The caste system sustains that only the Brahmana can achieve spiritual awareness. Because only they are able to access spiritual knowledge. In conclusion, Buddhism is all about equality. And dividing the population into classes does not fit their beliefs.
Telling a person that he can or cannot achieve spiritual enlightenment due to the class that he was born into is not right, according to the Buddhist Teachings. Does Buddhism Believe In Heaven? Is Buddhism Polytheistic Or Monotheistic?
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As stated before, sphere of Khatri and Arora influence in Punjab is the urban centres where they dominate the shopkeeping profession. Being connected with commerce and trading, their literacy rate is among the highest in Punjab and they were also the earliest beneficiaries of colonial education system being located in urban areas. Khatris are a forward caste in Punjab but as we have seen that neither their social standing nor their occupations are uniform across the country.
Another minor Sikh commercial caste is that of Bhatias. Bhatias claim origin from Bhati Rajputs who had taken to shopkeeping. This caste now has no semblance of former link with Rajputs and the Hindu Bhatias were in the past considered lower than Khatris and even Aroras, who as already pointed out, are purely trading castes equivalent to Baniyas found elsewhere in the country. According to English observers of 19th century Punjabi social order, "they stand distinctly below the Khatri and perhaps below Arora, and are for most part engaged in petty shop-keeping, though the Bhatias of Dera Ismail Khan are described as belonging to a "widely spread and enterprising mercantile community.
Two of their subcastes are Gandhi and Soni which are also occupational descriptives of perfume-sellers and goldsmiths "Suniyaras" in Punjabi respectively. Intermarriage between Bhatias and Aroras is not uncommon. For some reason British army recruiters considered all of these mercantile castes unfit for military service.
Khatri Sikhs were sometimes recruited when they happened to have taken up farming and sometimes because of their knowledge of Pashto, which came in handy to British to deal with the unruly Pathans.
The mercantile element of this community, which almost entirely constitutes its core identity, was denied access to army. While Bhatias mostly did not even find a mention in recruitment manuals of Royal Indian Army, the Aroras were contemptuously dismissed with comments such as the following by the likes of Barstow : "The Arora, whether Sikh or Hindu, is generally unsuited for military service, and men of this class should never be enlisted except under special circumstances.
Following Sikh castes are essentially agricultural and landowning castes : Jat, Kamboh, Mahton and Saini. In the estimation of British only these Sikh castes were tempramentally and physically suited for active military service and warfare like the hardy Scotish Highlanders back home who also made excellent soldiers.
The glorious Sikh Regiment, the most decorated regiment of the Indian Army, consisted of these castes primarily, although Labanas and Kalals were also sometimes recruited. Out of these Jats were the largest in numbers which only reflected their numerical majority in Sikh society.
In addition, Mazhbi Sikhs were also recruited in good numbers but were generally denied roles in cavalry because of caste discrimination practiced and promoted by British. Initially, they were recruited only for menial jobs. Jats are the biggest group in terms of numbers among Sikh castes. Sikh Jats enjoy a status much superior to their Hindu Jat bretheren who are officially part of the backward castes in most states.
In Pakistan Ranghars , Pathans and other upper caste Muslims use the word Jat in somewhat derogatory way and do not regard Muslim Jat as their equal. Jat Sikhs are also now very well educated and they have taken up various professions besides agriculture, which is their signature trade. Jat Sikhs are known for their lively spirit and easy-going nature.
Many theories are attributed to the origin of Jats but the most common view is that they are probably one of the late immigrants to the subcontinent who gradually got integrated into the lower echelons of Hindu society. The status of Jat outside Punjab is somewhat low and some scholars say that they were actually considered Shudra caste until very recently. The reasons for this are many but the chief ones were that they were not particularly observant in a religious sense and were engaged in 'reprobate' practices such as Karewa levirate marriage and adelphic polyandry.
Per the custom of adelphic polyandry, a Jat wife bestowed her sexual favours on not just her husband but also on his brothers - who remained unmarried- in order to prevent fragmentation of family land holdings. These practices were of course anathema and scandalous to other Hindus and Sikhs.
Some accounts left by British ethnographers even accuse them of being "cattle thieves". Jat Sikh folklorist, Hoshiar Singh Dulhe, himself admits that Virk Jats , who are a major Jat clan, were once thought to be "thieves, freebooters and trouble makers". There are both colonial and post-colonial studies showing that poorer Jats often take wives from Dalit castes such as Chamar and Churha and that the children of such marriages continue to be considered Jats.
Kaka Kalelkar Commission , appointed by Government of India after independence , reached an identical conclusion in about their low varna and social status in recent past. Eminent Sikh writer Khushwant Singh also held this view but in Sikhism they have made rapid upward strides on the social scale and are now considered one of the premier Sikh castes. Their large numbers ensure that they now control the politics of Punjab and most Sikh institutions.
They are found all over Punjab and are the majority population in almost every district. As noted before Jats are numerically the most significant Sikh castes. Since all Sikh Gurus were from Khatri caste, some Khatris tend to claim superiority in Sikhdom on this basis but this perception of superiority is not acknowledged by Jat and other rural landowning castes like Mahton, Kamboh, etc who address Khatri as "Kirar" or "Bhapa", or sometimes even as a "Baniya", in rural areas where Khatri typically does not enjoy much influence beyond the portal of his grocery, cloth or trinket shop.
In their opinion Sikh Gurus were above caste and cannot be thus claimed by any particular group. If that were the case , they point out, even Mazhbi Sikh castes could claim superiority over others because many of the Bhagats like Ravidas, Namdev, Kabir, etc were from service and artisan castes. These Bhagats hailing from lower castes are also honored by Sikhs and their writings are also included in the Sikh scripture like those of Sikh Gurus.
The reasons for such petty arguments about each others relative social status are unfortunate and are to be seen in the backdrop of colonial era, when the trading castes like Khatri and Baniya were preceived to be usurers and exploiters of the misery of indebted farmers from these landowning and agricultural castes. British policies also played some role in fostering already existing schisms among the Indian castes.
Among the other rural landowning castes among Sikhs, prominent ones are Mahton, Saini and Kamboh. Among these three Mahton and Saini are of Rajput origin, while Kamboh claim origin from Kambojas mentioned in Mahabharata. These castes were also recruited in the Royal Indian Army in the colonial period in large numbers and were considered good soldiers. All of these castes have pockets of their influence and dominance in certain districts where they exclusively own a number of villages , but on the whole they are numerically overshadowed by Jats all over Punjab.
Sainis have their stronghold in Hoshiarpur , Gurdaspur and Ropar districts where they hold and dominate significant number of villages. Mahtons hold a number of villages in Kapurthala, Jalandhar and also Hoshiarpur.
Ramgarhia is also a prominent Sikh caste. According to McLeod, the present day Ramgarhias are a caste formed by merging of Nais barbers , Raj blacksmiths and Tarkhans carpenters. They are primarily expert carpenters and blacksmiths. Their exceptional skill in these trades have earned them a good reputation as machinists. In rural areas their primary patrons were landowning castes like Jat, Mahton, Saini, etc who needed their services as makers of agricultural implements and also weapons.
A large number of them are now great entrepreneurs and are quite prosperous. They are also known for their industry and exceptional work-ethic. Besides the above there are other minor Sikh castes which are primarily artisans. Chhimbas are tailors darzi and printers chhipa who had assumed the title of Tonk Kshatriyas in the colonial era.
Suniyaras or goldsmiths call themselves Mair Rajputs. Kashyap Rajput is a reference used for the caste of water carriers or Jheers these days. Jheer is essentially a service caste and not an atrisan caste like the others in the foregoing list. Similarly, Kalals - who could be called both an artisan and a commercial caste- are a caste of distillers or liquor sellers and are also called Ahluwalia, an adoptive name derived from Sikh leader Jassa Singh Kalal's village which was called Ahlo.
Most of the castes like Kalal, Tarkhan, Jheer, Suniyara , etc who changed their titles have done so for upward social mobility or to escape discrimination which unfortunately continues to exist despite dissemination of Sikh ideas of equality. For some inexplicable reason a low esteem continues to be attached to artisan trades requiring a high degree of skill and industry.
This sentiment is altogether against the spirit of Sikhism but unfortunately does exist. In my opinion Sikhs are cool because in Sikhism there is NO caste system and Sikhs live naturally without cutting their hair and keeping clean. Its really big in India. Mainly Hindus and Sikhs. This is to remove caste system. Sikhism belives in equality of all.
There are some variations of Sikhs as sometimes where they originate from sometimes comes into their 'nationality. Some people would argue that the Sikh religion is split up furthermore, into a caste system but Sikhs are supposed to believe in equality therefore the caste system does not really exisist in Sikhism. LAL surname does not determine caste it is sometimes used as a middle name.
Know as the Sikhs. Dhami's are Jatt Sikhs. They belong to both hindu and Sikhs. Jatts and Aroras who follow Sikhism are true Sikhs Caste-ism is not a symbol of true Sikhism and anybody who believes in caste-ism is not a true Sikh. As a religion Sikhism is against Caste System and Sikh Gurus throughout condemns the practice of caste system.
However, due to traditional and social influence as well the lack of Sikhs in understanding their Gurus teachings, it was never been taken out of Sikhism and as such caste distinction do exist no matter even if it exist at lesser level.
Buddhism has no belief in caste system. It frankly rejected the caste system. It is the religion of Hinduism that uses the caste system. The group outside the caste system are the untouchables they are'nt considered part of the caste system. Caste system is one of the deepest taboos of Hinduism. Hinduism invented caste system.
Sikhs believe that all the religion in the world all come to the one god. They believe in one God. He didn't not believe in equality. Actually, he did not believe in racial equality, but he did believe in emancipation of the slaves. Yes, they do. Well they believe a lot if things Sikhs are great people and then have a god who cares for them and treats them like a child of their own. Sikhs believe that before creation, all that existed was God and Its will. When God willed, the entire universe was created.
Sikhs can only believe in the one and only God of what they believe in. The most important thing is that they are not even allowed to eat meat! There are some variations of Sikhs as sometimes where they originate from sometimes comes into their 'nationality. Some people would argue that the Sikh religion is split up furthermore, into a caste system but Sikhs are supposed to believe in equality therefore the caste system does not really exisist in Sikhism. But sikhs believe in One God.
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