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THEORIES OF THE ORIGINS OF THE CASTE SYSTEM IN THE INDIAN SOCIETY
Corresponding Author(s) : Luu Duy Tan
UED Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities and Education,
Vol. 5 No. 4B (2015): UED JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION
Abstract
India is a country of diversity in all aspects: culture, religion, race and language. It is also the birthplace of many religions, including many major religions in the world like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism,…; each religion has its own character. Among them, Hinduism, which is the largest religion in India (with 966 million believers) and the third largest in the world in the number of believers (1,03 billion people), plays a key role in shaping the structure of the Indian society.
An important charisteristic of the Indian social structure is the caste system, which has been exerting a long-term profound impact on the Indian society, bringing about many corollaries that still remain nowadays. This paper is to explore and introduce theories of the origins of the caste system as well as the relations between these theories with the socio–political situation of India.
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