...Earlier sources read described the importance of the caste system within Indian culture, and Hinduism. In earlier texts form the, Rig Veda: Sacrifice as Creation, a passage written suggests that not only was the very essence of the world created through the sacrifice of Purusha, but also India’s caste system with which the Brahmans so heavily relied upon to preserve their power and differentiate themselves among the lower classes, “His mouth became the Brahman; his two arms were made into the Rajanya; his two thighs the Vaishya; from his two feet the Shudra was born.” (Pg. 89). This passage, in a way, intertwines religion and politics into one, so either are hardly recognizable from one another. However, the caste system began to lose stride...
Words: 353 - Pages: 2
...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 decided to consider the Vedas, the Upanishads, etc. as the scriptures of Hinduism. Further the British asked, "We have religious heads like the pope and the bishops, but who are Hinduism’s heads?" They declared the Shankaracharyas as their pontiffs. The West initially tried to understand the religions in India in its own terms and categories. But in truth many religions are grouped together...
Words: 2810 - Pages: 12
...Business and religion Business and Religion, just by looking at these two words, it looks like they are just completely different words and nothing is related to each other. But that is wrong. Business and Religion, these two are deeply related and difference in religion can influence the way of operating business and also the way of communication. Religion is one of the important key factors that we all need to know when we try to step into global business and dealing with people from other country or the other culture. There are countless religions around the globe but there are eleven major religions around the world. Those are Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism, Jainism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. 2.1 billion people around the world believe in Christianity, which ranked most number of adherents and Islam is the 2nd most and has 1.5 billion adherents. In some country, religion and the way of people living, including business and communication are tightly related. And most of the countries have the major religion, which most population believes. In this research, you will see example of 4 countries and their religion and showing how their religion is influencing their way of people living and the way of business and communication. First example is United States of America and Christianity. 224,457,000 people are the adherent of Christianity in USA. This is about 85% of USA’s population. There are cases that often company incorporates...
Words: 2009 - Pages: 9
...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 had jobs...
Words: 366 - Pages: 2
...novel based on a true society that lives in the north of India called Brahmins. Brahmins are part of the Hindu religion predominately living in the hills of India. This story tells a tail about the spiritual leader of the agrahara having to decide the rites of a fellow villager. Women play a huge role in this book but that is not customary in reality. Hinduism make up about 82% of the India population which is about 800 million people. It is one of the oldest religions in the world and the authors of the sacred text is still unknown. They follow the words of followers that have filtered the texts down the past 4000 years. One of the most famous followers of modern times would be Mahatma Gandhi. There is a documentary that has been written about Gandhi that is highly criticized by some in India saying that he was not as great of a man that most people make him out to be. One of the caste that is an area of study for this book is about the Brahmin caste. The best way to describe the caste system is that it is very much like the class system here in the United States. The Brahmins are the high class caste in India. In the Hinduism, there are different stages that need to be addressed in life. The first stage would be to become a student, the next stage is to start a family with a wife and children and then once your life’s work is done then detach from everything and live in solitude. This short novel will show that reality still gets in the way of the dedicate ways of brahminhood...
Words: 1062 - Pages: 5
...2016 Caste System: Effects of the British Regime In the realm of Hinduism, the caste system originated as a cycle indicating that one’s current actions would be the deciding point of which caste they would be born into in their next life. This karmic distribution was intended to reiterate the importance of a predestined dharma, or duty, that one would be obligated to fulfill according to the caste they were birthed into. The four castes, Brahmin as the priests, Kshatriya as the warriors, Vaisyas as the merchants and Shudras as the laborers became established to regulate each separate yet equally important role. However, scholars have argued that although the castes were not originated to instigate hierarchy but to perpetuate the sense of duties- it inevitably evolved into more of a class system, reconfiguring the meaning of the idea of caste itself. Scholars have also proposed that the context in which the caste system was established seemed to take a tangent from religious volition and became a means of categorization instead. In the face of this apparent hypocrisy begs the question: Did the colonization of India by Britain in the 19th century deter the caste system because of their personal interpretation of it towards a hierarchy rather than a means of accomplishing one’s spiritual duty? One of the plausible answers to this question is that the reign of the British empire during the 19th century resulted in the alignment of the caste system to the class system to consolidate...
Words: 2089 - Pages: 9
...would think that Christianity and Hinduism would have nothing in common, but in some ways they are. But mostly there are differences between the two. In this comparison that I am making one can find these similarities and differences. First I will start off by helping one understand Hinduism. To define Hinduism is very nearly impossible. Actually it is not so much a religion as a religion-social system. Although Hinduism contains a whole farrago of theologies, philosophies, and sacrificial systems, nevertheless its one dominant note is that of caste. Elaborate tissues of ancient religion-social laws were created and were indestructible. Hindu's tried to build a wall of law around the faith so that none could stray from it. The main part of the wall was naturally the caste distinctions, and these therefore received the most careful attention of the lawmakers. The superiority of the Brahmans and the inferiority of the laborer were declared to be ordered in heaven according to divine plans for the prosperity of the world. The cast system was with a man like his breath, was with him instantly from birth to death. Indeed, unlike his breath, it was suppose to follow him into the grave. These laws that regulate the caste are saved for there is no other unifying element in all Hinduism. Also Christians often form castes or endogamous bodies analogous to castes. This is done to form a more or less separate community. There are two major sections in Hinduism and at least fifty-seven sub sections...
Words: 294 - Pages: 2
...Organizations of Nayar of India The Nayar, are a group of Indian castes, described as not a unitary group but a named category of castes. The Nayar caste of Kerala in southwestern India has for over 100 years served as a source of paradigm and paradox (Moore, 1985). They are a power caste society that lives in extended matrilineal family groups. Hinduism is the main religion of these people and that combined with their social and economic structure make for an interesting combination of kinship, gender relations, beliefs, and values. The Nayar of India is an ethnographic and folk-culture society. The people are a complex, interesting, large and power cast society that live in extended matrilineal family groups. Hinduism is the main religion of these people and that combined with their social and economic structure make for an interesting combination of kinship, gender relations, beliefs, and values. This paper will discuss the fascinating aspects of this culture focusing on their kinship, gender relations, and their beliefs and values. The Nayars ought to be 'typical' of South Asia as any other group. As a populous caste of cultivators, warriors and sometimes rulers, they are far from being peripheral to the larger Hindu community of which they are a part, and can even be accorded the status of a dominant caste (Moore, 1985). History of Nayars Nayar also known as Nair is a name of one of the Hindu castes from the Indian state of Kerala, located on the coast of South-West...
Words: 3122 - Pages: 13
...ENGLISH HHW The Caste System in Brief: The origins of the caste system in India and Nepal are shrouded, but it seems to have originated more than two thousand years ago. Under this system, which is associated with Hinduism, people were categorized by their occupations. Although originally caste depended upon a person's work, it soon became hereditary. Each person was born into a unalterable social status. The four primary castes are: Brahmin, the priests;Kshatriya, warriors and nobility; Vaisya, farmers, traders and artisans; and Shudra, tenant farmers and servants. Some people were born outside of (and below) the caste system. They were called "untouchables." The Caste System in Brief: Practices associated with caste varied through time and across India, but they had some common features. The three key areas of life dominated by caste were marriage, meals and religious worship. Marriage across caste lines was strictly forbidden; most people even married within their own sub-caste or jati. At meal times, anyone could accept food from the hands of a Brahmin, but a Brahmin would be polluted if he or she took certain types of food from a lower caste person. At the other extreme, if an untouchable dared to draw water from a public well, he or she polluted the water and nobody else could use it. In terms of religion, as the priestly class, Brahmins were supposed to conduct religious rituals and services. This included preparation for festivals and holidays, as well as marriages...
Words: 531 - Pages: 3
...Darkness of the Caste System Namra Wasif 212871570 Essay # 2 Essay Topic 3 India: Life, Culture and the Arts, HUMA2440 Fridays, Khyati Nagar 24/03/2014 The caste system which evolved from Hinduism in India has caused the lower ranked people known as the untouchables to face continuous hardships throughout their lives for many centuries. India achieved its independence as a country in 1947; however, its marginalized groups have yet to obtain such freedom because of continuous discrimination. Although, many social reforms had been initiated by various leaders, yet they had very low levels of impact in the Indian society. This can be seen by examining the strong beliefs of the Hindu religion by its people and by the engraved thinking of complete dominance from upper castes over the lower castes. The social reforms taken by the leaders Jotirao Govindrao Phule and Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar did not have excessive influence in the society due to the people’s powerful beliefs in the Hindu Religion. Firstly, the concept of untouchability created an injudicious barrier between the lower and upper castes. Untouchability has evolved from the caste system which is a social hierarchal structure said to be formed from the sacrifice of the first man created named Purusa. It is believed that by the sacrifice of the Purusa`s head, arms, thighs and feet created the four varanas; Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya’s and Sudra’s respectively. The Brahmins represent pureness...
Words: 2983 - Pages: 12
...Beyond Your Reach “Untouchables” by Mulk Raj Anand was published in 1935 during a period of caste systems, political disturbances and potential changes in India’s future. Anand was one of the first Indian writers to connect Punjabi and Hinduism lifestyle into English for the rest of the world to understand. He wrote about the day in the life of a sweeper and toilet keeper which is the lowest of castes. Sweepers are considered untouchable as they work in a polluted environment and are therefore thought to be contagious to all higher castes. He chose to specifically write about Bakha the oldest son to Lakha as well as his two siblings, younger brother Rakha and sister Sohini, and also includes an honorable mention of his deceased mother. The memoir is on the subject of Bakha and all his trials and tribulations that are associated with the lowest caste from betrayal, humiliation, accusation, racism and even a hint of family incest. While the author is convincing that life as an untouchable is dreadful it is a journal from one person’s point of view that can be bias as well show emotions to exaggerate a situation and promote feelings of sympathy from the reader. Anand attempts to help the Westerner understand life in India, but because it is one sided it may not be historically relevant. Some of the more optimistic themes that Anand attempts to portray are the birthrights or caste levels within each society and how they intertwine with each other. For example, Bakha’s secret...
Words: 1313 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 21056 - Pages: 85
...____________________ 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...
Words: 2554 - Pages: 11
...INDIAN CASTE AND VARNA SYSTEM India is a diverse nation and one of the most prominent historical features of this country is its caste system. Under this caste system, people are divided and differentiated on the basis of region, class, place of birth, language, religion, tribe and gender. This caste system is seen as a tool to intricately stratified social hierarchy which plays a key role in distinguishing the culture of our nation from any other in this entire world. It has a history which is multi-dimensional and multifarious and is considered as the sole basis of a methodical ranking system on the basis of your occupation and inequality among the people, which is the root cause of the problem of inequality of the society. According to this caste system, the social standing of a person should be decided on the basis of the caste in which he is born in. To study the history of caste system in India, we must first study the history of Hinduism. The definition of ‘caste’ should be considered before studying about the Caste system of India. Caste can be defined as “a collection of families or groups of families bearing a common name; claiming a common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine; professing to follow the same hereditary calling; and regard by those who are capable to give an opinion as forming a single homogeneous community”. It can also be defined as an hierarchal division of different parts of the society on the basis of their occupation and place of...
Words: 2550 - Pages: 11
...formed before knowing the certain facts. In other words it is the irrational behavior towards a group, race, religion or individual. This topic is also relevant to the topic of cultural differences as it highlights the unfairness of minority groups and convenience to become aware and later prevent. Consequently, this project follows the structure below: 1. Influential factors 2. Current situation 3. Comparison to other (similar) social structures 4. Conclusion Background historical information The Dalit, or the ‘untouchables’, are at the lowest position of the Indian social ladder. The Indian caste system was formed 3000 years ago and is divided into four main groups. The Brahims, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and finally the ‘outcasts’, the Dalits, excluded from the society. This hierarchical status responds to Hindu beliefs. Depending on the caste division there is a different social status that will affect all aspects of ones life personal and professional, for example general respect, employment, medical care, restrictions to where one can live, etc. The definition of the word ‘Dalit’, in Hindi language, means ‘broken’ or ‘crushed’. It is a term deliberately chosen by the same population as in recent years there is a...
Words: 651 - Pages: 3
