Caste Hierarchy Conflict Of Ravidas
For centuries, people followed a prestigious social hierarchy known as the caste system in Hinduism. The top of the hierarchy was praised, the bottom was the servants, and below that were the outcastes, the untouchables, better known as, the Dalits. The Dalits were discriminated by others and had to live through social injustice their entire life. One day, a person caused an uproar within the social classes of the hierarchy. A saint who was born into the outcaste named Ravidas had sparked a conflict within the caste hierarchy.
A controversy amongst the social classes, left many people, especially the brahmins (highest class in the hierarchy), in disbelief that an “untouchable” was known to be a saint. Before Ravidas, we’ll see how caste hierarchy functioned into Hinduism, and how that has affected the Dalit-saint Ravidas during his journey. Inequity and injustice contributed into the system the higher classes respected and the lower classes were discriminated because of it. Hawley said, “The religious system whose central ritual are entrusted to Brahmins, whose central institutions requires a set of reciprocal but unequal social relationships, and whose guiding ideas set forth what life should be within this hierarchically variegated world and how it may rightly be transcended”.
The people in Hinduism believed in the great Purusa. Purusa is said to be the Lord of Immortality that trumps all beings. It was said that all people came from the holy Purusa: the brahman was the mouth, the Kshatriyas was the arms, the thigh was the Vaishyas, and the feet is the Shrudras. The Dalits were treated unfairly by the other groups because they were not a part of Purusa. They were beneath everyone else, which makes them the outcaste. The highest social class was the Brahmin, they were said to be the priest. After that, was Kshatriyas, which was the warriors/ government. Following, is the Vaishyas, the mercantile.
Last, was the Shrudas, the servants. The Dalits had gone through discrimination their whole life, being pushed back to a little enclaved called the Sri Gavardhanpur. They lived in the worst conditions, doing the worst jobs imaginable, and not being allowed in the city without being restricted to set of rules specifically made for them. Due to the jobs that the Dalit have to intake, leather work and doing other unimaginable jobs, they are considered to be “polluted” (“Untouchability”). The other social classes do not want to touch or be touched by the Dalits because they believe that once they’re touched they will be polluted, making them known as the untouchables creating the stigma that still happens till this day. This led to the special case of Ravidas, since he was Dalit-saint, the higher classes don’t know if to accept him as a saint or a Dalit.
