Caste System In Hinddia Essay

The caste system in India has been dated back to approximately 1000 BC and still affects the lives of millions of people not only in India but also through South Asia. The determination of this system of social layer for 3000 years of changing economic and social environments is a confusing idea. The Hindu conception of social order is that people are different, and different people will fit into different aspects of society. Social order or class according to the Varna is that the framework of moral duties according to personal characteristics of individuals and not necessarily birth (Pruthi, 2004). Varna is the term used for the four groups into which the traditional Hindu society is divided. This essay will outline the main social and economical features of the caste system in India and how it fits within the ontological framework of Hinduism (Philosophy 312).
Hindu society as a whole is divided into various small groups called castes each of which are well developed social groups. The membership of the caste is determined by the consideration of birth and children are automatically part of the caste that their parents belong to. Each caste group has its own privileges and rules in which are adopted by new generations and passed onto the next. Caste membership is an unchangeable and unarguable fact by which the male and females position in the social structure is entirely determined. Even if the person’s status, occupation, education and wealth may change the membership of that particular caste will still remain the same. Since this is usually a lifelong membership there is almost no social flexibility, however a low caste has been able in a generation or two to raise itself in the hierarchy. This is after gaining economic and...

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... and this has become increasingly identified as Hinduism as such” (Deshpande 2010, p9)
In conclusion there are different theories believed on how the Indian castes system originated. The social and economical features of the caste differ amongst each other in a broad way. The upper class has the stabilization of an income to maintain their lives but the lower the caste the less money stability they have. The idea of reincarnation and Karma stems from the Hindu religion and is believed to influence the way individuals think and feel about one another’s caste. As mentioned above, the law of Karma states that the present state of your soul is based on bad decisions made in the past life based on your own actions this also ties in with the belief of reincarnation where the religious or philosophical concept that the spirit after death is reborn and begins a new life.