11-02-2006, 09:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-02-2006, 09:33 PM by Bharatvarsh.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I'm curious to know how much in modern India do people consider the status of others, for example, modern Indians living in the city still select the future Wife/Husband in relation to his/her appartenance to the same varna
I know for the Jatee it's another discussion, probably easier.
Altough the constitution has delated with laws casta's differences, in the habits is this virtual division still alive?
For rurals I suppose it still is the same, but for the other Bharati?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Most Hindus do not identify themselves with varna, jati is more important to over 90% of them and the majority still marry within their own Jati.
Jati is an like an endogamous tribe, so you cannot eliminate it even if you want to unless force is used, it's like eliminating Italian identity, jati is just that but includes a much smaller population (compared to the overall Indian population), there are so many jatis in India that it's impossible to eliminate them.
A Bhil will only marry another Bhil and a Yadav would only marry another Yadav (in most cases anyway) and the same is true for other jatis.
If you look at the marriage ad's people don't usually say anything about their varna (and most don't care anyway), but they list their jati (examples include Yadav, Rajput, Jatav, Reddy, Kamma, Lodha etc) and expect their partner from the same group.
There are same cases where jati and varna (there are four Varnas in the scriptures: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra) end up as the same for some groups, for example Brahmins all over India would initially say that they are Brahmin but you would rarely see Brahmins from Tamil Nadu marrying Brahmins from Punjab, so even they have sub groups within the community. In Maharashtra the Brahmins include Chitpavan Brahmins while in Tamil Nadu Brahmins usually have the surnames Iyer or Iyengar and these two groups would rarely intermarry even though they are both Brahmins.
I know for the Jatee it's another discussion, probably easier.
Altough the constitution has delated with laws casta's differences, in the habits is this virtual division still alive?
For rurals I suppose it still is the same, but for the other Bharati?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Most Hindus do not identify themselves with varna, jati is more important to over 90% of them and the majority still marry within their own Jati.
Jati is an like an endogamous tribe, so you cannot eliminate it even if you want to unless force is used, it's like eliminating Italian identity, jati is just that but includes a much smaller population (compared to the overall Indian population), there are so many jatis in India that it's impossible to eliminate them.
A Bhil will only marry another Bhil and a Yadav would only marry another Yadav (in most cases anyway) and the same is true for other jatis.
If you look at the marriage ad's people don't usually say anything about their varna (and most don't care anyway), but they list their jati (examples include Yadav, Rajput, Jatav, Reddy, Kamma, Lodha etc) and expect their partner from the same group.
There are same cases where jati and varna (there are four Varnas in the scriptures: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra) end up as the same for some groups, for example Brahmins all over India would initially say that they are Brahmin but you would rarely see Brahmins from Tamil Nadu marrying Brahmins from Punjab, so even they have sub groups within the community. In Maharashtra the Brahmins include Chitpavan Brahmins while in Tamil Nadu Brahmins usually have the surnames Iyer or Iyengar and these two groups would rarely intermarry even though they are both Brahmins.