FEAR ME!!!

I don't believe in untouchables. Their are only 4 varnas(castes) in Hindu scripture. So, if you're trying to be funny, you're not!

Italian gangsters call themselves untouchables....and I agree....they are equivalent to chamars......lol

lol

ur dalit?

i thought u were hindu jatt?

welcome to the club Im untouchable too,some Hindus call me untouchable cuz I eat meat, some catholics call me the servent of the devil some extremists(wannabe) Muslims call me a non muslims,cool innit ?

I'm confused as to how the caste system(if it still exists) work in modern-day India. Do Indians who identify themselves as a hindu have some sort of identification which states what caste they belong to?

Your last name usually tells what caste you belong to.

Castes are based on profession. Only people of certain castes can do certain professions. For Example, only a Brahmin can become a priest (although there have been sages from many different castes over the years)......

Castes aren't even based on professions anymore, pretty much everyone wants to be a Vaishya and make some $$$. Caste System is more or less a fossil, and only remains because of bigotry and socio-economic reasons.

Vaisya? What happened to Brahmins?

They are still around. Demands for priests are still there, but not as high as the older days, so many brahmins take up other professions.....

I see. Thanks for the explanation. I watched Water and one of the dialogues went like..Brahmins can sleep with any women they want and the women are blessed by the God. LOLz...I think in the elder days..they were treated like God. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm trying to know Indian customs better.

Back in the old old days Brahmins were actually very spiratual well most of them anyway, and probably wouldn't be doing stuff like that.

I was talking about Water and it's not so old old ago. Anyways, it was portrayed in Water that there are actually two groups of Brahmins. One is the one which interpreted Holy Texts wrongly for their own benefits and the 2nd one, is the one against it and believe that ones should never interprete it wrongly. I just wanna know if all these things are true. I mean..about these two groups of Brahmins. After all, you know, films can't be real all the times.

Brahmins did not sleep with anyone other than their wives. If they slept with any other women, they were shunned and lost their brahmin status. It was considered double the sin for a brahmin to sleep with random women. Generally, in the olden days, punishments for brahmins were twice as harsh as for any other caste, because brahmins were expected to behave as model citizens, as they were also the most learned. Generally, they were expected to know better than to commit crimes.

Only Tantric priests could sleep with any women, but Tantra was an entirely different sect and was not mainstream.

Brahmins were never looked at as gods, they were just held in high regard for being priests.

Oh..okay. Btw, one question. Is someone with 'Ray' as her/his surname a Brahmin?

No, Lisa Ray is bi-racial. One of her parents is Polish and the other is Indian.

I'm not really sure about the last name Ray.......I know that 'Sharma' is a Brahmin caste....but that's all.....

I was Brahmin
until i stopped being Hindu

LOL why would Catholics call you servant of the devil???
Please don't mix up us Catholics for Evangelical Christians.

it's cool!!!

Oh..it's her mum who is Polish. Her dad was a Bengali.

I second that!

LOLz..read this.

Touching the Untouchable: India Targets Christian Converts

For nearly her entire life, Muniyamal Krishnan has worked around human waste. In her job as a “human scavenger,” she has cleaned latrines and carried buckets of waste on her head. Obviously, she didn’t choose this line of work; it was all she could get—and for religious, not economic reasons. Krishnan is an “untouchable,” the lowest caste in Hindu society.

For millennia, the “untouchables” have suffered unimaginable discrimination at the hands of their fellow Hindus. As a result, millions have converted to other faiths, including Christianity. But now, Hindu nationalists, with the Indian government’s blessing, want to deny them that opportunity.

In Hinduism, the “untouchables,” who call themselves “dalits,” are said to be the descendants of the illegitimate children of the union of prehistoric lower- and upper-caste people. Their place in life is believed to be deserved. As Stephanie Giry, an editor at Foreign Affairs magazine, recently wrote, the belief in the dalits’ “tainted origin” forced them into “the most squalid jobs.”

The resulting social structure is every bit as oppressive and dehumanizing as apartheid. Dalits are forced to worship in different temples and aren’t allowed to eat or drink in their employers’ homes.

For many dalits, the best way to escape the misery to which Hinduism consigns them is conversion to another faith, especially Christianity. I have preached in Indian prisons and seen “untouchables” flock to Christ. Conversion, however, doesn’t mean an end to discrimination, since their Hindu neighbors still view them as “untouchables,” and because they become Christians, they forfeit Indian government programs put into place to benefit them.

Still, as a non-Christian dalit leader told Giry, conversion to Christianity is worth it to his people. He said that his people “gain dignity and access to the Christian community’s vast network of social services.” He then added, “whatever the government can do for dalits, Christian missionaries can do better.”

But if the Indian ruling party, the BJP, has its way, dalits will no longer have that option. The BJP, which espouses Hindu supremacy, has introduced the Orwellian-named “Freedom of Religion Bill” in India’s Gujarat state. It punishes anyone who converts another person through “allurement” with three years in prison and a $2,200 fine, an enormous sum by Indian standards. The law prohibits conversions performed by “religious priests,” meaning Christianity and Islam, since Hindu and Buddhist conversion rites aren’t officiated.

Giry points out, as well, that the law instructs local magistrates, mostly upper-caste Hindus, to look for any evidence of “allurement,” which is conveniently, by the way, undefined. Thus, the people who have oppressed the dalits for generations have the authority to block their conversions. And this statute is considered a model for similar legislation across India.

This year, India will be a subject of debate in the presidential campaign because of the “outsourcing” of American jobs to Indian firms. We need to insist that the talk in the campaign go beyond “call centers” and computer programmers. If we’re putting business in India, our policy-makers ought to be demanding that India respect the most basic of human freedoms, freedom of religion.

I would prefer to ask a person what they are, instead of analyzing the last name.

There are cases (like mine, lol) where last names aren't indicative of caste, especially if both of your parents are two different castes/regional ethnicities....

No, I don't believe in that "You are what your dad is" crap, or your mom becomes your dad's caste/regional ethnicity. Your mom has just as much right to your heritage as your dad does. There are some inter-caste/inter-ethnic Desis that do get offended if you don't acknowledge their mother's roots and act as if they're 100% of what their dad is.

In cases of remarriage and adoption, last names won't be reflective of caste.

Some last names are also very common (like Patel).....There are both high-caste and low-caste Patels.


I think I said this before in another thread, but a lot of lower-caste Hindus in America adopt high-caste surnames to conceal their identity.