Hindus celebrate a number of other important festivals, including Diwali, in which all classes of society participate. It takes place in October or November and features worship and ceremonial lights in honour of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good fortune; fireworks to commemorate the victory of Krishna over Narakasura, the demon of hell; and gambling, an old ritual custom intended to secure luck for the coming year. The nine-day Durga festival, or Navratri, celebrated in September or October, is, especially in Bengal, a splendid homage to the goddess; in North India it is a celebration of Rama’s victory over Ravana. Ritual and social status Social structure
The caste system, which has organized Indian society for millennia, is thoroughly legitimated by and intertwined with Hindu religious doctrine and practice. Although primarily connected with the Hindu tradition, the caste system is also present in some measure among Jains, Sikhs, and Christians in South Asia.
Four social classes, or varnas—Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras—provide the simplified structure for the enormously complicated system of thousands of castes and subcastes. According to a passage from the Purusha hymn (Rigveda 10.90), the Brahman was the Purusha’s mouth, the Kshatriya his arms, the Vaishya his thighs, and the Shudra his feet. This depiction of the Purusha, or cosmic man, gives an idea of the functions and mutual relations of the four main social classes.
The three main classes in the classic division of Indian society are the Brahmans, the warriors, and the commoners. The Brahmans, whatever their worldly avocations, claim to have by virtue of their birth the authority to teach the Veda, perform ritual sacrifices for others, and accept gifts and subsistence. The term alms is misleading; the dakshina offered at the end of a rite to a Brahman officiant is not a fee but an oblation through which the rite is made complete. Brahmans are held to be the highest among the castes because of their sanctification through the samskaras (rites of passage) and their observance of restrictive rules. The main duty of the nobility (the Kshatriyas) is to protect the people and that of the commoners (the Vaishyas) is to tend cattle, to trade, and to cultivate land. Even if a king (theoretically of Kshatriya descent) was not of noble descent, he was still clothed with divine authority as an upholder of dharma. He was consecrated by means of a complex and highly significant ritual; he was Indra and other gods (deva) incarnate. The emblems or paraphernalia of his office represent sovereign authority: the white umbrella of state, for example, is the residence of Shri-Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. All three higher classes had to sacrifice and had to study the Veda, although the responsibilities of the Vaishyas in sacred matters were less demanding.
According to the texts on dharma, the duty of the fourth class (the Shudras) was to serve the others. According to Hindu tradition, the Veda should not be studied in the presence of Shudras, but they may listen to the recitation of epics and Puranas. They are permitted to perform the five main acts of worship (without Vedic mantras) and undertake observances, but even today they maintain various ceremonies of their own, carried out without Brahmanic assistance. Yet despite the statements in the texts on dharma, there was considerable fluidity in the status of the castes. Communities such as the Vellalas, for instance, are regarded as Shudras by Brahmans but as a high caste by other groups.
Accordingly, a distinction is often made among Shudras. Some are considered to be purer and to have a more correct behaviour and way of living than others—the former tending to assimilate with higher castes and the latter to rank with the lowest in the social scale, who, often called Chandalas, were at an early date charged with sweeping, bearing corpses, and other impure occupations. Ritual purity was and is an important criterion; impure conduct and neglect of Veda study and the rules regarding forbidden food might suffice to stigmatize the “twice-born” as a Shudra. On the other hand, in later times the trend of many communities has been toward integrating all Shudras into the Brahmanic system. The Brahmans, who have far into modern times remained a respected, traditional, and sometimes intellectual upper class, were much in demand because of their knowledge of rites and traditions. Although Kshatriya rank is claimed by many whose title is one of function or creation rather than of inheritance, this class is now rare in many regions. Moreover, for a considerable time none of the four varnas represented anything other than a series of hierarchically arranged groups of castes. Castes
The origin of the caste system is not known with certainty. Hindus maintain that the proliferation of the castes (jatis, literally “births”) was the result of intermarriage (which is prohibited in Hindu works on dharma), which led to the subdivision of the four classes, or varnas. Modern theorists, however, assume that castes arose from differences in family ritual practices, racial distinctions, and occupational differentiation and specialization. Scholars also doubt whether the simple varna system was ever more than a theoretical socioreligious ideal and have emphasized that the highly complex division of Hindu society into nearly 3,000 castes and subcastes was probably in place even in ancient times.
In general, a caste is an endogamous hereditary group of families bearing a common name, often claiming a common descent, as a rule professing to follow the same hereditary calling, adhering to the same customs—especially regarding purity, meals, and marriages—and often further divided into smaller endogamous circles. Moreover, tribes, guilds, or religious communities characterized by particular customs—for example, the Lingayats—could easily be regarded as castes. The status of castes varies in different localities. Although social mobility is possible, the mutual relationship of castes is hierarchically determined: local Brahman groups occupy the highest place, and differences in ritual purity are the main criteria of position in the hierarchy. Most impure are the so-called “untouchables,” officially designated as Scheduled Castes in the constitution of modern India. Many Scheduled Caste groups now prefer the name Dalit (“Crushed” or “Oppressed”). Among the Scheduled Castes, however, there are numerous subdivisions, each of which regards itself as superior to others.
Traditional Hindus maintain that the ritual impurity and “untouchability” inherent in these groups does not essentially differ from that temporarily associated with mourners or menstruating women. This, and the fact that some exterior group or other might rise in estimation and become an interior one or that individual outcastes might be well-to-do, does not alter the fact that there was social discrimination. The Scheduled Castes were subjected to various socioreligious disabilities before mitigating tendencies helped bring about reform. After independence, social discrimination was prohibited, and the practice of preventing access to religious, occupational, or civil rights on the grounds of untouchability was made a punishable offense. Despite these prohibitions, Scheduled Castes were sometimes barred from the use of temples and other religious institutions and from public schools.