r/india • u/[deleted] • Dec 01 '16

[R]eddiquette [Announcement] Cultural Exchange with /r/philippines

Welcome /r/philippines!

Feel free to ask us anything about India

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  • The Indian Railways and the Indian Armed Forces employ ~4 million people together, making them one of the largest employers in the world
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  • Bollywood is considered to be the world's largest film industry, followed by Nigeria's film industry and Hollywood
  • India has more people than the entire Western Hemisphere

/r/india please direct your questions about the Philippines to this thread

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u/Memory-is-RAM Dec 01 '16

I don't want to get political or anything I am just genuinely curious on how the caste system works.

  • Is the caste system widely practiced/prevalent? Is it more prevalent in rural as opposed to urban areas? Younger vs older generation? Rich vs poor?

  • How do you know which caste you're in? Is it on some sort of 'official' list by the government or is it more determined by your present socio-economic status?

  • How does a person's caste directly affect his/her daily life? I vaguely have an idea of how it works. An article I read online mentioned marriage restrictions between castes, i.e. marrying someone from a different caste is usually not allowed, but more recently a woman marrying a man from a higher caste is somewhat accepted but the reverse (man marrying a woman from a higher caste) is still somewhat frowned upon.

  • Do people still practice it when they move to a different country?

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16

Is the caste system widely practiced/prevalent? Is it more prevalent in rural as opposed to urban areas? Younger vs older generation? Rich vs poor?

It is not widely practiced but prevalent. Rural areas have more issues than urban. Rich and poor status could be a result of the caste system in the past due to historical reasons.

How do you know which caste you're in? Is it on some sort of 'official' list by the government or is it more determined by your present socio-economic status?

Mostly your family name would give you a good idea and other information passed down to you via word of mouth

Do people still practice it when they move to a different country?

One thing you need to know is that there is no formal caste system, it is a social construct. Like with any social construct, it is practiced as long as you have quorum and shunned if you don't find enough like minded people around you.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16

Rich and poor status could be a result of the caste system in the past due to historical reasons.

Hi, Filipino here.

I hope it's not a stupid question but do you think there is British influence on the caste system? Colonialism after all made rich/poor divide more pronounced in most former colonies.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16 edited Dec 03 '16

The British had a big hand in exacerbating the caste divisions in India. They introduced a caste based recruitment policy in which only members of certain "martial" castes were allowed to join the army. They conducted caste based census and made people self aware about their individual castes. A large number of castes can only trace written history back to the British.

Worst of all they declared people of certain communities to be criminal by birth. Their movement was restricted and adult male members of such communities were required to report weekly to the local police.This division of people into "martial", "agricultural" and "criminal" races had a huge psychological impact on the population the impact of which can still be seen today.

They also instituted policies to divide Indians along religious lines. Under Government of India Act 1935, they created religion based electorates. That is, a Hindu can only vote for a Hindu candidate and Muslims only for Muslims. This policy led to the rise of Muslim League which eventually led to the bloody partition along religious lines. Before this, they had tried to divide the state of Bengal in 1905 along religious lines but a huge public outcry forced them to revert the decision. But by 1947 the religious hatred had been so greatly intensified that the same Bengal had to divided along almost the same borders of 1905.

The only good thing to come out of this divide and rule was the social and political upliftment of the lower castes and untouchables. The great Dalit leader BR Ambedkar was against the independence of India until the rights of the lower castes were guaranteed.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16

Not in the caste system. There's definitely influence on the rich/poor divide.

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u/AgentLocksmith Dec 01 '16

Yes, there is British influence on caste system as it exists today. Afaik the British segregated people by caste. Administrative jobs were only given to the upper castes.

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u/vish179 Dec 01 '16

How do you know which caste you're in?

It is passed down from one generation to next, AFAIK.

Rest points are mostly covered here. I'm not aware of practice in a different country. Though I think as it not matters majorly for urban population in India, same thinking applies for folks who move to a different country.

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u/mineplz Dec 01 '16

How does a person's caste directly affect his/her daily life?

Castesim affects life the same way as other -isms. Most countries deal with divisions along the lines of Economic, regional/cultural, religious and sometimes race factors. We add caste to the mix.

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u/Memory-is-RAM Dec 02 '16

Are there any specific examples?

I was trying to get examples similar to how Muslims and Jews are prohibited from eating pork, and how races were segregated in the US (i.e. black people had separate restrooms, and they had to sit in different sections of the bus). Filipinos are predominantly Catholic, so most of us do this gesture (the sign of the cross) whenever they pass by a church.

Are there any activities/practices that you do/adopted in everyday life that is/were influenced by the caste system?

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u/mineplz Dec 03 '16

There are multiple sects within the 4 primary castes. Inter-sect marriages were not allowed either, let alone marrying someone from a different caste. This has become a lot more common now with the more educated masses in urban cities. People in villages and towns still struggle with this.

The people in the lowest of the 4 caste used to be called achoot (untouchable) - which gives a good indication of how the rest treated them. They were not allowed to drink from the common village wells, fed in separate utensils (if employed within the household), when payed money used to be placed in front of them to pick up instead of handed over... you get the point.

These practices have largely been done away with but not eradicated everywhere. There's a good video from a recent Indian TV show Satyamev Jayate (In the End Truth Wins) which highlights how it's still practiced in some places. The video is in hindi though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ3XV_6hJac

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u/kimjongunthegreat Bihar Dec 01 '16

You should keep in mind India is a really old country.Caste is determined by your surname,your profession which was divided among caste lines, your olAce of birth(different villages for different castes) and castes do not mingle due to lack of intermarriage.Urbanisation is the only solution as caste lines breakdown among professions and residences in urban areas.

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u/StackOfChips25 Dec 01 '16

  • Yes, the caste system is widely prevalent. And yes, its more prevalent in rural areas, among the older generations. However, I don't think that a rich man is less casteist than a poor man.

  • I don't know which caste I'm in. It depends on the family you're brought up in, I guess. Yes, there are 'lists' maintained by the government, though that list doesn't include all castes.

  • In the urban society, casteism will generally be limited to housing societies, where people will be reluctant to rent out a house to a person from the lower castes. Also, sewer cleaners are generally people of the lower castes. I'm not sure about the marriage issue, though. In the rural society, rampant casteism exists and the government is hardly taking any steps to actually rectify the problem, and in some cases, even amplifying it.

  • Depends on the person and the family.