Transcript Document

1. Caste system defined
The word caste is derived from the
Portuguese casta meaning
lineage, breed, or race.
2. The countries:
Asia:
India, Japan, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka;
Africa:
Senegal, Mauritania, Ethiopia,
Burkina Faso, Yemen, Niger,
Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya.
Key characteristics:
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The concept of ‘purity-pollution’.
An inherited occupational role.
Inability or restricted ability to alter inherited
status.
Socially enforced restrictions on intermarriage.
Segregation in location of living areas, and
in access to and use of public places
Subjection to debt bondage.
Generalized lack of respect for their human
dignity and equality.
3. Indian caste system
 Indian
caste system is routed in
Hinduism and its order of four castes
and four stages in life.
 Originates from the Aryan invaders
four to five thousand years ago.
Indian caste system
The social organization of India is
based on two fundamental notions:
the
natural endowment,
nurture and upbringing.
Nurture and upbringing
Dharma (a man) has to go through four
stages of life:
Brahmacharya – student stage,
Gruhastas Ashrama – householder stage,
Vanaprasta Ashrama – hermitage state,
Sanyasa Ashrama – strive towards moshka
or liberation.
Natural Endowment
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Brahmins – priests and teachers
Kshatriyas – warriors, rulers and landlords.
They are the main source of food.
Vaishyas – merchants. They sell all kind of
products.
Shudras – laborers, agriculturalists. They sell all
kind of services.
Harijans - Untouchables (polluted laborers).
They were regarded so dirty that weren’t
even touched by people from upper castes.
Caste system in India
Marriage is allowed only within caste.
 Caste is a social unit. It is autonomous:
Each caste sets its own rules.
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The Untouchables
Social stratification has ousted the
untouchables from the rest of Indian
society.
The Untouchables
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Emerged from forbidden and tabooed
mixing between the high and the low
castes.
The Untouchables were also made
Unseeable, Unapproachable, Unhearable.
Untouchables had no surname. They did
not choose their children’s names.
Untouchable women could not wear any
clothes above waste.
Untouchables could not enter a Hindu
temple.
Caste system in India
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After the emergence of Buddhism there
have been attempts to abolish caste
system.
In 1833 the British declared that no person
on account of “his religion, place of birth,
descent, color” would be disabled from
holding any office or employment.
Great movement against caste system was
started by Mahatma Ghandi.
Caste system in India
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The barriers between the sub-caste
weakened in the twentieth century.
The Indian Constitution of 1950 proclaimed
the principle of equality to all citizens
irrespective of caste differences, and
abolished the practice of untouchability.