its pussy's post! x) |
Human beings have for centuries been on the lookout for bigger and better ways to discriminate their counterparts.Among the more popular forms of discrimination, like racial discrimination (eg."Come hea' ya filthy nigger") , gender discrimination ( eg. "Go make me a sandwich woman") and religious discrimination (Eg. "He's just a money - grabbin' Jew"), lies a form of discrimination known as 'caste discrimination' , which is unique only to the Indian sub continent. Yes , adding to the long list of superlatives in India's pocket , (including most number of malnourished children , some of the worst roads and the most number of homeless people ) , is a particularly vicious form of discrimination known as caste discrimination.
If you haven't heard of caste discrimination , well you're probably one of the NRI's who stock up on toilet paper when making their token visit to India. In this project , we shall go through the whole process of caste discrimination, in so much detail, that this report would be more aptly titled, were it called 'caste discrimination for dummies '.
What does caste discrimination comes from?
Caste discrimination originally wasn't discrimination at all levels. If you travelled back in time (although I don't know why you would want to,since they did not have running water back then), you would find a society in which every member belonged to one of four occupations - unless they were a dead beat person, who lived off his familys earnings. These four occupations were a) brahmana b) kshatriya c)vaishya d) shudra
Although people weren't discriminated according to which occupation they belonged to, there was a definite hierarchy to this. Brahmanas were highest regarded people. These lucky people did all the praying and chanting and assumed the role of messengers of god. Now since the olden day people were not stupid (they did not have twilight back then to deaden their brain cells) , they knew that no one messes with the gods. So, they awarded the brahmanas with the highest status in order to appease the realm of supernatural.
Next in line , were the kshatriyas. In the event that the gods were unable to keep the ancient societies free from invaders, they appointed the kshatriyas. The kshatriyas were stud muffins who put on their suits of armour and rode their horses to conquer the world. Being all macho and putting their life on the line, these daredevils got the admiration of all the jasmine scented ladies. But they felt this wasn't enough. The kshatriyas couldn't be sidelined either, for they had pretty sharp swords. So to keep their bodies puncture free, the people awarded them the second highest status.
The vaishyas were the merchants. As any materialistic person knows , god and peace are not enough to lead a happy life. Even Pontius Pilate would probably not have subjected jesus to crucification if he was shown a million dollars ( and was declared australia's next master chef ) The people were nervous that their merchants would protest against not being given a definite status and go on strike.Whatever would they do without any money to buy the world's finest dhotis and chilli powder? To avoid this the grim prospect of an ancient society recession, the vaishyas were bestowed with the third highest status.
At the bottom of the hierarchy were the shudras. The term 'errand boy ' is more appropriate. If there was a slipper to fix or a leaky roof to be sealed , there would be a shudra , with his handy tool belt. The shudras also dabbled in agriculture. But in their backyards , they were hard at work, creating the deathly hallows.
SEEMS LIKE DISCRIMINATION TO ME
well it isn't, okay. Discrimination would entail rigidity, common practices and the occasional finger pointing. Back in the day however, none of these characteristics came into play. For instance, if a boy was tired of his kshatriya family's murderous and violent ways of, he could snap his fingers and ta-dah! he could become a holier than thou brahmana.
So when did this change?
Roughly around the post vedic period, the elders decided to become mean old gasbags.With their mood swing , came a whole host of reforms to the system. They decided they would no longer tolerate indecisive people jumping like pogo sticks from one caste to another. Caste systems became more rigid than snooki's hair and there were more rules in the caste system than there are in jail.
Meat was snatched away from the brahmana's hungry mouths and was replaced with less satisfying vegetables.
If a shudra fell in love with a nubile vaishya girl , well that was too bad, because now only marriages within the castes were allowed . From then on , if a child was born in a brahmana family, he was destined to become a brahmana , irrespective of whether he wished to fight , bargain or plough.
By
Rhea 'Jane'