About the Culture

I must admit that when I first arrived in India I was caught off-guard by some of the major culture differences. For example, dogs, cats, goats, cows all roam the cities here. Every city I have been too has the hussle and bussle of New York or Philly. There is bumper to bumper traffic everywhere. The roads are chaos, theres motocycles, bicycles, three wheeler cars, vans, huge trucks. The roads are so small, that you need to take your side mirrors off to create space. Marriages are arranged here. The two getting arranged have some say some of the time, but not all the time. North and South India are like two different countries...the dialects are so different many northerners and southerners can't understand each other at all. If two guys are good friends, they hold hands sometimes..girls too. You squat to take care of business here if you know what I mean, and theres no toilet paper in the bathroom. Needless to say, you eat with your right hand only here...no utensils for dinner. However, it is the caste system that shocked me the most.

I must admit that I used to live in complete ignorance of the caste system in India. The Indian constitution forbids it you know, but it is alive and well in India. The evil of hinduism is that it is a "religion" (more of a mockery) that states God instituted the caste sytem. It is said the caste system is like a building with many levels and no elavotor or stairs. You are born into it. It is believed that "God" from his head created the Brahimins (highest caste) they are the Indians who can become priests and teachers, and make the upper class of society, even now they control everything in the country. Since marriages are arranged it is easy to keep all the money in the family. It is widely true and widely believed that Brahimins are the lighter skinned Indians. So fair skin is what you see on tv in India...and on the billboards and all. Then from his shoulders their god created the Ksatriyas who are the warriors and rulers of society. Next, the Vaisyas were formed his waist, and so he created the merchants, farmers, artisans,etc. After that from his feet he created the Sutras, makes up the beggars of society and other lowly positions.

Now, within these four major parts are thousands of subcastes. Ghandi himself was in the subcaste of the Vaisyas. Now the people on the trip we went to see are called the Dalit's. Ghandi called them the Harijan's..which means the "children of God" for he believed their suffering begat holiness. The Dalit's themselves rejected the name and prefer to be called the "downtrodden" or "untouchables" or "Dalit" for short.