Towards a Casteless Bharatham ( India ) –3.
3. The Sociology of Caste :
Even after the abolition of A more sinister form of social division is the one on racial and ethnic lines, still people, politician want to sustain this evil.
At a global level this is currently one of the leading causes of slavery and apartheid racial bias in subtle forms remains apparent in affluent societies, while in almost all recent large-scale armed conflicts ethnic issues have played a significant role.
Caste, then, as it is found in India, is hardly unique.
Yet it has distinctive features that deserve attention.
When the Portuguese first used the term caste they derived it from casta, meaning ‘pure or unmixed’.
They were probably impressed by the rules segregating the castes and the prohibitions against inter-marriage.
That a series of Smriti texts down the centuries had been formulating rules to regulate social organization, and in the process routinize and perpetuate the existing segregation, is also unique to India.
Swami Satyaswarupananda
Sri Ramakrishna Mission.
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