Indias Caste System

I. Caste=Rigid social
system.

15% of Indias population=160 million Indians are

A. Origin of the Caste System

1. 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
The Brahmin was his mouth,
and his feet called?
of his arm was made the
warrior,
his thighs became the Vaisya,
of his feet the Sudra was
born.~Vedic Poem.

Brahmins=Mouth
Kshatriyas=Arm
s
Vaisyas=Thighs
Sudras=Feet
The Untouchables
The four original castes subdivided and over 3000 castes

4. Social Hierarchy

Brahmin
Priests

= Non- Aryans
Kshatriyas
Warriors

Vaisyas
Herders, land owners,
merchants, craftspeople
Sudras

Farm workers, servants, laborers

UNTOUCHABLES: Polluted Laborers

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 Untouchables

1. Jobs that involved ending a life.
2. Kill/dispose of dead cattle.
3. Any contact with human
emissions.

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 Movements
D. 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.

E. Gandhi: The caste system

is "inherent in human nature,
and Hinduism has simply
made a science of it."

1. Creed: passive resistance

against injustice.
2. Frequently jailed for his
protests.
3. Assassinated by a Hindu
Fundamentalist.

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.

Brahmins paint their homes Blue.

The caste system identity still plays a major role in

Indian society. Blue is traditionally a color of the
Brahmins.

Elephants need baths too!

Social Distinctions Still Exist

A Brahmin physician wraps a Sudras 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 highcastes.

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,

Indias capital. He takes pride in being a
member of Indias 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 Indias 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

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

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

Questions to Ponder
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