#caste system

[autisticfeministcranberry]

Happy Ambedkar Jayanti to all my moots.💙Babasaheb can enlighten more in one page than a million Hindu shastras and Manusmritis.

[bideogaymes]

The Tragic Mulatto: An American Lie

currently watching. already loving how she’s clocking European countries who usually get away with their hand in starting and sustaining their own countries off of the trans atlantic chattel slave trade. as well as the acknowledgment of the way enslaved Black people were transported at any point in their lives to and from the Caribbean to the US and vice/versa so our history is all mixed up further.

i will say, mulatto is a derogatory slur based on the idea that mixed race Black and white offspring are literally “mules”, with white people representing the “purebred horses” and Black people representing the donkeys in this equation; i still feel like having the rapper Mulatto change her stage name was an overcorrection and not our place to police as monoracial Black people, especially Black ppl not even culturally from America telling a biracial Black young woman how to reclaim a slur that directly impacts and has been used against her, literally growing up in the heart of the south. i was there in the audience listening for the whole Clubhouse call when the change took place and happened. many people carried and projected while dismissing her own experiences and identity, imo.

[tomorrowwithme]

I was reading my little brother's history book for class 6th icse history book,and it talked about the Aryan migration theory,AND also said that the caste system was based off of colour(rather than occupation) and the lighter skinned Aryans looked down upon the darker skinned non Aryans

And I was like ????????

Like- the varna system was LITERALLY job based,and you could change varnas,it later got rigid,yes,but the original system was literally job based.

Plus,the Purusha Sukta Hymn of the rig veda is not even about heiarchy,it's about roles. That brahmins comes from the head,because they are the minds of society. Kshatriyas are from the arms,because they protect. While Shudras are from the feet,because they provide support for society

"I was reading my little brother's history book for class 6th icse history book,and it talked about the Aryan migration theory,AND also said that the caste system was based off of colour(rather than occupation) and the lighter skinned Aryans looked down upon the darker skinned non Aryans"

Indian school books are literally pushing Goebbelsian lies now. Even Herbert Hope Risley with his skull measuring devices and "ethnographies" could have not predicted this in his wildest imaginations. India before the colonisation never stratified people based on their skin colour (or skull shapes, as such). There is a term for this; it's called scientific racism. It was the result of western European Enlightenment era anthropology and racial sciences which had followed the age of "discovery" that marked the beginning of global colonialism and imperialism. To claim that ancient India practised segregation and discrimination based on skin colour is an institutionalised lie designed to demonise Hindus and Hinduism.

We need to take education in our own hands at this point because Indian humanities studies are presided over by trash scum. I'm sure you already know this, and I thank you for sending me this ask because it gave me a perfect opportunity to write a mini essay on this for those who might not know . First of all, there's no such word as "caste" in a single Indian language. The word "caste" came from Portuguese and Spanish word that meant "lineage". We're talking about feudalist Europe where serfdom was common. What India had was jati / jat and the suffix - ja, which means birth. It cognate in Persian is zada / zade (think words like Shahzada, son of king), and its cognate in Latin is the word gens, which is the root of the new words like genesis, generate, genetics etc., all ultimately alluding to birth. In ancient India, if you did pottery, you could have belonged to the Kumbhar jati, you learned this profession from your father and became an expert at it, just like Potters in England. Karmakars became experts at metal work, like the Schmidts in Germany, Smiths in England, Smeds in Scandinavia, etc. Many professions in the ancient world were hereditary because you simply learned your craft from your father. Marrying within own guild was common but marrying outside was not unheard of at all. This was the case in all ancient and medieval societies in the agrarian societies. Let's look into history more closely.

The Vedic tribes were said to be "semi-nomadic pastoralists" (sheep and cattle herders). Here's a map of the early and late Vedic period tribes. Note, the "Aryan invasion" / "Aryan migration" / "Aryan tourism" theory is fake and I will debunk it in future posts.

The chief social unit of these Vedic tribes was "Jana" (think of jana gana mana), where jana is related to the word jati, nati, -ja, which all mean birth or lineage / people. This gave rise to the janapadas (jana = people, pada = foot, foothold of people). The Jana was headed by chieftain, Rajan (this word is cognate with Latin word for king, which is rex, or Germanic word rijk for kingdom). The land ruled by the Rajan became rashtra / rajya and a coalition of these chieftains became samrajya (empire). These Vedic tribals chose their Rajan in sabha (assemblies). Elaborate Vajapeya and Rajasuya yajnas took place to coronate the Rajan. Once the society became more complex and sophisticated, so did the roles in society. I mean, one cannot realistically expect a civilisation to not have kings, soldiers, traders and workers, right? Since I've mentioned the yajnas, let me delve deeper into Purusha sukta.

Purusha sukta is one of the most primordial suktas in the Vedic corpus. On a side note, the word "sukta" is a compound of "su" (= good) and "ukta" (spoken). The Purusha sukta is an important hymn, and the basis of our metaphysics - the philosophy of examining the first principles of abstract concepts like creation - as well as our cosmology. It is invoked in all yajna anushthanas. It appears in the Rigveda (10th mandala 90.1-90.16 suktas), Shukla Yajurveda Vajasaneyi Samhita (31.0-31.6 note, the Brahmin reciting the sukta is saying "Purukha" instead of "Purusha" due to the convention of the Madhyandina Shakha, no English translation available), in the Taittiriya Aranyaka 10th Prapathaka (no English translation) in the Narayana suktam where the Purusha appears as Narayana, in the Sama and Atharva Vedas as well. What is Purusha? Purusha is an abstract cosmic being. I'm typing the translation below, please read it with patience 🙏🏼

sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt | sa bhūmiṃ viśvato vṛtvāty atiṣṭhad daśāṅgulam||

= thousand headed purusha, thousand-eyed, thousand footed, He has enveloped the earth the world, standing on top of it at 10 finger measures (distance).

puruṣa evedaṃ sarvaṃ yad bhūtaṃ yac ca bhavyam | utāmṛtatvasyeśāno yad annenātirohati||

= all this is verily the Purusha, all that is in the past and in the future. He is even the Lord of immortality, that which manifests as sustenance.

etāvān asya mahimāto jyāyām̐ś ca pūruṣaḥ | pādo 'sya viśvā bhūtāni tripād asyāmṛtaṃ divi ||

= this is the greatness, however, the greatness of Purusha transcends even this; all created beings form from one foot of Him while the other three foots of Him are immortal.

skipping to the 6th verse

yat puruṣeṇa haviṣā devā yajñam atanvata | vasanto asyāsīd ājyaṃ grīṣma idhmaḥ śarad dhaviḥ ||

= When the Devas performed the yajna with Purusha as the offering, then Spring was its ghee, Summer was the spark (that kindles fire), and Autumn the oblation.

taṃ yajñam barhiṣi praukṣan puruṣaṃ jātam agrataḥ | tena devā ayajanta sādhyā ṛṣayaś ca ye||

= The Purusha, who was born in the beginning, was sprinkled with barhish (a bed of sacred grass, kusha / darbha) by the Devas, Sadhyas (= embodiments of the hymns) and the Rishis

tasmād yajñāt sarvahutaḥ sambhṛtam pṛṣadājyam | paśūn tām̐ś cakre vāyavyān āraṇyān grāmyāś ca ye ||

= From that yajna of the sarvahuta (the sacrificed who was also the recipient of the sacrifice, the Purusha), a mixture of oblations for creation (mix of ghee and curd) was produced. The animals of the skies, forests and villages were created.

tasmād yajñāt sarvahuta ṛcaḥ sāmāni jajñire | chandāṃsi jajñire tasmād yajus tasmād ajāyata ||

= From that yajna of the sarvahuta, Rik and Sama (Rigveda, Samaveda) were born. From where the chhandas (Vedic metre) was born. From where the Yajus (Yajurveda) was born.

skipping to the 11th verse

yat puruṣaṃ vy adadhuḥ katidhā vy akalpayan | mukhaṃ kim asya kau bāhū kā ūrū pādā ucyete||

= When they immolated Purusha, into how many portions did they divide Him? What was His mouth called, what His arms, what His thighs, what were His feet called?

brāhmaṇo 'sya mukham āsīd bāhū rājanyaḥ kṛtaḥ| ūrū tad asya yad vaiśyaḥ padbhyāṃ śūdro ajāyata||

= His mouth became Brahmana, arms became Rajanyah (Kshatriya), thighs became Vaishya, feet became Shudra

skipping to the last verse

yajñena yajñam ayajanta devās tāni dharmāṇi prathamāny āsan | te ha nākam mahimānaḥ sacanta yatra pūrve sādhyāḥ santi devāḥ||

= The first Dharma (duty) of the Devas was to do the supreme sacrifice (Purushamedha). those processes became the primary laws guiding the humanity, those great ones attain heaven where the Devas and Sadhyas will accompany them. 

How can anyone read this verse and seriously claim that this was the root of racial discrimination based on skin colour and ethnicity?!!

Purusha was a cosmic substratum and all the body parts of this Being are metaphorical! I used gendered pronouns (He / His /Him) because it is impossible in English language to refer to Purusha otherwise. But Purusha was not a man (even if in many current Indian languages purush means man). Purusha was beyond anything, the first cause of everything, the first sacrifice. The feet of Purusha are as holy as the mouth of Purusha. Nowhere in the hymn does it ever allude that His different body parts are unequal.

After the late Vedic period came the post Vedic, Mahajanapada period. Then came classical period, think of Sangam era with the Cholas, Chalukyas, Cheras, Pallavas and Pandyans. Then followed the Kushanas, Satavahanas and Guptas. The Gupta era is often called the Golden era of ancient Indian history as it was this era when the Mahabharata and Ramayana were canonised, the greatest scholars such as Aryabhata, Kalidasa, Varahamihira, etc. were born and India was at its wealthiest and most peaceful, which was documented by foreign travellers such as Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian. It was also during the Gupta era when endogamy within varna or jati became more rigid, while historically, Hindus had always mixed. This means that more sophisticated a society, the more codifications. Still, nowhere did jati or varna ever allude to "Aryan, Dravidian, tribal" or skin colour! This was the invention of Western European racist mlecchas!!

The only ones who have ever claimed that "the Aryans were white and superior and shudras or avarnas were dark and inferior" were the racist western European white people who didn't even know to wash their asses before the Moors taught them, or their cheap bootlicker Pakistani Islamists and Indian Leftist Marxist morons.

O Hindu, the descendants of Bharatas, we must teach correct history to our children.

[zipperunderscore]

TFO Megatron is illiterate.

I had this idea about TFO. So in real life caste systems, especially medieval and back, most of the lower and lowest castes are mostly or completely illiterate. So, miners are the lowest ranking caste and their only job is to mine and follow orders.

After Orion becomes Optimus Prime (and effectively the supreme leader of cybertron) he puts time and resources into educating the ex miners and himself. However, Megatron basically only has himself and the high guard as resources. He's not about to admit to any of these power hungry nutjobs that he can't read.

The high guard has no idea since they weren't present in Iacon during Sentinal's reign. They just assumed their fearsome leader can do something as basic as reading.

To avoid being caught, Megatron acts like it is below him to read his own messages or write them. He commands Starscream to do it like a medieval king commands a squire to write his decrees.

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

I see so many hindutva wadis arguing that caste system is a foreign concept and hinduism only had the varna system. As if the varna system was fair? Also isn't caste derived from the varna system? Like brahmins and Kshatriyas became upper castes, vaishyas became obc and shudra were dalits?

I had the impression that the caste system was the documentation of people who already belonged to the varna system. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

It's a little more complicated than that. Currently, we live under the jaati(or jāti) system broadly speaking. When people talk about the caste system in modern India, it is this system superimposed on the varna system that they are referring to. Functionally, the caste system now is a hybrid of the two systems.

The Varna system and the Jaati System are both systems of social hierarchy.

As everyone is already aware, under the varna system, the society is divided into four categories(i.e. brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras) which are hierarchical in nature and mentioned in the various ancient religious texts. Crucially important to this system is the existence of a fifth category, the untouchables(I assume you're already aware of the practice of untouchability) and the outsiders(often termed as "mlechhas", which is now a derogatory xenophobic{and casteist!} slur coming back into popular use thanks to the resurgence of regressive ideas under hindutva politics). These are important to mention because the marginalization of these people was based on them being an out-group i.e. not part of the varna system. People claim the varnas were mutable based on a handful of examples in said texts but I would like to point out that those examples are said to be exceptions rather than the rule.

The Jaati System would be more familiar to you in terms of lived experience. Under this system, society is divided into socio-ethnic endogamous groups or communities and each of the groups have different socio-economic standing in society. The practice of endogamy(marriage limited to within a social group) is important to this system as there is emphasis on one's birth. This is why people say that intermarriage is the most significant step towards dismantling the entire system, but I digress. Prior to the colonization of India, these groups worked on a purely social basis of privilege and exclusion. Villages and cities were(and still are!) segregated based on these jatis. One's occupation was defined by their birth as long as they lived in their specific society.

I would like to emphasize that this system existed and thrived even before the colonisers ever came knocking on the subcontinent's doors. We can find mentions of the system in the historical accounts of both people of the subcontinent and travellers from outside. A study of people's DNA by some scholars claims that the endogamous groups can be traced back to as far as the Gupta Empire(mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE).

The assertion that the caste system is a purely colonial fabrication is absurd. People point to the term "caste" as being of foreign origin but the term "jaati" already existed and was in use. "Caste" is just another way of referring to jaatis.

Now on to some legitimacy hidden in the nonsensical claims, in the 1901 census of the subcontinent, the British bureaucracy fit the various jatis under the broad classification of the four varnas. It was not a clean fit, leaving many in an awkward position of having been classified wrongly. This is their fault. Not the construction of the system but rather the wrongful categorisation of it.

Officially, there are over 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India. Take these numbers with a grain of salt because there are many unregistered castes and sub-castes to this day fighting their own battles of legal recognition.

The castes do not cleanly map onto the varnas. There are many castes who are in the upper strata of the hierarchy in one region and the lower strata in different regions. The system is incredibly nuanced and complex and our current legal systems have not caught up to the sophistication required to deal with it because of the people in power's adamant insistence of ignoring the system simply because they profit off of the oppression of others.

I don't want to add to the miscategorization but I feel like I should correct you on the fact that broadly speaking shudras are classified more under OBCs. (Please keep in mind that this not a clear category and there can be some castes who are said to be shudra who can be other categories as well.) There's much to be said about that because there's no distinction made between the land owner castes and the landless castes. And no, the creamy layer is not a good marker either.

There are some castes(1,108 of them to be exact) who were listed as scheduled castes(SC) in the Constitution of India for affirmative action. This was done to socially reform the country and help those in the marginalized sections of society to gain social mobility. The hope was to remove caste discrimination. As we know, it wasn't successful because caste discrimination still exists and caste based violence is on the rise again.

The term dalit is a contemporary word for the untouchable castes who were and are subjected to despicable discrimination in society.

The reason that I say that we now function under a hybrid of the two systems is that the superimposition of the varna system over the jaati system has been accepted and in many cases, embraced by the people now. You will find many a "upper caste" people proudly flaunting their Brahmin or kshatriya identities. The varna system is now interlinked with the jaati or the caste system whether we like it or not.

The system is complicated and fucked. We should get rid of it, guys. And with your help, you can make that dream a reality.

-Mod S

[sylastry]

26th November 2025

9:01am

-

People keep repeating that line - “we’re made in God’s image” - like it’s some cosmic truth carved in stone. But the older I get, the more obvious the real trick becomes: we keep remaking God in our image. Every generation redraws His face the way they want the world to see them.

Right now, we’ve got AI-Shiva with cheekbones that could slice bread, Krishna with a jawline and blue eyes engineered by Photoshop, abs glowing like they’re some model on runway. A Divine masculinity sponsored by the algorithm.

But walk back a few centuries, and the story isn’t so glossy. Imagine a small tribal village at dusk. The upper-caste temple looms somewhere far away, its gates closed to anyone whose feet have touched too much soil, whose hands carry too much labour. The priests have rules. Lists. Boundaries. "You people are not allowed in", and they practice untouchability without any remorse. So these people; the very people who were banned from entering the temple; make their own sanctum, their own Gods.

A pot-bellied Shiva sitting like someone’s favourite uncle. A Krishna as dark as the monsoon; with body hair and scars. Women place flowers around them because these gods look like they might actually laugh with you, not judge you. Men sing bhajans that sound more like lullabies. Children touch the idol’s belly and giggle because their god has one too.

And slowly, a strange kind of warmth fills the room:

not awe, not fear… just belonging.

These weren’t perfect gods. They were human gods. Gods who could sit beside a fire and eat whatever was cooked that day. Gods who danced, God who got tired, who looked like someone’s father or brother or neighbour or uncle.

A God who could exist.

And maybe that’s the point.

Maybe holiness was never supposed to look untouchable. Maybe it was supposed to look familiar enough that you could trust it.

Maybe the most sacred thing is recognising yourself in something divine instead of feeling like you must shrink to deserve it. So yes, let the world chase their airbrushed gods. I’ll keep the ones who look like people. Because a god who looks human is a god who loves without conditions.

[scalding-homestuck-confessions]

Does the person who complains about the hemospectrum being bad because burgundies are all poor know what a caste system is? As in, they're forbidden to climb the social ladder in any way? That's why they're called lowbloods, sheesh... I must share this, an example of how caste systems in real life did and still do work, which is honestly scarier than anything Homestuck's has done: https://www.tumblr.com/bakurapika/787559824902766592/no-id-never-tell-you-to-shut-up-this-is-a-really

Link for people who are interested in reading the post.

People seem to forget that the caste system is a thing when they complain about hemocaste stereotyes. It will always be a thing to an extent, because there's a biological throughline of how healthy each blood color is at different points of life, increasing exponentially in lifespan with each hue. Something like this is going to inevitably breed a system in which there are classes of the royals, the highs, mids, lows, and untouchables. Read the comic. Especially read any interaction with Kankri in the games. Yes, he's a 2010-2013 Tumblr keyboard warrior parody. But yes, he is also a walking lore-drop. You'll find out a lot about troll culture, right down the point where, even on Beforus, there are slurs for most of the blood colors. The caste stereotypes are there because they're being enforced from the top down and the excuse is holy dogma. Rustbloods can only be slaves and hazard workers because that's the only thing they're allowed to be. Anyone with higher aspirations in progress is usually being scouted by someone who sees them as a novelty, but true upwards mobility is impossible.

If people want to make trolls who don't follow caste stereotypes, they need to make a world in which the caste culture doesn't exist, or at least is heavily regulated so as to not go as far as it does on Beforus and Alternia. Or otherwise, and this might be a shocking suggestion, don't make members of a species that is biologically and culturally predisposed to forming caste systems.

[beastalchemistva]

The full lore cards for the Caste System of the T'au Empire! Complete with auxiliary forces information!

You can see the lore video here for sit-and-relax lore absorbance: https://youtu.be/QEKLSpQbBAU

These beautiful pieces of art were made by the amazingly talented @rowscara! Check out her Etsy here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/rowscara/?etsrc=sdt