The social function of the caste system in Indian culture was too ensure that the wealthy and powerful maintained their high social status and standard of living by making sure that the wealth was unevenly distributed. The members of the upper castes were lucky to inherit a perfect system that was started by the Nomadic Aryans who headed south into what is know as India today. They evolved the system with the use of Hinduism to maintain peace in a highly stratified society, which in another time and place would have erupted in massive revolts. It still survives to this day making it thousands of years old, and the longest evidence of oppression in the history of humankind.

One of the major themes since the dawn of civilization has been the separation of society into classes. Karl Marx, the famous sociologist, predicted that society normally separates in two main classes, those whom had the means of production, example land, factories and wealth know as the bourgeoisie, and those whom did not own wealth know as the proletariat. The bourgeoisie had the means to purchase the labor of proletariat, who neither had the means of production or to the ability to purchase the l

ant that there was very little opportunity for members of the untouchable caste to develop other skills than those that were the traditional ones for that caste.

abor of others. He claimed that the uneven distribution of wealth and power would eventually cause conflict in any society, and could trigger an uprising by the proletariat for more even distribution of wealth (Newman 326). Evidence of this was seen long before Karl Marx's time. In the ancient Roman Empire, where uneven sharing of wealth existed it did not take long for the lower class to revolt and get some more rights.

Perhaps one of the closest thing to the caste system is the slave trade. The slave trade has existed for thousands of years, but still has not had the kind of success that the caste system has had. The earliest of slaves were normally prisoners of war, so they were paying the price for their efforts in fighting the conquering army. However, according to Vogt even in those ancient times there were many slave revolts; "Then after the middle of the century, there began a succession of revolts that resulted in long-drawn-out wars" (39). The modern slave trade more closely resembles the caste system because these slaves were made slaves simply because of their ethnicity. The first slaves to arrive in America from Africa were in 1619. The first major revolt was in 1831 when a slave named Nat Turner led his fellow slave to revolt and killed their master and his family. Thereafter there were many slave uprisings and eventually in the 1900's slavery was abolished (History of Slavery in!

distribution of wealth survive for so long? Karl Marx said that those whom own power have the access to the means necessary to create and promote a reality that justifies their exploitive actions. He said that the bourgeoisie had such influence on the workers view of reality that the workers accepted that reality although it harms them. He called this false consciousness (Newman 323). This false consciousness in the form of religion is what caused the caste system to survive so long in India. The caste system relied heavily on religion, more specifically the main religion of India, Hinduism.

Jerry Baber. 30 mins. Schlessinger Video Production, 1994. Videocassette.

n importance so did the Brahmins and the Kshatriya became ranked second on the social scale. The third caste was the vaisyas. This caste was viewed as the merchant caste. Historians believe that they were de

Some common words found in the essay are:
Soul Brahmins, Karl Marx, Brahmins Kshatriya, Roman Empire, Eastern Europe, India Hinduism, America Hinduism, Nomadic Aryans, , Brahmins Brahmins, caste system, lower castes, untouchable caste, upper castes, indian society, false consciousness, distribution wealth, slave trade, uneven distribution wealth, uneven distribution, reason survival, history slavery america, survival caste system, reason survival caste, social function caste,
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