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The Hindu Caste System
At first appearance, the Hindu class structure and the social laws pertaining to religious rights based on one's class seem to be prejudicial, demeaning and exclusive to the point of abuse. The lowest Varna, the Shudra, is not even allowed to hear or study the Vedas based solely on their inescapable station in life as servants to the higher three classes. However, when one looks at their class system from a purely religious standpoint, you discover that the class system is not abusive in itself, and that the abuse that may take place comes from aspects of humanity outside their religious practices.
Sanatanadharma breaks down society into four classes (Varnas), and the untouchables. The highest class is the Brahmans, the priestly class. Their Dharma is to study and understand the Vedas, and bring this knowledge to others. The second class is the Kshatriya, the warrior class. The Kshatriya class acts as the protectors of the peace. Vaishya, the producing class, work as business people providing economic stability to the society. The servant class, the Shudra, serves the higher three classes. They are not allowed to read or hear the Vedas, but they are allowed to participate in Bhakti Marga, the path of devotion. It may seem degrading to keep them away from the religious texts that at the same time are keeping them from raising their station in this lifetime, but as a Hindu, they were placed in that class for a reason. Karma, which follows you throughout your many lifetimes, determines which class you will be in for any given lifetime. You may be demoted to an animal, reallocated within the class structure, or even elevated to a deity. Your actions in each lifetime affect your karma, and if ...
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...ey don't have to fight for. It enables them to spend their energy doing their dharma to the best of their abilities, to help improve their karma so that perhaps next time they will move up to a higher class. "Since it is accepted that one's caste is determined by one's past karma, there is no reason to be bitter about one's lot or envy others" (Ludwig, pg. 109).
Due to the flawed nature of humans the caste system has not been implemented as the Vedas instruct. The system has come to be a hierarchy wherein the lowest levels, including women, are not given the respect commanded in the religious texts. Humanity's inability to adhere to the social constructs is not a fault of the construct; it is a fault of humanity.
Bibliography:
Ludwig, Theodore M. The Sacred Paths: Understanding the Religions of the World. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Thousands of years ago, Indian society developed into a complex system based on different classes. This system is known as the Caste System. It separated Indians into different castes based on what class they were born into. As thousands of years went by, this system grew larger and became further complex (Wadley 189). This system caused frustration for the Indian citizens because they were receiving inequality.
Dictionary.com defines a caste system as “a system of rigid social stratification characterized by hereditary status, endogamy, and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law, or religion” This means someone born into a low caste cannot move up to a higher caste because of this system. Although a caste system is not a set of laws, it is almost never broken because the caste system has been in place for so long.
Every caste had a standard of what they were supposed to do. In the beginning of the Bhagavad Gita, there was a war going on where both opponents had members of the same family in their army. Arjuna was one of those members. When he arrived at the battlefield he realized that his family would be killing each other, he did not believe this to be right. Since Arjuna was born into “kshaktriya rajput” (caste of warriors), he was told by Kṛṣṇa to “not yield to this degrading impotence” (2.3). Because Arjuna was a warrior, it looked weak of him to allow himself to be attached to family ties over doing his warrior responsibilities. He was expected to “give up such petty weakness of heart and rise” as he was called the “chastiser of the enemy” (2.4). Arjuna disagreed with fighting against his family but according to his caste, he had to do what he was born to do; which was fight any enemy put in front of him. It was all based on
There are four main castes and one in which they consider to be the outcastes. The four main castes are the Brahmin, the next is the Kshatriya, the third is the Vaishya, and the fourth is the Shudra. The outcastes are in the group called Dalits. Each caste has a purpose in life, the Brahmin are considered to be the priestly caste in which they are teach the Veda, and are to “sacrifice for others and receive alms” (Institutes of Vishnu 5-10, pg. 44). The Kshatriya is considered the warriors or the ruler caste, they have constant practice in battles, and they are to protect the world from harm. The Vaishya are to be the merchants and the farmers, they tend to the cattle, they, “engage in farming, keeps cows, trades, lends money at interest, and grows seeds” (Institutes of Vishnu 5-10, pg. 44). The Shudra are the manual laborers who according to the Institutes of Vishnu under the Four Castes, are to serve the twice born men who are to sacrifice and to study the Veda, the Shudra also engage in all the different duties of craftsmanship (5-10, pg.44). In case of a crisis, each caste is allowed to follow the occupation of the caste that is below them in rank. The duties in which all four of these castes, whatever gender or stage of life, are to follow and hav...
...mans, Khastriyas, and the Vaishyas are the upper class. Nobody under them gets any recognition. The Shudras and the Untouchables are the lower class. They mainly don’t exist in society. Hindu’s have some sacred objects such as cows and the Gangas River. The Gangas River is believed to wash away all evil.
We are lucky, today, that the majority of the world’s nations are democracies. This has only been the case in very recent times. For the greater part of human history, society has subscribed to the belief that birth is the most important determinant of one’s future. In Elizabethan England, this was especially true. Those born into the nobility enjoyed a lifetime of privilege, while those born outside of their ranks mainly existed to serve them. A century later, the British encountered an even stricter form of this belief when they conquered India. The Hindu caste system, which dictated one’s future based on birth just as British society did, was deemed even by the English to be excessively restrictive. After gaining control of the Subcontinent, the conquerors attempted to supplant the caste system with the semblance of a meritocracy. The new subjects of the Empire, instead of embracing this imposition of a foreign culture’s values, responded with general unrest and discontent, showing that no society, no matter how unfair or prejudiced, tolerates interference well. Shakespeare’s King Lear demonstrates the same concept: that any violation of society’s conception of the natural order brings chaos, and that the only way to restore harmony is to conform to the expectations of that society.
It is these ideas that that sometimes promote the wrong image to Indian society. By promoting the ideas of caste people may be influenced to do the same in real life which can result in an array of situations. People may run away from home, or even commit suicide as a result of not being allowed to be with whom they please.
In The Laws of Manu the caste system is described in great detail. It explains everything one must do to be a part of their caste. In Hinduism each social class (varna) has its own dharma, or social law. The concept of dharma regulates all parts of life for Hindu’s and outlines their duties. However, there are different levels of dharma for people in the twice-born varnas, which includes the Brahmin, Ksatriya, and Vaisya. The different levels of dharma are based on the stage of life that an individual is at. The four stages an individual can be at are a student, a householder, a forest-dweller, or a sannyasin. A sannyasin is the lowest stage one can be in and one reaches that stage when they have cut all of their ties to society. In the text from The Laws of Manu it is stated that a householder may “never, for the sake of subsistence, follow the ways of the world: let him live the pure straightforward, honest life of a Brahmin” (Smart & Hecht 214). The Hindus believed in living a very simple life and being very honorable. The Laws of Manu states that no Brahmin should “attach himself to any sensual pleasures” (214) and also to “avoid all (means of acquiring) wealth which impede the study of the Veda” (214). In The Laws of Manu the idea of final liberation is brought up very frequently. Final liberation is the goal of all Brahmins. A Brahmin lives his whole life striving to reach final liberation and he does so by following dharma. He does not challenge dharma at all and believes that if he follows it, he will reach final liberation.
Hinduism is often viewed as a particularly tolerant religion. The lack of a single omniscient God, absence of a prophet, and the open worship of what may look like many Gods may tell a tale of open worship, individuality within religion, and a peaceful, tolerant way of life. Without further examining what Hinduism entails, this may seem like the perfect religion. When the impression of superiority is looked at with a little skepticism, the pretty picture is marred by the deep scratches of discrimination, sexism, and elitism.
For the poor class, their way to defuse their suffering is to believe in karma and to worship gods. In the countries, almost every Indian family worships a statue of god. They believe that if they follow god’s guide, they will enjoy happiness and fortune in the next life. The Indian society runs with Dharma. Dharma includes three parts: the universal harmony principle, the social ethics and morals that differ according to social classes, and the individual moral codes. The most fundamental virtues include generosity, honesty, self-abnegation and respecting the elders. The Indian traditions and customs are deeply rooted in Hinduism. Every aspect of the Indian people’s life is connected with Hinduism. Since a person is born, they need to undergo numerous religious rites and rituals, including complicated birth rites, grand wedding rites and the Hinduism cremation. Numerous Hinduism rituals embellish an Indian people’s whole life.
In each society, there are different types of rules and ideologies that are used in order to help govern its people. Within these communities, these rules create a social hierarchy developed through a ranked system based on either economic value or religious beliefs. A type of ranked system that most people are familiar with is the Caste System in India, which is a system of classification in a society based on birth. This complex social structure is most prevalent in India, where social hierarchy is in affiliation with Hinduism. It recognizes two concepts known as Varna and Jati. Varna is a word in Sanskrit meaning color and includes four main groups: the Brahmans, Kshtriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. The fifth group, the most segregated caste in the system, is the Untouchables. Within each Varna contains an array of sub-caste called Jatis, which are also based on birth. The rules of the cases are governed through religious ideas of purity and pollution. These two socially constructed ideologies determine whether or not you were respected in the community. Caste assignments in India are predestined at birth rather than a personal choice. Individuals act and dress like those of their own caste in public, due to strict caste laws. Pressures of these rules tend to brainwash people into conforming into what society considers pure, as we’ll see in Kakar & Kakar’s reading. As human nature takes precedent, caste rules become less relevant. Indulging in one’s own desires or needs, especially during times of hardship, outweighs any types of rules that we’ll see in Freeman’s reading and the movie Distant Thunder. Though the caste system is such an intrinsic part of life, when faced with needs to survive, it becomes nothing more than just a...
One section of our society that has attracted the great attention of various scholars and activists during the last decade are the abased people who call themselves ‘Dalits’. The word ‘Dalit’ hails from Sanskrit language, meaning, suppressed, crushed, ground or broken to pieces. Gandhi Ji coined the word Harijans meaning ‘Children of God’ as a way of reverentially identifying the untouchables. The term ‘Scheduled Castes’ and Scheduled Tribes’ are the official terms used by Indian government documents to identify the untouchables and tribes. Earlier, a renowned Marathi social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule used the term ‘Dalit’ to describe outcastes and untouchables as the oppressed and crushed victims of the Indian cast-ridden society. It is also believed that this usage was first devised by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. But the term got its prevalence in 1970’s when the supporters of Dalit Panther Movement of Maharashtra used this term ‘Dalit’ as a continuous reminder of their age-old suppression, representing both their state of social deprivation and people who are exploited. But, at present time, the term ‘Dalit’ stands for those people who, have been considered ‘outcaste’, because they are not deserving enough to be included in the fourfold classification of class structure. In the religious scripture ‘Manu Smriti’; the ‘Varna system’ of the society is provided. It is a four graded Varna system incorporating four kinds of people of the society borne out of the body of Lord Brahma, the supreme God. According to this mythology, Brahmin was born out of head, Kshatriya was born out of arms, Vaishya was born out of abdomen and Shudra was born out of feet. It focused on Shudra to live a life of servitude; because he was born out of feet. Th...
The story “The Road to Salvation” by Premchand revolves around Jhingur, the farmer and Buddhu, the shepherd who were very full of pride and such pride ruined themselves. Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava who wrote under the pen name “Premchand” was born into the Hindu Kayastha caste. The caste system in India is a system of social classification. In history, it divided communities into hundreds of traditional groups. The Kayastha class is right below the highest class, Brahmana. In the Indian caste system, you are born into your caste and there is no way you can change your caste in your life time. It is believed that if you live a good life, you can be reincarnated into a higher caste. The major religion in India is Hinduism. Hinduism promotes harmony and love for everyone but Jhingur and Buddhu are trapped in the law of Karma. Although the story revolves around Jhingur and Buddhu and the pride they have for themselves, it causes them to manipulate each other constantly causing them to be entrapped in envy.
The current manifestations of the caste system are now far more generalized across the Indian subcontinent than was the case in former times. Caste as we now recognize has been endangered, shaped and perpetuated by comparatively recent political and social developments. This is evident even i...
Varna system or Vedic caste system which later deteriorated into the modern caste system due to colonialism and misinterpretation, was natural and necessary for the proper functioning of the society. In this article we see how it is very much different from the modern caste system and how it is very natural and we will also see some evidences from the scriptures which supports this.