What are castes in India? All about Indian castes

Divided people into four classes called varnas. He created the first varna, the brahmanas, intended to enlighten and govern humanity, from his head or mouth; the second, kshatriyas (warriors), protectors of society, from the hand; the third, Vaishya, the nourishers of the state, from the stomach; the fourth, sudra, from the legs, devoting it to an eternal destiny - to serve the highest varnas. Over time, the varnas were divided into many sub-castes and castes, called jati in India. European name- caste.

So, the four ancient castes of India, their rights and duties according to the ancient law of Manu*, which was strictly observed in.

(* Laws of Manu - an ancient Indian collection of instructions for religious, moral and social duty (dharma), today also called the “law of the Aryans” or “code of honor of the Aryans”).

Brahmins

Brahman “son of the sun, descendant of Brahma, god among men” (the usual titles of this class), according to the law of Menu, is the head of all created creatures; the whole universe is subject to him; the rest of the mortals owe the preservation of their lives to his intercession and prayers; his almighty curse can instantly destroy formidable generals with their numerous hordes, chariots and war elephants. Brahman can create new worlds; may even give birth to new gods. A Brahmin should be given greater honor than a king.

The integrity of a Brahman and his life are protected by bloody laws. If a Shudra dares to verbally insult a Brahman, then the law orders that a red-hot iron be driven into his throat, ten inches deep; and if he decides to give some instruction to the brahmana, boiling oil is poured into the unfortunate man’s mouth and ears. On the other hand, anyone is allowed to take a false oath or give false testimony before a court if by these actions one can save a Brahman from condemnation.

A Brahman cannot, under any condition, be executed or punished, either physically or financially, although he would be convicted of the most outrageous crimes: the only punishment to which he is subject is removal from the fatherland, or exclusion from the caste.

Brahmins are divided into lay and spiritual, and are divided according to their occupations into various classes. It is noteworthy that among the spiritual Brahmins, the priests occupy the lowest level, and the highest are those who devoted themselves only to the interpretation of the sacred books. Lay brahmins are the king's advisors, judges and other high officials.

Only a brahmana is given the right to interpret sacred books, conduct worship and predict the future; but he is deprived of this last right if he makes a mistake in his predictions three times. A Brahman can primarily heal, for “illness is the punishment of the gods”; only a Brahmin can be a judge because the civil and criminal laws of the Hindus are included in their holy books.

The entire way of life of a brahmana is built on compliance with a whole set of strict rules. For example, all brahmins are prohibited from accepting gifts from unworthy persons (lower castes). Music, dancing, hunting and gambling are also prohibited to all brahmanas. But the consumption of wine and all sorts of intoxicating things, such as onions, garlic, eggs, fish, any meat, except from animals slaughtered as a sacrifice to the gods, is prohibited only to lower brahmanas.

A Brahman will defile himself if he sits at the same table even with the king, not to mention members of the lower castes or his own wives. He is obliged not to look at the sun at certain hours and to leave the house when it rains; he cannot step through the rope to which the cow is tied, and must pass by this sacred animal or idol, only leaving it on his right.

In case of need, a Brahman is allowed to beg alms from people of the three highest castes and engage in trade; but under no circumstances can he serve anyone.

A Brahman who wants to receive the honorary title of interpreter of laws and supreme guru prepares for this through various hardships. He renounces marriage, devotes himself to a thorough study of the Vedas in some monastery for 12 years, refraining from even conversation for the last 5 and explaining himself only by signs; Thus, he finally achieves the desired goal and becomes a spiritual teacher.

Monetary support for the Brahman caste is also provided for by law. Generosity towards Brahmins constitutes a religious virtue for all believers, and is the direct duty of rulers. Upon the death of a rootless Brahman, his property goes not to the treasury, but to the caste. A brahmana does not pay any taxes. Thunder would kill the king who dared to encroach on the person or property of a Brahman; the poor Brahmin is maintained at state expense.

The life of a Brahmin is divided into 4 stages.

First stage begins even before birth, when learned men are sent to the pregnant wife of a brahman for conversations in order to “thus prepare the child for the perception of wisdom.” At 12 days the baby is given a name, at three years his head is shaved, leaving only a piece of hair called kudumi. Several years later, the child is placed in the arms of a spiritual mentor (guru). Education with this guru usually lasts from 7-8 to 15 years. During the entire period of education, which consists mainly of the study of the Vedas, the student is obliged to blindly obey his mentor and all members of his family. He is often entrusted with the most menial household tasks, and he must perform them unquestioningly. The will of the guru replaces his law and conscience; his smile serves the best reward. At this stage, the child is considered one-born.

Second phase begins after the ritual of initiation or rebirth, which the young man undergoes after completing the teaching. From this moment on, he is twice-born. During this period, he marries, raises his family and performs the duties of a brahmin.

The third period of a brahmana's life is vanaprastra.. Having reached the age of 40, a brahmana enters the third period of his life, called vanaprastra. He must retire to deserted places and become a hermit. Here he covers his nakedness with tree bark or the skin of a black antelope; does not cut nails or hair; sleeps on a rock or on the ground; must spend days and nights “without a home, without a fire, in complete silence, and eating only roots and fruits.” The Brahman spends his days in prayer and mortification.

Having thus spent 22 years in prayer and fasting, the Brahmana enters the fourth department of life, called sannyas. Only here he is freed from all external rituals. The old hermit deepens into perfect contemplation. The soul of a brahmana who dies in a state of sannyas immediately acquires merger with the deity (nirvana); and his body, in a sitting position, is lowered into the pit and sprinkled with salt all around.

The color of a brahman's clothing depended on what spiritual structure they belonged to. Sanyasis, monks, renouncers wore clothes orange color, family - white.

Kshatriyas

The second caste consists of kshatriyas, warriors. According to the law of Menu, members of this caste could make sacrifices, and the study of the Vedas was a special duty for princes and heroes; but subsequently the Brahmins left them only permission to read or listen to the Vedas, without analyzing or interpreting them, and appropriated the right to explain the texts to themselves.

Kshatriyas must give alms, but not accept them, avoid vices and sensual pleasures, and live simply, “as befits a warrior.” The law states that “the priestly caste cannot exist without the warrior caste, just as the latter cannot exist without the former, and that the peace of the whole world depends on the consent of both, on the union of knowledge and the sword.”

With few exceptions, all kings, princes, generals and first rulers belong to the second caste; Since ancient times, the judicial part and the management of education have been in the hands of Brahmins (Brahmins). Kshatriyas are allowed to consume all meat except beef. This caste was previously divided into three parts: all the ruling and non-ruling princes (rayas) and their children (rayanutras) belonged to the upper class.

Kshatriyas wore red clothes.

Vaishya

The third caste is the Vaishyas. Previously, they too participated both in sacrifices and in the right to read the Vedas, but later, through the efforts of the brahmanas, they lost these advantages. Although the Vaishyas stood much lower than the Kshatriyas, they still occupied an honorable place in society. They had to engage in trade, arable farming and cattle breeding. The Vaishya's rights to property were respected, and his fields were considered inviolable. He had the religious right to let money grow.

The highest castes - Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, used all three scarfs, senar, each caste - their own, and were called twice-born, as opposed to once-born - Shudras.

Shudras

The duty of a sudra, Menu says briefly, is to serve the three highest castes. It is best for a Shudra to serve a Brahmin, if not a Kshatriya, and finally a Vaishya. In this only case, if he does not find an opportunity to enter into service, he is allowed to take up a useful craft. The soul of a Shudra, who has diligently and honestly served his entire life as a Brahmin, upon migration, is reborn into a person of the highest caste.

A Shudra is forbidden to even look at the Vedas. A Brahman not only has no right to interpret the Vedas to a Shudra, but is also obliged to read them to himself in the presence of the latter. A Brahmin who allows himself to interpret the law to a Shudra, or explain to him the means of repentance, will be punished in the Asamarit hell.

A Shudra must eat the scraps of his masters and wear their cast-offs. He is forbidden to acquire anything, “so that he does not take it into his head to become arrogant to the temptation of the sacred Brahmins.” If a Shudra verbally insults a Veisha or a Kshatriya, his tongue is cut out; if he dares to sit next to the Brahman, or take his place, then a red-hot iron is applied to the more guilty part of the body. The name of a sudra, says the law of Menu: there is a swear word, and the fine for killing it does not exceed the amount that is paid for the death of an unimportant domestic animal, for example, a dog or a cat. Killing a cow is considered a much more reprehensible act: killing a Shudra is a misdemeanor; Killing a cow is a sin!

Bondage is the natural position of a Shudra, and the master cannot free him by giving him leave; “for, says the law: who, except death, can liberate a Sudra from the natural state?”

It is quite difficult for us Europeans to understand such an alien world and we, involuntarily, want to bring everything under our own concepts - and this is what misleads us. So, for example, according to the concepts of the Hindus, the Shudras constitute a class of people designated by nature for service in general, but at the same time they are not considered slaves and do not constitute the property of private individuals.

The attitude of the masters towards the Shudras, despite the given examples of an inhuman view of them, from a religious point of view, was determined by civil law, especially the measure and method of punishment, which in all respects coincided with the patriarchal punishments allowed by folk custom in the relations of father to son or elder brother to to the younger, husband to wife, and guru to disciple.

Impure castes

Just as almost everywhere women were subjected to discrimination and all kinds of restrictions, so in India the strictness of the division of castes weighs much more heavily on women than on men. When entering into a second marriage, a man is allowed to choose a wife from a lower caste other than a Shudra. So, for example, a Brahmin can marry a woman of the second or even third caste; the children of this mixed marriage will occupy a middle rank between the castes of the father and mother. A woman, marrying a man of a lower caste, commits a crime: she defiles herself and all her offspring. Shudras can only marry among themselves.

The mixing of any of the castes with the Shudras gives rise to impure castes, of which the most despicable is the one that comes from the mixing of a Shudra with a Brahmin. The members of this caste are called Chandalas, and must be executioners or flayers; the touch of a chandala entails expulsion from the caste.

The Untouchables

Below the unclean castes there is still a miserable race of pariahs. They do the lowest jobs together with the Chandals. The pariahs skin the carrion, process it, and eat the meat; but they abstain from cow meat. Their touch defiles not only a person, but also objects. They have their own special wells; near the cities they are given a special quarter, surrounded by a moat and slingshots. They also do not have the right to show themselves in villages, but must hide in forests, caves and swamps.

A Brahmin, defiled by the shadow of a pariah, must bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges, for only they can wash away such a stain of shame.

Even lower than the Pariah are the Pulai, who live on the Malabar Coast. Slaves of the Nairs, they are forced to take refuge in damp dungeons, and do not dare to raise their eyes to the noble Hindu. Seeing a Brahmin or Nair from afar, the pulai emit a loud roar to warn the masters of their proximity, and while the “gentlemen” wait on the road, they must hide in a cave, in the thicket of the forest, or climb a tall tree. Those who did not have time to hide are cut down by the Nairs like an unclean reptile. The Pulai live in terrible untidiness, eating carrion and all kinds of meat except cow meat.

But even a pulai can rest for a moment from the overwhelming universal contempt; There are human creatures even more pitiful, lower than him: these are the pariyars, lower because, sharing all the humiliation of the pulai, they allow themselves to eat cow meat!.. You can imagine how the soul of a devout Hindu shudders at such sacrilege, and therefore the Europeans and Muslims who also do not respect the sanctity of fat Indian cows and introduce them to the location of their kitchen, all of them, in his opinion, morally, are completely in line with the despicable pariar.

Recently I was preparing an anthropology essay on the topic “Indian Mentality”. The creation process was very exciting, since the country itself amazes with its traditions and characteristics. If anyone is interested, read it.

I was especially struck by the plight of women in India, the phrase that “The husband is the earthly God” is very difficult life untouchables (the last class in India), and the happy existence of cows and bulls.

Contents of the first part:
1. General information
2. Castes

1 . General information about India

Indian territory in the north it extends 2930 km in the latitudinal direction, and 3220 km in the meridional direction. India is bordered by the Arabian Sea in the west, the Indian Ocean in the south and the Bay of Bengal in the east. Its neighbors are Pakistan in the northwest, China, Nepal and Bhutan in the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. India also shares maritime borders with the Maldives in the southwest, Sri Lanka in the south and Indonesia in the southeast. The disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan.

India ranks seventh in the world by area, second largest population (after China) , on this moment lives in it 1.2 billion people. India has had one of the highest population densities in the world for thousands of years.

Religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism originated in India. In the first millennium AD, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam also came to the Indian subcontinent, which had a great influence on the formation of the diverse culture of the region.

More than 900 million Indians (80.5% of the population) profess Hinduism. Other religions with significant numbers of followers are Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%) and Jainism (0.4%). Religions such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Baha'i and others are also represented in India. Animism is common among the aboriginal population, which makes up 8.1%.

Almost 70% of Indians live in rural areas, although last decades migration to large cities led to a sharp increase in the urban population. The largest cities in India are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Kolkata), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In terms of cultural, linguistic and genetic diversity, India ranks second in the world after the African continent. The gender composition of the population is characterized by an excess of men over the number of women. The male population is 51.5%, and the female population is 48.5%. For every thousand men there are 929 women, this ratio has been observed since the beginning of this century.

India is the birthplace of the Indo-Aryan language group(74% of the population) and Dravidian language family(24% of the population). Other languages ​​spoken in India come from the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, the most widely spoken language in India, is the official language of the Indian government. English language, which is widely used in business and administration, has the status of an “auxiliary official language”, it also plays a large role in education, especially in secondary and higher education. The Constitution of India defines 21 official language spoken by a significant portion of the population or which have classical status. There are 1652 dialects in India.

Climate humid and warm, mostly tropical, tropical monsoon in the north. India, located in tropical and subequatorial latitudes, fenced off by the wall of the Himalayas from the influence of continental Arctic air masses, is one of the hottest countries in the world with a typical monsoon climate. The monsoon rhythm of precipitation determines the rhythm of economic work and the entire way of life. 70-80% of the annual rainfall falls during the four months of the monsoon season (June-September), when the southwest monsoon arrives and rains almost incessantly. This is the main Kharif field season. October-November is the post-monsoon period when the rains mostly stop. Winter season(December-February) dry and cool, at this time roses and many other flowers bloom, many trees bloom - this is the most pleasant time to visit India. March-May is the hottest, driest season, when temperatures often exceed 35 °C, often rising above 40 °C. This is a time of sweltering heat, when the grass burns out, leaves fall from the trees, and air conditioners work at full capacity in rich houses.

National animal - tiger.

National bird - peacock.

National flower - lotus.

National fruit - mango.

The national currency is the Indian rupee.

India can be called the cradle of human civilization. The Indians were the first in the world to learn how to grow rice, cotton, and sugar cane, and they were the first to raise poultry. India gave the world chess and the decimal system.
The average literacy rate in the country is 52%, with the figure for men being 64% and for women 39%.

2. Castes in India

For many centuries, caste was determined primarily by profession. The profession that passed from father to son often did not change throughout the lives of dozens of generations.

Each caste lives according to its own dharma - with that set of traditional religious instructions and prohibitions, the creation of which is attributed to the gods, to divine revelation. Dharma determines the norms of behavior of members of each caste, regulates their actions and even feelings. Dharma is that elusive but immutable thing that is pointed out to a child already in the days of his first babble. Everyone must act in accordance with his own dharma, deviation from dharma is lawlessness - this is what children are taught at home and at school, this is what the brahmana - mentor and spiritual leader - repeats. And a person grows up in the consciousness of the absolute inviolability of the laws of dharma, their immutability.

Currently, the caste system is officially prohibited, and the strict division of crafts or professions depending on caste is gradually being eliminated, while at the same time a government policy is being pursued to reward those who have been oppressed for centuries at the expense of representatives of other castes. It is widely believed that in the modern Indian state castes are losing their former significance. However, developments have shown that this is far from the case.

In fact, the caste system itself has not gone away: when entering school, a student is asked about his religion, and if he professes Hinduism, his caste, in order to know whether there is a place in this school for representatives of this caste in accordance with state norms. When entering a college or university, caste is important in order to correctly estimate the threshold score (the lower the caste, the lower the number of points required for a passing grade). When applying for a job, caste is again important in order to maintain balance. Although castes are not forgotten even when arranging the future of their children - weekly supplements with marriage advertisements are published in major Indian newspapers, in which columns are divided into religions, and the most voluminous column is with representatives of Hinduism - to castes. Often under such advertisements, which describe the parameters of both the groom (or bride) and the requirements for the prospective applicants (or applicants), there is a standard phrase“Cast no bar”, which translated means “Caste does not matter”, but, to be honest, I doubt a little that a bride from the Brahman caste will be seriously considered by her parents for a groom from a caste lower than the Kshatriyas. Yes, inter-caste marriages are also not always approved, but they do happen if, for example, the groom occupies a higher position in society than the bride’s parents (but this is not a mandatory requirement - cases vary). In such marriages, the caste of the children is determined by the father. So, if a girl from a Brahmin family marries a Kshatriya boy, then their children will belong to the Kshatriya caste. If a Kshatriya youth marries a Veishya girl, then their children will also be considered Kshatriyas.

The official tendency to downplay the importance of the caste system has led to the disappearance of the corresponding column in the once-a-decade population censuses. The last time information about the number of castes was published was in 1931 (3000 castes). But this figure does not necessarily include all local podcasts that operate as independent social groups. In 2011, India plans to conduct a general population census, which will take into account the caste affiliation of the inhabitants of this country.

The main characteristics of the Indian caste:
. endogamy (marriage exclusively between caste members);
. hereditary membership (accompanied by the practical impossibility of moving to another caste);
. prohibition of sharing meals with representatives of other castes, as well as having sex with them physical contact;
. recognition of the firmly established place of each caste in the hierarchical structure of society as a whole;
. restrictions on choosing a profession;

Indians believe that Manu is the first person from whom we all descended. Once upon a time, the god Vishnu saved him from the Flood, which destroyed the rest of humanity, after which Manu came up with rules that should henceforth guide people. Hindus believe that it was 30 thousand years ago (historians stubbornly date the laws of Manu to the 1st-2nd centuries BC and generally claim that this collection of instructions is a compilation of the works of different authors). Like most other religious precepts, the laws of Manu are distinguished by exceptional meticulousness and attention to the most insignificant details human life- from swaddling babies to culinary recipes. But it also contains much more fundamental things. It is according to the laws of Manu that all Indians are divided into four estates - varnas.

Varnas, of which there are only four, are often confused with castes, of which there are a great many. Caste is a fairly small community of people united by profession, nationality and place of residence. And varnas are more similar to categories such as workers, entrepreneurs, employees and the intelligentsia.

There are four main varnas: Brahmanas (officials), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants) and Shudras (peasants, workers, servants). The rest are “untouchables”.

Brahmins are the highest caste in India.

In a typical rural area, the highest stratum of the caste hierarchy is formed by members of one or more Brahmin castes, constituting 5 to 10% of the population. Among these Brahmins there are a number of landowners, a few village clerks and accountants or accountants, and a small group of clergy who perform ritual functions in local sanctuaries and temples. Members of each Brahmin caste marry only within their own circle, although it is possible to marry a bride from a family belonging to a similar subcaste from a neighboring area. Brahmins are not supposed to follow the plow or perform certain types of manual labor; women from their midst can serve in the house, and landowners can cultivate plots, but not plow. Brahmins are also allowed to work as cooks or domestic servants.

A Brahman has no right to eat food prepared outside his caste, but members of all other castes can eat from the hands of Brahmans. When choosing food, a Brahmin observes many prohibitions. Members of the Vaishnava caste (who worship the god Vishnu) have adhered to vegetarianism since the 4th century, when it became widespread; some other castes of Brahmans who worship Shiva (Shaiva Brahmans) do not in principle refuse meat dishes, but abstain from the meat of animals included in the diet of lower castes.

Brahmins serve as spiritual guides in the families of most high- or middle-status castes, except those considered "impure". Brahmin priests, as well as members of a number of religious orders, are often recognized by their “caste marks” - patterns painted on the forehead with white, yellow or red paint. But such marks indicate only belonging to the main sect and characterize this person as a worshiper of, for example, Vishnu or Shiva, and not as a subject of a particular caste or sub-caste.
Brahmins, more than others, adhere to the occupations and professions that were provided for in their varna. Over the course of many centuries, scribes, clerks, clergymen, scientists, teachers and officials emerged from their midst. Back in the first half of the 20th century. in some areas, brahmins occupied up to 75% of all more or less important government positions.

In communicating with the rest of the population, Brahmins do not allow reciprocity; Thus, they accept money or gifts from members of other castes, but they themselves never make gifts of a ritual or ceremonial nature. There is no complete equality among the Brahman castes, but even the lowest of them stands above the rest of the highest castes.

The mission of a member of the Brahmin caste is to study, teach, receive gifts and give gifts. By the way, all Indian programmers are Brahmins.

Kshatriyas

After the Brahmins, the most prominent hierarchical place is occupied by the Kshatriya castes. In rural areas they include, for example, landowners, possibly related to former ruling houses(for example, with the Rajput princes in North India). Traditional occupations in such castes are working as managers on estates and serving in various administrative positions and in the army, but now these castes no longer enjoy the same power and authority. In ritual terms, the Kshatriyas are immediately behind the Brahmins and also observe strict caste endogamy, although they allow marriage with a girl from a lower subcaste (a union called hypergamy), but in no case can a woman marry a man from a subcaste lower than her own. Most kshatriyas eat meat; they have the right to accept food from Brahmins, but not from representatives of any other castes.

Vaishya

The third category includes merchants, shopkeepers and moneylenders. These castes recognize the superiority of the Brahmins, but do not necessarily show the same attitude towards the Kshatriya castes; as a rule, vaishyas are more strict in observing the rules regarding food, and are even more careful to avoid ritual pollution. The traditional occupation of Vaishyas is trade and banking; they tend to stay away from physical labor, but sometimes they are included in the management of the farms of landowners and village entrepreneurs, without directly participating in the cultivation of the land.

Shudras

They, due to their numbers and ownership of a significant part of local land, play important role in solving social and political issues of some areas. Shudras eat meat, and widows and divorced women are allowed to marry. The lower Shudras are numerous sub-castes whose profession is of a highly specialized nature. These are the castes of potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, joiners, weavers, oil makers, distillers, masons, hairdressers, musicians, tanners (those who sew products from finished leather), butchers, scavengers and many others. Members of these castes are supposed to practice their hereditary profession or craft; however, if a Shudra is able to acquire land, any of them can engage in agriculture. Members of many craft and other professional castes have traditionally been in traditional relationships with representatives of higher castes, which consist of providing services for which no money is paid, but an annual remuneration in kind. This payment is made by each household in the village whose requests are satisfied by a given member of the professional caste. For example, a blacksmith has his own circle of clients, for whom he makes and repairs equipment and other metal products all year round, for which he, in turn, is given a certain amount of grain.

The Untouchables

Activities such as tanning leather or slaughtering animals are considered clearly polluting, and although this work is very important to the community, those who engage in it are considered untouchables. They are engaged in cleaning dead animals from streets and fields, toilets, tanning leather, and cleaning sewers. They work as scavengers, tanners, flayers, potters, prostitutes, laundresses, shoemakers, and are hired for the hardest work in mines, construction sites, etc. That is, everyone who comes into contact with one of the three dirty things specified in the laws of Manu - sewage, corpses and clay - or leads a wandering life on the streets.

In many respects they are outside the boundaries of Hindu society, they were called "outcaste", "low", "scheduled" castes, and Gandhi proposed the euphemism "harijans" ("children of God"), which became widely used. But they themselves prefer to call themselves “Dalits” - “broken”. Members of these castes are prohibited from using public wells and taps. You cannot walk on the sidewalks so as not to inadvertently come into contact with a representative of the highest caste, because they will have to cleanse themselves after such contact in the temple. In some areas of cities and villages they are generally prohibited from appearing. Dalits are also prohibited from visiting temples; only a few times a year they are allowed to cross the threshold of the sanctuaries, after which the temple is subjected to thorough ritual cleansing. If a Dalit wants to buy something in a store, he must put money at the entrance and shout from the street what he needs - the purchase will be taken out and left on the doorstep. A Dalit is prohibited from starting a conversation with a representative of a higher caste or calling him on the phone.

After some Indian states passed laws fining canteen owners for refusing to feed Dalits, most catering establishments installed special cabinets with dishes for them. However, if the canteen does not have a separate room for Dalits, they have to dine outside.

Most Hindu temples until recently were closed to untouchables; there was even a ban on approaching people from higher castes closer than a set number of steps. The nature of caste barriers is such that Harijans are believed to continue to pollute members of the “pure” castes, even if they have long abandoned their caste occupation and are engaged in ritually neutral activities, such as agriculture. Although in others social conditions and situations, for example, while in an industrial city or on a train, an untouchable can have physical contact with members of higher castes and not pollute them, in his own native village untouchability is inseparable from him, no matter what he does.

When Indian-born British journalist Ramita Navai decided to make a revolutionary film revealing to the world the terrible truth about the lives of untouchables (Dalits), she endured a lot. She courageously looked at the Dalit teenagers frying and eating rats. Of little children splashing in the gutter and playing with parts of a dead dog. A housewife cutting up more decorative pieces from a rotten pig carcass. But when the well-groomed journalist was taken on a work shift by ladies from a caste that traditionally cleans toilets by hand, the poor thing vomited right in front of the camera. “Why do these people live like this?!! - the journalist asked us in the last seconds documentary film“Dalit means broken.” Yes, because the child of the Brahmins spent the morning and evening hours in prayers, and the son of a Kshatriya at the age of three was put on a horse and taught to swing a saber. For a Dalit, the ability to live in the dirt is his valor, his skill. Dalits know better than anyone: those who are afraid of dirt will die faster than others.

There are several hundred untouchable castes.
Every fifth Indian is a Dalit - that's at least 200 million people.

Hindus believe in reincarnation and believe that the one who follows the rules of his caste will rise by birth to a higher caste in a future life, while the one who breaks these rules will become unknown in the next life.

The first three high classes of varnas were required to undergo an initiation rite, after which they were called twice-born. Members of high castes, especially Brahmins, then wore a “sacred thread” over their shoulders. Twice-born people were allowed to study the Vedas, but only brahmanas could preach them. Shudras were strictly forbidden not only to study, but even to listen to the words of Vedic teachings.

Clothing, despite its apparent uniformity, is different for different castes and significantly distinguishes a member of a high caste from a member of a low one. Some wrap their hips with a wide strip of fabric that falls to the ankles, for others it should not cover their knees, women of some castes should drape their bodies in a strip of fabric of at least seven or nine meters, while women of others should not use fabric longer than four or five on their sari meters, some were required to wear a certain type of jewelry, others were prohibited from it, some could use an umbrella, others did not have the right to do so, etc. and so on. The type of housing, food, even the vessels for its preparation - everything is determined, everything is prescribed, everything is learned from childhood by a member of each caste.

That is why in India it is very difficult to pretend to be a member of any other caste - such imposture will be immediately exposed. Only one can do this who has studied the dharma of another caste for many years and had the opportunity to practice it. And even then he can only succeed so much far from his locality, where they know nothing about his village or city. And that’s why the most terrible punishment has always been exclusion from the caste, loss of one’s social face, and severance from all production ties.

Even the untouchables, who from century to century performed the dirtiest work, were brutally suppressed and exploited by members of higher castes, those untouchables who were humiliated and disdained as something unclean - they were still considered members of caste society. They had their own dharma, they could be proud of their adherence to its rules, and they maintained their long-legalized industrial ties. They had their own very definite caste face and their own very definite place, albeit in the lowest layers of this multi-layered hive.

Bibliography:
1. Guseva N.R. - India in the mirror of centuries. Moscow, VECHE, 2002
2. Snesarev A.E. - Ethnographic India. Moscow, Nauka, 1981
3. Material from Wikipedia - India:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%8F
4. Online Encyclopedia Around the World - India:
http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/strany_mira/INDIYA.html
5. Marry an Indian: life, traditions, features:
http://tomarryindian.blogspot.com/
6. Interesting articles about tourism. India. Women of India.
http://turistua.com/article/258.htm
7. Material from Wikipedia - Hinduism:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC
8. Bharatiya.ru - pilgrimage and travel through India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet.
http://www.bharatiya.ru/index.html

According to the 1950 Constitution, every citizen of the Indian Republic has equal rights regardless of caste, race or religion. Inquire about the caste of a person entering college or public service standing for election is a crime. There is no column on caste in population censuses. The abolition of discrimination based on caste is one of the greatest social achievements of independent India.

At the same time, the existence of some lower, formerly oppressed castes is recognized, because the law indicates that they need special protection. Introduced for them favorable conditions education and career advancement. And to ensure these conditions, it was necessary to introduce restrictions for members of other castes.

Caste still has a huge influence on the life of every Hindu, determining his place of residence not only in the village, but also in the city (special streets or neighborhoods), influencing the composition of workers in an enterprise or institution, nominating candidates for elections, etc. P.

External manifestations of caste are now almost absent, especially in cities where caste badges on the forehead have gone out of fashion and European costume has become widespread. But as soon as people get to know each other better—say their last name, determine their circle of acquaintances—they immediately learn about each other’s caste. The fact is that the vast majority of surnames in India are former caste designations. Bhattacharya, Dixit, Gupta are necessarily members of the highest Brahmin castes. Singh is either a member of the Rajput warrior caste or a Sikh. Gandhi is a member of the merchant caste from Gujarat. Reddy is a member of the agricultural caste from Andhra.

The main sign that any Indian unmistakably notes is the behavior of the interlocutor. If he is higher in caste, he will behave with emphasized dignity, if lower, with emphasized courtesy.

The following conversation took place between two scientists - a woman from Moscow and a young teacher at an Indian university:

“It’s very difficult to fall in love with a girl of your own caste,” she said.

“What are you talking about, madam,” answered the Indian. “It’s much more difficult to love a girl of a different caste!”

At home, in the family, in relations between families, caste still dominates almost completely. There is a system of punishments for violating caste ethics. But the strength of the caste does not lie in these punishments. Caste is still in early youth forms a person’s likes and dislikes; such a person can no longer help but support “his own” against the “stranger”; he cannot fall in love with the “wrong” girl.

The bus to Ankleshwar is ungodly late. I’ve been waiting for him for an hour, sitting in the shade of a bush. Terrible sore throat; From time to time I unscrew the lid of the thermos and take a sip of boiled water. Traveling around India taught me to always carry a thermos with me. The Indians who are waiting for the same bus do not have thermoses, and every now and then someone gets up from the ground and goes to a short man sitting to the side of the road under a tree. This is a water merchant. Clay pots were lined up in a neat row in front of him. The man takes a quick appraising glance at the customer, takes one of the pots and scoops water from the jug. Sometimes he gives each customer a separate pot, but sometimes someone has to wait until the pot is empty, although there are empty pots nearby. This is not surprising: even my inexperienced eye can see that people belonging to different castes are approaching. When I think of Indian castes, I always remember this water seller. The point is not so much that each caste has its own vessel. The point is different. There is something here that I just can’t understand, and therefore I decide to ask the water drawer directly:

— What castes can people take water from you?

- Any, sir.

- And brahmins can?

- Of course, sir. After all, they don’t take it from me, but from the nearest very clean well. I just brought water.

“But many people drink from the same pot.” Don't they defile each other?

— Each caste has its own pot.

In this area - I know this well - people of at least a hundred castes live, and in front of the merchant there is only a dozen pots.

But to all further questions the seller repeats:

— Each caste has its own pot.

It would seem that it would be easy for Indian buyers to expose the water seller. But no one does this: how else can you get drunk? And everyone, without saying a word, pretends that everything is in order, everyone silently supports the fiction.

I cite this case because it reflected all the illogicality and inconsistency of the caste system, a system built on fictions that have real meaning, and on real life bizarrely turned into fiction.

It is possible to compile a multi-volume library of books about Indian castes, but it cannot be said that researchers know everything about them. It is clear that all the diversity of castes constitutes a single system of human groups and their relationships. These relations are regulated traditional rules. But what are these rules? And what is caste anyway?

This name itself is not Indian, it comes from a Latin word denoting purity of the breed. Indians use two words to denote caste: varna, which means color, and jati, which means origin.

Varnas - there are only four of them - were established at the very beginning of our era by the legislator Manu: brahmans are priests (1 In Russian, two spellings of this word are used: “brahmin” and “brahman”. Closer to the Sanskrit pronunciation is “brahman”. - Approx. author), kshatriyas - warriors, vaishyas - traders, farmers, artisans, and sudras - servants. But the tradition did not limit the number of jatis. Jati may differ in profession, in the shade of religion, in household rules. But theoretically, all jatis should fit into the four-varia system.

In order to understand the myths and fictions of the caste system, we need to recall - in the most cursory way - the laws of Manu: all people are divided into four varnas, you cannot join a caste, you can only be born into it, the caste system always remains unchanged.

So, all people are divided into four varnas, and the system itself is like a chest of drawers, in which all the jatis are stored in four large drawers. The vast majority of religious Hindus are convinced of this. At first glance, everything seems to be so. Brahmanas remained brahmanas, although they were divided into several dozen jatis. The present day Rajputs and Thakurs correspond to the Kshatriya varna. Now, however, only the merchant and moneylender castes are considered Vaishyas, while farmers and artisans are considered Shudras. But “pure sudras.” Even the most orthodox Brahmins can communicate with them without prejudice. Below them are the “impure Shudras,” and at the very bottom are the untouchables, who are not included in any of the varnas at all.

But detailed studies have shown that there are a lot of castes that do not fit into any box.

In the north-west of India there is a caste called Jats - an agricultural caste. Everyone knows that they are not brahmanas, not kshatriyas and not vaisyas. Who are they then, the Shudras? (Sociologists who have worked among the Jats do not recommend that anyone make such an assumption in the presence of the Jats. There is reason to believe that sociologists have learned from their own bitter experience.) No, the Jats are not Shudras, for they are superior to the Vaishyas and only slightly inferior to the Kshatriyas. Everyone knows about this, but the question “why?” They answer that it has always been this way.

Here is another example: farmers - bhuinhars - are “almost” brahmins. They seem to be brahmins, but not really, because they are engaged in agriculture. This is how the bhuinharas themselves and any of the brahmanas will explain it to you. True, there are brahmanas who engage in agriculture, but remain real brahmanas. You just have to dig into history to understand what's going on here. Even before the 18th century, the Bhuinharas were Shudras. But a member of this caste became the prince of the city of Varanasi, the very holy city Hindus. The ruler of Varanasi is a sudra?! This cannot be! And the Varanasian brahmins - the most respected and authoritative in India - took up “research” and soon proved that the prince, and therefore his entire caste, were, in essence, brahmins. Well, perhaps a little less than brahmins...

Around the same time, several principalities were formed in the territory of the present state of Maharashtra, led by rajas who came from the not very high Kunbi caste. Poets assigned to the courts of the eastern rulers immediately began to compose odes in which they compared the exploits of the rajas with the deeds of the ancient kshatriyas. The most experienced of them hinted that the raja's family originated from the kshatriyas. Of course, such hints were met with the warmest attitude from the rajas, and subsequent poets sang about this as an immutable fact. Naturally, within the principalities no one allowed themselves to express the slightest doubt about the high origin of the Maratha rulers. In the 19th century, no one really doubted that the princes and their entire caste were real kshatriyas. Moreover, the Kurmi agricultural caste living in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh began to lay claim to Kshatriya dignity only on the very shaky basis, by the way, that it was related to the Kunbi caste from Maharashtra...

Countless examples could be given, and they would all speak about one thing: the idea of ​​​​the eternity of caste is nothing more than a myth. Caste memory is very short, most likely deliberately short. Everything that moves away to a distance of two or three generations seems to fall into “time immemorial.” This feature made it possible for the caste system to be applied to new conditions and at the same time always remain “ancient” and “unchangeable.”

Even the rule that you cannot join a caste is not absolute. For example, some of the lowest castes of Mysore: washerwomen, barbers, itinerant traders and untouchables - can accept people expelled from other, higher castes. This procedure is complex and takes a long time. Laundresses, say, arrange admission into their caste like this.

Caste members gather from all over the area. A candidate to be a laundress has his head shaved bald. He is bathed in the river, and then rinsed with water in which the statue of the goddess Ganga was just washed. Meanwhile, seven huts are built on the shore, the entrant is led through them and, as soon as he leaves the hut, it is immediately burned. This symbolizes the seven births through which a person's soul passes, after which he is completely reborn. External cleansing is complete.

Now comes the turn of internal cleansing. A person is given to eat turmeric - the root of turmeric - and a nut, which washerwomen use instead of soap. Turmeric - caustic, burning, bitter - should color the insides of the test subject in a pleasant yellow; As for the nut, its taste is also hardly pleasant. Both should be eaten without wincing or grimacing.

All that remains is to make sacrifices to the gods and arrange a treat for all members of the caste. Now the person is considered accepted into the caste, but even after that both he and his son will be the lowest of the washerwomen, and only the grandson - perhaps! - will become a full member of the caste.

One can, knowing the position of the lower castes, ask the question: why even join such a low society as washerwomen or untouchables? Why not stay outside the caste altogether?

The fact is that any caste, even an untouchable one, is a person’s property, it is his community, his club, his, so to speak, insurance society. A person who does not have support in the group, who does not enjoy the material and moral support of his close and distant caste comrades, is abandoned and alone in society. Therefore, it is better to be a member of even the lowest caste than to remain outside it.

By the way, how is it determined which caste is lower and which is higher? There are many ways of classification, they are often based on the relationship of a particular caste with the Brahmins.

The lowest of all are those from whom the Brahmin cannot accept anything. Above are those who can offer food cooked in water to a brahmana. Then come the “pure ones” - those who can offer water to a brahmana in a metal vessel, and finally, the “pureest” who can give a drink to a brahmana from an earthenware vessel.

So, the highest ones are brahmins? It would seem yes, because according to the laws of Manu their varna is the highest. But...

Indian sociologist De-Souza asked the question of which caste is the highest, which is the next, and so on, to the residents of two villages in Punjab. In the first village, the Brahmins were put in first place only by the Brahmins themselves. All other inhabitants - from Jats to untouchables - scavengers - placed the Brahmins in second place. The landowners, the Jats, were in the first place. And the Banya traders, supported by the Tely oil presses, generally pushed the Brahmans to third place. They put themselves on the second.

In another village (here the Brahmins are very poor, and one of them is a landless farm laborer), even the Brahmins themselves did not dare to award themselves the championship.

The Jats came first. But if the entire village placed merchants in second place and brahmanas in third, then the opinion of the brahmanas themselves was divided. Many of them claimed second place, while others recognized the merchants as superior to themselves.

So, even the supremacy of the Brahmans turns out to be a fiction. (At the same time, it should be admitted that no one dared to lower the Brahmins lower than second or third place: after all, there are sacred books where the Brahmins are declared to be the incarnation of God on earth.)

You can look at the caste system from a different perspective. All craft castes are considered lower than agricultural castes. Why? Because, according to tradition, cultivating the land is more honorable than working with wood, metal, or leather. But there are many castes whose members work specifically on the land, but who are much lower than artisans. The thing is that members of these castes do not have their own land. This means that honor goes to those who own the land - it doesn’t matter whether he cultivates it with his own hands or with someone else’s. Before the latest agrarian reforms, Brahmins were mostly landowners. Members of low castes worked on their land. Artisans do not have land, and they work not for themselves, but for others.

Members of low castes who work as farm laborers are not called farmers. Their castes have completely different names: Chamars - tanners, Pasi - watchmen, Parayns - drummers (from this word comes the word “pariah”, which has entered all European languages). Their "low" occupations are prescribed to them by tradition, but they can cultivate the land without compromising their prestige because it is a "high" occupation. After all, low castes have their own hierarchy, and, say, for a blacksmith to take up leather processing means to fall low. But no matter how low-caste people work in the field, it will not elevate them, because the field itself does not belong to them.

Another of the caste myths is the complex and petty ritual regulations that literally entangle every member of a high caste. The higher the caste, the more restrictions. Once I had a chance to talk with a woman. Her mother, a very orthodox Brahmin, was caught in a flood and her daughter was very worried about her. But the daughter was horrified not by the fact that her mother might die, but by the fact that, hungry, she would be forced to eat “with just anyone,” perhaps with the untouchables. (The respectful daughter did not even dare to utter the words “untouchable”, but undoubtedly meant it.) Indeed, when you get acquainted with the rules that a “twice-born” brahman must observe, you begin to feel pity for him: the poor fellow cannot drink water on the street, must always take care of the purity of (naturally, ritual) food, cannot engage in most professions. He couldn’t even ride on a bus without touching someone he shouldn’t... The more restrictions a caste imposes on its member, the higher it is. But it turns out that most of the prohibitions can be easily circumvented. The woman who was so worried about her mother was obviously more of a Hindu than Manu himself. For it is said in his “Laws”:

“Whoever, being in danger of life, takes food from anyone, is not stained with sin, like the sky with dirt...” And Manu illustrates this thesis with examples from the life of rishis - ancient sages: rishi Bharadwaja and his son, tormented by hunger, ate sacred meat cows, and Rishi Vishwamitra accepted the thigh of a dog from the hands of the “lowest of men” chandala - an outcast.

The same applies to professions. A Brahmin is not allowed to engage in “low” work, but if he has no other choice, then he can. In general, most restrictions relate not to behavior, but to intentions. It is not that a high-caste person should not communicate with a low-caste person, he should not want to communicate.

Several decades ago, when, with the light hand of the British, soda water with ice, a serious problem arose. It is unknown who exactly prepared the water and ice in a factory or artisanal enterprise. What should I do? The learned pandits explained that soda water, and especially ice, is not simple water, and defilement is not transmitted through them.

IN big cities European costume came into fashion, and caste marks were worn less frequently. But in the provinces, an experienced person will immediately determine who he is dealing with: he will recognize a sadhu saint by the sign of the highest caste on his forehead, a woman of the weaver caste by his sari, and a brahman by the “twice-born” cord over his shoulder. Every caste has its own costume, its own signs, its own manner of behavior.

People of low castes are another matter. If an untouchable person is not allowed to enter “clean” neighborhoods, then it is better for him not to do so, because the consequences can be the most dire.

The dominant castes have never felt any particular desire to change anything in traditional structure. But new social groups grew up: the bourgeois intelligentsia, the proletariat. For them, most of the foundations of the caste system are burdensome and unnecessary. The movement to overcome caste psychology - supported by the government - is growing in India and has now achieved great success.

But the caste system, so fixed at first glance and so flexible in reality, has perfectly adapted to new conditions: for example, capitalist associations are often built on caste principles. For example, the Tata concerns are a Parsi monopoly; all Birla companies are headed by members of the Marwari caste.

The caste system is also tenacious because—and this is its final paradox—that it is not only a form of social oppression of the lower, but also a way of their self-affirmation. Shudras and untouchables are not allowed to read the sacred books of Brahmins? But even the low castes have traditions into which they do not initiate the brahmans. Are untouchables prohibited from entering neighborhoods inhabited by high-caste Hindus? But even a brahmana cannot come to an untouchable village. In some places he can even be beaten for this.

Abandon caste? For what? To become an equal member of society? But can equality - under currently existing conditions - give something more or better than what caste already offers - firm and unconditional support of fellow humans?

Caste is an ancient and archaic institution, but alive and tenacious. It is very easy to “bury” it by revealing its many contradictions and illogicalities. But the tenacious caste is precisely due to its illogicality. If it were based on firm and immutable principles that did not allow deviations, it would have outlived its usefulness long ago. But the fact of the matter is that it is traditional and changeable, mythological and realistic at the same time. The waves of reality cannot break this strong and at the same time intangible myth. They can't yet...

L. Alaev, candidate of historical sciences

Since childhood, we have been taught that there is nothing worse than caste society. But oddly enough, castes have survived to this day, as evidenced, for example, by India. What do we actually know about how the caste system functions?

Every society consists of certain basic units that form it. So, in relation to Antiquity, such a unit can be considered a polis, modern to the West - capital (or a social individual owning it), for Islamic civilization - a tribe, Japanese - a clan, etc. For India from ancient times to the present day, this basic element were and remain a caste.

The caste system for India is not at all a dense archaic or “relic of the Middle Ages” as we have been taught for a long time. Indian system castes are part of the complex organization of society, a historically established diverse and multifaceted phenomenon.

One can try to describe castes through a number of characteristics. However, there will still be exceptions. Indian caste differentiation is a system of social stratification of isolated social groups, united by the common origin and legal status of their members. They are built according to the principles:

1) common religion;
2) general professional specialization (usually hereditary);
3) marriages only between “our own”;
4) nutritional characteristics.

In India there are not 4 at all (as many of us still think), but about 3 thousand castes and they can be called different parts countries in different ways, and people of the same profession may belong to different castes in different states. What are sometimes mistakenly considered Indian “castes” are not castes at all, but varnas (“chaturvarnya” in Sanskrit) - social strata of the ancient social system.

Varna brahmins (brahmins) are priests, doctors, teachers. Kshatriyas (rajanyas) - warriors and civil leaders. Vaishyas are farmers and traders. Shudras are servants and landless peasant laborers.

Each varna had its own color: Brahmins - white, Kshatriyas - red, Vaishayas - yellow, Shudras - black (once every Hindu wore a special cord in the color of his varna).

Varnas, in turn, are theoretically divided into castes. But in a very complex and intricate way. An obvious direct connection is not always visible to a person with a European mentality. The word “caste” itself comes from the Portuguese casta: birthright, clan, class. In Hindi, this term is identical to “jati”.

The infamous "untouchables" are not one particular caste. IN Ancient India everyone who was not included in the four varnas was automatically classified as “marginal”, they were avoided in every possible way, they were not allowed to settle in villages and cities, etc. As a result of this position, the “untouchables” had to take on the most “non-prestigious”, dirty and low-paid work and they formed their own separate social and professional groups- essentially their own castes.

There are several such castes of “untouchables” and, as a rule, they are associated either with dirty work, or with the killing of living beings or death (so all butchers, hunters, fishermen, tanners, garbage men, sewer men, laundresses, cemetery and morgue workers, etc. must be “untouchable”).

At the same time, it would be wrong to believe that every “untouchable” is necessarily someone like a homeless person or a “lowlife.” In India, even before it gained independence and adopted a number of legislative measures to protect lower castes from discrimination, there were “untouchables” who reached a very high social status and deserve universal respect. Like, for example, the outstanding Indian politician, public figure, human rights activist and author of the Indian Constitution - Dr. Bhimaro Ramji Ambedkar, who received legal education in England.

One of the many monuments to Bhimaro Ambedkar in India

The “untouchables” have several names: mleccha - “stranger”, “foreigner” (that is, formally all non-Hindus, including foreign tourists, can be classified as them), harijan - “child of God” (a term specifically introduced by Mahatma Gandhi), pariahs - “rejected”, “expelled”. And the most frequently used modern name“untouchables” - Dalits.

Legally, castes in India were recorded in the Laws of Manu, compiled from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. The varna system traditionally developed in a much more ancient period (there is no exact dating).

As mentioned above, castes in modern India still cannot be considered simply an anachronism. On the contrary, all of them are now carefully counted and listed in a special annex to the current Indian Constitution (Table of Castes).

In addition, after each population census, changes are made to this table (usually additions). The point is not that some new castes appear, but that they are recorded in accordance with the data provided about themselves by census participants. Only discrimination on the basis of caste is prohibited. What is written in Article No. 15 of the Indian Constitution.

Indian society is very colorful and heterogeneous in its structure; In addition to division into castes, there are several other differentiations in it. There are both caste and non-caste Indians. For example, adivasis (descendants of the main indigenous black population of India before its conquest by the Aryans), with rare exceptions, do not have their own castes. In addition, for some misdemeanors and crimes a person can be expelled from his caste. And there are quite a lot of non-caste Indians, as evidenced by the census results.

Castes exist not only in India. A similar public institution takes place in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bali and Tibet. By the way, Tibetan castes do not correlate with Indian castes at all - the structures of these societies were formed completely separately from each other. It is curious that in Northern India (the states of Himachal, Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir) the caste system is not of Indian origin, but of Tibetan origin.

Historically, when the overwhelming majority of the Indian population professed Hinduism - all Hindus belonged to some caste, the only exceptions were pariahs expelled from castes and the indigenous non-Aryan peoples of India. Then other religions (Buddhism, Jainism) began to spread in India. As the country was subjected to invasions by various conquerors, representatives of other religions and peoples began to adopt from the Hindus their system of varnas and professional caste-jatis. Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians in India also have their own castes, but they are somehow different from the Hindu castes.

What about Indian Muslims? After all, the Koran initially proclaimed the equality of all Muslims. A natural question. Despite the fact that British India was divided into two parts in 1947: “Islamic” (Pakistan) and “Hindu” (India proper), today Muslims (approximately 14% of all Indian citizens) in absolute terms live in India more than in Pakistan, where Islam is the state religion.

However, the caste system is inherent in India and Muslim society. However, caste differences among Indian Muslims are not as strong as among Hindus. They have virtually no “untouchables.” Between Muslim castes there are no such impenetrable barriers as among Hindus - transition from one caste to another or marriages between their representatives is allowed.

The caste system was established among Indian Muslims relatively late - during the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th-16th centuries. The Muslim caste is usually referred to as biradari ("brotherhood") or biyahdari. Their occurrence is often attributed by Muslim theologians to the influence of Hindus with their caste system (supporters of “pure Islam” see this, of course, as the insidious machinations of pagans).

In India, as in many Islamic countries, among Muslims there are also nobility and common people. The former are called sharifs or ashraf (“noble”), the latter are called ajlaf (“low”). Currently, about 10% of Muslims living in the territory of the Republic of India belong to the Ashraf. They usually trace their ancestry to those external conquerors (Arabs, Turks, Pashtuns, Persians, etc.) who invaded Hindustan and settled for many centuries.

For the most part, Indian Muslims are descendants of the same Hindus who, for one reason or another, converted to a new faith. Forced conversion to Islam in medieval India was the exception rather than the rule. Typically, the local population was subjected to a slow Islamization, during which elements of foreign faith were unobtrusively incorporated into local cosmology and ritual practice, gradually displacing and replacing Hinduism. It was implicit and sluggish social process. During it, people maintained and protected the closure of their circles. This explains the persistence of caste psychology and customs among large sections of Indian Muslim society. Thus, even after the final conversion to Islam, marriages continued to be concluded only with representatives of their own castes.

Even more curiously, even many Europeans were included in the Indian caste system. Thus, those Christian missionary preachers who preached to high-born Brahmins eventually found themselves in the “Christian Brahmin” caste, and those who, for example, carried the Word of God to the “untouchable” fishermen, became Christian “untouchables”.

Often it is impossible to accurately determine which caste an Indian belongs to only by his appearance, behavior and occupation. It happens that a kshatriya works as a waiter, and a brahmin trades and removes garbage from a shop - and they don’t particularly have a complex about these reasons, but a sudra behaves like a born aristocrat. And even if an Indian says exactly what caste he is from (although such a question is considered tactless), this will give a foreigner little to understand how society is structured in such an outlandish and peculiar country as India.

The Republic of India declares itself a “democratic” state and, in addition to prohibiting caste discrimination, has introduced certain benefits for representatives of lower castes. For example, they have adopted special quotas for their admission to higher educational institutions, as well as to positions in state and municipal bodies.

The problem of discrimination against people from lower castes and Dalits, however, is quite serious. The caste structure is still fundamental to the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians. Outside of large cities in India, caste psychology and all the conventions and taboos arising from it are firmly preserved.

Many Europeans, Americans, as well as our compatriots believe that Eastern culture much more sublime and humane than the values ​​of the pragmatic Western world. However, they forget that it was in India that one of the harshest forms of social stratification arose - caste, dooming millions of people and their descendants to a lifelong vegetation in poverty and lawlessness, while a select minority is surrounded by honor and has access to all the benefits of civilization.

The division into castes (or, as they are called in India, “varnas”) arose during the era of the decomposition of the primitive communal system, when property inequality appeared. The first written mention of the caste system dates back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The Rig Veda talks about the emergence of four varnas that exist in India to this day:

• Brahmins are a priestly caste. Nowadays, Brahmins are also engaged in the performance of religious rites, they are often officials or teachers;
• Kshatriyas are a warrior caste. Today kshatriyas not only serve in the army and police, but also occupy important positions in government administration;
• Vaishyas are farmers and traders. Many vaishyas could even surpass the representatives of the upper castes in wealth and influence. In modern India, Vaishyas continue to be involved in trade and agriculture, as well as credit and banking operations;
• Shudras are a semi-subordinate caste of peasants and workers, usually in the service of representatives of the higher castes. Despite the low prestige of this caste, many Shudras were able to accumulate substantial wealth and own large tracts of land.

There is also a separate group of the population that includes everyone who is not included in the four above castes - untouchables or Dalits. Anthropologists and historians believe that the untouchable caste arose during the Aryan conquest of India (XII-VII centuries BC). The conquerors who came to the new lands wanted to keep the local Dravidian peoples subordinate, so they came up with this social system, in which the aborigines could not normally integrate into society and occupy any significant position in it. Thus, all the Aryan invaders became members of one caste or another (depending on their occupation), and all the conquered were declared untouchable. Dalits did the dirtiest work. They tanned leather, removed dead animals from the streets, and cleaned toilets. They were strictly forbidden to enter the yards of members of other castes or use public wells. Although everyone despised the untouchables, these people also had a certain power. It was believed that an untouchable could defile a person from a higher caste. Such defilement was most dangerous for a brahmana. The mere touch of a Dalit to a Brahmin's clothing meant to the latter long years trying to clear your karma.

The life of a representative of each varna is clearly regulated. Caste determines what clothes a person can wear, what he can eat, and how he should communicate with others. Representatives of different castes, with rare exceptions, are prohibited from marrying each other. Children born into a certain caste can no longer change their social status. Officially, a transition from one caste to another is possible only with a decrease in status. It is impossible to move to a more prestigious caste. However, many Indians resort to tricks that allow them to go beyond the strict varna system. Firstly, since each caste has its own set of surnames, it is possible to bribe an official and take a high-caste surname. Secondly, you can abandon Hinduism and accept a religion where there is no caste division. Some Hindus then return to Hinduism again, but at the same time claim that before the change of religion they were Brahmins or Kshatriyas.

Religious explanation for human inequality

The caste system stems from religious ideas Hindus. According to the Rig Veda, the entire cosmos was created from the body of the first man Purusha. Purusha was sacrificed by the gods to create the world. From separate parts of his body arose: earth, air, wind and heavenly bodies. Moreover, Purusha gave rise to the entire human race. From his mouth emerged the Brahmins, from his arms the Kshatriyas, from his thighs the Vaishyas, and from his feet the Shudras.

The doctrine of reincarnation is also aimed at preserving the social inequality that exists in India. According to Hindu beliefs, a person who strictly observes all the rules of his caste, after death, can be born in the body of a representative of a higher varna.

Caste divisions today

Despite the fact that to Westerners the division into castes seems cruel and undemocratic, in modern India castes not only have not disappeared, but have become more structured. Each caste today is divided into additional subgroups - jati. In total there are more than 80 different jatis. Although there are no documents that would indicate a person’s belonging to one or another varna, caste division is strictly protected by religion and traditions.

The largest caste in modern India are the untouchables - about 1/5 of the country's total population. Dalits live in special ghettos where unemployment and crime are rampant. Untouchables cannot receive proper education or quality medical care. They are not allowed to enter shops, pharmacies, hospitals, temples and public transport used by members of other castes. Just like thousands of years ago, these people do the dirtiest and hardest work.

Attempts to establish social equality were made by many Indian civil rights activists, including Mahatma Gandhi. They were able to ensure that the Indian Constitution recognized the equality of untouchables with representatives of other castes, however, in fact, the attitude towards Dalits in modern India remains the same as 4 thousand years ago. The courts are lenient towards criminals who commit unlawful acts against untouchables, Dalits receive lower salaries compared to members of other castes.

Despite the fact that India today is open to Western liberal ideas, the untouchables have never dared to rebel. The centuries-old habit of being submissive and the fear of karmic contamination prevent these people from starting the fight for freedom and equality.