Caste System in India By Allie Garrett What

Caste System in India By Allie Garrett

What is the Caste System • A caste system is a process of placing people in occupational groups. • It is rooted in religion and based on a division of labor, the caste system, among other things, controls the type of occupations a person can pursue and the social interactions that she/he may have.

Levels of the Caste System • Brahman (now more commonly spelled Brahmin): Consist of those engaged in scriptural education and teaching, essential for the continuation of knowledge. • Kshatriya: Take on all forms of public service, including administration, maintenance of law and order, and defense. • Vaishya: Engage in commercial activity as businessmen. • Shudra: Work as semi-skilled and unskilled laborers • Harijan: Untouchables, do the jobs no one else wants to, or have no job at all.

Details on Harijan • Other wise know as Untouchables or children of god. • Live in poverty and are discriminated against in their own country. • The kill or dispose of dead cattle. • Must clean up others urine and feces. • Overall they do the jobs no one else wants. • Not legally permitted to be a group in the caste system, unfair, inhumane…

Caste System

Graph: Number of members in Caste communities against Caste System day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 day 6

History • The earliest expressions of caste can be found in one of India’s vast bodies of religious scripture known as the Vedas. • The Vedas are though to have been complied between 1500 and 1000 BCE, although the time of their construction is under debate. • They were transmitted orally for many generations before being written down. Therefore, centuries may have passed before they were ever committed to writing.

Modern day Caste System • The caste system has been present in the modernday country of India since approximately 1500 B. C. and there for has deeply rooted itself in Indian culture as a type of tradition. • In modern-day India, the Brahmans comprise about 9% of the total population. • 160 million people in India are considered ‘untouchables’ today. • Approximately 16% of the total population of indians are members of the caste system.

Tragic Truth • The puzzling thing about the caste system is that it has endured without any legal force backing it. • Unlike slavery, under which whites actively relied on authorities to maintain their slave holdings, the caste system is an informal, constant association. • The caste system has resisted half-a-century worth of government efforts to get rid of it.

Sources • http: //www. dummies. com/howto/content/indias-caste-system. html • http: //www. mtholyoke. edu/~epandit/page 2. html • http: //reason. com/archives/2012/01/24/thetragic-truth-about-indias-caste-syst • http: //thesaurus. com/browse/institution? s=t • http: //voices. yahoo. com/the-indian-caste-system -its-discriminatory-practices-474349. html