant part of local land, play an important role in solving social and political issues in some areas. Shudras eat meat, and widows and divorced women are allowed to marry. The lower Shudras are numerous sub-castes whose profession is of a highly specialized nature. These are the castes of potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, joiners, weavers, oil makers, distillers, masons, hairdressers, musicians, tanners (those who sew products from finished leather), butchers, scavengers and many others. Members of these castes are supposed to practice their hereditary profession or craft; however, if a Shudra is able to acquire land, any of them can engage in agriculture. Members of many craft and other professional castes have traditionally had traditional relationships with members of higher castes, which consist of the provision of services for which no salary is paid, but an annual remuneration in kind. This payment is made by each household in the village whose requests are satisfied by a given member of the professional caste. For example, a blacksmith has his own circle of clients, for whom he makes and repairs equipment and other metal products all year round, for which he, in turn, is given a certain amount of grain.
The Untouchables
Those engaged in the dirtiest jobs are often poor or very poor people.
They are outside the Hindu society.
Activities such as tanning leather or slaughtering animals are considered clearly polluting, and although this work is very important to the community, those who engage in it are considered untouchables. They are engaged in cleaning dead animals from streets and fields, toilets, tanning leather, and cleaning sewers. They work as scavengers, tanners, flayers, potters, prostitutes, laundresses, shoemakers, and are hired for the hardest work in mines, construction sites, etc. That is, everyone who comes into contact with one of the three dirty things specified in the laws of Manu - sewage, corpses and clay - or leads a wandering life on the streets.
In many respects they are outside the boundaries of Hindu society, they were called "outcaste", "low", "scheduled" castes, and Gandhi proposed the euphemism "harijans" ("children of God"), which became widely used. But they themselves prefer to call themselves “Dalits” - “broken”. Members of these castes are prohibited from using public wells and taps. You cannot walk on the sidewalks so as not to inadvertently come into contact with a representative of the highest caste, because they will have to cleanse themselves after such contact in the temple. In some areas of cities and villages they are generally prohibited from appearing. Dalits are also prohibited from visiting temples; only a few times a year they are allowed to cross the threshold of the sanctuaries, after which the temple is subjected to thorough ritual cleansing. If a Dalit wants to buy something in a store, he must put money at the entrance and shout from the street what he needs - the purchase will be taken out and left on the doorstep. A Dalit is prohibited from starting a conversation with a representative of a higher caste or calling him on the phone.
After some Indian states passed laws fining canteen owners for refusing to feed Dalits, most catering establishments installed special cabinets with dishes for them. However, if the canteen does not have a separate room for Dalits, they have to dine outside.
Most Hindu temples until recently were closed to untouchables; there was even a ban on approaching people from higher castes closer than a set number of steps. The nature of caste barriers is such that Harijans are believed to continue to pollute members of the “pure” castes, even if they have long abandoned their caste occupation and are engaged in ritually neutral activities, such as agriculture. Although in other social settings and situations, such as being in an industrial city or on a train, an untouchable may have physical contact with members of higher castes and not pollute them, in his home village untouchability is inseparable from him, no matter what he does.
When Indian-born British journalist Ramita Navai decided to make a revolutionary film revealing to the world the terrible truth about the lives of untouchables (Dalits), she endured a lot. She courageously looked at the Dalit teenagers frying and eating rats. Of little children splashing in the gutter and playing with parts of a dead dog. A housewife cutting up more decorative pieces from a rotten pig carcass. But when the well-groomed journalist was taken on a work shift by ladies from a caste that traditionally cleans toilets by hand, the poor thing vomited right in front of the camera. “Why do these people live like this?!! - a journalist asked us in the last seconds of the documentary “Dalit Means Broken”. Yes, because the child of the Brahmins spent the morning and evening hours in prayers, and the son of a Kshatriya at the age of three was put on a horse and taught to swing a saber. For a Dalit, the ability to live in the dirt is his valor, his skill. Dalits know better than anyone: those who are afraid of dirt will die faster than others.
There are several hundred untouchable castes.
Every fifth Indian is a Dalit - that's at least 200 million people.
Hindus believe in reincarnation and believe that the one who follows the rules of his caste will rise by birth to a higher caste in a future life, while the one who breaks these rules will become unknown in the next life.
The first three high classes of varnas were required to undergo an initiation rite, after which they were called twice-born. Members of high castes, especially Brahmins, then wore a “sacred thread” over their shoulders. Twice-born people were allowed to study the Vedas, but only brahmanas could preach them. Shudras were strictly forbidden not only to study, but even to listen to the words of Vedic teachings.
Clothing, despite its apparent uniformity, is different for different castes and significantly distinguishes a member of a high caste from a member of a low one. Some wrap their hips with a wide strip of fabric that falls to the ankles, for others it should not cover their knees, women of some castes should drape their bodies in a strip of fabric of at least seven or nine meters, while women of others should not use fabric longer than four or five on their sari meters, some were required to wear a certain type of jewelry, others were prohibited from it, some could use an umbrella, others did not have the right to do so, etc. and so on. The type of housing, food, even the vessels for its preparation - everything is determined, everything is prescribed, everything is learned from childhood by a member of each caste.
That is why in India it is very difficult to pretend to be a member of any other caste - such imposture will be immediately exposed. Only one can do this who has studied the dharma of another caste for many years and had the opportunity to practice it. And even then he can only succeed so much far from his locality, where they know nothing about his village or city. And that’s why the most terrible punishment has always been exclusion from the caste, loss of one’s social face, and severance from all production ties.
Even the untouchables, who from century to century performed the dirtiest work, were brutally suppressed and exploited by members of higher castes, those untouchables who were humiliated and disdained as something unclean - they were still considered members of caste society. They had their own dharma, they could be proud of their adherence to its rules, and they maintained their long-legalized industrial ties. They had their own very definite caste face and their own very definite place, albeit in the lowest layers of this multi-layered hive.
Bibliography:
1. Guseva N.R. - India in the mirror of centuries. Moscow, VECHE, 2002
2. Snesarev A.E. - Ethnographic India. Moscow, Nauka, 1981
3. Material from Wikipedia - India:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%8F
4. Online Encyclopedia Around the World - India:
http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/strany_mira/INDIYA.html
5. Marry an Indian: life, traditions, features:
http://tomarryindian.blogspot.com/
6. Interesting articles about tourism. India. Women of India.
http://turistua.com/article/258.htm
7. Material from Wikipedia - Hinduism:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC
8. Bharatiya.ru - pilgrimage and travel through India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet.
http://www.bharatiya.ru/index.html
Updated 01/12/2020
Sometimes it seems that we are so accustomed to the 21st century with its equality, civil society, and the development of modern technologies that the existence of strict social strata in society is perceived with surprise. Let's figure out what castes existed in India and what is happening now.
But in India, people live like this, belonging to a certain caste (which determines the scope of rights and responsibilities), since the times before our era.
Varna
Initially, the Indian people were divided into four classes, which were called “varnas”; and this division appeared as a result of the decomposition of the primitive communal layer and the development of property inequality.
Belonging to each class was determined solely by birth. Even in the Indian Laws of Manu you can find mention of the following Indian varnas, which exist to this day:
- . Brahmins have always been the highest stratum in the caste system and an honorable caste; now these people are mainly clergy, officials, teachers;
- Kshatriyas are warriors. The main task of the kshatriyas was to protect the country. Now, in addition to serving in the military, representatives of this caste can occupy various administrative positions;
- Vaishyas are farmers. They were engaged in cattle breeding and trade. Basically, these are finances, banking, since the Vaishyas preferred not to participate directly in cultivating the land;
- Shudras are disadvantaged members of society who do not have full rights; the peasant layer, which was initially subordinate to other higher castes.
State administration was concentrated in the hands of the first two varnas. It was strictly forbidden to move from one varna to another; there were also restrictions on mixed marriages. You can learn more about jati from the article ““.
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Caste table Castes in India
Gradually, a caste system is being formed in India. Varnas begin to be divided into castes, with each caste having a specific profession. Thus, caste division reflected the social division of labor. Until now, in India there is a very strong belief that, by observing all the rules of the caste and not violating prohibitions, a person in the next life will move to a higher caste (and those who violate the requirements will be demoted down the social ladder).
State of affairs in modern India
Caste, as a social organization in society, exists everywhere throughout India, but each region may have its own. Moreover, each caste contains many sub-castes (jatis), which makes their number truly countless.
All this even led to the fact that caste was no longer taken into account in population censuses, because every year their number is increasing more and more. For example, there are castes of tailors (Darzi), water-carriers (Jhinvar), scavengers (Bhangi) and even a caste of brahmins who live by alms (Bhatra).
Of course, the caste system in modern India has long ceased to have the importance it was given in ancient times. Now there is a tendency to reduce the influence of castes and social classes on the lives of the country's residents.
If previously almost everything was determined by social origin, now, for example, promotion in service is possible due to a person’s individual characteristics, abilities and skills, and not just because of birth.
The Untouchables
The Untouchables- this is a special name for some castes that occupy the lowest position in modern India (moreover, this is as much as 16% of the total population of the country). The untouchables are not included in the four Indian varnas, but are, as it were, outside this system, and even outside society as a whole. They do the dirtiest work - cleaning toilets, dead animals, etc. .
Members of this Dalit caste group are believed to be capable of insulting other varnas, especially Brahmins. For a long time, even temples remained closed to untouchables from the lower castes.
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Indians themselves are reluctant to discuss the topic of caste, since for modern India intercaste relations are a serious and painful problem.
Castes big and small
The word “caste” itself is not of Indian origin; in relation to the structure of Indian society, European colonialists began to use it no earlier than the 19th century. In the Indian system of classifying members of society, the concepts of varna and jati are used. Varna is the “large castes”, four sorts of classes, or estates of Indian society: Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants, cattle breeders, farmers) and Shudras (servants and workers).
Within each of these four categories there is a division into castes proper, or, as the Indians themselves call them, jati. These are classes on a professional basis, there are jatis of potters, jatis of weavers, jatis of souvenir dealers, jatis of postal workers and even jatis of thieves.
Since there is no strict gradation of professions, divisions into jatis can exist within one of them. Thus, wild elephants are caught and tamed by representatives of one jati, and representatives of another constantly work with them. Each jati has its own council, it resolves “general caste” issues, in particular those related to the transition from one caste to another, which according to Indian standards is strictly condemned and most often not allowed, and inter-caste marriages, which is also not encouraged.
There are a great many different castes and subcastes in India; in each state, in addition to the generally recognized ones, there are also several dozen local castes.
The state’s attitude towards caste division is cautious and somewhat contradictory. The existence of castes is enshrined in the Indian Constitution; a list of the main castes is attached to it in the form of a separate table. At the same time, any discrimination based on caste is prohibited and considered criminal.
This contradictory approach has already led to many complex conflicts between and within castes, and in relations with Indians living outside the castes, or “untouchables”. These are Dalits, the outcasts of Indian society.
The Untouchables
A group of untouchable castes, also called Dalits (oppressed), arose in ancient times from local tribes and occupies the lowest place in the caste hierarchy of India. About 16-17% of the Indian population belongs to this group. Untouchables are not included in the four varna system, as they are believed to be capable of polluting members of those castes, especially brahmins.
Dalits are divided according to the types of activities of their representatives, as well as by area of residence. The most common categories of untouchables are chamars (tanners), dhobis (washerwomen) and pariahs.
The untouchables live in isolation, even in small settlements. Their destiny is dirty and hard work. They all profess Hinduism, but they are not allowed into temples. Millions of untouchable Dalits have converted to other religions - Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, but this does not always save them from discrimination. And in rural areas, acts of violence, including sexual violence, are often committed against Dalits. The fact is that sexual contact is the only one that, according to Indian customs, is allowed in relation to the “untouchables”.
Those untouchables whose profession requires physical touching of members of higher castes (for example, barbers) can only serve members of castes higher than their own, while blacksmiths and potters work for the entire village, regardless of which caste the client belongs to.
And such activities as slaughtering animals and tanning leather are considered clearly polluting, and although this such work is very important to the communities, those engaged in it are considered untouchables.
Dalits are prohibited from visiting the homes of members of the “pure” castes, as well as taking water from their wells.
For more than a hundred years in India there has been a struggle to provide equal rights to the untouchables; at one time this movement was led by the outstanding humanist and public figure Mahatma Gandhi. The Indian government allocates special quotas for the admission of Dalits to work and study, all known cases of violence are investigated and condemned by them, but the problem remains.
What caste are you from?
Tourists who come to India will most likely not be affected by local inter-caste problems. But this does not mean that you do not need to know about them. Having grown up in a society with a strict caste division and forced to remember it all their lives, Indians and European tourists are carefully studied and evaluated primarily by their belonging to one or another social stratum. And they treat them in accordance with their assessments. It is no secret that some of our compatriots tend to “show off” a little while on vacation, to present themselves as wealthier and more important than they actually are. Such “performances” are successful and even welcomed in Europe (let him be weird, as long as he pays money), but in India, posing as “cool”, having hardly saved up money for a tour, will not work. They will find out about you and find a way to make you fork out money.