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The British thought that India suffered from the same casteism as Christianity (& Abrahamic religions) in other places, so they tried their best to retrofit Ind
by adictator 7y ago
The British thought that India suffered from the same casteism as Christianity (& Abrahamic religions) in other places, so they tried their best to retrofit Indian society into that model. But they could find no evidence of casteism, so they were forced to artificially make up many "castes" & grouped people based on occupation etc. The people who could not be fitted into any castes were called a tribes, which are now known as scheduled tribes & castes. Otherwise there should have been just 4 castes according to every tenet of Hinduism. Unfortunately, Indians & the GOI have formalized that artificiality & that is the genesis of the caste system. Caste system is nothing but an invention of the British. Caste itself is a Portuguese word, nothing that correlates to Indian / Hinduism.
- selimthegrim 7y agoPray tell, what casteism does Abrahamic religions suffer from? Sectarianism?
- adictator 7y agoAbrahamic religions are the only ones that have a rigid caste system. I already pointed out that "caste" is a Portuguese word (origin "Casta"), but maybe that does not mean much to you. But look around & besides the Islamic castes like Ashraf, Pathans, Shiekhs, Ahmediyas, Khans, Qureshis, Asranis, Syeds, Ajlafs, etc., you have the thousand & one castes in Christianity — Catholics, Protestants, Presbyterian, Coptic, Episcopalian, Mormons, Lutherans, Methodists, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Assyrians etc etc. The very definition of Abrahamic religions is to divide mankind into believers & non-believers. Castes is but a natural progression of the same concept & subdivides believers into more believers vs the lesser believers. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, there are today 33000+ castes in Christianity alone.