Tonight I was reading a wonderful book on the social history of dinner ettiquette, and I came across a passage on Hindu dining customs and the many ways in which food can become ritually contaminated by contact with the lower castes.
It got me to wondering that if I went to visit India, in what caste would I be in regards to ritual uncleanliness? Am I automatically an “Untouchable” because I was not born into their society? Would a Bhraman avoid contact with me as an unclean being?
Or, as a visitor am I given a sort of free pass as far as class goes, not subject to the restrictions of the castes?
I’m not the right person to answer this question, since my knowledge of casteism and rituals is limited, but in India, traditionally, the guest is treated as God. So you’re gonna be well looked after. For example, if there’s only one piece of cake, it’ll be offered to you first… if there’s just one bed, it’ll be yours while the host will sleep on the floor, etc.
Bingo. Guests == free pass. Its more of a custom thing than a culture thing IMHO. The caste system in india has really just blended into two now. The untouchables…and everyone else. Least, thats what I noticed when I went there.
I noticed the same, even in the last 3 years. Now, untouchable almost means “I don’t want you to touch me” (or to know me), not someone that is cast aside against their will. Yes, they’d love the money/status, but some of them resemble similar people over here in the US. Offer them a way out, and they’ll almost get mad at you for doing so. It’s kind of weird, honestly.
I’m wondering how to square that with the traditional classification of non-Indian non-Hindus under the caste system as mleccha, which means ‘impure foreign barbarian’.
Soooo… what caste is a landed immigrant in? A naturalized citizen, who has moved permanently to India from another country? (not that I am exactly considering it, but still)
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As I understand things (and somebody correct me please if I have this wrong), traditionally a person’s caste is determined by the caste of the father. (This is why a woman marrying into a lower caste was considered much worse than the opposite case.) Since you were born outside of the caste system, and caste is an aspect of culture, legal naturalization wouldn’t make one whit of difference for you. I don’t know quite how your children through marriage to an Indian woman would be viewed, although I note that Anglo-Indians seem to view themselves as a separate group.
From the perspective of orthodox casteism, all foreigners are mlechchha (“unclean”). Your status depends on your birth, not your place of residence, your financial status or anything else. Additionally, any caste Hindu who “crosses the black water” (i.e., travels abroad) loses his or her caste status and becomes untouchable.
From the perspective of what’s really going to happen to you when you go to India, a foreign visitor in India is not going to have to worry about caste, not unless you come up against some real orthodox extremists, and you wouldn’t want to have dinner at their place anyway.
Simple : If you are not a Hindu you are casteless. Casteless people should be avoided by practising Hindi - who do have a caste. The only problem is that the casteless average tourist has substantial more money to spend. This causes conflicts and is maybe an explication why some merchants in India are overagressive.
Zweistein, Hindi is a language; Hindu refers to a person who practices that religion. Also, to my knowledge, there has never been any functional restriction against devout Hindus of any caste “doing business” (and I use this term in a broad sense) with foreigners outside the caste system, so quite honestly the rest of your post makes no sense. Besides, overaggressive merchants can be found everywhere in the world and they aren’t always jockeying for tourist bucks. :rolleyes:
