28.05.2007
Yesterday in Bombay, whose official name is Mumbai since 1995, happens an astonishing event. In order to understand what went on, you have to imagine a huge city, the biggest of India, capital of the Maharashtra state, the sixth largest city in the world. All around the city, people have gathered together attracted by the mirage of cities. They know that there’s money to earn in Mumbai and Bollywood, the Indian equivalent of Hollywood. Still they can not fit into the city beacuse of their origins, their belonging to a lower castes, or their exclusion of the caste system.
Yesterday, Sunday the 27th of May, about 50000 persons of hindu confession, but belonging to lower classes got converted to buddhism. They came from this society of excluded people, in the largest city of India, who suffer everyday from misery. Nomadic buddhists but also poor people looking for a more decent life joined them. These people can not get integrated to the Indian society because of their birth, a permanent handicap for Hindus belonging to lower castes, or Dalits, also known as Untouchables.
The show was completely unrealistic: among half a million of people, monks with orange tunics proceeded to the ceremony of the three refuges. New buddhists were celebrated and everyone went back home joyfully hoping life would be easier.
One sixth of the 1,1 billion population of India was considered as belonging to lower castes before and seen as untouchables. They had to fill the most thankless and degrading jobs. Even if the Indian Constitution forbids discrimination based upon social castes, the system keeps on going on, especially in the countryside.
Thanks to its 1.1 billion of inhabitants, India is the second largest population center of the word just after China. Hindus represent 80% of the population, muslims 13%, christians about 3%, and Sikhs, buddhists, parsis and jews represent the rest of the population.
NEW BUDDHIST DALITS
Organisations got structured, particularly around Mumbai. They are called New Buddhists Dalits. Yo can find some pictures below:
INDIA AND ITS CASTES
Brahmanes implemented this hierarchy among their community for political reasons. The caste system allows to secure the economic and political privileges of a minority.
This system is divided in four different classes with their own rules known as the varnas. At the top of the pyramid of values, there are priests , also called brahmanes, who hold the knowledge, then kshatriyas, a caste of soldiers. They are followed by the vaisyas, who are craftsmen and salers, and eventually the sudras. the lowest caste, which gathers farmers. These varnas represent the four parts of Brahma’s body, God of Creation. Brahmanes were born from his mouth, kshatriyas from his arms, vaisyas from his legs and sudras from his feet.
One part o f the population was not born from Brahma’s body, therefore they are considered as impure because of their birth. These are the Dalits, also known as the untouchables, because brahmanes can not eat food touched by them. They have to purify it to get rid of the stains due to this contact. Dalits accomplish the most degrading and hard tasks . The word “untouchable” has been forbidden by the Constitution. Gandhi used to call them harijans, God’s sons.
Buddhism is developing among these social classes, because Buddha has always considered men as eqal. These conversions appear as a chance to find an honourable status and a possibility of a better future.
Alain Delaporte-Digard pour www.buddhachannel.tv
