Skip to main content

Caste system

 Caste systems are closed social stratification systems in which people inherit their position and experience little mobility.

Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines some or all elements of endogamy, hereditary transmission of occupation, social class, social identity, hierarchy, exclusion, and power. Caste as a closed social stratification system in which membership is determined by birth and remains fixed for life; castes are also endogamous, meaning marriage is proscribed outside one’s caste, and offspring are automatically members of their parents’ caste.



Although India societies and mainly Hinduism is commonly associated with caste systems, this system can be seen in many different parts of the world and in many different cultures. 

The word "Castas" was first used in the 16th Century in the colonial Spain in regions of South America and Central America. In India the word Caste was first used by the Portuguese in the 17th Century.

HINDUISM:



Caste is often associated with India. Historically, the caste system in India consisted of four well known categories (Varnas): Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (commerce), Shudras (workmen). Often these castes are decided by the child's birth and decided by their father's caste. People left out of these four caste classifications were called “outcasts” or “untouchables” and were shunned and ostracized.

MUSLIM:



Indian Muslims are stratified into three main castes. At the top of the pyramid are the Ashrafs (literally, the ‘nobles’, who trace their ancestry to inhabitants of the Arab peninsula or Central Asia or are converts from Hindu upper castes), Ajlafs (literally, the ‘commoners’, who are said to be converted from Hindu low castes) and Arzals (literally, the ‘despicable’, who are said to be Dalit converts).

In short, Ashrafs are the Brahmin equivalent, Ajlafs are the Vaisya equivalent and Shudras, and Arzals are the Atishudras or Dalit equivalents of Islam.


CHRISTIANITY:



Even in Christianity there have been periods of times with prevalent caste systems. For example in Medieval France the three estates used before the French Revolution were a caste system based on birth and religious standing: the first estate consisted of clergy, the second of nobility, and the third of commoners. These estates were endogamous (meaning one could only marry within their own class) and there was little mobility between them.


In all these systems castes created a divide between people. Many opportunities were not available to people just due to their caste that they could not even choose. Kshatriyas had to participate and fight in wars even if they did not want to. Only Brahmins had access to some knowledge no matter what their ambitions were and even when they wanted to study. Due to such restrictions placed by the society, peoples' lives were decided by their birth and they could not do anything to change their fate. People could not marry others from different castes, could not have basic access to education, did not have the same money earning oppurtunities and moreover had to face constant discrimination and inhumane treatment their whole life.


In India these problems are still prevalent in rural parts. Children face discrimination in schools during midday meals where they are fed from different utensils or in classes themselves where they sit separately from children form other castes. 



Understandably caste-based discrimination is therefore banned in India.

According to article 14 of the Indian constitution, the state shall not deny equality to any person before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India. Article 15 prohibits the state from discriminating any citizen on ground of any religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.


Article 17 states that untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The ‘Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955’ was the first Indian law that came into force to provide punishment for the preaching and practice of ‘Untouchability’ and for any mater connected with it. In 1989, the Government of India enacted ‘the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act’, which recognised various kinds of acts of violence and discrimination inflicted upon the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes by non-scheduled castes and non-scheduled tribes as punishable offences. It also provides for provision of special courts at the district level to try the offences under this Act.


Yashwin Saraswat   

Chemical Engineering

7th Sem          



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is Social Stratification ?

Social stratification refers to the society's categorisation of its people into groups grounded on socio-economic factors like wealth, income, race, education, gender, occupation, social status, ethnicity, or deduced power. As similar, stratification is the similar position of persons within a social group, geographic region, order or social unit.     The societies like India, social stratification is generally defined in terms of three social classes the upper class, the middle class and the lower class; in turn each class is then sub classified into the upper-stratum, middle-stratum, and lower-stratum. Also a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of association , clan, lineage, or estate or all four.     The categorisation of people by social stratums occurs more easily in complex state - grounded, polycentric or feudal societies, the ultimate being grounded upon socio-profitable relations among classes of nobility classes of peasants. Whether social positio...
2 comments
Read more

How to battle this?

  Six policies to reduce economic inequality  Following the Inequality Policy Brief, here are six ways to minimize the rising economic inequality prevalent in the United States. Haas Institute Director john a. powell discusses why these policies will work in slowing the growth in inequality.  Almost three years to the date since Occupy Wall Street first raised the consciousness of Americans about the wide economic disparities between the richest one percent versus the 99 percent of U.S. earners, new Federal Reserve data confirms that wealth and income inequality in the U.S. is accelerating. Toward this goal, researchers from the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley point to the following six evidence-based policy solutions that can have a positive effect on reversing rising inequality, closing economic disparities among subgroups and enhancing economic mobility for all: 1. Increase the minimum wage. Research shows that higher wages for the lowest-pai...
Post a Comment
Read more

WEALTH BASED SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

“ What is particularly worrying in India’s case is that economic inequality is being added to a society that is already fractured along the lines of caste, religion, region and gender.” While India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most unequal countries. Inequality has been rising sharply for the last three decades. The richest have cornered a huge part of the wealth created through crony capitalism and inheritance. They are getting richer at a much faster pace while the poor are still struggling to earn a minimum wage and access quality education and healthcare services, which continue to suffer from chronic under-investment. These widening gaps and rising inequalities affect women and children the most. Let's look at the numbers 1%     The top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth. 73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1%, while *670 million Indians who comprise the poorest half o...
Post a Comment
Read more