Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 6 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 21 years, 5 months ago by
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I would like to understand the caste system in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladash). I have come across numerous references in books referring to Brahmin, etc., and just wanted a better understanding.
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Name : Kenya E., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 25, City : Atlanta, State : GA, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,For India there are or were primarily four races. From ‘highest’ to lowest are Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. The caste without a caste were called untouchables.
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Name : Chetan, City : Philadelphia, State : PA, Country : United States,One theory I’ve heard is that the castes roughly correspond to waves of immigration or occupation, with the later arrivals oppressing the earlier ones. I’ve no idea if that’s true, and if it were you’d think that the military-political caste would be the highest, rather than the Brahmins. (Despite the sanctions against intermarriage, there has always been some ‘leakage’ or you’d never have blond Jews, Swedes with French last names, and other such oddities.) I think there used to be sub-castes, by the way.
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Name : JerryS, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 52, City : New Britain, State : CT, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,What is strange is that India was and is a melting pot of races, and yet Hinduism has one of the most elaborate racist systems called the caste system. First, in most places there are four castes and the Outcastes. The first caste was the Brahmin. This was the priestly caste, the top caste. Only they had access to the holy books. They normally tend to be fairer and taller (depends upon the region). Second, we have the Ksatriyas, who were the warrior class (the class I belong to). They were the kings, generals, ministers of state. Third, we have the Vaishyas, the merchants, artisans. And the lowest castes were the Shudras. The shudras tend to be darker. They were the lowest servants. Finally the Outcastes. They stayed outside cities. In some regions like Rajasthan, Gujrat (people whose ancestors came as Scythins from Russian Crimea during the time of Alexander the Great), interracial/ethnic unions are normally opposed by our ancient holy books (one of the oldest in the world). The upper castes tended to be cruel – cruelty which would put a slave owner in the South to shame. If a lower-caste person would touch an upper-caste, the upper-caste (Brahmin, Ksatriyas) would have to take a bath. If a Shudra would try to marry an upper caste, he/she would be tortured (including putting nails down their throat, etc).
Today Shudras who are behind economically have been helped by the government in jobs and education, which many people in the upper castes consider unfair. Many Shudars (25 percent of South Asia, a huge number because more people live in India than the United States and Africa combined) converted to Christianity or Buddhism to escape the caste system.
I have no idea about the racial origins of this. The Hindu nationalists like the VHP, RSS, etc. say we are all the same race, maybe so it can justify themselves in some way.
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Name : Ajay, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : East Indian, Religion : Hindu, Age : 31, City : Anand, State : NA, Country : India, Occupation : Govt. Service, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Due to limitations of words I must continue here. Many studies have shown that the upper castes were nearer to Europeans especially Eastern Europeans, while the lower castes were similar to Australian Aboriginals/Papuans. One study in a state called Andhra Pradesh found that some lower-caste groups were related to Africans. Another claims Indians have a lot of similarity to East Asians and that India is the buffer zone between Caucasoids and Mongoloids. The Nazi concept that the invading Aryans were completely blond, blue-eyed Nordics is been refuted in most places, though green/fair eyes are present among many Brahmin communities and in Afghanistan/North Pakistan. Besides, blond, blue-eyed mummies were found in the Indo-Tibetan border. But again, many Brahmins were shown as dark-haired. But because my knowledge of this is limited, I cannot surely say, but it is safe to say that Indians as a whole have a lot of similarity with Caucasians, and most Indians consider themselves Caucasians (but not white Caucasians).
However, the caste system has kind of disappeared. I hope it is confined to history and that Hinduism can forget this bad past. In some backward places it is still strong, but I hope that will not be for long.
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Name : Ajay, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : East Indian, Religion : Hindu, Age : 31, City : Anand, State : NA, Country : India, Occupation : Govt. Service, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,IndoEuropeans, from which virtually all modern Caucasian peoples are derived of, originated in far northern India. This categorization of humanity includes certain peoples of Northern India, Persia (Iran), parts of Central Asia, and virtually all of Europe. Basically, they came in several waves and divided up into Mediterranean / Iberian / Hellenistic peoples, Celtic-Teutonic peoples (simple microevolution to adjust to the cold, misty north), and the Slavic peoples who probably came in the third wave. They crossed the Caucasus mountains (hence the term ‘Caucasians’) and swept into Europe, intermarrying or destroying the indigenous Europeans (extremely little is known about them except that they built Stonehenge and other stone structures, and that they were shorter and slightly darker [they probably resembled Bjork]; it is theorized that the Basques and the Catalans are descended of them because their origin languages are almost completely unrelated to the IndoEuropean Branch of languages) and spreading throughout and forming distinct tribes, nations and races. The first IndoEuropeans, unlike Hitler’s vision of blond haired blue eyed Teutons, more or less resembled Persians or fairer-skinned Northern Indians. As for South India, it is not only a more tropical region, but it is in very close proximity to both East Africa (African tradesmen settling in South India is documented) and the East Indies (presumably where Micronesians / Aborigines would have originated). Also, it is a common denominator throughout a multitude of cultures that ‘privileged’ (therefore, superior) people are lighter skinned whereas the lowly are darker skinned because the latter must work outside in the fields or market, whereas the former has the luxury of lounging around inside all day. This is the origin of poor whites in America often being called ‘rednecks’, why excessively and deathly pale skin was fashionable in Victorian England, why fair skin is prized in Japan, why the North Chinese had regarded themselves as superior to the more subtropical South Chinese and those derived of them (Thais, Vietnamese, etc.) and so on and so forth.
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Name : Dan27159, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 23, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,Magi are referred in Bible as ‘Gift of Magi ‘ also. Magi means the wise man. The ancient relegion of Persia was Zorostrian and Magi were thair priests. God Mithra (Sun God) was worshiped that time. These Magi were astronomer also. In Mahabharata (a Hindu epic) it is stated that Lord Krisna had a son ‘Samb’. He was suffering from Leprocy. That’s why Krishna called special Brahmin of Shakdvip (Belived that present Iran). They were Sun worshipers and famous astronomer. They treated Samb and freed him from Leprocy. We are Shakdvipiya Brahmin originated from those Shakdvip origin Brahmins and also called Magi Brahmin. We are specialized in Ayurveda(old Indian method of treatment) and astronomy, astrology and we are Sun worshiper. I found some text where it is shown that Those special Brahmin brought in India by Krishna were MAGIs. I hope that they were our forefathers. Can anybody give me more information about this relationship? visit http://www.sakaldwipi.com
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Name : mishrabn, City : Bhopal, State : NA, Country : India,
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