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I lived in India for a bit, and no shit they wouldn't share it. It's a horrible form of discrimination, worse than racism in some ways, IMO. You could, histori
by sk0g 6y ago
I lived in India for a bit, and no shit they wouldn't share it. It's a horrible form of discrimination, worse than racism in some ways, IMO.
You could, historically, spread your "untouchableness" by contacting people of other castes, for example. Marrying your child to someone from a lower caste is seen as a shameful move to many people.
White people would absolutely not understand this, yes, but what is there to understand? This is just discrimination based on your family + skin tone to some extent, and the sooner it dies, the better.
- youeseh 6y agoDiscriminating based on caste is racism. Actually, the Brits used the caste system to their own advantage* and discrimination based on caste didn't become outlawed until the Indian constitution was written post-independence. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India
- aaomidi 6y agoThank you. People are very much misleading today.
- sk0g 6y agoDidn't realise! I'll edit my comment to remove that part. I was going to mention sati, but decided against it.
- youeseh 6y agoWell, I'm glad you didn't mention Sati, because it would have really dated your knowledge of Indian society.
- sk0g 6y agoIt was going to be in relation to the British rule helping abolish it, but it's not completely gone still, is it? During travels through small towns in the western part of India, I heard about a local case around 2010, but allegedly the widow did it voluntarily, and without outside influence.
- twic 6y agoBritain has had a very strong class system, which was perhaps at its peak around the time of the empire, so it would not have been a big leap at all to understand the Indian caste system.
- thewhitetulip 6y agoThey wanted to divide the country so they used it. They didn't actually need to understand it.
- sbmthakur 6y agoBrits also developed the concept 'Martial race' in India, which meant that certain castes are capable of fighting and others are not. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_race https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_race Today it's widely understood that this was done to reward those who supported the British during the 1857 rebellion and to utilise caste-based segregation in British Indian army against any future rebellion.
- ashtonkem 6y agoIn many ways, it’s similar to the hierarchy if feudal titles in medieval Europe, with the serfs being legally tied to the land. It’s just shocking to see such a feudal anachronism continuing so long after the initial conditions that created it have ceased to exist.