India Caste Blog

India Caste Blog

I have always been intrigued about the India Caste system.  It’s not uncommon that cultures divide people into levels from rich to poor, superior to the inferior, based on knowledge, wealth, what contributions they make to society, etc. What I found more interesting is that the India Caste system had very defined levels (four ranked classes, or varnas) ~

1.     Brahmins (priests)

2.     Kshatriya (warriors and rulers charged with protecting and governing society)

3.     Vaisya (commoners that cultivated the land), and

4.     Sudras, the native people who were regarded as servants.

The top three were considered pure Aryans and “twice born” – their status was not only from birth but also from formal initiation into their respective varnas and status as people of Aryan descent. These individuals were considered born into their class; birth determined social status for most people. There was little social mobility available for most, and more intriguing is that they remained in that class for life.  You could not elevate your status within your lifetime regardless of schooling, or achievements.

And then there were the ‘Untouchables” . . . It should be called the unmentionable fifth class because I have not read anywhere that it is considered a class. These individuals deal with burying the dead, have contact with and deal with killing animals/meat production, etc. In this period of time they would wear either bells or wood clappers on themselves to signal to upper castes that an untouchable was near. There is an entire cleansing process that takes place if one accidentally comes in physical contact with an untouchable.

My personal interpretation of this caste system is that it is unfair in many ways. First, it is a lifetime sentence. Second, there are many restrictions (e.g., marriage of an upper caste individual with one from a lower caste ~ although this does occur, it is with unfavorable results for the upper class individual – family abandonment, an outcast within their born caste level).