Caste system in india

How Caste System is Work in India.

Caste is both a historical truth of the Indian subcontinent, and a reality of modern-day India. Some of us are still unaware of the extent to which caste remains an ordering principle in our society today. Caste is present in a massive way in most of India and caste-based discrimination and violence takes place across the nation. In metropolitan cities too, caste has its ugly presence, even if not in obvious ways.

All Four Caste

There are Four Main Cast in India.

1. Brahmans--Priests and Teachers.
2. Kshatriya's--Rulers and Soldiers.
3. Vaishya's-- Merchants and Traders.
4. Shudra's--Laborers and Servants.

Casteism is one of the rural social problems, which is very peculiar to the Indian society. Indian society is a country of various religions. Each religion is sub-divided into different castes and these castes again into sub-castes. The culture of each caste varies though they all belong to one religion. Among these castes, certain are given a high status and others a low status, depending upon their caste occupation.

How does caste function? 

For quite a long time, caste directed pretty much every part of Hindu religious and public activity, with each gathering involving an explicit place in this mind boggling chain of command. 

Rustic people group were for quite some time orchestrated based on castes - the upper and lower castes quite often lived in isolated states, the water wells were not shared, Brahmans would not acknowledge sustenance or drink from the Shudras, and one could wed just inside one's caste. 

Independent India's constitution prohibited separation based on caste, and, trying to address authentic treacheries and give a dimension playing field to the generally burdened, the specialists reported shares in government employments and instructive organizations for booked castes and clans, the most minimal in the caste pecking order, in 1950.

Now We briefly understand about all Caste.

1. Brahmins--Priests and Teachers.

Brahmans

• The Brahman people are a prominent community spread across the whole of India. The Brahman are the highest of the four Hindu castes, made up of priests and scholars of Vedic literature and their traditional occupation is to concern themselves with the spiritual guidance of the people, conduct rites at marriages, births, deaths and other auspicious occasions. In practice the caste and the profession are not to be treated as one. All Brahmin are not priests. In fact, a majority of them are not and there is a striking range of diversities in terms of status and occupation among the Brahman all over the country.

• According to our Vedas, Brahmans are the successors of Brahma. Seven saints were the Ancestors of Indian Brahmans. Brahmans had given the top most position in Indian Mythology because Brahmans are the people with Great knowledge or with great capability. Brahmans were given the work of distributing knowledge in the society. They were given the work of Advising King for the works of public welfare. Brahmans had a Great responsibility to worship, meditate to acquire great powers so that they could work for Public welfare. 

• Brahmans were the Great thinkers about Religion, about public welfare, about social works and about the whole society. In Hindu mythology Brahmans had given the greatest position Because the “Brahm” means “knowledge”. It means Knowledge has a greatest or the top most position in Hindu mythology. So, real Brahman is a person who has a great knowledge and who can use his knowledge in a work which good for whole society.

    2. Kshatriya's--Rulers and Soldiers.

Kshatriya's

• Kshatriya is one of the four varnas (social orders) in Hinduism traditionally responsible for the protection of the political-cosmic order (dharma) and the administration of society. Kshatriyas were the military and ruling class of the ancient Hindu society, who initially, acheived their class position on the merits of their aptitude (guna), conduct (karma), and nature (swabhava). However, over time, a Hindu's varna status became hereditary and rules surrounding class status were fixed in the Laws of Manu. Today, the Kshatriya varna includes a broad class of jati groups, differing considerably in status and function but united by their claims to rulership, the pursuit of war, or the possession of land.

• Kshatriya, meaning "ruler" or "warrior" in Sanskrit, is the ruling caste in traditional Hindu society. Outlined in the Vedic texts, Kshatriya is the second highest of the four classes (or varna). Members of this varna are believed to be able to attain moksha through good works, otherwise known as Karma yoga.

     3. Vaishya's

Vaishya

•  An upper class in the Hindu tradition, the Vaisyas are the lowest level of the “twice-born”. They are commoners, but not a servant group. They undergo the sacred thread ceremony, as do the Brahmins and Kshatriyas. But while male Vaisyas “take the thread,” it is made of a fiber different from that of the two castes above them (Brahmins and Kshatriyas). As part of the cosmic order of dharma, they have been assigned the role of merchants and craftspeople.

• Although it is illegal in India today to discriminate based on caste, the system traditionally prevented those in the lower castes from improving their economic and social status. The caste system is rooted in Hinduism, but there has also been Hindu opposition to the barriers that castes present. Yoga developed outside the restrictions of society and, therefore, provided a means of salvation regardless of caste.

• The Vaishyas share with the two higher classes, the priestly Brahmans and the authoritative Kshatriyas, the distinction of being dvija, or “twice-born,” achieving their spiritual rebirth when they assume the sacred wool thread at the upanayana ceremony. The Vaishyas are credited in history with favouring the rise of the reformist religious beliefs of Buddhism and Jainism.

     4. Shudra's

Shudra's

• Shudra is the fourth varna, or one of the four social categories found in the texts of Hinduism. Various sources translate it into English as a caste, or alternatively as a social class. It is the lowest rank of the four varnas.

•  Shudra, also spelled Sudra, Sanskrit Śūdra, the fourth and lowest of the traditional varnas, or social classes, of India, traditionally artisans and labourers. The term does not appear in the earliest Vedic literature. Unlike the members of the three dvija (“twice-born”) varnas—Brahmans (priests and teachers), Kshatriya (nobles and warriors), and Vaishya (merchants)—Shudras are not permitted to perform the upanayana, the initiatory rite into the study of the Vedas (earliest sacred literature of India).

• The Shudra varna includes a wide spectrum of endogenous status groups with dominant, landowning groups at one end of the scale and near-untouchables at the other. These variations derive from the belief that certain behaviour patterns and occupations are polluting, a concept that gave rise to a distinction between “clean” and “unclean” Shudra groups; for example, washers, tanners, shoemakers, sweepers, and scavengers were once relegated to the status of untouchable. As evidence of group mobility in the caste system, some observers have pointed out that many castes claiming Kshatriya and Vaishya status gradually emerged from the Shudra class.

Thanks,