Caste and Christianity in India

2019 ◽  
pp. 408-419
Author(s):  
Anderson Jeremiah
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Religious Worldview ◽  
Caste Discrimination ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Forces ◽  
Caste Groups

The Indian practice of the caste system creates a repressive stratification in the subcontinent. Hinduism refers to a variety of theologies, mythologies, cultic practices and philosophies spread across India. The exclusion of outcastes is ordained, pursued and perpetuated by dominant religio-political and socio-cultural forces, often with violent consequences. While the constitution prohibits any discrimination on grounds of caste, the social practice of caste identity continues to be relevant across the country. Because the caste system is the product of a religious worldview, it is through religious rituals that caste discrimination and prejudices are manifested. Mission organisations agreed to work within specific caste communities in order to avoid conflict. The caste-based segregation masquerading as denominationalism runs so deep within the churches in India that there are congregations who do not share the Eucharist. Only 12 out of 241 bishops are from a Dalit background, whereas Dalits make up more than 65% of the membership of Catholic congregations. Dalit groups have had to mobilise to counter the unfair advantages enjoyed by higher-caste groups. The caste system has become a potent political tool within Indian society and its relevance in shaping socio-cultural moorings have not diminished.

Dalit Camera: Through Untouchable Eyes

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Suresh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Caste Discrimination ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Institutions

In India, Dalits also known as ‘untouchables’ have been exploited and subjected to various sorts of atrocities due to the social stratification of Indian society. Though Dalit populace is around 23 percentage of total Indian population, they are underprivileged and discriminated in numerous ways. Dalits are socially, economically and politically segregated and oppressed by the caste dominated society. Mass media which claims to be the social institution seldom gives coverage to Dalit related issues. Even if any news items were to appear in the mainstream media, it was only misrepresentation of facts. For centuries, Dalits have been making an effort to emancipate from the clutches of caste system, and many Dalit leaders have even laid down their lives for this cause. Nonetheless, Dalits continue to undergo the caste discrimination in all spheres of their lives. Dalit intellectuals and activists tried to voice their concerns to the mass media, but owing to the caste dominated media and the absence of Dalit journalists, their voices were unheard and silenced. Dalits were even denied the space to work in such media institutions. When Dalits themselves tried to own their media to champion Dalits’ cause, economic factors miserably failed them in perpetuating such efforts. Thus, Dalits were denied their space to voice their views on a public platform. In a situation such as this, the emergence and proliferation of internet and social networking sites have provided a sigh of relief to them to voice their problems to be heard even to the international community. Dalit Camera, a YouTube channel has become a rallying point for the Dalit community in India. This article throws light on how Dalit Camera is a platform for the expression of discrimination and avenue for exposing the atrocities committed on Dalits.

scholarly journals A Commentary on Ambedkar's Posthumously Published "Philosophy of Hinduism" - Part II

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-16
Author(s):  
Rajesh Sampath
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
World Religion ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
The Status

This paper continues the commentary on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s posthumously published Philosophy of Hinduism. Utilizing resources from various modern continental European philosophers and social theorists, particularly of religion, we elaborate on several key passages within Ambedkar’s overall framework of analysis. The paper continues to explore how Ambedkar conceives relations between philosophy and religion, and how historical shifts in general human consciousness have occurred whereby altering both fields. At the core of his being, Ambedkar is concerned with a methodological justification that will enable him to venture into a penetrating critique of the immoral and amoral nature of Hinduism’s social system of caste. In Part I of the commentary, we followed Ambedkar until he arrived at the criteria of ‘justice’ and ‘utility’ to judge the status of Hinduism. He wanted to test whether this Eastern world religion, which descends from antiquity, meets those criteria, which shape the modern conception of religion. In Part II of this commentary, we expand further on Ambedkar’s thesis as to why Hinduism fails to meet the modern conception when those twin criteria are not met. This thought presupposes various underlying philosophical transformations of the relations of ‘God to man’, ‘Society to man’, and ‘man to man’ within which the Hindu-dominated Indian society forecloses the possibility of individual equality, freedom, and dignity. In making contributions to Ambedkar studies, the philosophy of religion, and political philosophies of justice, this paper sets up Part III of the commentary, which will examine Ambedkar’s actual engagement with the classics of Hinduism’s philosophy and thought in general. Ultimately, Ambedkar is undeterred in his original critique of the social and moral failures of the caste system, thereby intimating ambitious possibilities for its eventual eradication.

scholarly journals Caste and Consequences

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
G. C. Pal
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
The Social ◽  
Victims Of Violence ◽  
Caste Groups ◽  
Caste Structure

Abstract   Caste, a social institution in India, has significant implications on social legislations, affirmative action and group-specific development policies. In the modern society, the traditional caste structure however continues to nurture the unequal social interaction process among caste groups. This often translates into various forms of human rights violations against the groups at the bottom of caste hierarchy. The key concern is that resistance to such violations often leads to ‘caste violence’ of different forms. Although a body of literature that explains this caste phenomenon in the discourse of human rights and social justice, its larger consequences remains a neglected dimension. This paper, drawing evidence from a series of empirical research on ‘mapping caste-based violence’ in contemporary Indian society, sheds light on diverse consequences of real or perceived violence, emanating from ‘caste’. The analysis reveals that consequences of caste violence are manifested in social, economic, psychological and moral terms. The ‘victims of violence’ speak the language of suffering and deprivation in different spheres of life, having a bearing on the basic human needs of ‘belongingness’ democratic honour and ‘sense of security’. The apathetic attitude and slow response of state machinery towards caste violence often accentuate the social conditions to make the ‘victims of violence’ and their communities fall into the vicious cycle of caste oppressions and increased vulnerability to poor human development.

scholarly journals Declining Social Control and the Rising Deviant Behaviour in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Pravin J. Patel
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Social Control Theory ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Deviant Behaviour ◽  
The Social

Crime rates are increasing across the Indian society. Normally, such crimes are attributed to two broad categories of factors: (a) psychological factors like individual or mob fury and (b) administrative factors like the failure of law and order machinery. These explanations, however, do not account for the increasing rates of such demeaning instances. This article, attempting to explain the increasing crime rates, focuses on the social control theory. The main argument of the article is that the rapidly declining informal social control causes the phenomenal rise of decadent behaviour in the contemporary Indian society. Due to modernising forces, traditional social institutions and structures such as family, kinship, caste system and village community have become weak. As a result, the traditional informal social control based on shame has gradually diminished. And the sense of guilt, the functional alternative to shame, as an informal mechanism of social control, has not yet been fully institutionalised. This seems to be the major factor giving rise to widespread deviant behaviour in India. Although formal mechanisms of social control like police and judiciary do exist, they cannot be very effective without being reinforced with the informal social control.

scholarly journals Conversion to Islam Untouchables' Strategy for Protest in India

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-260
Author(s):  
Mohammad A. Siddiqi
Keyword(s):  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Psychological Violence ◽  
Indian Politics ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
The Social ◽  
Extreme Measure ◽  
Mass Conversion ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

Many Indians were taken by surprise, anger, and dismay by severalthousand South Indian untouchables when they converted to Islam in 1981-82.Hindu chauvinists violently reacted and formed the Vishva Hindu Prishadwhich later occupied the famous mosque built by the first Mughul ruler ofIndia, Babur. Since then many attempts have been made to analyze the causesof the mass conversion which still continues, although not in large numbers.Abdul Malik's book carefully examines the regional and local causes as wellas the consequences of this mass conversion to Islam. Malik explains theelements of the complex social matrix in which the untouchables usedconversion as a "conscious and articulate protest" against a cruel and unjustcaste system. This unique study provides a thorough sociological perspectivethat deepens our understanding of more than 200 million untouchables of India.Malik explains, in the first chapter, the methodological and theoreticalbasis as well as the framework of his study. He raises relevant questionsthat have been answered in the latter part of the book, questions such as:Why did the untouchables resort to the extreme measure of conversion? Werethe conversions isolated cases or were they part of a long-term strategy? Whywas Islam as a religion chosen? Malik suggests that the main variables inthe process of conversion were the untouchables’ “aggressive and assertivebehavior.” While developing his own thesis, Malik carefully examines similarstudies by political sociologists such as Feierbend, Gum, Grimshaw, Niebuhrand others. He critically evaluates their work and draws meaningful similarities.Yet he establishes a more comprehensive framework by redefining many termssuch as violence and psychological violence in the context of the untouchables’conversion to Islam.The second, third, and fourth chapters provide a detailed understandingof the caste system that is the core of Indian politics, the economic, social,political, and cultural milieu of the untouchables, the pervasiveness ofuntouchability in the Indian society, the nature of violence against theuntouchables, and the helplessness of ’the untouchables in dealing with thepolitical power that is embedded in the caste hierarchy of the social systemin India ...

Values, attitudes, behaviour

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-48
Author(s):  
Stuart Rees
Keyword(s):  
Caste System ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
System P ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Forces ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Cruelty To Animals

This chapter identifies the social, religious, political, economic, and cultural forces which facilitate cruelties. It reveals patterns of values, attitudes, and behaviour, beginning with the age-old stigmatizing of victims. Such negative labelling is implemented in policies of national inclusiveness: whom to regard as normal and worthy, as compared to policies of exclusiveness which designate whom to see as abnormal and unworthy. Even where notorious killers and torturers could be identified, the moral and cultural contexts of their acts require an examination, which includes cruelty to animals and violence to the environment. The chapter also looks at the evils of violent cultures, such as the security politics of Israel, Iran's authoritarian theocracy, America's love of imprisonment, and entrenched discrimination in the Indian caste system.

scholarly journals Status of Woman in Ancient India: A Comparative Study of North Indian Society and Kashmir

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-164
Author(s):  
Sheikh J. Ayub ◽  
Asif R. Raina
Keyword(s):  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
British Rule ◽  
The Social ◽  
Religious Cultures ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Core Issues

There is no doubt in saying that ancient Indian society was predominantly patriarchal in nature. The woman lived in an awful state and was lumped with shudras. The most inhuman practice was that of Sati which had gained social acceptance across the length and breadth of the society.  But unlike the ancient Indian society, the society of Kashmir was almost free from all these elements which all time remained the core issues of Indian society. Sati system in India continued till British rule while as one finds just some literary references regarding sati in Kashmir.  Even both the societies were religiously Hindu, both were ruled by Hindu dynasties and most importantly both were patriarchal in nature but both societies experienced different cultures. We argue that neither patriarchy nor religion can fully explain the subjugation of women. For instance, a woman in Kashmir enjoyed most of the social, political and economic rights than their counterparts in ancient India. Secondly, we argue that the caste system was not that rigid in Kashmir as it was in ancient India; hence caste mobilization was a usual affair in Kashmir and not in India. Thirdly, that the composite culture of Kashmir called Kashmiriyat has always been more inclusive, more accommodative than religious cultures. That is where a large difference is created between the two societies.

scholarly journals DR. B.R.AMBEDKAR’S PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE ON INDIAN SOCIETY

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (37) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Jammanna
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social System ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Hindu Religion ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Social Order

The process of democratization from below has threatened the very existence of the caste system and the dominance of the traditionally powerful groups. We are now witnessing such momentous historic developments in the social system in India. It is in this historic perspectives, more and more sections of people are discovering the relevance and importance of the ideology of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who put forward scientific analysis of the caste system, the Hindu religion had evolved ways and means to fight out of the evils and degenerations, resulting into the very negation of human values and dignity. We often use the most elusive tern social justice but rarely define it as it is covered by conflicting claims of divergent approaches of divergent segments of society. Further it is a multi-contextual term having interpretations and implications in national and international spheres. The modern idea of social justice is concerned with ushering in a new social order without any border which could secure rights and advantages for the different sections of society in general and for the vulnerable and underprivileged sections of society in particular. As whole, it is correctly that any genuine democratization process can be started in India only through social justice. For that the emancipation of the Dalits, by a restoration of self-respect, is very much needed. The vision of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has given us a comprehensive programme for achieving social justice in India. So, it is the duty of all progressive and democratic forces to assimilate the ideology and vision of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar for the establishment of genuine social justice.

scholarly journals Dynamics of Upper Caste Paramountcy as Expressed in Dalit Literature A Reading of Sharankumar Limbales

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Muhamed Shehin TV
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Social Oppression ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scheduled Castes

Dalit literature is a kind of writing that evolved after independence. The beginning of Dalit literature has significant historical relevance. Similar writings exploring the lives and the pathetic existence of the marginalized and downtrodden sections feature in many other countries also, cutting across borders. Arjun Dangle has defined Dalit literature as one which familiarises the readers with the age-old caste system and untouchability in India. As we know, the caste system in India has always relegated Dalits to the marginalized ‘other’ side of Indian society; in other words, they were fully excluded from the social mainstream. So when they began protesting after centuries of silence, a new kind of literature came to the fore that depicted an assertion of human rights, self-esteem, revolt against social oppression, stories of personal and collective suffering, and put forth a vision of a new society sans any discrimination. The word Dalit is not new; it was in use in the 1930s as the Hindi and Marathi translation of ‘Depressed classes,’ a term the British used for the present-day Scheduled Castes.

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: A Socio –Political Study of Poverty and Injustice

IJOHMN ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 11-19
Author(s):  
RASHMI Ahlawat
Keyword(s):  
Indian Society ◽  
Poor People ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Social ◽  
White Tiger

Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize winning debut novel The White Tiger is sharp, fascinating, attacks poverty and injustice. The White Tiger is a ground breaking Indian novel. Aravind Adiga speaks of suppression and exploitation of various sections of Indian society. Mainly a story of Balram, a young boy’s journey from  rags to riches, Darkness to Light transforming from a village teashop boy into a Bangalore entrepreneur. This paper deals with poverty and injustice. The paper analyses Balram’s capability to overcome the adversities and cruel realities. The pathetic condition of poor people try to make both ends meet. The novel mirrors the lives of  poor in a realistic mode. The White Tiger is a story about a man’s journey for freedom. The protagonist   Balram in this novel is a victim of injustice, inequality and poverty. He worked hard inspite   of his low caste and overcame the social hindrance and become a successful entrepreneur. Through this novel Adiga portrays realistic and painful image of modern India. The novel exposes the anxieties of the oppressed.

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