印度為何至今還存在種姓制度(CASTE)?

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Why does the caste system persist in India?

 

By Balaji Viswanathan.

Some of the key issues:

以下是一些關鍵問題:

01

Lack of pace in urbanisation: Urban India has reduced impact of caste, not because the people are good, but because they don't have easy ways to use caste in daily life. Our apartments afford privacy and anonymity and you are less likely to know the caste of your neighbor. In villages everyone knows everyone else and it is hard to escape centuries of stereotypes. While urban people too see castes while marriage, there are more chances of intermingling and more chances of intercaste marriages.

 

城市化進程不足：在印度，種姓制度對於城市的影響已經被削弱了。不是因為城裡人素質高，而是因為他們在日常生活中很難用到種姓。在城市，我們的公寓可以提供一個良好的隱私環境，每個人都是匿名的，不太可能知道鄰居的種姓。而在農村，大家都互相認識，很難擺脫數百年來的成見。雖然城裡結婚的時候還是會看重種姓，但是相較於農村，跨種姓結婚的可能性更大。

Urbanites are also too busy to bother about raw discrimination (other forms of discrimination may continue) and there is a strong media oversight (you are less likely to see someone paraded naked for violating a 「caste law」). Across the world it is urbanisationthat broke many of the feudal chains. Ambedkar talks a lot about the need for urbanisation. India's urbanisation is among the lowest. We don't build new cities fast enough to absorb a billion people.

 

而且，城裡的人太忙了，他們沒有時間去搞原生歧視（其他形式的歧視可能還存在）。印度媒體的監管力度也很強，你幾乎看不到誰因為違反「種姓法」被罰裸體示眾。在世界各地，正是城市化的存在打破了許多封建桎梏。安貝德卡爾講過許多次城市化的必要性。然而，印度的城市化率處於世界最低水平，因為我們沒能夠迅速建造新城市以便容納這10億人口。

(source: outlook india)

When people have jobs and ambitions, they would have very little energy to bother about who marries whom or what dress someone wears. Imagine you were in an IT company— would you have energy at the end of the day to bother about all the silly things of other people?

 

當人們忙於工作，心懷抱負時，幾乎就沒有精力去操心誰跟誰結婚了，或者誰穿什麼衣服了。想像一下，假如你在一家IT公司工作，累死累活了一天，你真的還有精力去過問別人亂七八糟的事情嗎？

02

Lack of economic mobility: Across the developed world you could see various ways in which people could move up and outside of lower class. Universal education, industrialisation and modernisation provided opportunities for their oppressed classes to come outand get a footing.

 

經濟缺乏流動性：在發達國家，人們可以通過各種方式脫離所在階層，向更高的階層流動。對於被壓迫的階層來說，教育普及、工業化以及現代化的發展給他們提供了出人頭地、在社會立足的機會。

In India, our chances of mobility is limited.

在印度，我們階級流動的機會很有限。

 

Other than a few thousands getting into IIT,IIM,UPSC etc there are not a lot of chances for poor boys and girls to make a living in the modern world leaving their past. Things are improving, but the pace has to be high and impact has to be broad. We need to figure out ways to move millions in parallel up the chain.

 

除了那幾千個考入印度理工學院和印度管理學院的學生以及通過印度公務員考試的人之外，在當今社會，對於窮孩子來說，通過努力工作就可以完全擺脫原生階層的機會並不多。儘管一切都在好轉，但仍然需要加快速度，擴大影響。我們需要找到方法，帶領成千上萬的人更上一個層次。

(source: financialepress.com)

When people have mobility there will be lesser discrimination.

當人們可以自由流動時，歧視就會越來越少。

03

Religious war: Caste system is endemic to India not specific Hinduism (Hindus in Bali don’t have a strict caste system while other religions of India too participate in caste discrimination). In fact, when Rig Veda (oldestof Hindu texts) first talk of varnas, they don’t even bother to define it (they assume implicitly that everyone reading would know what they are, meaning things have existed for a long time prior). However, many anticaste activists attack Hinduism than trying to reform the system. This is one of the few areas I disagree strongly with Dr. Ambedkar. You cannot assume any faith say Hinduism/」Brahminism」would die — especially ones that have survived 1000s of years and give a range of positives to the followers.

 

宗教戰爭：種姓制度為印度特有，而非印度教特有。（峇里島的印度教徒不推崇嚴格的種姓制度，而印度其他宗教群體中卻存在種姓歧視）。事實上，當《梨俱吠陀》（最古老的印度語文本）首次提到「瓦爾納」時，作者們甚至懶得給它下定義，他們含蓄地假定每個讀者都知道這一術語的含義，這意味著種姓在這之前已經存在了很長時間。然而，許多反對種姓制度的活動家攻擊印度教，並試圖改變這個制度。安貝德卡爾主張改革種姓制度，這是為數不多的幾個我與他意見不一的地方。任何信仰，包括印度教或「婆羅門主義」，都不會輕易消失，尤其它已經存活了數千年，為它的追隨者創造許多了正能量。

瓦爾納是印度教經典中解釋種姓制度的概念，在《梨俱吠陀》中，這個術語可以意味著：「人的種類、部落、等級、行業」。

       種姓制度的階級：婆羅門、剎帝利、吠舍、首陀羅和達利特

That means the only way the caste can be fought is working with Hinduism & other Indian religions and not against it. As various third parties utilise the caste angle to expand their base, the fear of losing religion gives the neocons in Hinduism with renewed energy. The liberals and reformers within Hinduism who have the best chance to weaken the caste system are caught between a rock and hard place — between people outside the faith trying to attack the whole faith and people inside the faith who refuse to change at all.

也就是說，唯一與種姓制度作鬥爭的方式是與印度教或其他印度宗教合作，而不是直接對抗制度。各種第三方組織利用種姓制度在不斷擴大規模的同時，對失去宗教的恐懼重新激活了印度教內的新保守主義者。一邊是非印度教徒在試圖攻擊整個信仰體系，另一邊是印度教徒拒絕做出任何改變。面對這些，印度教中最有可能削弱種姓制度的的自由派和改革派陷入兩難境地。

We need the modern equivalents of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vidyasagar, Gandhi, Rajaji, Vivekananda to clean the systems from within. Such reformers have been weakened due to the factors stated above. Attacks from outside over the past few decades have not yielded any results.

我們需要拉姆、維迪阿薩格、甘地、拉賈吉、維韋卡南達這樣的人從內部開始清除種姓制度。但是迫於上述因素這些改革者的權力已經被削弱了。過去幾十年裡，來自外部的攻擊還未產生任何效果。

(source: History Today)

Finally, people are unlikely to ever give up castes. Even in the west, you can see the various clan names & occupations still persisting as surnames. However, a guy named Carpenter or Smith is not going to be discriminated against in the normal course of things. That is what we should strive for — castes would not die, but caste based discrimination should.

 

最後，人們不太可能放棄種姓。即使在西方，人們的姓氏中仍舊可以看到各種宗族名字和職業名稱存在於人們的姓氏中。事實上在正常生活中，叫Carpenter（意為木匠）或Smith（意為鐵匠）的人不會受到歧視。這才是我們應該為之努力的目標。種姓制度不會消亡，但基於歧視的種姓制度應該消失。

【學習表達】

stereotype /'stɛrɪətaɪp/  n. 刻板印象，模化式觀念或形象

He doesn't conform to the national stereotype of a Frenchman.

他不符合一般人頭腦中法國人的形象。

between a rock and hard place 兩難境地

Couples are currently between a rock and hard place; the economy is tightening while the cost of having babies is steadily going up.

如今夫妻們所處的境地很為為難，撫養嬰兒的花費在穩步上升，手頭經濟也越發拘謹。

feudal /'fjudl/ adj. 封建制度的，封地的

In fact, commerce was always an important part of feudalism and the feudal economy.

其實，商業始終是封建制度和封建經濟的一個重要組成部分。

endemic /ɛn'dɛmɪk/  adj. 特有的，流行的；（疾病）地方性的

There is endemic racism/poverty/violence in many of the country's cities.

該國很多城市中，種族主義猖獗/貧困現象普遍/暴力肆虐。

get a footing    取得地位，取得立足點

He had listened and made himself agreeable to her at first, in order to get a footing in Washington Square. 開始時他對她總是洗耳恭聽，顯得十分可親，目的是要在華盛頓廣場取得立足之地。                                                                             

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