Casteism

Published on 11th February, 2018, in Mid-Day. A young girl from Mizoram was told by her father to return home immediately after he learned that she was in love with a boy in Delhi. My friend said, "But isn't your boyfriend also from Mizoram?" The girl nodded yes. "But isn't the boy also Christian?" The girl nodded yes. "Then what is the problem?" my friend asked. The girl said her father disapproved as the boy did not belong to her tribe! While people decry the lower rate of inter-caste marriages in India, they don't decry the low rates of inter-tribe marriages in India. The former ..

Published on 5th January, 2018, on www.dailyo.in The casteism, as we know it today with strict rules of purity prohibiting inter-caste marriages, started 1,900 years ago, became common 1,500 years ago and rigid 1,000 years ago. We know this because of recent genetic studies. Note: the word caste is a European word for clan that is used for the Indian system of jati. The word jati, in turn, is confused with the Vedic system of varna. Vedas speak of a theoretical four-fold structure (chatur-varna). In reality, India has thousands of jatis that are crudely mapped to these four varnas, leading to much chaos and confusion. ..