Discrimination Against The Age Old Caste System

What is discrimination you ask well it is the treatment or consideration of, or making

Amazingly, the Caste System in India has been around for thousands of years. The caste system places you in a social class with specific duties you must perform. Secondly, the system places you in the social class of

Firstly, the caste system reflects the inequality of Indian society. Although religion in India is characterized by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices, majority of Indian population follow Hinduism. Therefore, the dominance of Hinduism beliefs is common in India. There is a belief in caste system, as Brood said, “a system of hierarchical social organization”1. Hindu society is divided into four main classes; the priestly class, the warrior and administrator class, the producer class who is farmers and merchants and the servant class. The remaining group of people who is “outcastes” is called “untouchables” or dalit. Brodd recognizes “dalits continue to suffer terrible oppression, especially in rural communities in India”. I still could not imagine how terrible this bottom class suffers until reading Max Bearak article. All sufferings of Rohith Vemula, from the hardships of growing up poor, interactions with society in caste to scholarship revoke and suicide, happened tragically because he was born in a dalit family. This is the

Caste-system oppression has been a staple in human culture for centuries. It hasn’t always been centered around race, but was initially centralized around a 3-teired caste system. The ideals surrounding oppression, slavery, segregation, and social injustice were created by the wealthy class centuries ago and have served a lasting influence on our culture still today. Many problems faced today aren’t a result of a war of the races, but instead a war of the classes. This idea of a fair America and the whole essence behind “the American dream” is long gone, and many blame it on our country’s adherence to capitalism and greed. Others might believe that these cards are stacked an ever-struggling third class American citizen and there is reason to

Discrimination is a topic not many people talk about. One of the many disgusting things somebody can do is discriminate. Discrimination can be done in many forms; gender, age, race, beliefs, disabilities, religion, decisions, sexual preference and who they are as an individual. One of the main people who gets discriminated is people with disabilities, international students, and homosexuals.

It's impossible to prove exactly where or how the caste system came about, but it is hypothesized that the system originated in South Asia, when the Aryans from the north invaded the territory and introduced this way of order as a means of controlling the local community. The Aryans assigned certain groups of people a certain name and role depending upon their stature. Since then, the caste system has been around for several millennia, and up until the early 20th century, very little had changed.

An example of the caste system in American society today would be our growing wealth inequality between the elite ‘one percent’ and the working class. For the most part children who are born into rich families are given a better education, better nutrition, more opportunities for careers and the money to back up

The caste system is a widely accepted form of oppression. Traditionally the oppression was unseen, with the modernization of the world in the last century the system and its oppression has come to light. While many people do see the oppression, it rarely gets mentioned due to the traditional beliefs that have been in practice for thousands of years. The modernization of not only the culture, but the Hindu beliefs, have encourage the oppression even more so than tradition with the increased political influences.

As children grow up in the United States, they are often told they can do whatever they want when they are an adult. They are often told to reach for the stars and to chase their dreams. In India however, this was not the case. India followed what is known as a caste system. A caste system does not allow young children the fantasy of becoming whoever they want to become, but instead their future is born when they are. The word “caste” was first coined by Portuguese traders in the 16th century and translates to race. The original caste system in India was developed more than 3,000 years ago and in some instances, still continues today. (Funk & Wagnalls 2016) It was created by Aryan priests who had separated society into four different categories. At the top of the list was Brahmans (priests), next were the Kshatriyas (warriors), then came the Vaisyas (farmers and merchants), and lastly was the Sudras. The Sudras were composed of servants and laborers who were to work for the other three castes. Even worse than being a Sudra though, was being a member of the Harijans, commonly known as the Untouchables. This group was composed of the Dravidians who were native to India and shunned for ‘religious or social sins’ from the other classes they originally came from. All formed by the priests, this system of hierarchy was created and made part of the Hindu religious law (Funk & Wagnalls 2016). The creation of the caste system came with many laws. For instance,

Since last two-decade higher education in India has been witnessing an increase in enrollment number across social groups such as first generation, female, rural and the lower caste students. This has changed student demographics in academic disciplines. Due to diverse students’ group on college campuses, the higher education institutions are facing diversity, social justice and discrimination issues. Caste-based discrimination is one of the issues which is pervasive across the institutions in India (Neelakandan & Patil, 2012; Nambissan, 2006 & 2009; Patwardhan & Palshikar, 1992). The lower caste students have been experiencing discrimination from primary education to higher education institutions. Caste-based discrimination is under researched (Thorat & Kumar, 2008) topic, thus nature of discrimination and its impact on academic outcome of the lower caste students demand comprehensive studies through various theoretical perspectives. In the paper, caste-based discrimination in higher education is studied and classified through “Microaggression” theory (Sue et al., 2007).

Caste system is also a danger towards the National integration of the country. Caste system is a major cause for many inhuman and immoral social practices such as untouchability, child marriage, sati system, prostitution, etc.

According to Wikipedia, the caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic example of caste. It has its origin in the early Vedic times, and then it was in existence in the form of Varna system which divided the society into four main classes. Four main classes were decided by birth. The head of the system was the Brahmins who were priestly people. They were the literate group and were alone empowered to study the Vedas and worships Gods.

In post-India, Nehru and his government attempted to raise the social status of the Untouchables with the First Five Year plan in 1960. However, it was not as effective as at that time, the Indian society was rigid with the caste system continuing to be prevalent in every sector of society. Each member of caste system cannot dine or wear the same clothes as that of the other caste group and the marriage across caste system are considered as taboo. Especially for the dalits such as Varna, they could not go to school not were they provided with basic hygiene that other caste groups enjoy. Many assume that the caste system is intrinsic to the religion Hinduism as the teachings of Hinduism such as karma, reveal that good karma is given to the present live

The Caste System has been a part of India’s culture for a long time and it has caused many social controversies between the higher and lower castes. UCLA wrote, “The greater majority of the Indian people have no assurance of two nutritious meals a day, safety of employment, safe and clean housing, or such level of education as would make it possible for them to understand their constitutional rights and obligations” (“UCLA” para. 1). The higher castes believed that lower castes were bad and that association with them was unlucky. They also wanted to conserve their power and that is the reasoning behind the social division. The lower castes lived unhealthy lives and many of them died at young ages, and they wanted to have more equal rights. This controversy is old but it still continues today and it has

"Caste discrimination has affected an estimated 260 million people worldwide, the vast majority living in South Asia". Caste Discrimination in the conveyance of education and Health facilities and other fundamental human rights are also the exceptional barrier for Dalit people severely affecting their well-being and possibility. In spite of being a human they are still lacking behind the rights they are supposed to get to develop themselves. Education and health facilities are the vital factors which are most important in human life to grow strongly, however, these factors have not been provided to the level.The caste discrimination system has negatively affected Dalit society