You can choose from several India tour packages but one of the most important parts of your travel must be getting to know the Indian people.
Hindu scriptures predict a time of chaos and deprivation when the Code of Manu will be forgotten, and the caste structure will come crashing down. Some claim these bad times, called kaliyuga, are here already. Unemployment has forced many Hindus to desert the old village ways in order to eke out a living in contemporary India. Originally, the needy could approach sympathetic members of their own jati, who would provide a meal, a job or shelter. The traditional division of labor is breaking down, albeit slowly. K.R. Narayanan was born a Dalit and had to fight convention for an education. Following years as a high-profile lawyer and diplomat, he was President of the Republic between 1997 and 2002.
In India’s big cities, people from different castes often end up as neighbors and can’t help rubbing shoulders on the bus or in cinema halls. Unlike in the villages, where caste groups tend to live in segregated areas and traditionally only eat with their own caste members, there is some leeway for intermingling in the cities. Living in such close proximity occasionally sparks confrontation between different caste groups, especially those jockeying for position. Attempts to prove status are as crucial for career advancement as for family alliances. Opportunities, whether through quotas or connections, hinge on an Indian’s caste and community.
Although banned by the Indian constitution for 50 years, atrocities against the lowest castes occur daily. In the early 20th century Mahatma Gandhi insisted that everyone must take turns cleaning the toilet, and renamed outcastes (then known as “Untouchables”) the Harijans (”Children of God”). But many now prefer the less patronizing term Dalit (literally “the oppressed”), which is more forthright than the bureaucratic acronym SC & ST (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes). This terminology comes from the Indian constitution, written by B.K. Ambedkar, an early Dalit campaigner and brilliant lawyer, who converted to Buddhism in protest at what he saw as the divisive Hindu veneration of caste.
When New Delhi tried to implement an affirmative action plan to set aside half of all federal jobs for the officially underprivileged - which make up 85 percent of India’s population -dozens of middle-class students burnt themselves alive to protest at their loss of opportunities. These so-called “caste martyrs” contributed to the overthrow of Prime Minister V.P. Singh, and reservation continues to be a controversial issue in many areas of the country.
