All over the world are pursuing the era of equality of all people, but there are still some places that believe in the theory of origin and feel that they are born into high and low, and India is such a magical country.
Here people of different castes live almost completely different lives, they rarely intermarry, and even the occupations they engage in, where they eat, the friends they interact with, and their living habits are very different and distinct.
Although laws were enacted to abolish the caste system at the beginning of the founding of India in 1947, the influence of caste system is still ubiquitous in Indian society today, and the so-called high castes can even enjoy incredible privileges.
01 Origins of the Caste System in India
More than a thousand years ago, a group of Aryans crossed mountains and crossed several passes in the Hindu Kush Mountains into mainland India.
This group of people has a cultural attribute that praises war and believes in the law of the jungle, and they already had the experience of fighting everywhere before they arrived in India.
As a result, the group not only mastered weapons with metal tips, but also skillfully used horses on the battlefield. When they entered the Indian continent with sharp weapons and driving a car similar to the Greek chariot of Homer's time.
The chariot pulled by the horse, equipped with a driver and an archer or shooter, was fast on the battlefield and dealt a powerful blow, launching a dimensionality reduction strike against the primitive Indian natives.
After defeating the indigenous peoples of the Indian continent, they created the Vedic culture and caste system on the Indian continent in order to maintain and consolidate their ruling power.
According to the Vedas and heroic epics, the Aryans became heroes of divine courage, while the conquerors were described as "unbelieving" untouchables.
Anyway, "history is written by the victors", bloodthirsty cruelty can become noble and pure, just like today's North America and Oceania, how many indigenous peoples can still see the shadow and local culture?
How many people remember that their ancestors were originally nothing more than foreign invaders exiled from the mainland?
When the Aryans gradually ruled the Indian region, the caste system was also established, and the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who originated from the conquerors, were the top figures of Indian society, and the low status was the Vedas and Sudras.
In addition, the large group of people outside the caste is called the Dalits, who are the lowest pariahs in India.
In order to make people believe and be convinced of their fate, it is recorded in the text "Riju Vedas" that Brahma, the god of creation, created the original person Prusha, and then used his body to create different levels of people again.
From his mouth emerged the first rank of "Brahmins" who were responsible for religious culture and sacrifice, enjoying the highest status and the right to interpret the scriptures;
The arms of Prusha gave rise to the second rank of "Brahmins", so they were responsible for military, war, the management of the country, and the loyal protection of the "Brahmins";
The thighs of the original people gave rise to the third level of "barking houses", who were generally ordinary commoners, engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, industry, commerce and other occupations, and undertook various taxes;
The final fourth class of "Sudras" derives from the bipedality of Prusha, who are at the bottom of society, engaged in all kinds of heavy physical labor and do not enjoy any political rights.
The native natives who had been conquered by the Aryans were considered "untouchables", called "Dalits", and were even excluded from the caste system, and at first even the most basic right to subsistence was not guaranteed.
02 How big the differences between different castes are
The differences in life in India between people of different castes are not exaggerated.
The privileges of "Brahmins" in Indian society are everywhere, even the protection of having children, and this includes three core privileges:
One is eternal tax exemption, which means that they can not pay taxes;
The second is to "interpret the ancient scriptures", have the right to interpret the classics, can play the role of "God's spokesman", and naturally control the entire Indian thought from the spiritual source in the cloak of divine will;
The third is the exemption from the death penalty, because of the sanctity of their birth, no matter what crime they commit, even if it is a murderer, they cannot be sentenced to death.
Of course, not all Brahmins have so many privileges, and there are also very strict hierarchies within Brahmans. And how humble are the low-caste people?
In addition to the difficulty of getting equal opportunities to study and work, they do the hardest and most tiring work, live in the poorest and dirtiest places, and pay high taxes.
Eating can not be at the same table as others, small shops selling water to low-caste people will prepare disposable pottery cups, drink it and fall, intermarriage do not have to think, even death is not worthy of cremation on the high caste territory.
The Times of India reported on the news that in July 2020, a woman who died of illness in the northern community of Bontakul was about to be cremated when a group of high-caste men came out to obstruct it.
The reason turned out to be that this cremation pile was near the Taj Mahal, a status symbol, and the deceased were Dalits, who had no land rights and were not entitled to use the land.
When these so-called "noble" people removed the body from the crematorium, the husband of the deceased woman had no choice but to compromise and transport the body to another crematorium 4 kilometers away for cremation.
Although with the change of the times, many sub-castes have now emerged within each caste.
The Indian continent has also ushered in waves of invaders, and they have also brought about some changes, for example, The Muslims in India do not belong to any caste in the caste system.
Indian Muslims
Many of the new occupations in modern society simply cannot be divided into any of the caste systems, so it is difficult for an outsider to truly understand the caste system on the surface in India today.
But caste is still tacitly accepted by many as an unspoken rule of Indian society, and even affects Indians who emigrate overseas.
For example, a low-caste person sitting on a plane will not dare to accept the service of the other party if he encounters a high-caste flight attendant.
Even when immigrants are overseas, the caste system and the discrimination it brings are affecting Indians in foreign countries, and even the New York Times has published an article titled "Caste Ghosts in Silicon Valley."
In Silicon Valley, where freedom, democracy and high technology stand, and as India's workforce has grown, such a caste culture still permeates the society there.
Last year, an Indian engineer at Cisco complained that two of his Indian-American bosses had discriminated against him, and the company's HR actually said that "caste discrimination is not illegal."
He allowed his superiors to strip him of 2 technical leadership positions and continued to suppress him for the next 2 years.
As many as 200 Indian "pariahs" at major high-tech Silicon Valley companies say they are suffering the same dilemma.
03 The caste system is facing a huge shock
Of course, in modern society, "Brahmins" cannot do whatever they want as they once did.
As we mentioned earlier, the abolition of the caste system was enshrined in the Constitution in 1947 when India was founded, and in Article 15 the Constitution stipulates: "Discrimination in religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth is prohibited, and all citizens are not restricted by their caste in terms of access to and use of shops, restaurants and public wells." ”
Because the existence of the caste system has caused great harm to India and the entire Indian society.
In order to eliminate its negative impact, the Indian government has even imposed in the form of laws that some care must be given to low-caste people in parliamentary seats, civil servants and university admissions, and this care is still being strengthened.
Today, India's prime minister, Modi's father, who runs a small shop, is not a person with any background. Moreover, Indian President Covent is also from a peasant family. At present, the two people in power in India are not of so-called noble origin.
It can be seen that this effort of the Indian government has still brought some changes to society.
But for thousands of years, deep-rooted ideas have not been so easy to change completely, and how easy is it to pry the interests of a class and cut off social ills?
However, there have also been efforts to eliminate this injustice in India.
In the 1930s, Mahatma Gandhi proposed that the status of Dalits should be raised, renaming them "Harijin", which means "God's beloved one".
Morty
The well-known actor Aamir Khan also abhorred this phenomenon, having bravely openly opposed the caste system through movies and appeals to the people in real society, and also produced a conscience program for women to speak and speak out against unfair systems, "Truth Interview".
He has brought all the problems of India to the big screen, so that people can face these bloody realities, and hope that through his own efforts, he can awaken more people to work with him to eliminate these drawbacks.
He once told the media: "I was born in this country is my helplessness, if my children and grandchildren are born after our country is still like this, it is our incompetence."
His efforts have also led more people to join the wave against the caste system and various forms of discrimination in Indian society.
Amirhan's truth-talk show
In 2019, the high-scoring film "Article 15" by Indian director Ambhaya Sinha exposed the crimes of an inferior village in India and the darkness, cold-bloodedness and shamelessness brought about by the caste system that penetrates into the bone marrow through the investigation of the disappearance and murder of three underage girls by a high-caste, newly hired and hot-blooded detective Ayan.
In the film, he does not choose to conform to the traditional caste system, but listens to the instinctive call of the heart and fights for justice, and at the end of the film, Ayan sits with the police and the low-caste poor, eating the same food and drinking the same water.
While we know that this is just the director's good intentions, we are also willing to believe that this day will come in India.
bibliography:
The Influence of caste in Contemporary India
Castes and Hindu Societies
Prospect network: "India exports caste system to Silicon Valley in the United States, tech giants say caste discrimination is not illegal"