User talk:Karuppan Chockalingam

JATI is unique to Indian culture and it is the representation of community life in India. Cased on the understanding of how man is taking birth and persistence of attitudes and characters, the society is structured. Society is organized in the understanding of how a rebvirth takes place and what would be the ideal society from the spiritual point of view.

Man cannot live alone in this material world without the help of other humans; He needs materials and services from others to carry on living. This need along with the understanding the nature of the spirit as it appears in human form in this material world necessitated the organization of society in this way in India.

It is very important to understand a few basic fundamentals before we hastily conclude on the merits of this system:

!. Even though there is all the hierarchical structuring in material life, there is no 'discrimination' so far as the spirit/soul is concerned. Even though people were differentiated in worldly life, there were recognized saints from all the JATIs in spiritual life. The recognized Tamil saints (Alwars and Nayanmars) includes from all the different JATIs.

2. There was respect and dignity towards the people of the 'lower' JATIs from others in the village community. People could have rebelled against treatment accorded to them. The people from all JATIs appear to have accepted their status in life with dignity and forebearence in traditional India.

3. Even though there might have been stray incidences of violence amongst different JATIs, there was no systematic oppression. JATI is was an accepted cultural practice rather than an oppression as in slavery. The acceptance could have come from the philosophical nature of Hindu Dharma and belief in re-incarnation.

4. JATI is not a individual like an indenturing system. This is s community set-up so that each community will carry out ceratin services to the community as a whole. This is not based on individual member of the society, rather a group of prople in the community.

5. There are two aspects to be born as a human being. One pertains to the physical aspects like body, its health; another is the spirit aspect like the memory and consciousness. It is believed in the Hindu dharma, that the spirit is taking shape in this life after the continuation of its growth from its appearance in this material world as previous life. The physical aspects are controlled by the connections established to the parents and it is believed that this connection is facilitated by the existence of JATI.