Social Patterns in India

1
Social Patterns in India

• What levels of the pyramid are on a. top b.
  bottom?
• What descriptions help us to visualize what types
  of people are in the levels
• Is it possible to move up the pyramid?

2
Law of Dharma/Caste SYSTEM

• Dharma- duties and obligations that a person has
• Taught to Hindu children from an early age
• Helped to ensure moral order in society
• Indians built their lives around
• family and village
• Caste System- gave people a role and rules to
  live by in society

3

• When and where did the caste system start?
• What were priests called at this time?
• What language did the Muslim invaders speak?
• When did India fall under Muslim control?
• Between what time periods did Muslims enter
  India?
• Who did Kulothunga persecute?

4
Caste System

• Started with the Aryan civilization and the
  varnas (classes)
• Caste system developed over thousands of years
• Based on the idea that there are separate kinds
  of humans
• Higher caste people considered purer closer to
  moksha
• Lower caste were impure
• Divided people within each class until there were
  thousands of castes and sub-castes

5
Rules of Caste System

• Rules were meant to keep people spiritually pure
• Especially for higher caste members who were the
  most pure
• Contact with a lower class gave you a polluted
  soul
• Some believed that a shadow could make a soul
  impure

6
Rules of Caste System
Imagine being told who To marry and what
you Could and could not Eat

• Rules of the Caste System
• Cooking and eating habits
• Marriage
• Employment (each job had its own caste)
• Job was determined at birth
• Different gods for each caste
• Where you lived
• How you dressed
• Each caste has a council that enforces all the
  rules
• Ex
• A Brahman could only eat food prepared by anther
  Brahman
• You could only marry someone from your own caste

7
Interdependence of the Caste System

• Creates stability in the society and order
• Everyone knows what to do and why
• Different castes depended on one another
• Higher caste merchant needs a lower caste water
  carrier to stay in business
• This system is imbedded in the laws, customs, and
  religious traditions
• People accepted it as a way of life but some
  fight to end it.

W-what W-would Y-you D-do ???????
8
Village Life

• Most people in India treat the village as the
  basic unit of society
• Village led by a Headman- respected landlord that
  inherits the position from his father
• Worked with a group of elders
• Organize villages for projects and work
• Like a town/borough council

9
Family Life

• Traditionally Indians favor the Joint Family
• Joint Family- includes husband, wife, their sons
  with their families and unmarried daughters
• Family was patriarchal (father ruled)
• Father has complete control over household
• Family interests were put ahead of individual
• Father is heaven, father is religion, the gods
  are pleased by pleasing father.

What can we learn from the quote above?
10
(No Transcript)
11
Families and Marriage

• Head of the family arranged marriages to protect
  and benefit family
• Bride and groom have no say in this
• Marriages arranged at an early age but the
  ceremony happens later
• When married the girl would leave her family/home
  and go to her husbands family
• Might visit her own family once a year

How is this system different from the way that
marriage is in the United States
12

• Read the Up-Close story on page 192.
• Look at the picture on page 192 and read the
  caption.
• Discuss in your groups what you think about
  arranged
• marriages.