Casteism in India.

Posted byShivani GuptaPosted inUncategorized

Caste system in India is still a predominant factor of discrimination and oppression. It has been prevailing in India for hundreds of years. Caste, in India, plays an important role in defining the identity and social status of a person. There are thousands of castes that prevail in India. According to the Hindu caste system, the Dalits are referred to as the lowest caste. They are humiliated, tortured, harassed, destroyed and even killed by the so-called people of the higher caste. They are also considered untouchable as if they’re impure.

Recently, a seventeen-year-old Dalit boy in a district of Uttar Pradesh was shot dead by four non-Dalit youths for entering in a temple. They shot him while he was asleep.
My heart aches at such news. People have made caste a priority and treat it as more important than human life. They feel privileged for belonging to a high caste and oppress the people of a lower caste. There are various norms and rituals being followed in the name of caste and religion which are just leading towards violence and domination of the lower caste. People are losing humanity due to the strong and rigid caste system.

DEVADASI SYSTEM

Devadasi means a servant of God. Devadasi system is an age-old ritual that is still being practised in a few districts of India especially in South. According to the devadasi practice, girls belonging to lower caste are forced to renounce everything and get married to a deity or a temple. The marriage usually occurs before girls hit puberty. Devadasis are forbidden to get married again. In recent times, devadasis are treated as sex slaves and men of any caste could exploit them for sex once they attain puberty. Their virginity is auctioned and they are pushed into prostitution. This system ultimately forces young girls to live the life of a sex worker in the name of religion. They are not even provided with any financial help so they start begging to earn a livelihood. No amount of religious belief can justify such atrocities being practised against women. The practice of dedicating devadasis has been outlawed by law and any person performing or participating in this practice is liable to get penalised but it still prevails in some parts of the country.

The caste system has shaped Indian society for a long time. As long as the traditional caste system in India will remain strong, there will be a lower class and violence against them will prevail.

Untouchability was officially banned when India adopted its constitution in 1950. After a lot of struggle to abolish the practice of untouchability, laws were made in the constitution to provide equality to the oppressed class. Article 15 of the Constitution of India prohibits discrimination based on caste and article 17 declared the practice of enforceability to be illegal. Therefore, all people are equal in the eyes of law and there should be no discrimination on the basis of caste. Everyone should be treated equally.

Published by Shivani Gupta

Feeling. Writing. Healing.🌸❤

169 thoughts on “Casteism in India.”

      6. False victims? I don’t see anyone hear as a false victim because what’s true is clear.
        Settling down and adjusting with what’s wrong just to maintain the peace makes no sense.

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  2. Yet some only see black and white. Is not the rainbow a multiplex of colors joined not displayed separately. Understanding and empathy is what some people need to learn. It is sad that so much is wasted in hate when so much can be gained in unity. 🌎✌🏻💙

    Liked by 8 people

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  5. Pingback: Casteism in India. – Singing Wolf

  6. …
    I have no words to say, how i sad when i read how youngs girls and womans are, well …
    …
    I hope new generation, not only in your land (very beautiful in other things), but around the world,
    Will prpose and make a better future for all humanity.
    I hope…
    Your post is powerfull.
    Miss G

    Liked by 5 people

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  9. India was built on the caste system. Segregation, financial gain, inequality, control..just some of the sad factors people use against others. I am a glass half full person, so honestly, India are at least 2 generations away from making serious, very serious steps to abolish this old rotten disease. I don’t even mean by law, but a persons thought process.

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    2. Most nations states are built on such things.Equality is a false promise and against human nature.Just because now you enjoy some prosperity let’s not go about beating that drum..

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      1. Equality is really important for everyone. Every person should be treated equally irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion, colour and gender. This is what we strive towards. If you think different then you can at least respect the opinion of the other person instead of trying to prove your point.

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      2. It is justice in thought but ends up being extortion in deed.The sooner you understand that reality the better.Oh yes the dream of an egalitarian world is very seductive.Ranks are the very basic building blocks of human society .

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      3. I think you’ve just accepted that nothing is going to change and you don’t even see anything wrong in this. Oppressing people due to certain illicit reasons is never justified and will never be justified no matter what.
        I believe that in the coming generations people will start treating each other equally.

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      4. Nothing has to change.The very basic nature of the Indic dharmic systems is to seek peace.You are poisoning people’s mind with your Abramhmic perspective.

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      5. It’s not me who’s poisoning people’s mind because it’s not just me who thinks this way. You’ll get many more articles to read about it.
        With time things need to change. If you don’t believe so then that’s your personal opinion.

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      1. This is how we learn about all the different cultures and our world, while standing in solidarity with our fellow human beings who still face all kinds of unfair discrimination. That’s what makes this platform more than a hobby for me, so thank you!

        Liked by 1 person

  11. I was familiar with the caste system in India but this was the first time I’ve read about the Devadasi system. This weighs heavy on my heart. It goes against everything I believe in: in the inherent goodness of humanity and equal rights for all. I have read about the challenges facing the people of India regarding the caste system and other huge injustices. I think education is key, but changing centuries-old cultures and religious practices is no easy task. Thank you for sharing.

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  12. It is a curse in any country. Castism exists all over the world, in some form or the other. However, I see a lot of change happening in big cities, in India. Young people do not pay much attention to such details. I am sure, in times to come it would trickle down to smaller cities. India is changing, and we should encourage that. A very good write-up for the people who are still living with the stone age mentality.

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  14. Thank you. As an American I struggle to understand aspects of other countries and their struggles. It is not taught in our public schools here. Everything I have learned about other parts of the world has been out of my own curiosity. I find it astounding in a most negative way that sex slaves and sexual indecency plauges many religions, somehow I thought it hadn’t played a role in India and I now know I was just ignorant. I wish that all religions would correct these horrible indiscretions.

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    1. No religion teaches atrocities like this. Humans themselves manipulate the rituals and it results in such kind of outcomes. Hope all of this is corrected soon☺🌸
      Thank you.

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  17. I had heard of the DEVADASI system and wonders how anyone justify it.How can any religion explain harming women and children? It’s the Dalit I never heard of. I had no idea there another name for the Untouchable. Aren’t these murderers ever brought to justice?

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    1. No religion justifies such acts. It is the people who manipulate the rituals into criminal acts like this.
      This system isn’t legal according to law so anyone who is found participating in this ritual is punished.

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  19. Your post is both reasonable and brave. Certainly, the cast system must be eliminated. Equality of life has to be the way. In the USA, there is a class system based on wealth. I wish we would do away with that. It’s used, however unspoken the way, to divide up human worth.

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  21. Well written Shivani! The caste system is still very much alive, admit it or not. Also, would like to read something about your views on the reservation system. Words of wisdom are here and valid points have been made. I did not know about the Devdasi system, it’s horrible. Have you heard of the Breast tax in South and Nangeli? Do read on that!

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    1. No, I haven’t heard about the breast tax and I will surely read about it. Also I’ll right my views about reservation system as it’s really a crucial issue.
      Thank you for the appreciation🌸

      Liked by 1 person

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  24. I am very sorry to hear about the existence of caste system and devadasi system in the present time. I never thought they would linger around in the modern world. In Bengal, we don’t have a caste system in the modern era. It sounds like as if casteism never existed.

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      1. Firstly, I’m not teaching anything here. I’m on a social platform where I have a right to speak my point of view.
        Secondly, if people agree with me then how does it offend you? It is visible out here how the caste system shaped society.

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      5. “we argue that the cessation of Hindu intellectual engagement with the Manu Smriti has meant that specific verses from the text divorced from their social and historical context have been used to promote anti-Hindu worldviews through school and undergraduate level textbooks even certain columnists have used the text to draw false equivalence with the tyranny inspired by fundamentalism of non-Indic religions. Ultimately, this invariably promotes a morbid philosophy of progressive Hindu deracination while creating caste schisms through a simplistic narrative of shudra victimhood and Brahmanical hegemony”

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      6. Not indoctrination. Honestly, casteism virtually doesn’t exist in West Bengal. After the Bengali Renaissance Bengalis have forgotten caste system. What troubles us now is preference for Islam and anti secular rule of the ruling party. But that doesn’t stop us from living our Muslim Brothers. Though, non violent hatred exists among adults.

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      9. See ,this theory which blames the non existent caste system is ridiculous to me.I mean these lallus draw reference points of their convenience .And refuse to view things from any other perspective .They have a mission ..to cause chaos that is imo.

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      10. Non-existent caste system? So according to you, the caste system is non existent. Don’t you see or know what’s going around in India due to the prevailing caste system or you just pretend to not know about it?
        I’m not drawing reference point of my convenience instead you’re the one doing that. Also get your facts right first.

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      11. “In this article, we argue that the cessation of Hindu intellectual engagement with the Manu Smriti has meant that specific verses from the text divorced from their social and historical context have been used to promote anti-Hindu worldviews through school and undergraduate level textbooks even certain columnists have used the text to draw false equivalence with the tyranny inspired by fundamentalism of non-Indic religions. Ultimately, this invariably promotes a morbid philosophy of progressive Hindu deracination while creating caste schisms through a simplistic narrative of shudra victimhood and Brahmanical hegemony ignoring the underlying, often complex social reality which determined social stratification and hierarchy in pre-modern India.”

        http://indiafacts.org/manu-smriti-locating-dharma-adharma-light-modernity/

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      12. “In this article, we argue that the cessation of Hindu intellectual engagement with the Manu Smriti has meant that specific verses from the text divorced from their social and historical context have been used to promote anti-Hindu worldviews through school and undergraduate level textbooks even certain columnists have used the text to draw false equivalence with the tyranny inspired by fundamentalism of non-Indic religions. Ultimately, this invariably promotes a morbid philosophy of progressive Hindu deracination while creating caste schisms through a simplistic narrative of shudra victimhood and Brahmanical hegemony ignoring the underlying, often complex social reality which determined social stratification and hierarchy in pre-modern India.”

        http://indiafacts.org/manu-smriti-locating-dharma-adharma-light-modernity/

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      13. My blog isn’t going against religion or I’m not preaching something here. It’s about modern times and how caste system has affected the country in the modern era.

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      14. Not a sincere take that means.Attack on the caste system is an attack on Hinduism .Your version of the caste system is evil perhaps not mine.You need to keep geopolitics and feudal methods away from Manu’s varna sanstha.How easily you take things out of context and make polarizing statements ..

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      16. And if people take the truth as an offence that isn’t my responsibility.
        The prevalence of the caste system is one of the reasons for atrocities and the stereotyped mindset of people. That’s the ugly harsh truth and if you aren’t brave enough to accept it then that’s your personal problem.

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      18. These dumb youngsters do not bother developing a spherical perspective .They are happy with sensationalism ..what a plight I say..totally deplorable

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      19. Just because we youngsters don’t agree with you doesn’t make us dumb. We do know what’s going on around us as well as what’s wrong and what’s right.
        If you can’t respect my opinion and perspective instead of trying to prove yourself right and getting offended then that’s your problem.

        Liked by 1 person

      23. Let me be very honest, if you live in Bengal, you will feel as if, caste system doesn’t exist outside of social science text books. Even the politicians don’t make any statement regarding caste. Another instance, of a virtual absence of caste system in Bengal is that, even old people don’t remember and follow their caste norms. The only time when caste is remembered is job interviews. I know a lot of people, who claim themselves to be SC/ST yet are more affluent than their entire respective neighborhood. They misuse this to enter jobs which the are not qualified for. Trust me. They didn’t become rich by getting reserved jobs, but still misuse this status. Many vegetable and fruit sellers in Bengali bazaars are PhDs! Cremation Ground employees are often found to be qualified Engineers without job. I sound weird, I know. I know there is a hug world outside Bengal. I am willing to know more, but trust me, someone called me names for respectfully asking them for more information. You seem sensible enough to judge my comment. If you grew up in Bengal, it would become rather impossible for you to understand caste discrimination. Religion is all that discriminates us in Bengal.

        Liked by 2 people

      24. That’s great that the caste system doesn’t exist in Bengal but on the larger side, it prevails all over India.
        Hope so discrimination on the basis of caste system decreases all over India and comes to an end later on.
        Talking about the reservation system, it doesn’t do justice with people especially students. A lot of general category students lose opportunities to SC/ST due to the reservation system.

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      25. I had mentioned in my comment, that I know Bengal is not the entire world. I am also interested to know more about it. Honestly, the web didn’t satisfy me. All it had was Board Exam Type Answers. And I am very happy to see that you didnt call me a politically biased or a stupid teen like another person. Lots of good wishes with your wonderful blog.

        Liked by 2 people

      1. Shivani reflects a leftist view.She only chooses to find the so called caste system as the reason behind atrocities .Which is totally false and reflects poorly undertanding of sub continental geo politics.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. If talking about the social evils prevailing in society makes me a leftist then that’s completely okay. Also, I’ve written more blogs on other social evils which lead to many more atrocities. If only you would’ve completely gone through them.
        I see how you are getting offended with my post and the comments of others. My other blogs are going to offend you much more.

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      1. I think you need to think deeply about it and see what’s actually happening around due to the caste system. How Dalits are being tortured, how many people have to give up on love and how many honour killing cases take place due to different caste.
        In the end, everyone is human. God doesn’t discriminate and our law doesn’t discriminate then who are we to discriminate.

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  29. wow very nice and important article blog post,,,,,It’s help me and our new generation people very much,,,,I regular read your post,,,,,waiting for your next blog post,,,Thank you very much.

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  30. Your blog is interesting. I would love to chat with you offline about my research on interfaith interracial couples. I am particularly interested in interviewing Muslim/Hindu or Christian/Hindu couples in India who are either from different countries/races or are intercaste. Perhaps your audience maybe able to help shed light social justice advocacy and the benefits of marriages that cross traditional boundaries? Would you reach out to tanya.sadagopan@unitedseminary.edu? Thanks! And keep up the blogging.

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  36. I think the talk of caste is dubious politics.I mean if the caste system was such a bad thing then why didn’t everybody who felt persecuted become Muslims ? Islam was in India for almost 1000 years .I mean come on stop wasting time finding non existent faults.The caste system was beneficial hence it existed.We don’t have to view it from a European modernist or leftist perspective.Discrimination is as natural as no discrimination.Where are the rationalists here in?

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    1. How is the caste system beneficial when the Dalits are being tortured and killed just for entering a temple or for any other petty reason. Do you think untouchability is something good that is being practised? If discrimination on the basis of caste wouldn’t have been wrong, it wouldn’t have been outlawed.
      Discrimination is not natural. No one is born discriminating people. In fact, only non-discrimination is natural.
      Also, people have a problem with the caste system, not their religion yet many Dalits in South have actually converted to Muslims.

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      1. Why are you falsely finding faults in a system ? Atrocities are committed by people on other people..why such a polarized view I ask.Hegemony is/was universal after all.It is in fact human nature to some extent.So don’t make that random set of atrocity literature as your bible I say..have a learned perspective ..

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      2. If only there wouldn’t have existed a caste system there wouldn’t have been such division as lower caste or upper caste and the Dalits wouldn’t have been tortured or killed. So ultimately, it starts because of the system.
        As you don’t see anything wrong in the caste system, the same way you must not be seeing anything wrong in the dowry system or any other such thing as according to you that’s the human nature and there’s no need to blame the system which is non-existent for you.

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      3. Totally wrong.Class division is found in most feudal societies .China had it ,Japan had it ,Burma has it.Don’t singularly denigrate the subcontinental systems .

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      4. I know about the class system existing in these countries. Someone even commented about the class system existing in his country. I’m aware of that but here I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the caste system that does exist and that is the dark truth.

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  37. Casteism is a curse to Indian society. We live in a world of hypocrites where on one hand we follow a blind line and on the other, the people misuse these all the time. It was an interesting post!

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  38. The caste system did not exist so rigidly before the British who classified it..Earlier a person from any caste could go into other caste..When the British took over from East India company they wanted to make a bureaucratic system and they wanted to make a classification which should be rigid.in 1871 at the time of the first census the British started using the word caste and later on religion..
    Caste has its origin from the word “casta”which means bloodline.The aristocrat in Europe whose bloodline was like dynasty.From their bloodline came the word casta.and then caste.so if one wants to study the origin how it came in India one recent example is of Rwanda.Its an African country and when the Socialogist and behavioural scientist studied deeply, analysed what happened in 1994 in that country they found that it happened because the History was problematic.
    Germany was colony in Rwanda like the British in India.They started writing History books..The social system in Rwanda was flexible ,fluid and changeable.The Twa were 1%,Hutu and Tutsi were 20 -80 % and they changed according to number of cattle they owned.after WW1 Germany lost.Rwanda came under Belgium colonizers.When you have centralised structure you have classification and Belgium started using i-card and made a registry.The fluidity was gone and the ones who were Hutu,Tutsi got only that card.Europeans understood that it was caste and elite class continued this even after Belgium left.and what they wrote about in history created hatred in generations of Tutsi and Hutu towards each other and that led to biggest ever imagined in 1994.
    Caste system given to India by British
    300 BC book ‘Indica’ by Megasthenes dispels caste theories of India.Megasthenes was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat,Greek ambassador to India.

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  39. The caste system did not exist so rigidly before the British who classified it..Earlier a person from any caste could go into other caste..When the British took over from East India company they wanted to make a bureaucratic system and they wanted to make a classification which should be rigid.in 1871 at the time of the first census the British started using the word caste and later on religion..
    Caste has its origin from the word “casta”which means bloodline.The aristocrat in Europe whose bloodline was like dynasty.From their bloodline came the word casta.and then caste.so if one wants to study the origin how it came in India one recent example is of Rwanda.Its an African country and when the Socialogist and behavioural scientist studied deeply, analysed what happened in 1994 in that country they found that it happened because the History was problematic.
    Germany was colony in Rwanda like the British in India.They started writing History books..The social system in Rwanda was flexible ,fluid and changeable.The Twa were 1%,Hutu and Tutsi were 20 -80 % and they changed according to number of cattle they owned.after WW1 Germany lost.Rwanda came under Belgium colonizers.When you have centralised structure you have classification and Belgium started using i-card and made a registry.The fluidity was gone and the ones who were Hutu,Tutsi got only that card.Europeans understood that it was caste and elite class continued this even after Belgium left.and what they wrote about in history created hatred in generations of Tutsi and Hutu towards each other and that led to biggest ever imagined in 1994.
    Caste system given to India by British
    300 BC book ‘Indica’ by Megasthenes dispels caste theories of India.Megasthenes was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat,Greek ambassador to India.

    Liked by 1 person

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  40. It was immensely great to watch and critically reckon over the unjust systems still prevalent in India. It’s highly appreciable to have our opinions over socially disgusting traits!

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  42. Honestly, It’s killing me to read the cases of lynching or honour killing almost everyday. Seriously these religious leaders are fooling people well. And media is busy forming twisted theories to gain TRP and counting non existent achievements of our government.

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    1. The moment I think, Indian media can’t go any low, they prove me wrong. Speculating new and trying to build hatred in the hearts of people is what it is actually doing now and they’ve even succeeded in doing so. They destroyed the unity and harmony of the country.

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  45. I really liked your blog! It is indeed a fact which i guess will remain the same untill we understand what is beneficial for every citizen and the country. Being human is the supreme of all, even our religion speaks the same, but the only problem is with time, people manipulate the conceptions into misconceptions and it end up killing a soul and a clan for ever. Thanks for posting such nice blog.

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  48. We talk about empowerment and social parity, yet a majority of us are still reeling under a bottled thought process that doesn’t allow us to accept fellow-humans with the dignity an respect they deserve.

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