ate only with each other and usually married only within their own group Hindus called these groups within their society jatis, a word that means “birth group ” When Europeans came into India, they called the groups castes (kasts), from the Latin word that meant “pure ” The very lowest group in society was those people outside the caste
and others of very low castes came to be regarded as saints and were venerated as such even by Brahmin priests Speculations on Caste Origins of Dalits It is a fact that one of the sacred texts of Hinduism, the so-called ‘Manusmriti,’ formally written down perhaps about 2000 years ago, ostracizes Dalits as outcastes, that is as not
India was the birthplace of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism 1500 BC, Hinduism, with the arrival of the Aryans 500 BC, Buddhism and Jainism, both as a way to gain rebirth through sacrifices and priests Sikhism emerged around the 15th century, in an effort to bridge the gap between Hinduism and Buddhism
Harijans or “Scheduled Castes” Over the centuries, they also organized into sub-castes much like those of orthodox Hindu society In the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi made it one of his life's goals to bring the untouchables back into Hindu society He renamed them the harijans, or "children of God," and tried to convince orthodox