For many hundreds of years, the inhabitants of India have remained faithful to their main religion – Hinduism. It regulates all aspects of life, prescribing what to do in a given situation. And, among other things, it divides society into peculiar estates, which practically do not mix for more than a thousand years. In our series of articles about India we could not miss this strange thing for the modern world. Let’s talk more about the history of this phenomenon.
Traditions
According to the “Vedas” – a collection of ancient sacred texts of Hinduism – the god Brahma created people and immediately divided them into castes, or more precisely – varnas. Varna in Sanskrit means “color”. There were four such colors in total:
- Brahmins (priests), whom Brahma made from his mouth;
- Kshatriyas (warriors) appeared from the hands of God;
- Vaishyas (farmers and artisans) – from his thighs;
- Shudras (servants) – from dirty feet. Those who did not even enter the lowest varna are called the untouchable caste in India . Hindus believe that behavior in the present life influences which caste a person will be in after rebirth. He can get into Brahmins, as well as be born a Shudra. Estates are forbidden to mix. For example, being born a Vaishya, a person can marry and communicate only within his community. Untouchables are forbidden to defile higher castes by touch. According to scientists’ research, this state of affairs has been preserved for at least one and a half thousand years. Geneticists from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in West Bengal, who studied the DNA of Indians, found that most members of varnas have been marrying only within their “colors” for 70 generations. So how did such a system develop?
History
Historians claim that the emergence of such a division appeared at the moment when the Aryans – a group of peoples of the Indo-European family, left the Indus Valley and settled near another river – the Ganges. The local, non-Aryan population inhabiting those places was enslaved and deprived of all rights. Some of them – those who surrendered voluntarily – became Shudras. And the rest – untouchables.
The further, the more the closed nature of varnas worsened and the social division of society intensified. Within the castes, fragmentation into smaller communities – jatis – began.
Jatis are a kind of subgroups. They are associated with hereditary professional activity. Each of the varnas consists of many jatis. In modern India (according to the last census, in which the question about castes was still asked), there are about 3 thousand of them.
## Modernity
In the 1950s, a movement for the equality of castes and untouchables began in India. The Constitution considers discrimination based on caste to be a criminal offense and prohibits inquiring about belonging to a particular varna when hiring a person for work. Outcasts were allowed access to temples. The educated population supports this trend.
In 1997, an important event took place in India: the first president belonging to the untouchable caste, Kocheril Raman Narayanan, was elected.
But traditions are still strong. For example, untouchables make up about 20% of society. And Mahatma Gandhi, who was one of the first to begin fighting for the rights of these outcasts, was against his son marrying a girl from another caste – this contradicted his religious views.
The hierarchy of varnas continues to persist in the religious sphere and private life. Especially in rural areas.
And yet, Indian castes are gradually losing their influence on society. In large cities, they are beginning to lose their significance. Perhaps everything is not happening very quickly – a thousand-year-old tradition is unlikely to disappear in one day. But I want to think that someday it will happen.
Minchenko Dmitry Sergeevich
A rather interesting article, once I was fond of the history of India. A very deep topic about castes is touched upon. In my opinion, the reason is the poverty of the population, which is almost 90 percent. This problem remains unresolved to this day. Castes still exist.
Alice
It was very interesting to read, although it is somewhat strange that such a thing exists in our time. The presence of the "untouchable caste" is especially impressive. Probably, it is very difficult for people to live with the awareness that they belong, say, to the lower caste.
Sharov A.M.
Almost every society has its own peculiarities of social development. But India occupies a special place in this. In my opinion, no country in the world has such a division into castes, and they are tacitly observed to this day. This plays a significant role in showing interest in this country.
Butyvka91
Yes, I wouldn't want to be born in India. Although in European countries, the so-called division into strata can also be traced. There are rich, middle and, of course, poor. And the poor always wanted to become rich, but unlike Indian laws, in European countries there was always a chance to move to one or another stratum. A poor man could become rich, and a rich man could always fall into the pit of poverty, this was not the case in India, and people born in the lower castes could never become even a little richer. I hope that these traditions will eventually become a thing of the past.