Untouchability

Untouchability is a status of certain social groups confined to menial and despised jobs. It is associated with the Hindu caste system, known as Dalits. But similar groups exist outside Hinduism, for example the Burakumin in Japan and the Hutu and Twa in Rwanda. At the beginning of the twenty-first century there were over 160 million untouchables on the Indian subcontinent.

The sacred books of the Hindus contain no uniform or consistent account of the origin of castes, but offer mystical, mythical, and rationalistic explanations of it, or fanciful conjecture concerning it.

The earliest of the Hindu Books, written by scholars (10.90.11-12), envisage a society divided into four theoretical varnas ("colors", "types" or "orders" ): Brahman (scholar-priest), Kshatriya (warrior-chief), Vaishya (farmer, artisan, traders), and Shudras (menials, servants). The idea is further developed in the Laws of Manu (200 BCE-200 CE). The first three varnas are known as the twice-born, all of whom undergo a ceremony in their youth admitting them formally as students of the vedas, which was the foundation for a later high status.

The varna caste division does not mention untouchables, but an untouchable occupation (ćaṇḍālas, handlers of corpses) is mentioned in the Manu Smriti and early Buddhist literature, as resulting from the union of Shudra males and Brahmin females.

While the varnas were theoretical, idealistic categories, jatis, meaning "by birth" were the thousands of tribal, post-tribal and occupational groupings that actually existed. A jati is an endogamous group, sharing many customs and often an occupation, usually based in one language area. Some scholars believe that Jatis were a pre-Aryan social division of society which, by being grafted on to the Aryan concept of social order (varna), has acquired Brahmanical sanction.

Beliefs about pollution generally regulated relations between all the castes. Members were not allowed to marry outside their caste; there were strict rules about the kind of food and drink one could accept and from whom; and there were restrictions on approaching and visiting members of another caste. Violations of these rules entailed purificatory rites, penalties and sometimes expulsion from the caste. This differentiated society was often justified with traditional Hindu religious beliefs about samsara (reincarnation) and karma (quality of actions). A person's position in this life was determined by his or her actions in previous lives. Persons who were born in a Brahman family must have performed good deeds in their earlier lives. Being born a Shudra was punishment for the sinful acts committed in previous lives.

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Wikipedia