After 15 hours on a plane, we arrived in New Delhi. We met Kyle and Noel, who started the North American branch of Truthseekers and guided us throughout the week. First, we went to the hostel where we stayed. It was in the Embassy district of Delhi, so the area was pretty quiet and "high rent," which seems odd for a hostel. We checked in and went to bed. We had two rooms for six girls each and one room for the three boys. The girls' rooms had their own bathrooms, which was really nice. The beds had really thin mattress pads and made my hips feel bruised in the morning, but they got magically more comfortable as the week went on.
So, Monday morning we had breakfast at the cafeteria in the hostel and then went to the Truthseekers office for orientation and "stay awake day." We learned about the caste system and the mission of Truthseekers. Here are some broken down facts about the caste system:
- There are four main castes (from top to bottom): Brahmin (priests/government), Kshatriya (warriors/military), Vaisyas (mechants/business), and Shudra (Other Backwards Castes).
- The top 3 castes are 9% of the population
- a little more than 50% are Other Backwards Castes (OBCs)
- of the OBCs, there are 6000 subcastes, which keeps them from joining together
- the other 40% of people are Outcastes or Untouchables
- the caste system is constitutionally illegal, but the social structure is ingrained in the hearts and minds of the Indian people.
- the inequality of the caste system is by divine order, according to the Hindu religion
- there is no way to move higher in your lifetime, though a person can be born into a higher caste in their next life if they are good in this life
- the caste system is over 3000 years old
There is much more to the caste system, but I don't the half of it. What Truthseekers exists to do is to point the way to freedom for lower caste and out caste people by presenting the Gospel and washing feet as Jesus washed his disciples' feet. We learned about some reformers who influence Truthseekers, an important reformer being a man named Phule. He is important because he drew a connection between a low-caste story of a Sacrificed King (Bali Raja) who would some day come and sacrifice himself so the people could be free and Jesus Christ. Social activist and Truthseeker Sunil Sardar explains, "We are not beginning a new work, but joining Jesus Christ in what He is already doing, and expanding on what He has already revealed to His people in India."
We were introduced to the Truthseekers staff and Sunil, and we ate and sang songs and got to know each other.
Hi kira,
ReplyDeleteThere are no records about the percenatge of people in each caste. So whoever gave you the information that the first 3 castes constitutes just 9% is misinformed.
If you read about Mandal Commission (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandal_commission) and Arjun Singh (Ex-HRD minister of India), there were huge protests and even riots for the same reason.
There is a section of politicians who say that OBC's are more than 50% in India and other section opposes it. But these sections are fighting for their own political benefit.
Truth remains that caste system is still prevelant and many people are killed in the name of caste. Honour killings are still prevelant and at many places people are denied entry into places of worship. These things are prevelant in rural India.
I wish Truthseekers all the best in its work. Hopefully this group will be able to do what our politicians are not able to do - Abolish caste system from my country.
All the best.
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