Caste system in India

The Ancient Indian Caste System Cultural, social, religious, wealth, and political divisions have been and still are a part of all societies. The difference between the human tendency to categorize into classes and the caste system in ancient India was that the categorization was the sole basis of people’s futures. The caste system was determined based on birth and people rarely had relations with others outside their own caste. Also, each caste, or Varna, had a certain duty to contribute to society. The four castes were called Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. There are several theories on how the caste system in India began. Some historians believe the root cause was either religion−based or biological. According to Aharon Daniel,…

The Hindu Caste System, originally brought by the Aryans, defined the Ancient Indian people’s lives. This system defined the people’s lives because their caste was their job forever. They were born into their role and could not interact with anyone outside of their caste. This system practically controlled the Indians’ lives. It was separated into four classes, with a group at the bottom not considered in the system. The four castes in Ancient India considered in the system were Brahmins,…

Since last two-decade higher education in India has been witnessing an increase in enrollment number across social groups such as first generation, female, rural and the lower caste students. This has changed student demographics in academic disciplines. Due to diverse students’ group on college campuses, the higher education institutions are facing diversity, social justice and discrimination issues. Caste-based discrimination is one of the issues which is pervasive across the institutions in…

What is caste ? When Portuguese travelers visited India, they first encountered caste system or race based social discrimination in 16th century. They used a Portuguese term that is “casta” which means “race”. Today, the term caste is used to describe the division of societies on the basis of social hierarchy, not only in Asia but all over the world. It is believed that only four castes exist which are divided on the basis of Brahma’s divine genius. The four existing…

The different major castes are frequently referred to in the ancient Indian texts. The four classes were the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and the Shudras. Mesopotamian civilization was much more stratified than the Egyptian, but there was no religious element as in the caste system of India, and kings were not considered Gods. Social status was apparently determined by wealth. At the top of the social scale were kings and noblemen. At the bottom were slaves, normally prisoners of war,…

‘Animals, drums, illiterates, low castes, and women are worthy of being beaten’ (Manusmriti, a book of Hindu religious scripture). No other religion in the world had explicitly divided people on the basis of caste, creed, sex, origin or purity and pollution in the world except Hinduism which is controlled and manipulated by the caste Hindus. In Hinduism, as it is mentioned in Rig Veda, the people are divided into four varnas which was later used by the caste Hindus to divide people into…

a higher caste. “The local police knew of the whereabouts of the Dalit family, but they did nothing because the rapists” came from a higher caste family (Mayell n.pag.). Even with decades of struggle to end discrimination, India today continue to face these problems. Historically within India, the main ruling force for distinguishing people’s class, religion, region, and language has been the Indian Caste System. Although all societies have many forms of differentiating these in their culture,…

India is still one of the countries that determine a person’s position in life based on the status of their parents. This position is inherited at birth and can’t be changed. There are five main categories that people are born into. Most people today have differing opinions on the ethnicity of India’s caste system and some wonder how such a thing could still exist. There are reasons why India’s caste system has been around for more than three thousand years. The caste system in modern day…

• The caste was a subdivision of the communities in the Indian social order which was broadly divided into four Varnas. • Varna is a much older system of classification than Jati. • Caste helped in identification within one’s own Varna. • Caste system of classification got degraded into the modern caste system. VARNA Varna agency colour, and was a framework for classifying humans aboriginal acclimated in Vedic Indian society. It is referred to frequently in the age-old Indian texts. The four…

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO CASTE SYSTEM: The Caste system in India, which is believed to be more than two thousand years old, was supposedly formed on the basis of the occupation that one was involved in. The caste system originally meant to divide the people on the basis of their occupation like teaching and preaching (Brahmins), kingship and war (Kshatriya), business (vaishyas) and Servants doing menial jobs (Shudras) etc. but soon it became the means to divide the society into various sections…