26 Oct 2009 Vrindavan, India
Category: Caste System
Some time ago I already wrote in the diary how difficult it is for our school to keep the record of our children because of their last names which is directly related to the problem of the caste system. Some children don’t know their last name or don’t want to tell it because it indicates from which caste they come and they learned that if someone gets to know this, they will not be treated as others, might not be allowed to do what others do etc. Imagine with which feeling they grow up!
Someone in Europe said to me that he didn’t notice anything while he travelled through India. I told him that he needed to go more deep than just looking at the tourist places. If you stay a while and have a project like our school you will realize it.
In the last days I told a few examples on which you can still see how people think of the society in different classes, in the castes. Another example are marriages. The other day Ramona came to me with a part of the newspaper. She read out ‘Required educated girl for handsome Sanadhya-Vashisht Brahmin…’ . She was surprised to read that even in the personal ads in the newspaper people search for a partner from their caste.
I explained her that this is a very important factor for parents who choose a partner for their child for an arranged marriage. And for many young people as well, be it because their family wants it or because they feel it themselves. The columns in the newspaper are separated in different castes so that everybody immediately finds what he is looking for and there are agencies which find you a match in your caste. So you see, it is still very present in everyday’s life.
Early this morning Jens, Regina and Celina started from the Ashram to the airport to fly back to Germany. We already miss them and in the Ashram it is getting more quiet. Suraj also misses them, especially Celina who played with him each day. But we hope that they will come back soon to the Ashram.
Tags:: Children, Marriage, School, Society , Caste
4 Comments
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I don't know. I do feel like every single culture DOES have people who believe they are higher than others and people who accept feeling like they are lower than others.The caste system is a little bit different though, it distinctly depends on what you were born in to, it also depends on your name, so it is not as subtle a way of separating people's worth. Something about it does seem particularly nasty to me.
Reply By Greg on October 25, 2010 01:59
I don't know if this is that much different from people everywhere who think they are better than someone else at one time or another. Doesn't every society have biases that make one group of people feel higher than the others?
Reply By Jacob on October 25, 2010 01:53
I am really surprised to find out how common every-day life is affected by the caste system. Just goes to show- some of the most harmful beliefs go right down to the core of people. some of the most harmful actions are performed almost subconciously because of how deep the beliefs penetrate in the human mind.
Reply By Naomi on October 25, 2010 01:50
Wow! Not being from India, it is really hard to imagine the caste system. sometimes it is hard to imagine how extreme it could really be, at other times it is hard to imagine that real live people actually agree to live by a caste. Makes sense I suppose. Every time there is some kind of a hierarchy those on top will do really nasty things just to stay on top, and often those on the bottom won't fight back because they believe they are lower than the others. This is how many systems work in the world. It's how racism works, how sexism works. Very unfortunate. very hard to break out of even individually, I can't imagine an entire nation breaking out of it. we'll see.
Reply By Harold on October 25, 2010 01:48
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