Search results

1

Is there Today Caste System or there is only Caste in India?

100%

Sharma K. L.

Polish Sociological Review

|

2012

|

vol. 178

|

issue 2

245-264

EN

The main focus of the paper is that caste system has always been resilient and dynamic due to its inner inconsistencies and contradictions on the one hand, and due to its interpenetration into economy, polity and culture on the other. The aim of this paper is to understand continuity and change in the caste system. Caste has engaged people, hence it has acquired a meta-legal approval. Caste has never been a simple ritual hierarchy because it has encompassed the entire matrix of socio-economic and political relations. It has been argued that there is a need to reconceptualize caste. Caste is no more simply a system of idea and values. More important is to see actual behaviour of the people vis-à-vis the role of caste as a system. Caste has become a matter of interpretation rather than substantialization. It refers to a purposive rationality. Its discrete use provides a description of the problems of Indian society, polity and economy. However, besides caste, there are new status groups, varied forms of social mobility, and structural processes of change and dominance. In such a situation, “family” and “individual” are emerging as agencies of reproduction of inequality/equality. Caste is becoming more of a state of mind of an individual. Contemporary changes have reshaped caste. The policy of reservations based on caste has kept it alive and vibrant. Protests against caste-based reservations have also contributed to the continuity of caste. Caste may be elusive for some who have distanced from their social and cultural roots, but for others, who continue to be there in villages and towns, caste is enduring, and it is there in practice in one way or other. At times, caste-based outbursts surface, though in everyday life, caste is not so visible as a means of social control.

2

Chrześcijanie syryjscy w systemie kastowym indyjskiej Kerali

72%

Galewicz C.

Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia

|

2016

|

vol. 8

EN

This short essay is meant as an introduction into the still little known world of the Christians of Kerala by way of an ethnographic study with an inter‑cultural dominant. It intends to illustrate an interesting case of a concept of hierarchic organization and coexistence of radically divergent religious communities sharing the space of the South‑Western part of the Indian Subcontinent – the land that once witnessed the meeting of the early indigenous Christians with later missionary activities of European and American Churches following the centuries after Vasco da Gama’s landing by the Keralan city of Calicut.

PL

Celem niniejszej prezentacji jest wprowadzenie w świat chrześcijan Kerali za pomocą szkicu etnograficznego z akcentem interkulturowym ilustrującym interesujący przypadek konceptualizacji hierarchicznej organizacji społecznej oraz praktyki koegzystencji radykalnie odmiennych religijnie społeczności w południowo‑zachodniej części Półwyspu Indyjskiego – arenie spotkania tradycji wczesnych gmin chrześcijańskich ze wzmożoną działalnością misyjną Kościołów europejskich, poczynając od czasów Vasco da Gamy.

3

Indyjskie epizody Norwida. Rekonesans

58%

Nowakowska D.

Studia Norwidiana

|

2012

|

vol. 30

3-22

EN

The article tries to indicate the traces of Norwid's interest in the culture of India. From the writings left by the poet it appears that India was not the main subject of his research. A chapter of the unfinished treatise Sztuka w obliczu dziejów (Art in the Face of History) (1850) is an exception here; Norwid devoted a fragment of the work to Indian art. From the fragment it appears that the author of Quidam had sufficient knowledge about India to formulate critical opinions concerning old caste laws interpreted in terms of Norwid's conceptions of art-work and of the dogma. Also, in Notatki z mitologii (Notes on Mythology) there are sporadic, laconic remarks containing information about Indian art. The notes that are apparently out of context form a certain logical whole polarizing Norwid's views and systematizing his knowledge about the country on the Ganges, or about Orient in general. Certainly one may not speak about complete knowledge here, but the remarks noted by the poet are the essence of a particular problem Norwid knew more or less about. They are: Indian art and architecture, the crisis of art in the face of the schism, the caste system, old-Indian authoritative literature, the Hindu tradition and the Buddhist movement. Norwid's knowledge of particular works of architecture is proven by Skorowidz (Index), where the most important architectural features of ancient India are mentioned: Ellora, Vishvakarma, Nashik, Jayanti in the province of Aurangabad, Elephanta and Salsette islands, Karla in Khandala, Dhumar and Panch Pandu Shrine in the province of Malwa, the famous “Seven Pagodas” of Mahabalipuram, Siringam and Bhagwati in Tanjore in Ceylon. The author's footnotes reveal a wealth of sources used by Norwid. We find here, among others, references to ancient authors, to the 18th century explorer of India – John Zephanian Holwell, or to the lectures by Max Müller. The notes suggest that he also might have known original fragments of Rigveda. The poet also refers several times to Aranyakas – “Forest Books”, that preceded Upanishads, and his knowledge of the Vedic Hymn to Speech could have influenced the Norwidian theory of free speech. Norwid's Indian episodes, succinctly marked in the notes, reveal another, still not very well known, image of the author of Vade-mecum.

Refine search results

1 Orientalia Christiana Cracoviensia

1 Polish Sociological Review

1 Studia Norwidiana

1 Galewicz C.

1 Nowakowska D.

1 Sharma K. L.

1 2020

1 2016

1 2012

Is there Today Caste System or there is only Caste in India?

Chrześcijanie syryjscy w systemie kastowym indyjskiej Kerali

Indyjskie epizody Norwida. Rekonesans