Since childhood, we have been taught that there is nothing worse than caste society. But oddly enough, castes have survived to this day, as evidenced, for example, by India. What do we actually know about how the caste system functions?
Every society consists of certain basic units that form it. So, in relation to Antiquity, such a unit can be considered a polis, modern to the West - capital (or a social individual owning it), for Islamic civilization - a tribe, Japanese - a clan, etc. For India, from ancient times to the present day, caste has been and remains such a basic element.
The caste system for India is not at all a dense archaic or “relic of the Middle Ages” as we have been taught for a long time. The Indian caste system is part of the complex organization of society, a historically established diverse and multifaceted phenomenon.
One can try to describe castes through a number of characteristics. However, there will still be exceptions. Indian caste differentiation - system social stratification isolated social groups connected by a single common origin And legal status its members. They are built according to the principles:
1) common religion;
2) general professional specialization (usually hereditary);
3) marriages only between “our own”;
4) nutritional characteristics.
In India there are not 4 at all (as many of us still think), but about 3 thousand castes and they can be called in different parts countries in different ways, and people of the same profession may belong to different castes in different states. What are sometimes mistakenly considered Indian “castes” are not castes at all, but varnas (“chaturvarnya” in Sanskrit) - social strata of the ancient social system.
Varna brahmins (brahmins) are priests, doctors, teachers. Kshatriyas (rajanyas) - warriors and civil leaders. Vaishyas are farmers and traders. Shudras are servants and landless peasant laborers.
Each varna had its own color: Brahmins - white, Kshatriyas - red, Vaishayas - yellow, Shudras - black (once every Hindu wore a special cord in the color of his varna).
Varnas, in turn, are theoretically divided into castes. But in a very complex and intricate way. An obvious direct connection is not always visible to a person with a European mentality. The word “caste” itself comes from the Portuguese casta: birthright, clan, class. In Hindi, this term is identical to “jati”.
The infamous "untouchables" are not one particular caste. IN Ancient India everyone who was not included in the four varnas was automatically classified as “marginal”, they were avoided in every possible way, they were not allowed to settle in villages and cities, etc. As a result of this position, the “untouchables” had to take on the most “non-prestigious”, dirty and low-paid work and they formed their own separate social and professional groups - essentially, their own castes.
There are several such castes of “untouchables” and, as a rule, they are associated either with dirty work, or with the killing of living beings or death (so all butchers, hunters, fishermen, tanners, garbage men, sewer men, laundresses, cemetery and morgue workers, etc. must be “untouchable”).
At the same time, it would be wrong to believe that every “untouchable” is necessarily someone like a homeless person or a “lowlife.” In India, even before independence and the adoption of a number of legislative measures to protect lower castes from discrimination, there were “untouchables” who achieved a very high social status and earned universal respect. Like, for example, the outstanding Indian politician, public figure, human rights activist and author of the Indian Constitution - Dr. Bhimaro Ramji Ambedkar, who received a law degree in England.
One of the many monuments to Bhimaro Ambedkar in India
The “untouchables” have several names: mleccha - “stranger”, “foreigner” (that is, formally all non-Hindus, including foreign tourists), harijan - “child of God” (a term specially introduced by Mahatma Gandhi), pariahs - “outcasts”, “exiled”. And the most frequently used modern name“untouchables” - Dalits.
Legally, castes in India were recorded in the Laws of Manu, compiled in the period from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. The varna system traditionally developed in a much more ancient period(there is no exact dating).
As mentioned above, castes in modern India still cannot be considered simply an anachronism. On the contrary, all of them are now carefully counted and listed in a special annex to the current Indian Constitution (Table of Castes).
In addition, after each population census, changes are made to this table (usually additions). The point is not that some new castes appear, but that they are recorded in accordance with the data provided about themselves by census participants. Only discrimination on the basis of caste is prohibited. What is written in Article No. 15 of the Indian Constitution.
Indian society is very diverse and heterogeneous in its structure; In addition to division into castes, there are several other differentiations in it. There are both caste and non-caste Indians. For example, adivasis (descendants of the main indigenous black population of India before its conquest by the Aryans), with rare exceptions, do not have their own castes. In addition, for some misdemeanors and crimes a person can be expelled from his caste. And there are quite a lot of non-caste Indians, as evidenced by the census results.
Castes exist not only in India. A similar public institution takes place in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bali and Tibet. By the way, Tibetan castes do not correlate with Indian castes at all - the structures of these societies were formed completely separately from each other. It is curious that in Northern India (the states of Himachal, Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir) the caste system is not of Indian origin, but of Tibetan origin.
Historically, when the overwhelming majority of the Indian population professed Hinduism - all Hindus belonged to some caste, the only exceptions were pariahs expelled from castes and the indigenous non-Aryan peoples of India. Then other religions (Buddhism, Jainism) began to spread in India. As the country was subjected to invasions by various conquerors, representatives of other religions and peoples began to adopt from the Hindus their system of varnas and professional caste-jatis. Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians in India also have their own castes, but they are somehow different from the Hindu castes.
What about Indian Muslims? After all, the Koran initially proclaimed the equality of all Muslims. A natural question. Despite the fact that British India was divided into two parts in 1947: “Islamic” (Pakistan) and “Hindu” (India proper), today Muslims (approximately 14% of all Indian citizens) in absolute terms live in India more than in Pakistan, where Islam is the state religion.
However, the caste system is inherent in India and Muslim society. However, caste differences among Indian Muslims are not as strong as among Hindus. They have virtually no “untouchables.” Between Muslim castes there are no such impenetrable barriers as among Hindus - transition from one caste to another or marriages between their representatives is allowed.
The caste system was established among Indian Muslims relatively late - during the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th-16th centuries. The Muslim caste is usually referred to as biradari ("brotherhood") or biyahdari. Their occurrence is often attributed by Muslim theologians to the influence of Hindus with their caste system (supporters of “pure Islam” see this, of course, as the insidious machinations of pagans).
In India, as in many Islamic countries, among Muslims there are also nobility and common people. The former are called sharifs or ashraf (“noble”), the latter are called ajlaf (“low”). Currently, about 10% of Muslims living in the territory of the Republic of India belong to the Ashraf. They usually trace their ancestry to those external conquerors (Arabs, Turks, Pashtuns, Persians, etc.) who invaded Hindustan and settled for many centuries.
For the most part, Indian Muslims are descendants of the same Hindus who, for one reason or another, converted to a new faith. Forced conversion to Islam in medieval India was the exception rather than the rule. Typically, the local population was subjected to a slow Islamization, during which elements of foreign faith were unobtrusively incorporated into the local cosmology and ritual practice, gradually displacing and replacing Hinduism. It was an implicit and sluggish social process. During it, people maintained and protected the closure of their circles. This explains the persistence of caste psychology and customs among large sections of Indian Muslim society. Thus, even after the final conversion to Islam, marriages continued to be concluded only with representatives of their own castes.
Even more curiously, even many Europeans were included in the Indian caste system. Thus, those Christian missionary preachers who preached to high-born Brahmins eventually found themselves in the “Christian Brahmin” caste, and those who, for example, carried the Word of God to the “untouchable” fishermen, became Christian “untouchables”.
Often it is impossible to accurately determine which caste an Indian belongs to only by his appearance, behavior and occupation. It happens that a kshatriya works as a waiter, and a brahmin trades and removes garbage from a shop - and they don’t particularly have a complex about these reasons, but a sudra behaves like a born aristocrat. And even if an Indian says exactly what caste he is from (although such a question is considered tactless), this will give a foreigner little to understand how society is structured in such an outlandish and peculiar country as India.
The Republic of India declares itself a “democratic” state and, in addition to prohibiting caste discrimination, has introduced certain benefits for representatives of lower castes. For example, they have adopted special quotas for their admission to higher education. educational institutions, as well as positions in state and municipal bodies.
The problem of discrimination against people from lower castes and Dalits, however, is quite serious. The caste structure is still fundamental to the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians. Outside of large cities in India, caste psychology and all the conventions and taboos arising from it are firmly preserved.
upd: For some reason unknown to me, some readers started swearing and mutual insults in the comments to this post. I don't like it. Therefore, I decided to block comments on this post.
CASTES, a term applied primarily to the major division of Hindu society in the Indian subcontinent. It is also used to designate any social group that adheres to strict norms of group behavior and does not allow outsiders into its ranks. The main characteristics of the Indian caste: endogamy (marriage exclusively between members of the caste); hereditary membership (accompanied by the practical impossibility of moving to another caste); prohibition on sharing meals with representatives of other castes, as well as having physical contact with them; recognition of the firmly established place of each caste in the hierarchical structure of society as a whole; restrictions on choosing a profession; autonomy of castes in regulating intra-caste social relations.
STORY
Origin of Varnas . Of the most early works It is known from Sanskrit literature that the peoples who spoke Aryan dialects during the period of the initial settlement of India (from approximately 1500 to 1200 BC) were already divided into four main classes, later called “varnas” (Sanskrit “color”): Brahmins (priests ), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders, herders and farmers) and Shudras (servants and laborers).
Hindus believe in reincarnation and believe that whoever follows the rules of his caste future life rises by birth to a higher caste, the one who violates these rules will lose social status. See also METEMPSYCHOSIS.
Stability of castes . Throughout Indian history the caste structure showed remarkable stability before changes. Even the rise of Buddhism and its acceptance as state religion Emperor Ashoka (269-232 BC) did not affect the system of hereditary groups. Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism as a doctrine does not support caste division, but at the same time it does not insist on the complete abolition of caste differences.
During the rise of Hinduism, which followed the decline of Buddhism, from a simple, uncomplicated system of four varnas, a complex multi-layered system grew, which built a strict order of alternation and correlation of different social groups. Each varna defined in the course of this process the framework for many independent endogamous castes (jatis). Neither the Muslim invasion, which ended with the formation of the Mughal Empire, nor the establishment of British rule shook the fundamental foundations of the caste organization of society. See also BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM; HINDUISM.
Castes in modern India . The Indian castes are literally countless. Since each named caste is divided into many sub-castes, it is impossible to even approximately calculate the number of social units possessing the minimum necessary characteristics of jati. The official tendency to downplay the importance of the caste system has led to the disappearance of the corresponding column in the once-a-decade population censuses. IN last time information about the number of castes was published in 1931 (3000 castes). But this figure does not necessarily include all local podcasts that operate as independent social groups.
It is widely believed that in the modern Indian state castes have lost their previous value. However, developments have shown that this is far from the case. The position taken by the INC and the Indian government after Gandhi's death is controversial. Moreover, universal suffrage and the need for political leaders to support the electorate gave new importance to esprit de corps and internal caste cohesion. As a consequence, caste interests became an important factor during election campaigns.
NATURE OF CASTE
Brahmins. In a typical rural areas upper layer The caste hierarchy is formed by members of one or more Brahmin castes, constituting from 5 to 10% of the population. Among these Brahmins there are a number of landowners, a few village clerks and accountants or accountants, and a small group of clergy who perform ritual functions in local sanctuaries and temples. Members of each Brahmin caste marry only within their own circle, although it is possible to marry a bride from a family belonging to a similar subcaste from a neighboring area. Brahmins are not supposed to follow the plow or perform certain types works related to manual labor; women from their midst can serve in the house, and landowners can cultivate plots, but not plow. Brahmins are also allowed to work as cooks or domestic servants.
A Brahman has no right to eat food prepared outside his caste, but members of all other castes can eat from the hands of Brahmans. When choosing food, a Brahmin observes many prohibitions. Members of the Vaishnava caste (who worship the god Vishnu) have adhered to vegetarianism since the 4th century, when it became widespread; some other castes of Brahmins who worship Shiva (Shaiva Brahmins) do not, in principle, renounce meat dishes, but abstain from the meat of animals included in the diet of the lower castes.
Brahmins serve as spiritual guides in the families of most high- or middle-status castes, except those considered "impure". Brahmin priests, as well as members of a number of religious orders, are often recognized by their “caste marks” - patterns painted on the forehead with white, yellow or red paint. But such marks indicate only belonging to the main sect and characterize this person as a worshiper of, for example, Vishnu or Shiva, and not as a subject of a particular caste or sub-caste.
Brahmins, more than others, adhere to the occupations and professions that were provided for in their varna. Over the course of many centuries, scribes, clerks, clergymen, scientists, teachers and officials emerged from their midst. Back in the first half of the 20th century. in some areas, brahmins occupied up to 75% of all more or less important government positions.
In communicating with the rest of the population, Brahmins do not allow reciprocity; Thus, they accept money or gifts from members of other castes, but they themselves never make gifts of a ritual or ceremonial nature. There is no complete equality among the Brahman castes, but even the lowest of them stands above the rest of the highest castes.
Kshatriyas. After the Brahmins, the most prominent hierarchical place is occupied by the Kshatriya castes. In rural areas they include, for example, landowners, possibly associated with former ruling houses (for example, the Rajput princes in North India). Traditional occupations in such castes are working as managers on estates and serving in various administrative positions and in the army, but now these castes no longer enjoy the same power and authority. In ritual terms, the Kshatriyas are immediately behind the Brahmins and also observe strict caste endogamy, although they allow marriage with a girl from a lower subcaste (a union called hypergamy), but in no case can a woman marry a man from a subcaste lower than her own. Most kshatriyas eat meat; they have the right to accept food from Brahmins, but not from representatives of any other castes.
Vaishya. The third category of "twice-born" castes includes merchants, shopkeepers and moneylenders. These castes recognize the superiority of the Brahmins, but do not necessarily show the same attitude towards the Kshatriya castes; as a rule, vaishyas are more strict about food regulations and are even more careful to avoid ritual pollution. The traditional occupation of Vaishyas is trade and banking, they tend to stay away from physical labor, but are sometimes included in the management of the farms of landowners and village entrepreneurs, without directly participating in the cultivation of the land.
"Pure" Shudras. Members of the above "twice-born" castes constitute only a minority of the inhabitants of any rural area, while the majority of the agrarian population consists of one or more castes, called "pure" Shudra castes. Although such castes are included in the fourth varna, this does not mean that they occupy the lowest level in the social hierarchy: there are many areas where the peasant caste, due to its numbers and ownership of a significant part of the local land, plays a vital role in solving social and political issues . In ancient times, the Shudra peasant castes recognized the political dominance of the Kshatriyas who ruled the area, but today these relations are a thing of the past, and the superiority of the Kshatriya landowners is recognized only in ritual terms, and even then not always. Peasants employ Brahmins as family priests and market their produce through members of merchant castes. Individuals from “pure” sudras can act as tenants of plots from brahmanas, landowners, and merchants.
All peasant castes are endogamous, and even with approximately equal status, as is observed in many areas, out-of-caste marriages are not allowed. The rules regarding food intake among the farming castes are less strict than among the “twice-born”; they eat meat. Their regulations also leave much more space for social acts, allowing, for example, the marriage of widows and divorced women, which is strictly prohibited among the “twice-born”.
Lower Shudras. Below those sudras who are busy agriculture, there are numerous castes whose professions are of a highly specialized nature, but are generally considered less respectable. These are the castes of potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, joiners, weavers, oil makers, distillers, masons, barbers, musicians, tanners, butchers, scavengers and many others. Members of these castes are supposed to practice their hereditary profession or craft; however, if a Shudra is able to acquire land, any of them can engage in agriculture. Members of many craft and other professional castes have traditionally had traditional relationships with members of higher castes, which consist of the provision of services for which no salary is paid, but an annual remuneration in kind. This payment is made by each household in the village whose requests are satisfied by a given member of the professional caste. For example, a blacksmith has his own circle of clients, for whom he makes and repairs equipment and other metal products all year round, for which he, in turn, is given a certain amount of grain.
The Untouchables. Those whose professions require physical touching of clients (such as barbers or people who specialize in washing clothes) serve members of castes higher than their own, but potters or blacksmiths work for the entire village, regardless of the caste of the client. Activities such as tanning leather or slaughtering animals are considered clearly polluting, and although this work is very important to the community, those who engage in it are considered untouchables. In many respects they are outside the boundaries of Hindu society, they were called "outcaste", "low", "scheduled" castes, and Gandhi proposed the euphemism "harijans" ("children of God"), which became widely used. Members of these castes are prohibited from visiting the houses of the “pure” castes and drawing water from their wells. Most Hindu temples until recently were closed to untouchables; there was even a ban on approaching people from higher castes closer than a set number of steps. The nature of caste barriers is such that Harijans are believed to continue to pollute members of the “pure” castes, even if they have long abandoned their caste occupation and are engaged in ritually neutral activities, such as agriculture. Although in other social settings and situations, for example, while in an industrial city or on a train, an untouchable may have physical contact with members of higher castes and not pollute them, in his own way native village untouchability is inseparable from him, no matter what he does.
Economic interdependence . The various professional castes are economically interdependent, and their functions are complementary rather than competitive. Each caste has the right to perform certain jobs that other castes are prohibited from doing. Its members in any given locality usually form a closely knit group of relatives who do not compete to provide services to other castes, but by mutual agreement share the clientele among themselves. For this reason, they are in an advantageous position in relation to members of the castes standing at the upper levels of the caste hierarchy, who are forbidden to change at their discretion the blacksmith, barber or person who washes their clothes.
Lack of competition does not apply to those cultivating the land. Although there are traditional peasant castes from which people will never become potters or weavers, tillage is not an exclusively hereditary occupation and a member of any caste can work the land. Wherever a group of artisans becomes too numerous and lacks a clientele, or where the advent of machine-made goods creates unemployment, those who can no longer live on the traditional trade tend to turn to peasant labor and become agricultural laborers or tenant farmers.
The special patron-client relationship between the upper, land-owning castes and the professional castes of artisans and laborers is called the jajmani system. To jajman, which means patron-landlord in Hindi, people from other castes provide services in exchange for a certain amount of grain received annually.
Hierarchy. The rigid hierarchy and economic interdependence of castes have the closest connection with the fact that castes and sub-castes are endogamous and represent hereditary groups. However, in practice, a person from a high caste may be accepted into a lower caste; Thus, in the case of an unequal marriage between members of two different castes deviating from the rule, the person who is higher in status has no choice but to ask for his (or her) life partner. Such mobility is always unilinear and directed from top to bottom.
The idea of maintaining social distance between castes is based on the concepts of pollution and ritual purity. Many activities, from performing religious rites and offering prayers to cooking, are permitted only in a state of ritual purity. Thus, a person belonging to a high caste may be defiled not only by an intentional act, such as sexual intercourse with an untouchable, but also unintentionally, such as by eating food prepared by a person of lower ritual status, or even by sharing a meal with a person of another high caste, having, however, lost their ritual purity. Defilement is contagious, and the family or caste group must remain constantly vigilant against any contact with a potential carrier of defilement. Caste members in highest degree are intolerant of deviant behavior on the part of fellow caste members and excommunicate anyone who does not comply with accepted norms. Most castes have their own regional councils, which deal with issues affecting the welfare and especially the prestige of the caste. These councils also function as judicial bodies and have the power to investigate and punish misconduct, expelling the offender from the caste if necessary. Return to it is possible in all cases, except for particularly egregious ones, provided that the violator pays a fine and undergoes a purification ceremony. Being extremely strict regarding the observance of rules and prohibitions within their own caste, Hindus are usually tolerant of the norms of behavior accepted in other castes.
Indian caste system outside India . This system is widespread throughout the country, with the exception of a few marginal tribal areas such as Nagaland. It also prevails in much of Nepal, where immigrants from India brought with them a social order essentially replicating that of medieval India. The indigenous population of the main Nepalese cities where the Newars live is largely organized on a caste basis, but the idea of castes has not spread to the peoples of the mountainous regions and adherents of Tibetan Buddhism.
In Bangladesh, the caste system continues to operate among the remaining Hindus there, and even in the country's Muslim community there is a similar stratification.
In Sri Lanka, Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus are also divided into castes. Although there are no Brahmins or other “twice-born” on the island, here, as in India, the division of labor along caste lines and mutual obligations of a ritual and economic nature are preserved.
Outside India, the ideas and practices inherent in the caste system prevail, often in a modified and weakened form, wherever significant numbers of Indians have settled, such as Malaysia, East Africa and Fiji.
Indian society is divided into classes called castes. This division occurred many thousands of years ago and continues to this day. Hindus believe that by following the rules established in your caste, in your next life you can be born as a representative of a slightly higher and more revered caste, occupy a much higher position. better position in society.
History of the origin of the caste system
The Indian Vedas tell us that even the ancient Aryan peoples living on the territory of modern India approximately one and a half thousand years BC already had a society divided into classes.
Much later, these social strata began to be called varnas(from the word “color” in Sanskrit - according to the color of the clothes worn). Another version of the name varna is caste, which comes from the Latin word.
Initially, in Ancient India there were 4 castes (varnas):
- brahmanas - priests;
- kshatriyas—warriors;
- vaisya—working people;
- Shudras are laborers and servants.
This division into castes appeared due to different levels of wealth: the rich wanted to be surrounded only by people like themselves, successful people and disdained to communicate with the poorer and uneducated.
Mahatma Gandhi preached the fight against caste inequality. with his biography, he is truly a man with a great soul!
Castes in modern India
Today Indian castes have become even more structured, they have a variety of various subgroups called jatis.
During the last census of representatives of various castes, there were more than 3 thousand jatis. True, this census took place more than 80 years ago.
Many foreigners consider the caste system to be a relic of the past and believe that the caste system no longer works in modern India. In fact, everything is completely different. Even the Indian government could not come to terms unanimous opinion regarding such stratification of society. Politicians actively work on dividing society into layers during elections, adding protection of the rights of a particular caste to their election promises.
In modern India more than 20 percent of the population belongs to the untouchable caste: They also have to live in their own separate ghettos or outside the boundaries of the populated area. Such people are not allowed to enter stores, government and medical institutions, or even use public transport.
The untouchable caste has a completely unique subgroup: society’s attitude towards it is quite contradictory. This includes homosexuals, transvestites and eunuchs, making a living through prostitution and asking tourists for coins. But what a paradox: the presence of such a person at the holiday is considered a very good sign.
Another amazing untouchable podcast - pariah. These are people completely expelled from society - marginalized. Previously, one could become a pariah even by touching such a person, but now the situation has changed a little: one becomes a pariah either by being born from an intercaste marriage, or from pariah parents.
Conclusion
The caste system originated thousands of years ago, but still continues to live and develop in Indian society.
Varnas (castes) are divided into subcastes - jati. There are 4 varnas and many jatis.
In India there are societies of people who do not belong to any caste. This - expelled people.
The caste system gives people the opportunity to be with their own kind, provides support from fellow humans and clear rules of life and behavior. This is a natural regulation of society, existing in parallel with the laws of India.
The caste system in India is a social hierarchy that divides the entire population of the country into distinct groups of both low and high origin. Such a system presents various rules and prohibitions.
Main types of castes
Types of castes come from 4 varnas (which means genus, species), according to which the entire population was divided. The division of society into varnas was based on the fact that people cannot be the same; there is a certain hierarchy, since each person has his own path in life.
The highest varna was varna brahmins, that is, priests, teachers, scientists, mentors. The second in rank is the kshatriya varna, which means rulers, nobility, and warriors. Next varna Vaishyas These included cattle breeders, farmers, and traders. The last varna sudra consisted of servants and dependent people.
The first three varnas and sudras had a clear, even sharp boundary between themselves. The highest varna is also called “dvija”, which means twice-born. Ancient Indians believed that when people were born a second time, an initiation ceremony took place and a sacred thread was tied onto them.
The main goal of the brahmans was that they had to teach others and learn themselves, bring gifts to the gods, and perform sacrifices. The main color is white.
Kshatriyas
The task of the kshatriyas is to protect the people and also to study. Their color is red.
Vaishya
The main responsibility of Vaishyas is cultivating land, raising livestock and other socially respected work. Color - yellow.
Shudras
The purpose of the sudras is to serve the three highest varnas and engage in hard physical work. They did not have their own quest and could not pray to the gods. Their color is black.
These people were outside the castes. Most often they lived in villages and could only do the hardest work.
Over the centuries, the social structure and India itself have changed significantly. As a result, the number of public groups increased from four to several thousand. The lowest caste was the most numerous. Of the total population, it included approximately 40 percent of the residents. The upper caste was small, comprising about 8 percent of the population. The middle caste was approximately 22 percent and the untouchables were 17 percent.
Members of some castes may be scattered throughout the country, while others, for example, live in one area. But in any case, representatives of each caste live separately and isolated from each other.
Castes in India can be easily identified based on numerous characteristics. People have different types, the manner of wearing them, the presence or absence of certain relationships, marks on the forehead, hairstyle, type of housing, food consumed, dishes and their names. It is almost impossible to pose as a member of another caste.
What helps keep the principles of caste hierarchy and isolation unchanged for so many centuries? Of course, it has its own system of prohibitions and rules. This system controls social, everyday and religious relations. Some rules are unchangeable and eternal, while others are changeable and secondary. For example, every Hindu from birth to death will belong to his caste. The only exception can be his expulsion from the caste due to violation of laws. No one has the right to choose caste according to at will or move to another caste. It is forbidden to marry a person from outside your caste only if the husband belongs to a higher varna than his wife. The opposite is categorically unacceptable.
In addition to the untouchables, there are also Indian hermits, who are called sannyasins. Caste rules do not affect them in any way. Each caste has its own type of occupation, that is, some are engaged only in agriculture, others in trade, others in weaving, etc. The customs of the caste must be strictly observed and executed. For example, a higher caste cannot accept food or drink from a lower caste, otherwise it will be considered ritual pollution.
This whole system of hierarchy social strata population is based on a powerful foundation of ancient institutions. According to them, a person is considered to belong to a particular caste because he performed all caste duties poorly or well in his past life. As a result of this, a Hindu must undergo births and deaths, which are influenced by previously received karma. Previously, movements had been created that rejected these divisions.
Caste system of modern India
Every year in modern India, caste restrictions and the strictness of their observance are gradually weakening. Not all prohibitions and rules require strict and zealous observance. It is already difficult to determine by appearance what caste a person belongs to, with the exception, perhaps, of the Brahmans, whom you can see in temples or, if you go to. Only the caste rules regarding marriage are completely unchanged and will not be relaxed. Also today in India there is a struggle against the caste system. To achieve this, special benefits are established for those who are officially registered as representatives of a lower caste. Discrimination based on caste is prohibited by Indian law and can be punishable as a criminal offence. But still, the old system is firmly rooted in the country, and the fight against it is not as successful as many would like.
In the colonies Latin America. Later, by analogy, it was extended to a similar phenomenon in India and since then has been applied mainly to Indian varnas and jatis. However, there is a fundamental difference between the Latin American castes and the Indian varnas; between the former, at least formally, mixing of any kind was allowed, as a rule, leading to the transfer of offspring to another caste; furthermore, Latin American castes were based primarily on visual differences. Mixing between Indian varnas was in most cases unacceptable, and between jatis (subdivisions of varnas) was sharply limited.
Varnas and jati
From the earliest works of Sanskrit literature it is known that the peoples who spoke Aryan dialects during the period of the initial settlement of India (from approximately 1500 to 1200 BC) were already divided into four main classes, later called “varnas" (with Skt. - “color”): Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders, cattle breeders and farmers) and Shudras (servants and laborers).
While a Hindu may not have varna, he always has jati. While enjoying political equality in India, members of different jatis have varying degrees of access to traditional religious practices. By prohibiting the official use of the category "untouchable" and equating the term "community" with "jati", the Indian government creates favorable conditions for Sanskritization: the creation of mythologies by untouchables about the origin of their jatis from groups possessing varna, and the adoption of the ritual rules of higher jatis - which gives a chance for a gradual change in the status of the jati. Over the course of one or two generations, an untouchable jati may be included in the number of sudras or even “twice-born”.
Castes in modern India
Indian castes are literally countless. Since each named caste is divided into many sub-castes, it is impossible to even approximately calculate the number of social units possessing the minimum necessary characteristics of jati. The official tendency to downplay the importance of the caste system has led to the disappearance of the corresponding column in the once-a-decade population censuses. The last time information on the number of castes was published was in 1931 (3000 castes). But this figure does not necessarily include all local podcasts that operate as independent social groups.
It is widely believed that in the modern Indian state castes have lost their former meaning. However, developments have shown that this is far from the case. Position [ ], occupied by the INC and the Government of India after the death of Mahatma Gandhi, is notable for its inconsistency. Moreover, universal suffrage and the need for political leaders to support the electorate gave new importance to esprit de corps and internal caste cohesion.
However, despite the fact that castes have existed in India for more than two millennia, their influence and importance in society (especially in cities) is gradually being lost, although this process is quite slow in rural areas. In big cities, castes are especially quickly losing their importance among the liberal intelligentsia, as well as in the business community.
Researcher Andre Padou in the article “Tantric Guru” states that a Hindu tantric guru, according to tradition, usually must be a Brahmin varna, come from a good family, as a rule, the guru must be male, married, know the shastras and be able to teach them, etc. d. The Hindu guru Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, in his commentary on the Jnana Sankalini Tantra, states: “The scriptures say that a competent guru must be a person of pure birth, coming from a Brahmin family.”
Sanskritization: vertical mobility of castes
If in theory the status of a caste is fixed and cannot be increased, in practice there is the possibility of a gradual revision of the hierarchical status of the caste. Indian ethnologist Mysore Srinivas called this process "Sanskritization". The creation of a mythology about higher origins and the internalization of the rules of ritual purity of higher castes play a key role.
Sanskritization is a way of including foreigners (mlecchas, outcastes) who are outside the varna system into traditional Hinduism. Mysore Srinivas wrote: “Sanskritization is not limited to Hindu castes but occurs among tribal and semi-tribal groups such as the Bhīl of Western India, the Gond and Orāon of Central India, and the Pahārī of the Himalayas. This usually results in the Sanskritized tribe claiming to be a caste and thus becoming Hindu. IN traditional system the only way to become a Hindu is to belong to a caste." The subject of Sanskritization is not an individual person or even a family - but only ethnic group, which has its own cult, which is included in the orbit of traditional Hinduism. A representative of the priestly caste, finding himself surrounded by foreigners (mlecchas), recognizes his own deities in the images of their religion, then interprets the genealogy of the rulers in favor of descent from the Hindu caste - and adapts the local cult to Hindu ritual.
According to a study by S. L. Shrivastava, conducted in the village of Asalpur in the state of Rajasthan, Naths and Dhobis were included in the untouchables: “Among the “untouchables” are Balais (Balāī), Chamars (Chamār), washerwomen Dhobi (Dhobī), “sect”-caste Nath (Nāt/Nāth) and Bhangī cleaners." According to a study by K. Mathur, conducted in the village of Potlod in the Malwa region of the same state of Rajasthan, the Sanskritized Naths already “occupy a place between the “twice-born” and the Shudras, only slightly higher than the latter, because they are engaged in religion”; and “their way of life is quite well Sanskritized, they follow the rules of ritual purity.” Sanskritization also allowed the Dhobi washer caste to upgrade their status in the Potlod from untouchable to sudra.
Ethnic non-Hindus find themselves outside the varna system: in particular, Tibetan Buddhists and Muslims. In the hermit order of Natha Yoga, hermits of Hindu origin refuse to eat together with hermits who do not have varna. Sannyasa excludes the spiritual practitioner from the hereditary professional group (jati), but does not deprive him of varna if he initially possessed varna: the rules of ritual purity when eating food continue to be observed in hermitage.
Preservation of the caste system in other religions of India
Social inertia has led to the fact that stratification into castes exists among Indian Christians and Muslims, although it is an anomaly from the point of view of the Bible and the Koran. Christian and Muslim castes have a number of differences from the classical Indian system; they even have some social mobility, that is, the opportunity to move from one caste to another. In Buddhism, castes do not exist (which is why Indian “untouchables” are especially willing to convert to Buddhism), but it can be considered a relic of Indian traditions that in Buddhist society the social identification of the interlocutor is of great importance. In addition, although Buddhists themselves do not recognize castes, speakers of other Indian religions can often easily determine what caste their Buddhist interlocutor comes from and treat him accordingly. Indian legislation provides for a number of social guarantees for “disadvantaged castes” among Sikhs, Muslims and Buddhists, but does not provide such guarantees for Christians - representatives of the same castes.
Castes in modern Nepal
The Nepalese caste system developed in parallel with the Indian one. Indian influence in Nepal especially increased during the Gupta dynasty (320−500); Nepal then had the status of a “neighboring kingdom”, but subordinate to Samudragupta.
Later, from the 10th century, many Hindus (as well as numerous Brahmins) migrated from India to Nepal, predominantly fleeing the Arab invasion and the introduction of Islam, especially from northeastern India. At the same time, refugees sought to preserve their original culture and rituals.
To understand Nepali caste relations, let's look at the various caste systems schematically.
Classical Hindu model of caste hierarchy Nepalese caste system from the perspective of Bahuns and Chhetris
The untouchable caste makes up about 7 percent of the population in Nepal.
Caste system from Newari point of view
The Hindu Newaris, who exclusively inhabit the Kathmandu Valley, use the following caste system, partly adopted from the Buddhist Newars. However, the caste system in Newari communities is not as important as in other nations.
The diagram above shows the castes according to the Newari Hindus, and the bottom - the Newari Buddhists.
Majority opinion on the caste system
The majority, which includes liberal Bahuns and Chhetris and peoples without their own caste systems, consider the following hierarchy to be significant for religious ritual:
chokho jaat(Pure Castes) / pani initial jaat(Untouchable Castes)In practice, it happens that belonging to castes is associated with material well-being, that is, the poor are considered untouchables, and the rich are classified as upper castes. This results in foreigners of European origin, who are not Hindus and should therefore be considered untouchables, being classified as upper castes, but when it comes to dealings related to ritual activities, they are treated as untouchables. In particular, we are talking about rituals related to water and cooking rice.
See also
Notes
- Vasmer M. Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language: In 4 volumes: Transl. with him. - 2nd ed., stereotype. - M.: