Does Hindu scripture delineate describe and/or justify castes, e.g. “You who tend to the cattle, beloved of Kali, shall be the highest in the land?”
I have always assumed that the caste system was a typical pyramidical heirarchy, i.e. small (in population) highest castes down to large numbers of lower castes. Last night, I realized I had no basis for this assumption. Is the assumption true or false?
Sua
As far as I can remember, there is nothing in the Bhagvad Gita or the Upanishads in the way of dogma for the caste system (but, then again, it’s been at least a dozen years since I’ve read either). There ARE different levels of enlightenment in Hinduism (e.g., Brahman, Atman) and I think the caste system is an outgrowth of this notion being grafted onto the political and cultural subgroups in India. (That’s the really wonderful thing about an organized religion: you can take some really nice notions about the betterment of life and, by twisting them and perverting them, use them to divide, subjugate and oppress the folk you don’t like).
I think your assumption of a small group of wealthy people (the higher castes) lording it over a large group of poor people (the lower castes) is right on the money. The word for it is “history”.
Caste is EXCEEDINGLY complicated (surprise, surprise). A few preliminary remarks. What we call “caste” refers to two somewhat separate distinctions.
The first is “varni,” from the same root as “varnish” and meaning roughly “color.” There are four varni in the classic caste system. The highest are the Brahmans, next Kshatriyas, then Vaisyas, and finally Shudras. OUTSIDE of those four varni are what used to be called untouchables. In ancient Hinduism, the four varni were associated both with parts of the body and occupations: Brahmans, the head, were the priests. Kshatriyas–arms and chest–warriors. Vaishyas–legs–farmers. Shudras–feet–servants/slaves. There is still a correspondence between your caste and your place in society, though that has broken down to some degree with urbanization and affirmative action for lower castes.
The other concept covered by caste is “jati” which means birth. There are innumerable jati, often linked to occupation. Unlike the hierarchy of varni, the hierarchy of jati is quite confused–MOST people in a particular place would MOSTLY agree on the relative ranking of MOST jati in their region, but that’s about all you can say.
In terms of numbers, a recent article I saw in the Journal of Asian Studies had a percentage breakdown of modern India into the various jati.
The highest three varni (Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya) together make up 11% of the population. 49% are Shudras. Among those, though, 6% belong to jati that are traditionally more elite and prosperous, and so in terms of socioeconomic status might be considered higher caste. 16.5% are “scheduled castes,” a politer term for untouchable. 8% are scheduled tribesmen–traditionally backward hill and forest peoples. That leaves 18% outside the caste system: Sikhs, Muslims, Christians.
As I said, the system is exceedingly complex. Check out a history text on India. Wolpert’s A New History of India is as good as any on this.
Is your place in the caste system inherited?
I just posted something in another thread on Srinivasa Ramanujan, a genius mathematician who lived in the early 1900’s. While his parents were Brahman they were dirt poor…nearly to the point of abject poverty.
This would indicate to me that your caste has little to do with wealth or power.
Is that truly the case? Can a Shudra make good an become rich? Can his/her family ever ‘move’ to a higher caste or are you and your family stuck with it forever?
Caste is inherited, with a few weird exceptions. It does not necessarily set your life, especially today. In rural society, the bounds of caste are much more difficult to escape. In the city, where no one necessarily knows by looking what your caste is, socioeconomic lines are more fluid.
One way to think about it–being black in America doesn’t mean you can’t prosper; being white doesn’t mean you can’t be poor. Still, blacks tend to be poorer than whites. Caste is something like that, though I’m oversimplifying a great deal. Brahmans are going to be better off than untouchables, though you will find exceptions.
For an idea of the continuing strength of caste, check out the matrimonial ads in the websites of English-language Indian newspapers. They’re generally broken down by caste. If an ad says “caste no bar,” chances are that’s a low-caste person with money aiming for a marriage with a higher-caste person.
Individuals can try to escape caste by moving to an urban area; groups (this is what’s really weird) can try to improve the standing of their caste. Since caste has a lot to do with ritual purity, your jati can attempt to raise its status by raising its purity. That could include things like (as a group) not eating meat, not drinking alcohol, etc. Some call this process “sanskritization”–sanskrit being the ancient holy language of Hinduism.
Say I’m an American born Indian born to untouchables. Say I make it big. When I go back to India will I still be an untouchable? I’ve heard that you can tell by last names what caste you are. What are my chances of marrying someone with a really high caste here in the US? If I did, will people look down on my kids because of my caste, and what will their caste be?
I also know someone who is an Anglo-Indian, what caste are they?
Over here, do Indians of mixed castes mix with each other or do they stay within their own group.
Sikhs are not part of the cast system, right?
"Srinivasa Ramanujan, a genius mathematician who lived in the early 1900’s. While his parents were Brahman they were dirt poor…nearly to the point of abject poverty.
This would indicate to me that your caste has little to do with wealth or power. "
Ramanujan was from Tamil Nadu. This is a region where Brahmins have nowhere near the power and authority they have in northern India. However, bring Brahmin even in Tamil Nadu would bring him a family background of learning, that would support his mathematical genius. Brahmins are anyway supposed to concentrate on learning over wealth and power.
The most revered Tamilian of all time was Tiruvallluvar, from a pariah tribe. The pariahs (from the Tamil word paraiyan, drummer) are outcastes, the lowest of the low. Yet he expressed the whole genius of the Tamil nation in his didactic poetic classic the Tirukkural, which is the secular equivalent of the Vedas, Bible, and Qur’an for the Tamil people.