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“Caste strengthening in politics”
- Delivering the Besant Lecture on ‘Caste in contemporary India' at the 136{+t}{+h}international convention of the Theosophical Society, Prof. Andre Beteille, Delhi University, has said that while there is evidence of the decline of caste in some domains in India, clearly it is strengthening in the political domain.
- There was caste among
- the Hindus,
- even among the Christians in Kerala and Tamil Nadu,
- among Muslims, who will say that caste has no place in Islam
- among Sikhs who have renounced caste in theory and principle
- Until the second half of the 19{+t}{+h}century, when serious ethnographic mapping of Indian society was begun by the British, the caste system in India was believed to be based on the division of society into four varnas: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra.
- There is a difference between this four-fold division and the division of society from currently existing innumerable Jathis, or sub castes.
- Varna represents the conceptual design of Hindu society, and Jathis represent the living system.
- Prof. Beteille also said, today, people in rural areas are less obsessed with caste than those in the cities. This is because education and employment are two domains in which strife and conflict between castes exists.
Click for Faizabad polling booths
- Voters in Faizabad district can now find the exact location of their polling booths with just a click of the mouse, thanks to an initiative by the local administration which has plotted all booths on Google Maps and has connected the electorates list to it.
- All information is available at faizabad.nic.in
Insurance education thru' comics
- The insurance regulator will use the power of comic books to teach the basic concepts, needs and importance of insurance in one's life, to school children.
- The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority has readied comic books and small hand-books for high school students.
