「外网有译」印度人如何评价“种姓制度”？

种姓制度可能是误解最深的社会概念了。对于一个试图解读种姓制度的西方人来说，他们倾向于将其等同于美国的奴隶制度，或者欧洲中世纪和日本的封建制度。事实上，它是一种剥削制度，但在某些时候是对社会有益的。

正如我们今天所认知的，种姓制度没有积极的一面。在任何现代社会中，似乎继续实行这个剥削制度是没有道理的。事实上，这是令人惊讶的，这是一个能自我进化，自我纠正的社会制度，能够根除很多的社会弊病，如“殉教”或“童婚”。我坚定地相信种姓制度会继续下去，因为都怪那些政客把种姓制度给妖魔化了。

我用我的大脑疯狂的在想:古代社会从种姓制度中得到了什么好处?

首先，我们需要确定的是，种姓制度是某个时刻强加于社会，还是社会自己几百年进化得出的。这很重要，因为如果是强加，第一次的时候，那么社会就会意识到种姓制度是邪恶的。或者有些非常强大的人在很长一段时间里强迫每个人都加上这个标签。但关于种姓制度的起源并没有记录(甚至是神话的记录)，最早可查的信息也是来自于一个诗人的作品中。如果它是一个被强加的制度，那它一定是伴随着一件旷古绝今的大事产生的。不可思议的是，这件大事从有记录的史诗中消失了。

那么另一种合理的说法，就是种姓制度不是被迫的，而是进化得来的。如果它是进化的，而种姓制度的纽带在一开始是不牢固的。为什么有些人在进化过程中会自愿选择低等级?他们在寻找什么好处?

如果你仔细观察种姓制度。它不是定义了工作或生活方式。它定义的是社会责任。在进化的过程中，它们交织成一个统一的社会结构。

在数千年的古书中，婆罗门被描绘为社会的最高统治者，总体政策的制定者。某些人也被描绘成住在棚屋里的穷人。依靠化缘得来的食物生活。某些人没有金钱，没有力量，没有其他技能，只有知识。而“婆罗门”的内在含义就是:你有知识，你可以成为社会的决策者。但你不能统治。而另外一些人没有钱。你可以乞讨为生。

类似的是“刹帝利”，你会统治，但钱是公共资金(不是你的)。你可以做某些决定，但你不是决策者。因为“婆罗门”才是政策的掌握者。

“吠舍”的意思很简单，你可以自己投资交易赚钱。用别人生产的产品来经营社会经济体系。你没有生产这些产品的技能，但你有管理贸易的技能。显然，你不会统治或制定政策。

“首陀罗”拥有别人剩下的所有技能。他们将拥有制造一切的技能，但他们不是统治者、政策制定者或交易员。种姓制度可能是误解最深的社会概念了。对于一个试图解读种姓制度的西方人来说，他们倾向于将其等同于美国的奴隶制度，或者欧洲中世纪和日本的封建制度。事实上，它是一种剥削制度，但在某些时候是对社会有益的。

Cast system is perhaps most misunderstood social concept. For a western brain trying to interpret cast system, inclination will be towards equating it with other exploiter systems like slavery in America, or feudal system of medieval Europe or Japan. The fact is despite evolving into an exploitation system, perhaps at some point of time it was presumed to be beneficial for society.
There is no positive side of the cast system as we know it today. There is no justification in continuation of an exploitation system in any modern society. In fact it is surprising that a self evolving, self correcting society, which could eradicate so many social evils like "Sati" or "Child marriage", still finds cast system worthy of practicing. I am a firm believer that cast system continues because politicians who demonizes cast system most, benefits from it most.
I am simply letting my brain go wild to discover: What benefits ancient society was looking from cast system?
First we need to establish if cast system was forced upon the society at a single point of time. Or did it evolve over hundreds of years. It is important because if first is the case then even the society was aware that cast system is evil. Someone enormously Powerful forced a cast tag on everyone within few days/months/years. There is no documented (even mythical) origin of cast system. That too from a society which seems to know and document who was the first poet. If it was a forced system it must have been done on epic proportion. It is unthinkable that this all powerful man simply vanished from documented epics.
This is reasonable evidence that cast system was not forced but evolved. If it was evolved and bonds of cast system were not strong in the beginning. Why would some people voluntarily opt for lower casts during evolution? What benefits they were looking for?
If you closely examine "Varna" system. Instead of defining work or livelihood. It defines social responsibilities.Sometimes during evolution they intermingled into a single unified social structure.
In thousands of years old texts, Brahmans are pictured as supreme of society, overall policy makers. They are also pictured as poor people living in hut. Surviving on "Bhiksha" i.e food given by others. No money, No power, No other Skills but only knowledge. Inherent message for "Brahmans" was: You have the knowledge, you can be policy maker of society. But you can not rule. You can't have money. You survive only on begging.
Similar message was for "Khatriyas" you will rule, but money will be the public money (not yours). You can be decision makers but not policy makers. For policy making you are in grip of "Brahmans".
Message for "Vaishya" was simple, you will invest your own money. Trade and keep your own money. Run the economic system of society by trading products produced by others. You will not have Skills to produce those products but will have skills of trade management. Obviously you will not rule or make policies.
"Shudra" will have all the Skills nobody else is allowed. They will have Skills to produce everything but they are not rulers, policymakers or traders.

Someone tried to separate "Power of Knowledge for Policy making", "Power of Weapons for Security", Power of Money to run Economy" and "Power of Skills to Produce". They don't want Knowledge and Money in same hand. They don't want Skills and Weapons in the same hands. If I have all four why would I care for others. I may become uncontrolled demon not depending on anyone else. These are four pillars of Power in any society.
Does it sound something similar we follow in our corporate world. Take example of an Oil company. Investor risks their money and become shareholders. They take risks and reap rewards on their own personal money. They are merely trades. They need not to know oil business. Board of directors are policymakers for the company they make policies because they have knowledge. They know about oil business but don't have real skills of Oil workers, engineers, and scientists. Everyone from programmer to welder to scientist is something equivalent to "Shudra" in corporate cast system. Government (Read Police) have Weapons for security. Their role is limited to rule on system and provide them security so that system keep functioning.
Possible benefits ancient society was looking for in cast system. First separation of different powers and distribute in society so that no-one have too much. Second refine skills by working in closely knit social environment. Third create sense of belonging as everyone will feel useful to society even after being at the lowest ladder of social structure. Fourth enforce dependency on each other.Work efficiently, more work can be done efficiently if whole village is seen as a family can distribute the work.
However they could not prevent the evil aspects of cast system from evolving.
1. Being Hierarchical - Both Knowledge and Skills could be equally respected.
2. Forced by Birth - Even though it may not be designed that way originally.
3. Exploitation - Evolved into an exploratory system like feudal system of Europe.

有人将“知识的力量与政策制定”、“安全和武器的力量”、“经济运行的资金”和“生产技能的力量”分开。某些人不需要知识和金钱。某些人不需要技能和武器。如果我四个都有，那我还为什么要考虑别人。我可能变成一个不受控制的恶魔，不需要依赖于任何人。这就是任何社会的四大力量支柱。

在我们的企业世界里，这听起来是不是很像呢?以石油公司为例。投资者冒着风险，成为*。他们冒着风险，用自己的钱来收获回报。他们只是交易。他们不需要完全了解石油行业。董事会是他们政策的决策者，因为他们有知识。他们知道石油生意，但还缺少石油工人、工程师和科学家的实际技能。从程序员到焊工，再到科学家，每个人都相当于公司种姓制度下的首陀罗。政府(警察)有安全武器。他们的作用仅限于对系统进行管理，为他们提供安全保障，从而使系统稳定运行。

古代社会在种姓制度中可以获得的好处：第一，把不同的权力分开，在社会中分配，这样就需要有太多的人；第二，在紧密的社会环境中工作；第三，创造归属感，因为即使在社会结构的最底层，每个人都会觉得对社会有用；第四，相互依赖，例如，如果整个村庄被视为一个家庭可以分配工作，那么更多的工作可以被高效地有效地完成。

然而，这并不能阻止种姓制度往邪恶的方面发展。
1，具有等级性——知识和技能应该得到同等的尊重。
2，种姓与生俱来——尽管它最初不是这样设计的。
3，剥削——演化为一种类似欧洲封建制度的系统。

In this modern world caste system is no more than a claim for respect Inside Indian society . But when we enter into the roots of the origin for this overall drama ,Not all caste systems are related to Religion, its typically related to science and health related protocol used by my ancestors .
As other tribes around the world ,every Indian tribal groups also have their native diets and native occupation which Identifies individually among other tribal groups around them.
My caste is "Kodi kal vallalaar "
Vallalaar is nothing but agriculture , Kodi kal mean vine plants, and my origin belong to a village called Amma petai which is near Salem district , Tamil nadu state, India. The name comes from Tamil language since we are native speakers of Tamil.
No matter which part of the world kodikal vallalaar lives in, no matter what job he/she does ,he/she must be some way or other related to me , I mean we both belong to the same tribe group , same ancestor who lived in the same village and did the same job .
If Obama and Bin Laden belong to the same caste , there are 99% chance for them be cousins sharing same ancestor .
For example :
Kodi kal vallalaar occupation was betel agriculture .
solzhiya vallalaar occupation was sea shell and coral agriculture .
So by knowing the caste we can Identify the origin of the tribe group they belong to .
Importance in olden days :
Case system is mainly used only during Marriages .
Since the Indian marriage system is purely based on arranged marriages , when they follow cast system bride family or groom family make sure that they both carry native gene.
Because there are some diseases / Infections or other health related problems which are occupation based. And , it is believed when married to same caste people they make sure that they don't carry/introduce any foreign health related issues to their child or to their descents.
Even today In India ,caste system is followed only during marriages .
I am a Catholic Christian , My baptist name is lourdes samy . Which is also my grandfathers first name , which is also his grandfathers name.
Proves we are not newly converted catholics, but we care Catholics for centuries ..
Fun facts :
My mom is 60 , my dad is 65 they are married before 38 years . It was an arranged marriage ( before getting married they are unknown to each other, But both belong to same caste) . Only last year when we attended a marriage of my cousin brother we found that my parents' family are closely related but lost their relationships in time. This is what caste is all about .
TO BE NOTED : there are few caste which are purely based on religion . But even there, the caste is named by the occupation serving to god and maintaining temples, even there is a caste who guard the temple's gold and wealth.

在现代社会，种姓制度只不过是印度社会的一种表现形式。但是，当我们回溯到这个种姓故事的起源时，并不是所有的种姓制度都与宗教有关，但它通常与我们的祖先所使用的科学和健康的职业有关。
关于世界上的一些其它部落，每一个印第安部落都有自己土著居民的饮食习惯和本地职业，这些部落都能在他们周围的部落群体中很好的分辨出来。

我的种姓是"Kodi kal vallalaar "
Vallalaar只是农业，Kodi kal是指藤蔓植物，而我出生在一个叫做Amma petai的村庄，它位于印度泰米尔纳德邦的塞勒姆区附近。这个名字来自泰米尔语，因为泰米尔语是我的母语。
无论这世界上另一部分的kodikal vallalaar住在什么地方,无论什么工作，他或她都跟我有关。我的意思是我们都属于同一部落集团,我们有着同样的祖先住在同一个村庄和做着同样的事情。
如果奥巴马和本拉登属于同一个种姓，那么他们有99%的机会是同族的表亲。

例如:
Kodi kal vallalaar的职业是藤蔓农业。
solzhiya vallalaar的职业是海螺和珊瑚农业。
因此，通过了解种姓，我们就可以确定他们所属的部落群体的起源。

在古时候的重要性:
种姓制度主要在婚姻中使用。
由于印度的婚姻制度完全是包办婚姻，所以当新娘家庭和新郎家庭遵循种姓制度时，确保他们都携带了本地基因。
因为有一些疾病感染或其他与职业相关的健康问题。所以，人们相信，当他们与同一种姓的人结婚时，可以确保他们不携带或引进任何外部的疾病问题，这将关系到他们的孩子。
即使在今天的印度，种姓制度也还在婚姻中被遵循。

我是天主教徒，我在教会的名字是lourdes samy。这也是我祖父的名字，也是他祖父的名字。
证明我们不是新皈依的天主教徒，证明我们关心天主教已经几个世纪了。

有趣的事实:
我妈妈60岁了，我爸爸65岁了，他们结婚38年了。这是一段包办婚姻(在结婚之前他们彼此都不认识，但都属于同一等级)。就在去年，当我们参加了我表哥兄弟的婚礼时，我们发现我父母的家庭之间尽管在很长时间失去联系，但依然关系密切。这就是种姓制度的意义所在。
值得注意的是:很少有种姓是纯粹基于宗教的。即使是有，那个种姓制度也是被认为是侍奉神和维护寺庙的职业，甚至有一个种姓，是专门守护着圣殿的黄金和财富。

Caste is swabhava or innate ability. This ability is codified as thinker, warrior, trader and doer...nothing less, nothing more.
Those who crow about equality need to distinguish between potential equality and manifested equality, whether in this world or the next. Hinduism at its best declares everyone and everything to be the Divine. I, a low caste by birth, can attain identity with the highest Divine, can be the prophet of this age, and cry out Aham Brahmasmi! In practise men do hold onto time born conventions.
Capitalism and science should not feel too smug. You will not pull a stranger off the street to be a CEO or head a chair for biotechnology. Potentially they could take these roles but in reality there is a hierarchy of capabilities and credentials one is expected to have. Think of any messed up enterprise where yes masters are promoted, it is exactly the same with caste practise.

种姓是一种天生的能力。这种能力可以被分为思想家、战士、商人和实干家……不多也不少。

那些吹嘘平等的人需要区分潜在的平等和外表的平等，无论是在这个世界还是在未来。印度教在它的鼎盛时期，都宣称每个人是神圣的。我，一个出身低贱的人，可以获得最高的神性，可以成为这个时代的先知，并呼出阿拉姆·布拉姆斯米!然而在实践中，人们需要坚持与生俱来的种姓能力。

资本主义和科学不应该沾沾自喜。你不会把从大街上拉出来一个陌生人去做首席执行官，或者领导生物技术公司。他们可能会扮演这些角色，但实际上，他们的内在能力和资历是缺乏的。想想他们任何一个被提拔的路边人，都可以搞垮了这个企业。这和种姓制度是完全一样的。

Let me try to answer this question. First, there is a misunderstanding on what is Caste in the picture right next to the question. It says that there are only four castes in the societies, and gives a feeling that one caste controls other. This is completely wrong.
In Tamil Nadu there are many castes like Vellalaar, Devar, Nadar, Mudaliyar, Brahmin, Warrier, Gounder, Pillai, Pallar etc. Similarly outside you have castes like Reddy, Namboodri etc.
When the British first came to India they wanted to understand Indian system, and they found Brahmins more simple and easy to deal with.They started to understand about the society from Brahmins perspective. Moreover since since the English society contains of nobles and sefs, where nobles oppressed the serfs, the completely misunderstood the system. Since what we read is usually in English, the same bias which Britishers had in understanding the jathi system continues.
Before understanding caste we need to understand the village setup and compare with today's government setup. The present Indian government system is based on centralization. There is a government in Delhi and state capital, and a constitution of the country which greatly control the flow of funds, educational syllabus for everybody in the country etc. However the village setup is based on decentralization. Also the modern constitutional setup does not understand the concept of community/commune living as it has just been copied from the West. There is an individual and a government.
On the other hand, in the traditional setup, a set of few villages would make a self sufficient unit. The villagers have their own commune life and festivals and they are socially one unit - they have their own tradition and lifestyle.

让我试着回答这个问题。首先，在这个问题中有一个关于什么是种姓的误解。常说，这个社会中只有四个种姓，这会给人一种感觉，一个种姓控制着另一个种姓。这是完全错误的。
在泰米尔纳德邦有许多种姓，如维拉尔拉尔、德瓦、纳达尔、穆巴利亚、婆罗门、武士、共得、皮莱、帕拉等，同样，在这之外，你也有像埃迪、奈博等种姓。

当英国人第一次来到印度时，他们想要了解印度的制度，他们发现婆罗门很容易相处。他们开始从婆罗门的角度了解整个社会。此外，由于英国社会中有贵族和农奴，贵族会压迫农奴，以至于他们完全误解了这个制度。又因为阅读的文章通常是英文的，所以英国人对种姓制度的误解还在继续。

在了解种姓之前，我们需要了解村庄的设计，并与今天的政府设计进行比较。现在的印度政府体制是建立在集权的基础上的。德里和州府都有一个政府，国家的宪法对资金的流动和国家所有人的教育大纲都有很大的控制，但是村庄的设计是建立在分权的基础上的。同时，现代宪法的建立并不兼容社区或公社的概念，因为它是从西方复制过来的。

另一方面，在传统的设置中，一些少量村庄会形成一个自给自足的小社会。村民们有自己的公社生活和节日，他们是社会的一个单位——他们有自己的传统和生活方式。

Since the system is decentralized there will be less bureaucracy and less corruption. More responsibility of managing the jathi is given to the people, so the people would become more responsible and work with common sense. Example, Giving a punishment to a rape case that occurred in Delhi is very easy, be it life imprisonment or death sentence. However, since the government follows its own traditions of bureaucracy which it has inherited from the British, it wastes time in making a 1000 page charge-sheet, presenting the accused and the witness to the court, blah blah blah. Ultimately today Afzal Guru is still not hanged. However a Panchayat would settle these issue much more quickly, and the judgement will be based on experience and intuition and voice of the people and not on bookish knowledge of law.
Culturing of the mind: The human being is more than an individual who contribute to the state by voting just once in 5 years. However, there is much more issues which need to be considered while running a nation/society. Understanding social life is a very important stage in the evolution of the human personality. For this to be built the idea of commune living is essential as it involves being one with other villagers, celebrating festivals together etc. The individual life style in the west does not address these issues, therefore the life is full of dissatisfaction (please look at divorce rates), with uncultured life - eg. happiness can be obtained by spending night-outs at a bar.
Diversity in culture and traditions: India is a land of diversity, this is because each caste had its own decentralized lifestyle and culture. The innumerable number of languages in India is an attestation to this. Micro minorities like Parsis could continue their traditions in India for centuries because each caste was given its own private space to live and continue its traditions.
Efficiency and Social Security: Individualism results in more requirement again from a centralized for social security and greater per capita consumption, which has resulted in world-wide plundering of natural resources. Also till today no social security was required in India, this was because of the family system that we have based on commune living. Also there is no fear of job loss, as the profession you do is always used by the village unlike the corporate culture, which is highly dependent on performance of the company in the market. People do not work for money, or shift jobs for money as in the corporates but people work for with for continuing their traditions, many times with pride.

由于该体制是分散的，官僚主义和腐败将会大量减少。负责管理的工作也更多的交给了人民，这样人们就会变得更负责任，更有知识。例如，对发生在德里的强奸案进行处罚就变的很容易，无论是无期徒刑还是死刑。然而，由于政府沿袭了它从英国继承下来的官僚主义传统，它浪费了大量时间制作了一份上千页的表格，将被告和证人送上法庭，等等。时至今日，阿夫扎尔古鲁仍未被绞死。然而，原来的地方长老机构将会更迅速地解决这些问题，判决需要基于经验、直觉和人民的声音，而不是基于书本知识的法律。

思想的培养:不仅仅需要人们在5年里投一次票，为国家做出贡献。还需要在管理一个国家/社会时，将许多问题需要考虑在内。了解社会生活是人类人格发展的一个非常重要的阶段。为此建立公社生活是至关重要的,因为它涉及到一个与其他村民一起庆祝节日的生活方式等等，而西方解决不了这些问题,因此他们的人生充满了不满(请看离婚率),虚度的生活——如，在酒吧里过夜才能获得幸福。

文化和传统的多样性:印度是一个多元化的国家，这是因为每个种姓都有自己分散的生活方式和文化。印度有数不清的语言就是证明。几个世纪以来，像帕斯这样的微型少数民族可以延续他们在印度的传统，因为每个种姓都有自己的私人空间来生活，来延续他们的传统。

效率和社会保障:个人主义、社会保障的集中化和人均消费的增加导致了更多的需求，这导致了全球对自然资源的掠夺。直到今天，印度还没有社会保障，这是因为我们的家庭制度是基于公社生活的。另外，你也用不害怕失去工作，因为你所从事的职业与企业不同，而企业高度依赖于公司在市场上的表现。这里，人们不为钱而工作，也不像公司里的人那样换工作，但人们为了延续他们的传统而工作，很多时候人们都是骄傲的。

Is it Beneficial?
1. Yes, if you are an aware 'privileged' citizen and know about the privileges you can draw from the reservation system - such as admission in university, jobs in public sector, and financial benefits through other schemes.
2. If you're not in the 'privileged' category, you just halve your odds of getting into IITs, NITs and IIMs. (approximately 50% seats are out of your reach if, no matter whether you're rich or not-so-rich)
3. If you're in the 'privileged' category, and you're unaware of the schemes, you'll just let your richer 'privileged' counterparts exploit the reservation system. (which, sadly, is the case in India)
4. If you're a politician, you can divide people into smaller packets. Handling vote-bank packets becomes easy.
5. If you're a common man, and you enjoy gossiping, you can talk about how your caste is 'better' than other castes. This shit happens even when we've reached Mars.
Why is it still followed?
1. No political party has the balls to get rid of the reservation system. The people drawing privileges would not want to let go easy education, easy job, easy promotions.
2. There are many people who still feel they belong to the 'upper' caste and people from 'lower' castes are sub-humans (and they treat them likewise). These people are influential in society and do not want to change the lives of other people.
The solution is to empower people right from the beginning to compete with others at a later stage, not to gift them (especially the rich ones) everything perennially simply because they have a particular surname.

它是有益的吗?
1，是的，如果你是一个有特权的公民的话。你可以从各种预约系统获得的特权——比如大学入学、公共部门的工作、以及通过其他政策获得经济利益。
2，如果你不属于“特权阶层”，把的机会被减半。(不管你是富裕还是不富裕，大约有50%的目标是你无法达成的。)

3，如果你属于“特权阶层”，但你不知道这些政策，你就会让更富有的“特权”对手利用预约系统。(可悲的是，这就是印度的情况)
4，如果你是一个政治家，你可以把人分成更小的份。这样更有利于选票库的包办。（译者加：选票库：固定投给某人的选举集团）

5。如果你是一个普通人，你喜欢八卦，那么你可以谈论你的种姓比其他种姓更“好”。甚至当我们到达火星时，我们也会对八卦乐此不疲。

为什么它仍然要遵循?
1。任何政党都不可能废除这种历史遗留制度。有特权的人不会去废除。他们想保持轻松的教育、轻松的工作、轻松的晋升通道。
2。许多人仍然觉得自己属于“高级”种姓，而“低级”种姓的人则是低人一等的(他们也同样如此对待他们)。这些人在社会上很有影响力，他们不想改变下等人的生活。
解决办法是，让人们一开始就可以与他人竞争，而不是赋予他们(尤其是富人)所有东西，仅仅是因为他们有一个特定的姓氏。

Here are some advantages in contemporary society (which depend on which caste you belong to).
SC/ST: Eligible for reservation in colleges, IIT's, government jobs, discounts in fee for exam application, college fee's, age relaxation. In some cases free stay in govt hostels.
BC: a subset of benefits above, and more recently introduced 27% reservation in higher studies.
OC (Reddy, Choudhary): karnataka governments are literally run by these castes, so it is more easy to get into contracting, real estate and lobbying business if you belong to these castes .
OC (Vysya): All major pilgrimage across india (kasi, tirupati etc.,) have vysya satras (boarding, lodging) which provide cheap accomodation and free food to vysyas.
OC (marwadi's): Marwadi's help each other in setting up businesses by providing moral support and micro financing at very low interest rates. If you are marwadi its easy to setup business.
OC (brahmin): Generally, gets more respect in social circles because of various mandatory rituals/devotion to god, knowledge of Purana etc., If the brahmin is known to eat meat and drink liqour, i seriously doubt he will get the same level of respect.
Other general benefits:
1. Easy to bond and get moral support with same caste people especially when moved to new town/place/office/different state etc., because the food habits, language, preferences, spending patterns match a lot. (this is also reason why you observe groups in office are predominantly region/caste based).
2. There are many registered societies which run hostels for students of their caste at cheap prices. These are very useful esp if the students belong to poor /lower middle class and fall in OC (upper caste) category, who will not get any sort of financial support from government. If the society is well off financially, they will also give scholarships.
3. If some sort of discrimination or attack happens on a person, there is always some society to defend him. Remember NHRC is a joke in India.
One of my friend proposes that caste system as Genetic segregation,
as in people who do same type of work and eat same type of food will belong to same genetic pool. So, it is always recommended to get married in the same caste for best genetic mix for children. And it takes 7 generations to alter this genetic setup. Say, A vysya who is a farmer, if start doing what a Brahmin is supposed to do, and if his children continues the same, for seven generations, They can technically be placed in the same genetic pool as Brahmins.

这里当然会有一些社会优势(这取决于你属于哪个种姓)。
贱民/原始部族:仍有资格申请大学，印度理工学院，政府工作，考试申请费、大学学费折扣，年龄放宽。在某些情况下，可以免费住在政府招待所。
其它低种姓:包含上述的好处，在高等教育中增加了27％的名额。

种姓（雷迪，乔杜里）:卡纳塔克邦政府实际上是由这些种姓管理的，因此，如果你属于这些种姓，就更容易进入承包、房地产和游说行业。
种姓（吠舍）：所有向印度（卡西、提鲁帕蒂地）朝圣的，可以被提供廉价的住宿和免费的食物。
种姓(马瓦迪):通过以极低的利率提供贷款和小额融资来帮助彼此建立业务。如果你是马瓦迪，你很容易建立相关业务。

种姓(婆罗门):一般来说，在这个圈子里，会有各种各样的宗教仪式、需要对神的虔诚、对印度史诗的了解等，在社会圈子里可以得到更多的尊重，但如果婆罗门以吃肉和饮酒而闻名，我很怀疑他是否会得到同样的尊重。

其他的一些好处:
1，和同一种姓容易获得融资或者贷款，尤其是当你搬到新的地方的时候,因为你们饮食习惯,语言,偏好,消费模式很多相近。(这也是为什么你看到很多办公室区域主要是基于等级划分的)。
2，有许多注册的社团，他们以低廉的价格为他们种姓的学生开办宿舍。如果有学生属于穷人/中产阶级，并且属于高种姓，他们将不会得到政府的任何财政支持，这时社团的帮助会显的非常有用的。当然如果社会经济状况良好，政府也会提供奖学金。

3，如果某种歧视或攻击发生在某个人身上，总会有一些同种姓得为他辩护。而靠印度全国人权委员会就是个笑话。

我的一个朋友说种姓制度就好像基因隔离，
就像那些从事同一种工作的，吃同一种食物的人属于同一个基因库。因此，人们总是建议在同一个种姓中结婚，为孩子们提供最好的基因。那么这需要7代人来改变这种基因结构。比方说，一个农夫，如果他开始做一个婆罗门做的事情，他的孩子们继续这样做，七代人，他们就可以在理论上被安置在和婆罗门一样的基因库中了。

Disclaimer: By no means, I support the discrimination based on caste system.
Caste system has it's demerits as certain sections of societies seems to have more say in making decisions ; Castes with less specialized skills might tend to have less income and less say in making decisions that affect their lives. Even if the caste system is removed from the society, the same discrimination exists in every society, more or less. The people with more specialized and soft skills will have more income compared to people who are engaged in blue collar jobs. Humans like to classify or organize themselves into groups; it is one of our survival techniques.
From evolutionary and human survival perspective, it would be interesting to see the evolutionary changes called 'human' speciation. Take an example of speciation in flies. Speciation can be introduced by introducing changes in diet. For example, the fruit flies evolve into two different species after several generations. One of them has been fed on starch, and another has been fed on maltose.
It is important to have diversity in genetic makeup if the species or subspecies want to survive in long run. A few civilizations have been wiped out because they didn't have genome diversity and have succumbed to the introduction to new diseases. (Read: Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Indians have the highest level of genome diversity, where major kind of haplogroups can be found spread across the indian subcontinent.
w.r.t. recent outbreak of various viruses, Indian population is affected but not to a larger extent because of genome diversity that acts as the barrier in the transmission of a virus from one host to another.Indians will have evolved into many different species if there has been no external influence from time to time. Even though, it played a minor role, external influences and immigration into Indian subcontinent increased the genetic diversity.
It is by no coincidence that India is 1.2 billion nation.

免责声明:我绝对不支持源自种姓制度的歧视。
种姓制度。有它的缺点：社会中的某些部分似乎有着更大的决定权;专业技能较低的种姓，往往收入比较少，在生活中能作的决策少，发言权也很少。但即使种姓制度被从社会中被移除，同样的歧视也会存在于每一个社会，只是或多或少的问题。与蓝领工人相比，拥有更专业或软件技能的人将会有更多的收入。人类本来就喜欢，将自己分类然后组织成群体;这是我们的生存技巧。

从进化和人类生存的角度来看，我们很有趣地发现进化导致了人类物种的形成。以苍蝇为例，物种的形成可以通过饮食的改变。例如，果蝇，其中一种是用淀粉喂养，另外一种是用麦芽糖喂养，在几代之后可以进化成两个不同的物种。

如果物种或亚种想要长期存活，那么在基因组成上有多样性是很重要的。一些文明已经被消灭，是因为它们没有基因的多样性，导致屈服于外来的新疾病。(请阅读:美洲土著民族的基因历史)
印度人拥有世界最高的基因组多样性，在这片印度次大陆上可以发现所有主要的染色体单倍群。

最近各种病毒的爆发，印度的人口只会受到些许影响，但在很大程度上是因为基因组的多样性，导致了病毒从一个宿主传播到另一个宿主中间产生了障碍。如果没有外来的影响，印度人将进化成许多不同的人种。尽管如此，外部影响和移民进入印度扮演了一个次要的角色，它也增加了基因的多样性。

印度有12亿人口，绝非巧合。