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Originally Posted by show me the light  im too lazy to search the net but im sure you cna find stuff. anthropology is one of my passions so i'll point you twards some books:
H.A.Rose"Glossary of Punjab tribes and Castes."
Veena Das "THE OXFORD INDIA COMPANION TO SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY"
Morton Klass "Caste: The Emergence of The South Asian Social System"
and in regards to your question of why the physical complexions are not uniform? well my answer may bother you, but please take this simply as scientific and not a slander agains anyone's caste.
when a clan rules an area that has multiple clans in it (ie the river valleys of south asia), the ruling clan would rape the women of the other clans in showing of dominence. this does not have anything to do with pro jatt or anti jatt, it is just the way society functions. plus, jatts were not always the ruling clan (although for a majority or pre and post alexander times, they were).
but for argument sake, lets say all the science is wrong. the gene matching to northern indians to the different parts of the world i mentioned... lets say that is all wrong as well. lets get back to the point... has being a jatt or a bhappa or a khatri ever stopped you from entering a gurdwara, a store, a bus? i doubt it. has being an untouchable ever stopped them from doing the same? you can bet on it. |
This is really playing down caste and the impact it has on Sikh society. When Sikhs from Panjab form a significant population anywhere, you see the ugliness without the mask. Go back to Punjab in the pinds and you can see some seriously obnoxious behaviour between so called high castes and low castes. The ranges from verbal abuse to physical and sexual abuse (as indicated in your post). The behaviour of many "high castes" reminds one of the behaviour of white supremiscists in Southern America. If people from Sikh backgrounds are content to treat people as pariahs or subhuman than that is a matter of shame. Hide it as much as you want but the truth remains. I don't even want to go into it in too much detail but please open up your eyes.
You have to question the purpose of people still holding onto medieval class structures in the 21st century.
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Originally Posted by show me the light my argument is simple, we do not have a caste system.... just a enthnocentic pride that has been bred into us by generation and generations of our ancestors. |
Well our ancestors did lots of things that we shouldn't continue: burning wives, dowry, treating other humans as "untouchables". I
think we need to terminate caste discrimination in the same way and for the same reasons i.e. it just doesn't fly in the 21st century. It REALLY shocks me to see people born and raised in the west defend caste - I mean I could understand if you were uneducated from a pind.