Hindu Caste System: The Four Castes In Hindu Society

The Caste system has aroused much controversy than any other feature of India’s society. Every day, Dalits are butchered, assaulted, abused, raped, lynched, shot or openly mutilated without considering any consequences of the offenders. The deaths of pregnant women who are not able to pay the bribes at government hospitals, some boys with eyes raised completely out for falling in love with a girl of a superior caste, and horrid stories of employees boiled to death because of spewing out arguments with the boss are continuously reported in mainstream newspapers. After years of democracy, the social structure stands to practice the caste system disregarding abolishment laws. Every international or national effort to abolish caste differentiation and segregation has been proven ineffective. The caste system of India is a deeply inculcated social problem requiring immense commitment domestically and internationally in understanding what has stopped the measures to get rid of this ancient system and what measures are needed to complete elimination of the system.

He indicated that this system has recently been practiced much in India and reflect on the Hindu religious belief where the caste system is more than two thousand years old. According to the Hindu belief, there are four major types of castes: The “Brahmans” mostly priests and scholars, the “Kshatriyas” warriors, rulers, and large landholders, the “Vaishyas” merchants, farmers, and skilled artisans, the “Shudras” labourers and unskilled artisans, However, there is an additional group called the “Harijans” Sometimes called "untouchables,” they are ranked so low that technically, they are outside the caste system itself.

Hindus were divided by their social status, called the caste system. This made Hindus fall under one of the varnas such as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra and the Untouchables (Strayer, 150-168). Priests and teachers were classified as Brahmins, warriors and kings were Kshatriya, merchants and landowners were known as Vaishya, peasants and serfs were classified as Shudras, and those that didn’t have a place on the caste system were defined as the untouchables because they had no social status. Hindus were unable to change their position in the caste system, until after reincarnation (Strayer, 150-168). There are scriptures such as the sacred text, The Vedas, and it leads to the fact that Brahmins empowered and dominated the top of the caste system and played specific roles in the religious lives of the people even from the start of India’s influence. Hindus became adjusted with these scared texts and grew used to it. They learned to follow religious values and traditions to have a better after life.

There are five main social classes in Hinduism, they are as follows: the priest, the warrior noble, the merchant, the peasant, and the untouchable. Theses classes are known as “Brahmins, Kshayriyas, Vaisyas,

As in China, another dominant developing classical civilization, India, (300 B.C.-A.D. 500) focused greatly on philosophy and religious progress. Implanted within Indian divine belief systems, social status dictated all. The caste system, provided order and stability in India. Based out of Hinduism, the caste system clearly determined social status between five different divisions. The top of the caste were Brahmins (priests), followed by the Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaisyas (merchants), underneath merchants were Shudras (peasants and laborers), and the lowest rank were Pariahs (untouchables). Hinduism and Buddhism, the two dominating religions in India share many of the same concepts, as well as some distinct differences. These two religions

I have to respectfully disagree with Rachel Stermer’s claim that General Hooker having a greater rank then Colonel Robert Shaw represented a class bias because General Hooker received a monument more significant than that of Colonel Shaw. The Colonel could not be a victim of class bias because he himself came from one of the most prominent families in Boston, and was a member of Boston’s elite Brahmin caste: “A class representative of what Oliver Wendell Holmes had dubbed the “Brahmin caste” and its symbol of moral superiority, he came from one of the city’s wealthiest and most venerable families” (Kessler 34). Thus, since both Shaw and Hooker were members of prestigious social circles, one could not be biased towards the other because their economic status was

The caste system began around 1000 B.C.E. to distinguish among the different individuals in early Aryan society, such as the warrior elite, priests, ordinary tribesmen, and conquered subjects. In the caste system there are four groups, reffered to as varna, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. The Brahman were priests, the Kshatriya were warriors and officials, the Vaishya were merchants and artisans, and the Shudra were peasants and laborers. Those who were not included in a caste were known as outcastes. These people belonged to no caste due to them either entering this social division later than others or violating rituals and losing their caste status. The outcastes were disdained because they made a living by foul jobs such as dressing

In Hindu caste system consists of four varnas (groups), with the fifth group named as “untouchables” who were considered as insulted and inferior. At the top are priests and teachers (Brahmins) because of the focus on the spread of religious knowledge. Then are rulers and soldiers, collectively called kshatriyas. Merchants and traders (vaishyas) are the lower group, whereas the fourth group contains society’s laborers (shudras). On the other hand, the Bantu social construction was slightly different from that of the Hindu civilization.

The caste system is known as the spine of the Hindu religion, its presence is essential for most Hindus. Although it creates a lot of hard time on those of the lower caste as it describes them as filthy and untouchable, it is much widely accepted by most Hindus because of one main reason, it is mentioned in the Vedas which is an ancient Hindu script that explains the primary ideals of the Hindu religion.

The caste system is a “complex system of social divisions that pervades life in India” (The Mauryan and Gupta Empires of India). The Hindu people are spread out among four different varnas and there is also a fifth group of Hindu’s called the untouchables. The four different varnas are called the Brahmins, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya and the Sudra. These four castes all have different labels to describe them. The Brahmins are the traditional priest class, the Kshatriya group is the warrior class, the Vaishya’s are the workers and the Sudras serve the three higher classes. The lowest of the low is the untouchables. It is said that they are dirty and poor from birth and they are assigned jobs to benefit the higher varnas. Each varna is divided into jati which are kinship groups with similar roles within the community and Hindu’s traditionally marry within their own

within our nation’s borders, including poor whites, who are often pitted against poor people of color, the collapse of mass incarceration will not mean the death of racial caste in America. Inevitably a new system of racialized social control will emerge … No task is more urgent for racial justice today than ensuring thatAmerica’s current racial caste system is its

The Brahmans were the highest caste and the Shudras were the lowest. The Brahmans consist of priests and Dravidians were members of the Shudras.

In the Hindu religion, the caste system plays a major role in the lives of millions of people. But after a Buddhist reform movement, the caste was adopted by the Buddhists. So it plays a major role in both religions. The caste system is a social hierarchy system that the Hindu’s and Buddhists adopted together. This social order or arrangement of social classes according to the idea of“varna”,which is the idea of classes and different

Commonly referred to as the “oldest religion” in the world, Hinduism is believed to be created by the Aryans between 500 BCE and 300 CE. With over one billion followers internationally, it is the third largest religion. As a way to justify the caste system that had been put in place in India, many followed Hinduism due to reincarnation being apart of the religion. Many believed that individuals were in their current caste system due to what they did in the previous life. While Hinduism continued to prosper throughout India, Buddhism, a religion created by Siddhartha Gautama, was created and many started to turn this faith as a way to ensure the serenity of their afterlife. Due to Buddha creating a faith and basing a majority of it off of Hinduism’s

What are the four major castes? What implications does the caste system have for everyday life? How does the caste system relate to Hindu ideas of spiritual life? “The four major castes of Hindu society are; seers ( brahmins ), administrators ( kshatriyas ), artisans or farmers ( vaishyas ), and followers or servants ( shudras)”( Smith 56). Smith writes, religious leaders, teachers, artists, and philosophers are members of the first caste, brahmins, khatriyas, the second caste, first known as warriors are now managers. The tillers of the land, the makers of bricks, and the builders are part of the third caste, vaishyas. The fourth caste is made up of servants, those who will take care of the other castes’ needs (56)”. While I was working in India, summer of 2001 and there at the invitation of the richest family in India and staying at one of their compounds, some of my co-workers and I were playing snooker. A young boy walked into the room where we were playing. He stopped and talked to us for a few minutes before continuing to bed. Accompanied by a man of about twenty years old, the boy’s shudra, who had been the boy’s personal servant for ten or more years. The shudra’s purpose was to protect and serve his charge’s every need. Although there is inequality between castes, Smith denotes.“ within each caste, there is equality, opportunity, and social insurance ( 57)”. Although the text