...In ancient India, a social system was developed in order to divide people into a pattern of different classes. The system is called varn.a, or "color," where there are five different social levels. In English, this is known as a caste system. Within each level, there are sub castes that their people refer to as jâtis. These are subdivisions that make up the birth, life, or rank of people. Originating from Hinduism, this system has taken over the society of India. A person born into a class can never change or mix with other classes. People live, eat, and work with the other members of their group. The caste has been illegal in India for over 50 years, but still today continues to shape people’s lives. The different social levels are Brahmin, Kshatiya, Vaishya, Shudram and Harijans. The Brahmin is the class at the top of the system. They consisted of mainly priests, teachers, and judges. Peace, self harmony, righteousness, vision, wisdom, and faith are some of the characteristics of these people. They were the highest and the most important of all of the levels. The Kshatriyas were the people next after the Brahmins. They were the warriors of India. These people were said to have a heroic mind, inner fire, and courage. The Vaishya were mostly the merchants, but they also consisted of people involved in trade and agriculture. Everybody that did not fall under these categories was a separate class which, to most people, was separated from the system. People who...
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...who understands what people want, one who is in tune with the cause and stands up for that cause and serves unconditionally. In ancient India, in the Vedic age, the Brahmans advised the Kshatriya Kings on how the state needed to be ruled. The advisor was called a ‘Rajarishi’. Although the king was the ruler, he ruled as per the Brahmans’ advices. One such advisor was Chanakya. Businessmen represent the class of people who provide employment to fellow citizens. Their motive is to make a good living for themselves and the society at large. They help facilitate trade between countries and ensure equitable justice to all employees at work. In ancient India, the Vaishya community represented this class of people. They were traders, inherently, generation after generation. Books like Arthashaastra describe how trade needs to be carried out, the economics involved and the business and the ethical aspects of it. Bureaucrats are those who facilitate the politicians in Governmental work. They are basically Government servants, and as the name suggests, facilitate the politicians in serving the people. The duty of the bureaucrats is to be receptive to both the citizens and the master and help the latter in the process. More than being receptive to the master, he is supposed to follow the orders and carry out the activities in the redressal system. In ancient India, the Brahmin advisors were shrewd and advised the kings on how the bureaucrats could best serve the people. This pattern...
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...____________________ In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course Dalit Theology, MACS 6 ____________________ By Lijoy Lovely Babu AP01/MA30/12 Submitted on 16 – 04 – 2013 1. INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITION The Dalits (also known as Untouchables, Harijans, orScheduled Castes) have historically been poor, deprived of basic human rights, and treated as social inferiors in India. Dalits are a group of people, who constitute the lowest caste of the Indian Society. According to James Massey (author of the book Dalits in India) , “The term Dalit is one of the most ancient terms which has not only survived till date but also shared by a few of world’s oldest languages like Sanskrit and Hebrew”. The term "Dalit" draws its root from the Sanskrit word “Dall” which means to crack, open or split. According to Elza Tamez, a liberation theologian, this term is used in two contexts – 1 – Phisically weak or lowly, 2 – Insignificant position in the Society. In modern times it’s a Marathi word which means "suppressed", "crushed", or "broken to pieces". It was first used by Jyotirao Phule in the nineteenth century, in the context of the oppression faced by these "untouchable" castes of the twice-born Hindus. Dalits are the group of people in the society, who are economically extremely poor, secluded and rejected by people, exploited, denied justice, lacking proper means of livelihood, often forced to sell themselves into different forms of Slavery. They are often...
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...CENTURY? DALITS OF INDIA 9 What is the caste system? Historically the caste system has formed the social and economic framework for the life of the people in India. In its essential form, caste as the system of social and economic governance is based on principles and customary rules that: < Involve the division of people into social groups (castes) where assignments of rights are determined by birth, are fixed and hereditary. < The assignment of basic rights among various castes is unequal and hierarchical, with those at the top enjoying most rights coupled with least duties and those at the bottom performing most duties coupled with no rights. < The system is maintained through the rigid enforcement of social ostracism (a system of social and economic penalties) in case of any deviations. Thus the doctrine of inequality is the core and heart of the caste system. Supported by philosophical elements, it constructs the moral, social and legal foundations of Hindu society. What is caste-based discrimination? The UN defines this kind of problem as ‘discrimination on the basis of work and descent’. It is an ancient form of oppressive, hierarchical social organisation that ordered people according to their family of birth. It has remained in place despite its legal abolition because of its religious sanction, the social and economic persecution of those who broke caste ‘rules’ defining the work done and the segregation between castes. The Brahminical system stated that those...
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...special article caste in the 21st century: From system to elements A M Shah The argument that while caste as a system is more or less dead, individual castes are flourishing is widely accepted. However, the notion of “caste as a system” is derived mainly from studies of the rural rather than the urban community. In this article, individual caste is seen in the context of both rural and urban communities and its several aspects, particularly the rule of endogamy as its defining criterion, are analysed at some length and some implications of the analysis are pointed out. n 1955, M N Srinivas presented a paper, ‘Castes: Can They Exist in the India of Tomorrow?’, at a national seminar on “Casteism and Removal of Untouchabilty” in Delhi, attended, among others, by such distinguished persons as S Radhakrishnan, Jagjivan Ram, Govind Ballabh Pant, V K R V Rao, Kaka Kalelkar and Irawati Karve. The paper was published in the seminar report as well as in the Economic Weekly (1955). After a lifetime of scholarship on caste, in 1999, the last year of his life, Srinivas delivered a lecture under different titles in Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata, on the passing away of caste as a system. It was published posthumously in 2003 in the Economic and Political Weekly under the title, ‘An Obituary on Caste as a System’. Srinivas expanded this title into a sentence, “While caste as a system is dead, individual castes are flourishing” (ibid: 459). He made this statement almost at the end of...
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...MERITS AND DEMERITS OF CASTE SYSTEM Merits of caste system: In spite of various demerits, caste system in India has been proved to be a stabilizing and interacting force. It cannot be denied that since its origin it has served the development and preservation of Hindu community. According to K.M. Panikkar, “The Hindu people constitute one of the oldest integrated societies of the world. For over two thousand five hundred years the Hindu have been a people. They had, broadly speaking, an organized social system the main characteristic of which were the same from Himalayas to Cape Comorin, No doubt the Dharma Shastras and the Griha Sutras which embody these principles applied only to certain dominant classes and beneath them were many communities professing a wide variety of customs and practices. And yet it is one of the miracles of history that loosely knit though it was, Hindu society has survived over two and half millions and remains today an active and vigorous society ready to make its place, in the world. Some of the principal merits of Indian caste system are mentioned as below: Harmonious Division of Society: Classification of society is indispensable in every country. In ancient India such classification existed in a perfect form. The whole society was divided into four classes namely. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishayas and Sudras. These classes were not rigid and closed. No one was Brahmin by blood nor was any one Sudra by birth. Everyone was free to attain the...
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...The Caste System of India December 1, 2012 The caste system in India is one of the longest lasting hierarchical systems in the world. It was first mentioned in Manusmriti or Laws of Manu, the ancient book of the Hindu code that was written around 1500 BC. Even though this book was written over three thousand years ago, it still testifies to the existence of four classes: Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaisyas, and Shudras. Brahmins are listed as priests, Kshatriya as the warriors, Vaisyas as the merchants, and Shudras as the artisans. First three classes are called Dvija or “twice born,” and they are considered sacred. Shudras are simply servants, as the verse 1.91 in Manusmriti describes: “One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes” (p. 9). The classes are ranked very distinctly: “But for the sake of the prosperity of the worlds he (the Lord) caused the Brahmana, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arms, his thighs, and his feet.” (v. 1.31, p. 4). Therefore, it is very clear that the Brahmins were the highest regarded caste, while the Shudras were equivalent to ‘feet’. However, there is one more group that the Indian caste system does not recognize as a caste – Dalits. Dalits are called many different names: Panchamas ("fifth varna"), and Asprushya ("untouchables"). The distinction between them and the four castes is very well defined:...
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...Tradition And Modernity In the instinctive mode of western scholars, I had once thought of Tradition and Modernity as individual chapters, each of them thinking about its topic as an entity to be understood in its respective essence and unity. But I have come to understand in perhaps an equally perennial move by western students of Indian culture that these two terms do not in themselves exist. But they do function, dialogically. They work in relation with each other. Modernity functions as an economic and social tool to achieve some wealth, flexibility, and innovation for individuals and groups; Tradition functions, partly and at times largely, as a mythological state which produces the sensation of larger connectedness and stability in the face of shockingly massive social change over the last half-century. One might also say that Modernity is an economic force with social, cultural, and political correlatives; Tradition is a cultural force with social, economic, and political correlatives. Satisfyingly asymmetrical in their relation, they require us, in talking of one, to talk also of the other, just as they induce us to move as nimbly as possible between theoretical abstraction and experiential reality. But their separation is itself part of the mythological drama in current Indian thought, just as their mutual implication is the import of the same ironic smile that brings to an effective close any conversation one hears here about them. And so we take them in turn only...
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...Globalization and the Caste System in India Mimi Winters Abstract India has experienced significant economic growth as a direct result of globalization even during the current global economic crisis. Yet many argue that this success does not reach all levels of Indian society. Indeed, some argue that globalization has actually had a negative impact on the lowest members of Indian society, the Dalits. This paper explores both sides of the argument by briefly explaining India’s 3,000-year-old caste system and its influence or lack of influence on the reduction of poverty among the Dalits. Globalization and the Caste System in India India is becoming one of the most significant players in the world economy today. Its rapid economic growth can be contributed to its increasing role in the global community. “Economic liberalization, including industrial deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, began in the early 1990s and has served to accelerate the country's growth, which has averaged more than 7% per year since 1997” (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012, para. 3). India’s GDP was estimated at $4.463 trillion with a real growth rate of 7.8% and $3,700 per capita in 2011 (2012, para. 14). A majority of this success can be directly contributed to globalization. Although growth is expected to slow due to the global economic crisis, India is still experiencing...
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...Gandhian Ideals in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura P. Prayer Elmo Raj Assistant Professor, Department of English Karunya University, Coimbatore Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is one of the finest depictions of the Freedom Movement commenced in the early twentieth century by Mahatma Gandhi to lead India towards freedom from the colonial British rule. India’s freedom struggle which exerted considerable influence on the demeanor of Indian population is the central thrust of the novel. Kanthapura illustrates how Gandhian ideals and struggle for freedom against the British arrived to a characteristic South Indian village Kanthapura. The novel is a striking example of the impact of Gandhian leadership and value that affected even the distant Indian villages. Kanthapura, the “dynamo” of the Gandhian ideals communicates the fresh impetus that propelled the freedom struggle against the British. Iyengar identifies, in Kanthapura, the“veritable grammar of the Gandhian myth.” The novel illustrates two faces of Gandhian vision: the political and the social. This paper is an attempt to critically elucidate the manner in which Raja Rao appropriates Gandhian vision through his creative imagination in Kanthapura. There is no village in India, however mean, that does not have a rich sthala-purana, or legendary history, of its own. Some god or godlike hero has passed by the village – Rama might have rested under this papal-tree, Sita might have dried her clothes, after her bath, on this yellow stone, or the Mahatma...
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...popular video “the spread of world religions”? 8. What is the main point that Edward Said makes when talking about Orientalism? 9. Which public speaker in the 1893 World Parliament of Religions spoke about “little wells” and which religion did he/she represent? 10. Which of the following is not one of the postmodern critiques of “religion”. 11. What does Masuzawa say about the study of religion? 12. What is Craig Martin’s “Rule of Thumb”? 13. What does Portier-Young say about apocalypses? 14. What label do we use to refer to a religious discourse that maintains the basic logic of the status quo but modifies it to change political order? 15. Which caste is second in the order of the Hindu caste system? 16. What was the name of the Buddha? 17. Which leader ruled over India in the 3rd century BCE and established his edicts on 33 rocks and pillars? 18. What does the Dharma Policy refer to? 19. Who is the main deity in the epic of the Bhagavad Gita?...
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...people than only my supervisors and would prove to be useful in some way. A traineeship during my studies as well as various projects and a general interest to discover the ‘mystery’ called India had brought me to the subcontinent several times since 2002, and it was soon clear to me I would focus on a topic in the Indian context. Even before I visited India for the first time I knew that it was not only about the Taj Mahal, tigers and finding enlightenment in some yoga class, but also about development, poverty and caste. Once in India, the contrast between vibrant economic development and widespread poverty became more than obvious, but the idea of caste remained somehow ambiguous. As foreigners are often only able to speak English, they can only communicate directly with those strata of society who also speak this language – most often these are not the poor or deprived of the Indian society, but those at the ‘upper’ end. Hence, I was assured many times that the caste system “does not exist anymore”, that the Untouchables live in poverty because they are “lazy”, that they “don’t want to do anything else than sweeping and cleaning”, or questions about caste were just simply ignored. It took me a while – until 2004 – to have a real look behind the scenes of the supposedly “abolished” caste system. The...
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...Canada's Untouchables! Perri Klass is a young doctor who is just out of medical school in the United States. In her story India (2005), she talks about coming face to face with the grim realities of poverty and poor health in the third world; she compares them to her experiences in the first world. Klass implies that the health issues in India do not exist in North America. She states that in her world, where she got her medical training, "all children are supposed to grow up" with only a few exceptions to the rule (p.104). My intent is to confirm that Canada has a similar group of people living in poverty and poor health, and that the problems of India exist in our first world country too. I will do this by identifying the poorest people of each country and show how each group suffers from social and economic exclusion. I will also clarify how the health of each group suffers, and demonstrate how these groups are marginalized. Social exclusion can be defined as, 'the process through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society within which they live' (Thorat, 2007, n.p.). Dalits (formerly known as the 'Untouchables'), of India and most of the Natives (ironically, they are also known as North American Indians) of Canada live under adverse conditions and poverty. In India the Dalits are the poorest of the poor. They have been kept from getting an education and from possessing land. They are left to do the heavy manual...
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...Religious Politics in India There are one billion people in India, the second most populous country in the world. This means every sixth person in the world is an Indian. About 450 million Indians live below the poverty line. Suppression of religious minorities and its nuclear blasts have made India visible to the world. One of the messages that India sent to the world was that it needs to be reckoned with. The Hindu nationalist leadership on the whole sent this message. While each country needs dignity before others, many ask why such a poverty-ridden country should invest massive amounts in nuclear devices and why it persecutes a Christian religious minority that has made bold attempts to empower the poor of India. Religious Landscape in India Of the one billion people in India, 85 percent are Hindus, 10 percent Muslims, and 2.5 percent Christians. The rest belong to other religious minorities: Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsees and other groups. Though the decennial census classifies 85 percent as Hindus, there is no positive definition of what Hinduism is. Negatively, whoever does not belong to any of the other religious minorities is taken to be a Hindu. British discourse shaped the terminology used in reference to Hinduism. The British in India began by asking the Indians: "Our religion is called Christianity, what is yours?" It was then decided to call India’s religion Hinduism. The British asked, "We have the Bible as our scripture, what is your scripture?" It was...
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...What is it like to be an untouchable in India (Dalit) and Japan (Burakumin)? To be an untouchable in India or Japan is to be a part of the population that would traditionally be placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy. These untouchables are traditionally associated with occupations that are considered impure, such as waste removal and the handling of human or animal carcasses, and therefore cannot interact with other members of their society, for fear of the pollution they would spread. In both India and Japan, there has been action against untouchability, yet there is still widespread discrimination of these people because of cultural ideals, the impure history attached to them and the traditional occupations that they are associated with. While the abolishment of caste discrimination in India in 1950 and the Buraka Liberation League in Japan has improved the lives of many people within these communities, there is still a great level of discrimination against the Indian untouchables, the Dalits, and Japanese untouchable population, the Burakumin. A Dalit is a member of the lowest rank in the Hindu caste system and Indian society. The term, Dalit, translates to “oppressed” or “broken”, signifying that members of the Dalit caste are immediately labelled as inferior to the rest of Indian society. In India today, Dalits make up 16.2% of its population, that number being approximately 166 million, which conveys the large spread of Dalits across the Indian population. The...
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