The Hindu Caste System The Hindu Caste System has governed the lives of the Hindu people in India for thousands of years. Today, the Caste System shapes society in a similar, perhaps more extreme, way as when it was first implemented. Beginning with the Aryans, the Caste system gradually became the social system that gives an “unchangeable” structure to the Hindu people’s lives. While this manner of living is considered taboo by westerners and people of other religions, it is fully accepted by the Hindu people of India, who know no other way of doing things.
The term caste is derivative of the Portuguese word casta, which referrs to a social class of hereditary and usually unchangeable status. The Hindu Caste System is made up of four varnas, meaning “color” in Sanskrit, as well as several sub-castes called jati: brahmins (priests); kshatriyas (warriors and aristocrats); vaishyas (cultivators, artisans, and merchants); and shudras (landless peasants and serfs).
Lower still are the untouchables; these people are the poorest of India’s poor.
The Caste System is limiting to those in the lower castes, however, the higher castes still have some limitations such as who they can marry. For example, a member of a higher caste, such as a kshatriya, is forbidden to marry a person from a lower class, such as a shudra (or vice Williamson 2 versa).
Also, today, while money is ‘everything’ to most cultures, the members of lower castes are unable to move up financially. These people are condemned to the poor slums’ and cannot do anything to change their situation.
The Term Paper on The Indian Caste System
... to become a member of a lower caste (Hutton, Dennis). After much discussion about the caste system in ancient India, I feel that I will ... of the Indian caste system effectively and simply it will be best if we divide the features of the Hindu society into six ... outside the pale of the Hindu society, and were virtually indistinguishable from the body of the people later to be known as ...
In more recent times, the untouchables especially are being targeted by cruel members of the higher, “superior” castes. The untouchables are subject to murder, rape, beating, and arson every day. At an alarming rate of two murders per day and approximately 250,000 cases of cruelty per year, this has become a serious problem in Indian society. A bothersome aspect of the Caste System is the numbness toward the hardships of those in the lower castes; this is what really affected me during the documentary, which showcased the attitudes of ‘superior’ caste members oward the untouchables. When asked which would upset him the most, a kshatriya (who was a landlord and had a few untouchables working for him) stated that he would feel worse about one of his animals dying than one of his untouchables. Even more upsetting is the fact that these untouchables, like so many others like them, accept this kind of treatment simply because of the significance the Caste System has in Indian history.
The Hindu Caste System is thousands of years old and still affects the lives of billions of people in India today, making for a rigid, ‘unchangeable’ society structure that cannot be escaped. The lives of those in the lowest castes are unfortunate and the treatment of these people is saddening, to say the least. To make matters worse, the Indian people, even those mistreated, accept that this is the way their world works and that there are no exceptions to this.
