no-longer-a-slumdog

No Longer a Slumdog
Who Are These People
These are the Dalits and the Other Backward Castes.
They have had to break their malnourished bodies, working
all hours of the day simply to get enough money for one meal.
Why It is more than just poverty, though they are among the
poorest in the world. It is more than just their lack of education,
though only 30 percent of them can read at all. 2 It is because of
the caste system and the fact that they are not a part of it.
This oppressive way of life for the world’s most impoverished
all began with the arrival of the Aryans in India, about 1500 b.c.
Because the Aryans believed themselves to be a superior race,
they devised a cruel system to prevent themselves from becoming
“contaminated” by the indigenous peoples. This system also
served to help control the populace, making them view each other
through a distorted lens of inequality.
Through this tactic, the Aryans were quickly able to become
a rich and highly educated minority. Instead of using physical
weapons, they used this mind-bending tool called the caste system.
This system taught that people were reborn from different
parts of the body of their god Brahma and thus had differing
value.
Thousands of years later, people still believe that those who
came from the head, arms and shoulders of Brahma are intrinsically
better than those who came from the torso, legs or feet.
This is the premise and justification used to abuse those of lower
caste.
The caste system also divided society based on roles or jobs.
The four main castes, from the greatest to the least, are Brahmins
(priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (rulers and soldiers), Vaisyas
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