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The Origin of Castes
Just Genesis ^ | May 8, 2013 | Alice C. Linsley

Posted on 05/08/2013 2:45:41 PM PDT by Jandy on Genesis

The evils of the caste system are regularly expounded in contemporary writings. In The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper argued that Plato’s ideal state, with it three-tier structure, is totalitarian. Yet, as others have noted, Plato's ideal represents an improvement upon the rigid caste structure that characterized ancient societies. Plato suggested that some particularly gifted individuals should be trained to work outside of their caste. This was a radical idea for his time (B.C. 428-347).

The egalitarian nature of American society makes castes anathema. We react strongly to perceived or real limitations of our freedom of choice. On this matter we find agreement among such disparate groups as feminists, the National Rifle Association, gay activists, and libertarians.

Rarely do we consider the benefits of the caste system. It lent stability to ancient societies. People knew their place in society and were proud of the work done by their caste. Caste identity provided a strong sense of duty. The Bhagavad Gita states, "By devotion to one's particular duty, everyone can attain perfection... By fulfilling the obligations he is born with, a person never comes to grief." (BG 18:44-48) This idea is found in Judaism also. Baba Batra wrote, "All appointments are from Heaven, even that of a janitor." (Talmud, Baba Batra 91b)

Members formed stable marriages with partners within their caste and received support from their kinsmen. The caste also lent job security similar to that provided by Medieval guilds and modern trade unions.

(Excerpt) Read more at jandyongenesis.blogspot.com ...


TOPICS: History; Religion
KEYWORDS: blogpimp; caste; hinduism; horites; inadan; india
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To: allmendream

Since we were already meaning caste cultures and women would be a part of a caste already, I assumed your comment was about something in non-caste America.


21 posted on 05/08/2013 5:49:22 PM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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To: ansel12

Even high caste women were/are seen as having a lowly station in life due to crimes in past lives. Thus ill treatment is supposedly perfectly justified.


22 posted on 05/08/2013 5:52:04 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: allmendream

I assume that means no, you didn’t mean America.


23 posted on 05/08/2013 5:56:02 PM PDT by ansel12 (Sodom and Gomorrah, flush with libertarians and liberals, short on social conservatives.)
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To: ansel12

Well few Americans believe in reincarnation or that women are naturally of a lower station than men, so no, I did not.


24 posted on 05/08/2013 6:02:10 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: allmendream; Jyotishi

Casteism at its worst did not even kill a tiny miniscule fraction of the people killed by Inquisition, crusade, pogrom,holocaust,slavery,racism, apartheid ,colonialism, communism, nazism, fascism.....all of them gift of White people.
Individualism and liberty came much later at a very heavy price.


25 posted on 05/08/2013 10:15:38 PM PDT by ravager (I)
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To: ravager

you think white people invented slavery?


26 posted on 05/08/2013 10:16:44 PM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: GeronL

Never said “invented”. They did it nevertheless.


27 posted on 05/08/2013 10:21:10 PM PDT by ravager (I)
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To: ravager

“Casteism at its worst did not even kill a tiny miniscule fraction of the people killed by Inquisition, crusade, pogrom,holocaust,...”

Hindu Genocide in Goa Inquisition

http://www.oocities.org/hindoo_humanist/goa1.html


28 posted on 05/08/2013 10:26:40 PM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: ravager

I have read that the Arabs were probably the first slave-holders. Then there’s this:

Using the Bible to justify slavery. Slavery in the Bible and early Christianity.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_slav1.htm


29 posted on 05/08/2013 10:30:31 PM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: Jandy on Genesis

I will read this tomorrow.

Caste, or varna in Sanskrit, was already in existence 5000 years ago when Bhagavad Gita was spoken. It was also understood as described in the Puranas to be actually based on quality and characteristics or abilities and not on birth, although usually people born in a specific varna or caste would stay in it, but there were many exceptions. There is very little understanding of the actual varna/caste system and its benefits.


30 posted on 05/08/2013 10:36:59 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: little jeremiah; ravager

“Caste” is a foreign word to India — it is not found in Sanskrit. “Caste” is often confused with “varna” which is really the “color of the mind”, signifying inclination, natural tendency or propensity.


31 posted on 05/08/2013 10:52:24 PM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: ravager

Racism slavery and religious wars were hardly the exclusive province of white people. Playing the race card doesn’t speak well of the strength of your argument.


32 posted on 05/09/2013 5:47:44 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: ravager
Don't read world history much, do you?

Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan weren't white men, but they certainly slaughtered a lot of people.

33 posted on 05/09/2013 6:11:53 AM PDT by SatinDoll (NATURAL BORN CITZEN: BORN IN THE USA OF CITIZEN PARENTS.)
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To: ravager
So the enlightenment ideals of individualism and liberty that our nation was founded on came “much later” than the holocaust, communism, nazism, and fascism?

Try reading some history my FRiend.

34 posted on 05/09/2013 7:00:37 AM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: ansel12

A caste system is alive and well in America. We have the Washington bureaucratic structure, those we elect who stay there and grow corrupted and we whom they consider their servants. It parallels the seaboards who believe themselves culturally enlightened and superior on one hand and “flyover country” on the other.

Right here we are having a conflict between the GOP Elite, who believe they are better fit to rule than we rabble, and grass-roots conservatives who are striving to cleanse our body politic of their (eventually) fatal disease.


35 posted on 05/09/2013 8:02:07 AM PDT by N-R-T (not really trying)
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To: SatinDoll

Actually Attila the Hun was a Caucasian. The Huns are close cousins of the Goths and Scythians from present day Eastern Europe and Russia.

Now you tell me who didn’t read her history?


36 posted on 05/09/2013 8:21:11 AM PDT by ravager (I)
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To: allmendream
When it comes to slave trade..... nothing even comes close to slavery of African people by White men in terms of magnitude and geographic expanse (covering Africa, West Indies, America, Brazil) as African slave trade.

As for playing the race card, why don't we go back to your original comment....

“Individualism, liberty and self advancement are not good and true BECAUSE they were advocated and advanced by the west and (gasp! ) white people.”

Now in my comment ......is it the part about White people that you didn't like or do you just not like facts in general?

37 posted on 05/09/2013 8:36:24 AM PDT by ravager (I)
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To: allmendream

Civil rights did come after holocaust, communism, nazism, and fascism in terms of chronology.

However I was making the point that enlightenment ideals of individualism came in general to the Western world much later and after very heavy price.


38 posted on 05/09/2013 8:43:48 AM PDT by ravager (I)
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To: Jyotishi

I was sort of trying to say that above... People use the word “caste” when they are actually referring to what was originally “varna”, but of coures much misused and misunderstood in India today.

Are you knowledgeable in the science of Jyotish?


39 posted on 05/09/2013 9:56:53 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: ravager

“According to the Encyclopedia of European Peoples, “the Huns, especially those who migrated to the west, may have been a combination of central Asian Turkic, Mongolic, and Ugric stocks.” See ‘Attila’, in Wikipedia.

No, they were not close cousins of the Goths and Scythians. The Huns migrated from the east, which is one of the reasons tribes in northern Europe were displaced and moving through Gaul and down into Iberia during the late Roman Empire period.


40 posted on 05/09/2013 10:33:13 AM PDT by SatinDoll (NATURAL BORN CITZEN: BORN IN THE USA OF CITIZEN PARENTS.)
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