The word Dalit comes from the Hindi word dalan, meaning oppressed or broken. Alternatively, or legally, or as the Government of India may now have them called, Dalit is basically a caste defined in Constitution under Article 341, listed as the Scheduled Castes.
Q. What is the untouchable?
Untouchable, also called Dalit, officially Scheduled Caste, formerly Harijan, in traditional Indian society, the former name for any member of a wide range of low-caste Hindu groups and any person outside the caste system.
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Q. Does the caste system still exist in India?
In 1948, negative discrimination on the basis of caste was banned by law and further enshrined in the Indian constitution; however, the system continues to be practiced in parts of India.
Q. What is the Indian caste system?
The caste system divides Hindus into four main categories – Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras. Many believe that the groups originated from Brahma, the Hindu God of creation.
Q. Who brought caste system in India?
The Aryans arrived in India in around 1500 BC. The Aryans disregarded the local cultures. They began conquering and taking control over regions in north India and at the same time pushed the local people southwards or towards the jungles and mountains in north India. The Aryans organised themselves in three groups.
Q. How do I know my Hindu caste?
The caste system is the Hindu social and religious hierarchy, created a few thousand years ago. Traditionally, a person’s caste is determined at birth and channels them into that caste’s occupation. At the top are Brahmins, priests and religious scholars.
Q. What caste is Sharma?
Sharma is a Brahmin Hindu surname in India and Nepal.
Q. What Indian religion is vegetarian?
Pure vegetarianism or veganism is Indic in origin and is still practiced in India by some adherents of Dharmic religions such as Jainism and in the case of Hinduism, lacto-vegetarianism with the additional abstention of pungent or fetid vegetables.
Q. Did Hindu Brahmins eat beef?
Some of the south Indian Brahmins during the sutra period, like those of North India were not meat eaters but otherwise Brahmins did eat meat and only later adopted vegetarianism from the Buddhists who were originally vegetarians so as to invite less criticism for the already biased Brahmanical caste Hinduism that was …
