![]() Also in this fifth group are the "tribals," the 50 million Indians who live in tribal communities that predate the Aryan and Dravidian civilizations. Today these people call themselves dalits ("oppressed"). This includes the people traditionally known as "untouchables." The Indian constitution of 1950 made "untouchability" illegal. The four main castes comprise more than 2,000 subcastes.īeneath these castes is a fifth population group-those without any caste, literally, outcastes. To Hindus, however, the concept of caste has a narrower and more precise meaning, referring to the smaller subgroups defined by subtle distinctions of birth, intermarriage, and occupation. The Portuguese coined the word "caste" in the 16th century to refer to these four groups. The Rig Veda, a sacred text from the period, describes the four main castes ( varnas) in traditional Hindu society: brahmins, the class of priests and teachers kshatriyas, the warrior class, who were the rulers and soldiers vaishyas, the commercial class of artisans, traders, and cultivators and shudras, the servant and peasant class. The roots of the Hindu caste system were already in place between 10 B.C., when the Aryans settled in the Indus River valley. ![]()
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