The Castes of the Hindu Religion - Case Study Example

Running Head: RELIGION – HINDU Religion – Hindu [Writer’s name] [Institution’s name] Religion – Hindu Introduction The Hindu religion has always been segmented it’s society into castes. Every Hindu caste has a set of rules which mostly cause a lot of problems for it’s members. This essay shall analyze the problems prevailing in two Hindu castes. Cases of two hypothetical women Bubul and Muthhmma will be used to give a clear understanding of the problems prevailing in two Hindu castes. Analysis Bubul is a 17 year old girl. She belongs to the Jhariya Potters caste. She wanted to do a lot with her life, she didn’t want to be stuck in the same caste however the elders of Jhariya Potters are against marriages with non-Jhariya Potters. Problems Prevailing In the Caste Her husband does not earn much with the pottery. The main problem of this caste is that even if there is no earning one has to make and sell pottery. They even deny Potter status to those who are not working the potter wheel, restricting Potter identity only to those who make clay products on the wheel. Thus the main challenge to the leaders concerns reproduction, not production. One story repeatedly told to me by potters is that, at a particular Jhariya Potter do not consider those people as potters who say that they are Potters but follow the potter’s way of living and like to live in neighbourhoods where there are no potters. Another problem which ruined Bulbul’s dreams was that they are strictly against marring out side the Jhariya potters caste and thus look for spouses for their sons and daughters accordingly. When Bulbul’s father was asked by a noble potter to marry his daughter to one of the potters’ sons her father was prevailed as she was getting married within the caste It is vital to note that gender and caste boundaries are important to the Jhariya female potter’s life as it is related with the community boundary by marriage. A normative requirement of the Indian culture in which one's spouse is considered to be a salient and sacred part of one's life (Kapadia 1966). Marrying outside a potter’s family would be hard to imagine for the elders and their daughters, who have been brought up to, do the kind of physical work of women in potter households. Thus they don’t even want to try to expand the Potter caste boundaries. Second, the realm of social relations among potters as issues of roti-beti-lenden is critical to the reproduction of potter relations of production. Keeping the keeping the tradition of finding wives with in patrilineal as well as matrilineal household has made the elders and potters realize the importance on wedding their children within the caste. They believe that that relationships based on reproduction can be determined by just marrying within the caste Bubul had to control labour however she does not use the wheel herself, she will only instruct the labour. The sexual division of labour is due to the caste’s culture and is one more way by which the caste bases their production by using symbols this is also a problem. gender division in labour generates less income for the household. As only one member of the family can work. For instance, if a male in this caste weds women who are of another caste, he will not bring her in the house. Female members of his family fulfil the chores of his wife like collecting wood for the fire, preparing clay for the pottery, painting the pottery, helping in firing, and marketing. Thus in this way the family can continue to be a potter family. If the male does not marry after a devoice or death of his wife things continue they way they were. He continues making pottery and the women in his family sell the pottery in the market. But, when a Jhariya female potter marries out of the caste, the only way for her to still be part of a potter household is if her husband is a non-Jhariya potter Dalit Caste Muthhmma is a 20 year old woman. She was married when she was 15 years old. Like other women of Dalit caste she was traditionally expected to serve their husbands and to have no autonomous interests. This is due to the fact that this caste follows Hindu sacred writings and most of the writings involve women serving their husbands. It is usually understood that there is not essentially any correlation among the existence of goddesses and the position of women in any religion (Young 1987). She wanted to do job and get and education. But due to the problems of the caste that she had to give in her life to serve husband Problems of This Caste A huge problem in this caste is that they tend to discriminate women to incredible extremes Muthhmma faces this kind of discrimination a lot. Women were treated as inferior beings. In this caste still when a man dies, his widow had to commit suicide by throwing herself on his funeral pyre. Due to the problems in the caste Muthhmma wanted to marry outside the caste. But like many problems this caste does not permit its members to marry outside their own caste. Some parts of India, however, the endogamy system was not that strict and a man from a higher caste was allowed to marry a girl from a lower caste. However in this caste like the mentioned above, inter-caste marriage is extremely limited and this caste is expected to marry within their own caste or community., if this rule is ever broken, then expulsion from the membership of the group was generally the penalty, which the offending parties has to suffer. In Dalit caste women are treated as sexual objects. In their caste as according to their religion the women were made so that men could satisfy their sexual needs. Muthhmma is an infertile woman. Her caste also has a problem with that. The stigma of infertility takes its toll on both partners, but much more so on the women. As the author studied she found that In India, a woman is seen as unfulfilled unless she marries and is a bears children to be a good wife as well as mother. Infertile mothers are treated as social outcasts; there is also a belief that infertility is contagious. The Husbands family will frown on infertile women. Dalit caste is only subjected to this stigma, the male’s infertility is never questioned and a male will be expected to re-marry someone who has already given birth to prove fertility. The women of Dalit caste depend on their children when they are old, they seek support financially especially from sons. If a family is wealthy then Indian women are expected to reproduce to transfer the wealth or inheritance to the children in later life. In India women who chose to stay unmarried or live in same-sex unions are not supported by society. When Muthhmma was getting married her grooms’ family asked for a lot of dowry. Her poor parents had to take loans to fulfil their demands. In Dalit caste the tradition of dowry has increase so much that birth of a daughter is not appreciated much and is considered as a nuisance for the family. Dowry in this caste means that the brides family ahs to fulfil the demands of the grooms family. They usually give a list of items to the bride’s family. The brides’ family’s fears that the groom’s family may break off the marriage or mentally torture their daughter and thus they have to fulfil the demands The women of the Dalit caste have to face a lot of difficulties. They are not only discriminated due to their caste but also due to their sex. When Muthhmma’s younger sister was at a considerably young age she was pushed into prostitutions that she could revenues for upper-caste patrons as well as village priests. The biggest problem of this Caste is that women in this caste are often found to be victims of sexual abuse at the hands of not only feudal landlords, but also that of the police. This senseless and demeaning abuse if often projected as being implicated to teach 'political lessons' as a means of suppressing dissent in the community. Perhaps the most astonishing and perplexing issue raised in regards to the sexual abuse of Dalit women is 'nobody practices untouchability when it comes to sex'. Being deemed 'human scavengers' strictly condemns physical interaction between the 2 castes. However, this is not the case in regards to sexual activity, as it somehow allows the 'rules' to be bent and deems the physical interaction between castes as acceptable, but only on these grounds Conclusion Both women Bubul and Muthhmma are of different castes however they seem to be facing a lot of problems due to their caste. Both castes are against marriages outside their caste. Apart from this both castes believe that women are meant to serve their husbands. However it may noted that Muthhmma‘s caste has more intense problems then Bulbul’s caste does. To conclude it is only fair to say that Hindu castes all have a tendency of treating women badly and making then adjust to the worse kind of situations. References Kapadia, K M (1966); Marriage and the Family in India. Oxford University Press Young, Katherine K. (1987); Hinduism. In Women in World Religions, edited by Arvind Sharma. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Read More

Keeping the keeping the tradition of finding wives with in patrilineal as well as matrilineal household has made the elders and potters realize the importance on wedding their children within the caste. They believe that that relationships based on reproduction can be determined by just marrying within the caste Bubul had to control labour however she does not use the wheel herself, she will only instruct the labour. The sexual division of labour is due to the caste’s culture and is one more way by which the caste bases their production by using symbols this is also a problem.

gender division in labour generates less income for the household. As only one member of the family can work. For instance, if a male in this caste weds women who are of another caste, he will not bring her in the house. Female members of his family fulfil the chores of his wife like collecting wood for the fire, preparing clay for the pottery, painting the pottery, helping in firing, and marketing. Thus in this way the family can continue to be a potter family. If the male does not marry after a devoice or death of his wife things continue they way they were.

He continues making pottery and the women in his family sell the pottery in the market. But, when a Jhariya female potter marries out of the caste, the only way for her to still be part of a potter household is if her husband is a non-Jhariya potter Dalit Caste Muthhmma is a 20 year old woman. She was married when she was 15 years old. Like other women of Dalit caste she was traditionally expected to serve their husbands and to have no autonomous interests. This is due to the fact that this caste follows Hindu sacred writings and most of the writings involve women serving their husbands.

It is usually understood that there is not essentially any correlation among the existence of goddesses and the position of women in any religion (Young 1987). She wanted to do job and get and education. But due to the problems of the caste that she had to give in her life to serve husband Problems of This Caste A huge problem in this caste is that they tend to discriminate women to incredible extremes Muthhmma faces this kind of discrimination a lot. Women were treated as inferior beings.

In this caste still when a man dies, his widow had to commit suicide by throwing herself on his funeral pyre. Due to the problems in the caste Muthhmma wanted to marry outside the caste. But like many problems this caste does not permit its members to marry outside their own caste. Some parts of India, however, the endogamy system was not that strict and a man from a higher caste was allowed to marry a girl from a lower caste. However in this caste like the mentioned above, inter-caste marriage is extremely limited and this caste is expected to marry within their own caste or community.

, if this rule is ever broken, then expulsion from the membership of the group was generally the penalty, which the offending parties has to suffer. In Dalit caste women are treated as sexual objects. In their caste as according to their religion the women were made so that men could satisfy their sexual needs. Muthhmma is an infertile woman. Her caste also has a problem with that. The stigma of infertility takes its toll on both partners, but much more so on the women. As the author studied she found that In India, a woman is seen as unfulfilled unless she marries and is a bears children to be a good wife as well as mother.

Infertile mothers are treated as social outcasts; there is also a belief that infertility is contagious. The Husbands family will frown on infertile women. Dalit caste is only subjected to this stigma, the male’s infertility is never questioned and a male will be expected to re-marry someone who has already given birth to prove fertility. The women of Dalit caste depend on their children when they are old, they seek support financially especially from sons. If a family is wealthy then Indian women are expected to reproduce to transfer the wealth or inheritance to the children in later life.

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