UNDERSTANDING CASTES
The word Caste is derived from the Portuguese word casta,
meaning lineage, breed or race. There are
many theories, definition and observations concerning this term. In practice,
however, this term denotes the hereditarily imposed social status on an
individual, family, group or community in a highly stratified Indian and South
Asian Society. It is essentially historical, hereditary, exclusive,
discriminatory, inequitous and inhumane in nature and has been sanctified by
the Hindu religious scriptures and has been accepted and regarded by Hindus and
the priestly classes of non-Hindu religions in
Many intellectuals have tried to define the
nature of Caste. Most prominent among them are the following:
SENART, E. (1927). LES CASTES DANS’ L’INDE
Caste is a close
corporation, in theory at any rate rigorously
hereditary: equipped with a certain traditional and independent
organisation, including a chief and a council, meeting on occasion in
assemblies of more or less plenary authority and
joining together at certain festivals : bound together by common occupations, which relate
more particularly to marriage and to food and to questions of ceremonial
pollution, and ruling its members by the exercise of jurisdiction, the extent
of which varies, but which succeeds in making the authority of the community more felt by the sanction of detrain penalties and,
above all, by final irrevocable exclusion from the
group.
J
C NESFIELD, BRIEF VIEW OF THE CASTE SYSTEM OF THE
Caste is a class
of the community which disowns any connection with any other class and can neither
intermarry nor eat nor drink with any but persons
of their own community.
RISLEY,
H H, THE TRIBES AND CASTES OF BENGA, VOLS 1 AND 2,
FIRMA MUKHOPADHYAY,
A caste may be
defined as a collection of families or groups of families bearing a common name
which usually denotes or is associated with specific occupation, claiming
common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine, professing to follow the same professional callings and
are regarded by those who are competent to give an opinion as forming a single homogeneous community.
KETKAR, S.V., HISTORY OF CASTE, VOL.I,
Caste is a social group
having two characteristics:
(i) membership is confined to those
who are born of members and includes all persons so
born; (ii) the members
are forbidden by an inexorable social law to marry outside the group.
DR. B. R. AMBEDKAR ON CASTE:
p
CASTES IN
p
ANNIHILATION OF CASTE
INTER-CASTE MARRIAGES
LEAD LYNCHING
Whatever may be the
theoretical nature of the caste, it has rendered Indian society into thousand
of endogamous communities, who by have accustomed to preserve this endogamy. Indians or South Asians, however modern they
are, living in
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CAST AWAY BY CASTES S. Murugesan
and D. Kannagi fell in love with each other when
they were university students in Chidambaram. In culmination of their love
affair, the pair tied the knot and registered their marriage at the Registrar
of Hindu Marriages in Cuddalore on May 5 last year.
Yet the young couple kept it a secret from their parents because they were
from two different castes. Kannagi, 22, was a Vanniya and Murugesan, 25, a
Dalit. They both were from the After getting married the
couple spent a few days in the place of one of Murugesan's
relatives. They then decided to stay apart for a while as they were afraid of
objections to their marriage from their families and the community that they
lived in. They maintained contact through letters. Soon Kannagi's
family found out about the secret and showed disapproval in all manners. Murugesan later secured a job as a
chemical engineer and came to Kannagi's house on
July 3 last year. They fled together without leaving a note. The
disappearance of Kannagi prompted a search for her
at once as her father was the local panchayat
president. The search ended up in Murugesan's house
four days later. Kannagi's family allegedly took Murugesan away and tortured him for information of Kannagi's whereabouts. Murugesan
could not withstand the torture and finally told them where Kannagi was. The couple was then brought back to the
village. They were forced to drink poison in public. They were killed and
their bodies were burnt. Yet the local people witnessed in silence the brutal
"punishment" of the pair for violating the rules of the caste
structure. The caste structure and the
injunctions attached to it control the social life and define the role of an
individual in |
HABITATION HAS CASTE
From the time
immemorial, the Dalits in
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DALIT'S HOUSE
RAZED IN AMETHI Some upper caste members allegedly set ablaze two thatched
houses, pulled down a dalit's house and roughed up
a woman in a village in Amethi Lok
Sabha constituency represented by Congress' Rahul Gandhi. Gaya Prasad, whose house
in Dulapur A case was registered in the Mushiganj
police station and senior civil and police officials have reached the spot. |
WATER KNOWS CASTE
In 1927, Dr. Ambedkar
had to launch Mahad Struggle to establish Dalit right
on common water resources. Situation since then has improved, but caste bias are
still very strong. Recently in Chakwara, a dusty
village, barely 50 kilometres from Jaipur, Rajasthan, witnessed turmoil over the issue of
access to the common village pond. The pond and the steps leading to it (ghats) have been maintained over the years with state funds
and village contributions, including the Dalits’ too. There was no reason but caste rules that treats
them lower than the buffaloes and pigs which have access to the pond.
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LOW CASTE SURVIVORS OF TSUNAMI DENIED FOOD AND WATER Thousands of low caste Indian
"untouchables" are being denied food, water and shelter by higher
castes in camps for tsunami survivors. Around 5,000 Dalits from the worst hit
area south of Fishermen from the higher Meenavar caste also turned the Dalits, who they employed
as labourers before the tsunami, out of shelters,
gave them leftovers to eat and prevented them from using lavatories. At one camp outside Nagapattinam, the Dalits were accused of polluting
drinking water supplied by the United Nations and were told at another that
biscuits being handed out were not for them. When the Dalits asked for food
packages and clothes, they were pushed away and forced to sleep on a nearby
road because upper caste women said they did not "feel safe" with
them around. "There are no toilets here
and the upper castes even prevent us from using the area which serves others
as an open toilet," said V Vanith, a Dalit
teenager. Dalits, a third of |
CASTE IS EDUCATION
Not only in habitation or common property resources,
this social segregation of Dalits is also maintained in education and business.
In many parts of