Question

How did casteism in India cause a major problem for various people? Explain with the help of a story in detail.

Answer 1

In India, the caste system developed and is prevalent since ancient times and it remains as a great thorn and mystery in the flesh of Mother India.It is believed to have been adopted by the Brahmins to express their superiority and to maintain it. Then the Aryan races swept into India from the North and they wanted them to be superior to the insiders and so they maintained the prevalent caste systems. Gradually the caste system became formalized into four major groups, each with its own rules and regulations and code of conduct.

The caste system finds its origin in functional groupings, called varnas, which have their origins in the Aryan society. In their creation myth, four varnas are said to have emanated from the Primeval Being.  "According to the Rig Veda hymn, the different classes sprang from the four limbs of the Creator. The Creator’s mouth became the Brahman priests, his two arms formed the Rajanya (Khastriyas), the warriors and kings, his two thighs formed the Vaishya landowners and merchants, and from his feet were born the Shudra (Untouchables) artisans and servants. It was meant to show that the four classes stood in relation to the social organization in the same relation as the different organs of the Primordial Man to his body. Together they had to function to give vitality to the body politic.”

 "A person’s worth is determined by his knowledge and capacity and the inherent qualities which mark his conduct in life.” The four fold division of castes’ says the Creator in the Bhagavad Gita, “was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and duties.” “Not birth, not sacrament, not learning, make one dvija (twice-born), but righteous conduct alone causes it.” “Be he a Sudra or a member of any other class, says the Lord in the same epic, “he that serves as a raft on a raftless current , or helps to ford the unfordable, deserves respect in everyway.”

 

This caste system became fixed and hereditary with the emergence of Hinduism and its beliefs of pollution and rebirth. The Laws of Manu (Manusmitri),  refer to the impurity and servility of the outcastes, while affirming the dominance and total impunity of Brahmins. Those from the “lowest” castes are told that their place in the caste hierarchy is due to their sins in a past life.  Vivid punishments of torture and death are assigned for crimes such as gaining literacy or insulting a member of a dominant caste.  Among the writings of Hindu religious texts, the Manusmitri is undoubtedly the most authoritative one, legitimizing social exclusion and introducing absolute inequality as the guiding principle of social relation.

:) Hope it will help you.