Dalits And Caste System: Unparalleled Discrimination

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Human beings perpetrate many forms of discrimination against each other, including racial, ethnic, religious, gender, class and economic discrimination, among others, some of these ancient in origin, others recent. None of these, however, compare to the ongoing, three-thousand-five-hundred-year-old discrimination against the Dalits of India. For, the comprehensive spiritual, social and economic discrimination that a Dalit faces under the caste system reduces him to a sub-human level of existence, surviving between the animal and human world – human only in form, animal in the treatment and dignity accorded him. His day begins with the several millennia old tag of being an ‘Untouchable’; ends with a sigh of having lived through another day of degradation, deprivation and torment.

Caste System – The Four Varna System

The caste system began around 1500 B.C., after the Aryans migrated to ancient India. Before the Aryans came from South Europe and North Asia, there were ethnic communities of other origins in India, some of them dating back to several millennia.

The Aryans, primarily consisting of warrior tribes and following the pastoral life, occupied various areas of North India, plundering and enslaving the local prosperous agricultural communities, weakened by the collapse of Harappa, which along with Mohenjodaro was the cradle of the Indus valley civilization. Other locals, including various tribes, withdrew eastwards and southwards, towards the jungles, mountains and deeper into the mainland.

Subsequently, the Aryans initially .... . Read the rest in the ebook..

More In This Chapter

1. Caste System: Unparalleled Discrimination
- Caste System; Origin, Four Varna System
- Classical Outcastes
- Classical Untouchables
- Caste Code (Rules)
- Heirarchy
- Enforcement Of Caste System
- Perpetuation Of Caste; marriage
- Permanent Caste Status
-Untenable Justification
- A Casteist National Psyche

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