The whole history of the caste is very interesting. Does anyone know why it started? and was it a universal thing wherever Hinduism is practiced?
Well here it goes:
1. The Vedas, the holiest of scriptures in Hinduism, specify a system of organisation in society as follows:
a. The Brahmins: The priests.
b. The Kshatriyas: The warriors/rulers/kings etc.
c. The Vaishyas: The traders
d. The Dalits: The labourers/proletariat.
Now, according to the vedas, anybody can become any of these four i.e. the son of a Brahmin can become a Dalit and the son of a Dalit can become a brahmin which means that it does not carry from father to son. It depends on the sons knowledge and profession.
Now, the Brahmins, over a period of thousands of years, started manipulating this original structure of the caste system as specified in the Vedas to suit their own interests. They had to keep control of the society in their firm grip.
The Brahmins started projecting this system as one carrying on from father to son, something that was quite different to what was originally specified in the Vedas.
What this implied was that only the son of a Brahmin could become a Brahmin, the son of a Kashatriya would by default become a Kashatriya and so on for traders and dalits.
Now the dalits were actually the poorest of the lot as well the most oppressed of the lot.
Over a period of thousands of years, this distorted interpretation of the caste system led to a widespread discrimination against the Dalits. They became untouchables because of the seemingly unsavory jobs that they practiced. They were the sweepers, the cobblers etc. and these jobs were obviously not the cleanest of all the jobs and this led to their being discriminated against.
Slowly and slowly, this distorted system spread its roots across the length and breadth of India. It was everywhere and nobody could escape it.
Then came the Mughals and brought Islam with them. Now Islam didn't have any such thing as caste system. This made Islam a very lucrative option for the Dalits and many of them converted to Islam.
Then came the British and brought Christianity with them, Again, like Islam, Christianity had no such thing as Caste system. Again, many Dalits converted to Christianity.
Then India became independent and adopted the British style of governance and democracy. The man who crafted the Indian constitution, Mr. B R Ambedkar was himself a Dalit and under his supervision, India decided to do away with the caste system formally in its contitution.
The Indian constitution proscribed Caste System.
Now as of today, as people are become more and more educated, Caste system is slowly fading away. The progress, I must admit, is very very slow.
It's something that is deeply embedded into the Indian psyche. It's been so for thousands of years.
It's very obvious that something so deeply embedded in society is not going to go away in a few decades. It'll take another hundred years to completely vanish from India.
So that's the story of Caste System in India.
