The Student Room Group

Indians and caste

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Original post by bieberfever
Ok long story short; I'm a Sikh and my boyfriend is Hindu, he's 20 and I'm 21. Obviously we want to be together but he says his family are strict when it comes to marrying out of caste and religion so he suggested we break up before it becomes even harder. I completely understand but i know that we both know this isn't a childish crush, and now I don't know what to do...


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Just go for a Sikh guy. We're better, anyway.
Reply 21
As I say, it's a bit complicated. Central scriptures like the Upanishads talk about elevating the status of the whole of humanity and equality (and there's some other marvellous stuff in there), but the Hindus are/were pretty poor at practicing this. The modern caste system is more like a systemic failure of Hindu society to live up to those ideals rather than an inherent teaching.

Not too sure on Jaati, but I think it's something that sprang up naturally. Like, back when it was a feudal society, it was a way for the average person to identify with clan/community/tribe. I guess all ancient societies around the world had that, but because it somehow got mixed with religion, so it remained entrenched, divisive and hierarchical despite the fact that the rest of the world moved on (in some form or other).

Original post by Aykem
Yeah I completely agree, all parts are needed for a whole. Personally, I know the same but I'm talking about the mpst popular belief/practices. I come from a mixed family, not Hindu myself but my uncles/cousins are. But just as in modern capitalism, for society to function in a hierarchy, there are people who lose out, of course it would be taken for the base level to be less important by modern day Hindus. In the OPs situation, the parents wouldn't be following this logic, the majority of practicing Hindus that I know at least tend to follow the superior/inferior standard. And again, this is apparent in society not just debating over the origin - it still happens and many believe its just. The opinion that everyone is equal, as far as I can see, is not the opinion of the majority of Hindus, wrong though it may be.

My logic isn't that the brain is more important; that's the most common interpretation, which I disagree with.


Aaah fair enough. I'd argue that since most Hindus are very ill-informed about the teachings of the Shrutis (scriptures of authority) and heavily rely on tradition and what so-called gurus/babas say, the pure teachings and ideas that are within the religion have not translated into practice within broader Hindu society. We have a long way to go to live up to the ideals of scriptures like the Upanishads :sigh:

Original post by dairychocolate
Just go for a Sikh guy. We're better, anyway.


And how are you, my Doaba-wala sher? :rofl:
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(edited 6 years ago)
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