Importance Of Indian Caste System

Religion and caste system in India.

The Indian history of the previous millennia of the contemporary era presents many gray areas, as many historical information have been passed down through the Vedas ("books of the knowledge"), which were written in verses (perhaps between 1500 and 500 of the bygone era) and have been also entrusted to the memorization and to the oral transmission for hundreds of years, up to when, towards the fourth century of the past have been put in writing [Sardesai 2008 29] In this way, their credibility as historical sources becomes questionable. In addition, regarding the previous period, then, the Harrapa civilization, which flourished in the area around 2600-1900, his studio has started only in the 20s of last

That means that none presentation of the Indian situation may irrespective from an examination of both, Hinduism and caste system. For this reason, they were subject of reflection by famous scholars like Max Weber and Louis Dumont. However, it is important to underline two things: firstly, that the close link between religion and caste system has been stated by various authors, becoming more and more matter of dispute; secondly, in today 's society the importance of both, religion in the Indian history and caste-system has been resized so much by both, those who claim a rationalist cultural Indian heritage and by who speaks about a greater importance of modern social-classes, or generally, of a greater importance of economic

This latter tried to blend elements of Hinduism and Islam. Like Christianity and Islam, Buddhism claimed to be a universal religion, but in contrast with Christianity and Islam, its goal is not the conversion of the so called "infidel”. Islam, is the second largest religion in India, and is the second Muslim nation after Indonesia. It is mostly a Sunni Islam, arrived in India in the tenth century of the modern era by Turkic and Afghan populations, who had been conquered by Arabs and converted to the Islam., and that from there then expanded eastward. Consequently, if Hinduism and Islam represent over 90% of the population, the remainder are Christians (3%), Sikhs (2%), Buddhists (1%), while less than 1% of them represent the Jain presence. According to Murphey [2009] There are two main differences between Asian religions (including Indian ones) and the three religions "of the Book" (Christianity, Judaism and Islam). The first lies in the nature of the latter more dualistic, with particular reference to the principles of good and evil: "none of them has developed the strong distinction (dualism) that is the characteristic of Zoroastrianism, Judaism Christianity and Islam (see eg 24 Embree [2003, 203] the exasperated Gnostic dualism). According to Indians and Chineses, the whole creation represents God 's work, and that