Page 9 - India Destination Guide - Alluring Asia

THE PEOPLE The Indian people are not a homogeneous group. It is quite easy to tell the difference between the shorter Bengalis of the east, the taller and lighter-skinned people of the center and north, the Kashmiris with their distinctly central Asian appearance, the Tibetan people of Ladakh, Sikkim and the north Himachal Pradesh and the dark-skinned Tamils of the south. Despite these regional variations, the government has managed to successfully establish and 'Indian' CASTES ethos and national consciousness. The caste system is one of India's more confusing mysteries - how it came about, how it has managed to survive for so long and how much harm it causes are all topics of discussion for visitors to India. Its origins are hazy, but it seems to have been developed by the Brahmins or priest class in order to maintain its superiority. Eventually, the caste system became formalized into four distinct classes, each with rules of conduct and behavior. At the top are the Brahmins who are the priests and the arbiters of what is right and wrong in matters of religion and caste. Next come the Kshatriyas, who are soldiers and administrators. The Vaisyas are the artisan and commercial class and, finally, the Sudras are the farmers and the peasant class. These four castes are said to have come from Brahma's mouth (Brahmins), arms (Kshatriyas), thighs (Vaisyas) and feet (Sudras). Beneath the four main castes is a fifth group, the untouchables. These people, members of the so-called Scheduled Castes, literally have no caste. They perform the most menial and degrading jobs. At one time, if a high-caste Hindu used the same temple as an untouchable, was touched by one, or even had an untouchable's shadow cast across them, they were considered polluted and had to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed. Today, the caste system has been weakened, but it still has considerable power, particularly among less educated people. Gandhi put great effort into bringing the untouchables into society, including renaming them the 'Harjans' or 'Children of God'. Recently, the word Harijan has lost favor, and the use of it in official business has actually been banned in Madhya Pradesh. The term the members of these groups prefer is Dalit, meaning Oppressed or Downtrodden.