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Caste endogamy in India is well established and it shows that inter-marriage etc between castes basically stopped around 1800+ years ago.. which is clearly well

Caste endogamy in India is well established and it shows that inter-marriage etc between castes basically stopped around 1800+ years ago.. which is clearly well before the British, Portuguese or whoever else came to India. And also saying that the Portuguese/British invented the caste system because "caste" is a Portuguese system makes no sense because: a) Indians don't speak Portuguese and the words Jati and Varna have both existed in Indian languages for millenia b) To claim that something didn't exist because a word from a foreign language is most commonly used to discuss it is like saying that gravity didn't exist before Isaac Newton as he is the one to discover it and give it meaning.

amriksohata 5y ago
Jati and Varna are completely different things to Caste. Castus is a Latin word meaning clean and pure, which is where Caste comes from. Varna is occupational work. Inter marriage was allowed in Hindu scriptures, if they stopped for whatever reason, does not take away from the fact that the British (especially Christian aspect) used it to divide people in India. What you are talking about specifically is the discrimination and whilst discrimination to the poorer occupations always existed in most societies, it was accelerated in India by the Brits.
- pkphilip 5y ago
  Well, then you can explain that to the Shankaracharya himself who clearly disagrees with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0
naruvimama 5y ago
Evangelists, Colonialist, Colonial apologists & Leftists have a perverse incentive in theorising & establishing a framework linking caste to Indians & Hindus along with exaggerations and hiding equally bad or worse examples from Europe. It would only be fair to look at the opposing views and reject or reevaluate theories that are on thin ice. Jati & Varna are two separate ideas, "Indian caste system" is an import and a framework trying to combine the two. Why do we keep using the word "caste", when we talk about Jati. A lot of Jatis do not see themselves as lower & upper and there are thousands of Jatis so no one is carrying around a dictionary to see where they stand. People rarely talk ever about "their" varna and the vast majority do not see themselves or their jati falling into a specific varna. 70% of the temples in Tamil Nadu have priests from the Jati that built the temple and non-brahmins, there falls the idea "Brahmins" exclusively being the priestly class.
- pkphilip 5y ago
  You are so right! Actually, here is one missionary (Shankaracharya) who is linking Jati/Varna to Hinduism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0

amriksohata 5y ago

Jati and Varna are completely different things to Caste. Castus is a Latin word meaning clean and pure, which is where Caste comes from. Varna is occupational work. Inter marriage was allowed in Hindu scriptures, if they stopped for whatever reason, does not take away from the fact that the British (especially Christian aspect) used it to divide people in India. What you are talking about specifically is the discrimination and whilst discrimination to the poorer occupations always existed in most societies, it was accelerated in India by the Brits.

pkphilip 5y ago
Well, then you can explain that to the Shankaracharya himself who clearly disagrees with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0

naruvimama 5y ago

Evangelists, Colonialist, Colonial apologists & Leftists have a perverse incentive in theorising & establishing a framework linking caste to Indians & Hindus along with exaggerations and hiding equally bad or worse examples from Europe. It would only be fair to look at the opposing views and reject or reevaluate theories that are on thin ice. Jati & Varna are two separate ideas, "Indian caste system" is an import and a framework trying to combine the two. Why do we keep using the word "caste", when we talk about Jati. A lot of Jatis do not see themselves as lower & upper and there are thousands of Jatis so no one is carrying around a dictionary to see where they stand. People rarely talk ever about "their" varna and the vast majority do not see themselves or their jati falling into a specific varna. 70% of the temples in Tamil Nadu have priests from the Jati that built the temple and non-brahmins, there falls the idea "Brahmins" exclusively being the priestly class.

pkphilip 5y ago
You are so right! Actually, here is one missionary (Shankaracharya) who is linking Jati/Varna to Hinduism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks3lIJ3wR0