The Caste System of India

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The Caste System of India The caste system is central to the Hindu religion and was developed by the Aryans thousands of years ago. A caste system is a way of separating groups of people into certain classes or positions in society due to there job status, family history, lifestyle, residence, and income. Under the caste system a person is born into a certain caste and cannot move into another. Some Indians believe that taking a job of another caste or marrying into another caste can be punished by being rebirth (reincarnation) into a lower caste or lower social level. Beliefs in reincarnation, karma, and dharma help maintain the caste system. There are four classes or caste that go with this system that are sorted by occupation. Brahmins are the top class in the caste system. These are the priests and intellectuals of a higher education that were the only ones who could read and write therefore were probably the caste of people that generally made up the rules and were the ones who more then likely made the actual caste system, which explains why they are the first ones in the system. The Kshatriyas were the warriors of the society. They were most likely places in the second part of the caste system due to their huge role in protecting the country. This would have been the equivalent of being a knight in the Renaissance. Below the Kshatriyas were the Vaisyas. These were the traders and merchants of society. The ones who were primarily responsible for the luxuries and specialty goods that people had along with general goods that were produced in India that were trades among its people. The Sundras were next in the caste system. This class was one of the largest classes in the system. It consisted of farmers and laborers. These were the people that grew the primary goods of India, including most of its food. There was a separate class of people
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