印度为何至今还存在种姓制度（CASTE)?

Why does the caste system persist in India? By Balaji Viswanathan. Some of the key issues: 以下是一些关键问题: 01 Lack of pace in urbanisation:Urban India has reduced impact of caste, not because the people are good, but because they don't have easy ways to use caste in daily life. Our apartments afford privacy and anonymity and you are less likely to know the caste of your neighbor. In villages everyone knows everyone else and it is hard to escape centuries of stereotypes. While urban people too see castes while marriage, there are more chances of intermingling and more chances of intercaste marriages. 城市化进程不足：在印度，种姓制度对于城市的影响已经被削弱了。不是因为城里人素质高，而是因为他们在日常生活中很难用到种姓。在城市，我们的公寓可以提供一个良好的隐私环境，每个人都是匿名的，不太可能知道邻居的种姓。而在农村，大家都互相认识，很难摆脱数百年来的成见。虽然城里结婚的时候还是会看重种姓，但是相较于农村，跨种姓结婚的可能性更大。 Urbanites are also too busy to bother about raw discrimination (other forms of discrimination may continue) and there is a strong media oversight (you are less likely to see someone paraded naked for violating a “caste law”). Across the world it is urbanisationthat broke many of the feudal chains. Ambedkar talks a lot about the need for urbanisation. India's urbanisation is among the lowest. We don't build new cities fast enough to absorb a billion people. 而且，城里的人太忙了，他们没有时间去搞原生歧视（其他形式的歧视可能还存在）。印度媒体的监管力度也很强，你几乎看不到谁因为违反“种姓法”被罚裸体示众。在世界各地，正是城市化的存在打破了许多封建桎梏。安贝德卡尔讲过许多次城市化的必要性。然而，印度的城市化率处于世界最低水平，因为我们没能够迅速建造新城市以便容纳这10亿人口。 When people have jobs and ambitions, they would have very little energy to bother about who marries whom or what dress someone wears. Imagine you were in an IT company— would you have energy at the end of the day to bother about all the silly things of other people? 当人们忙于工作，心怀抱负时，几乎就没有精力去操心谁跟谁结婚了，或者谁穿什么衣服了。想象一下，假如你在一家IT公司工作，累死累活了一天，你真的还有精力去过问别人乱七八糟的事情吗？ 02 Lack of economic mobility: Across the developed world you could see various ways in which people could move up and outside of lower class. Universal education, industrialisation and modernisation provided opportunities for their oppressed classes to come outand get a footing. 经济缺乏流动性：在发达国家，人们可以通过各种方式脱离所在阶层，向更高的阶层流动。对于被压迫的阶层来说，教育普及、工业化以及现代化的发展给他们提供了出人头地、在社会立足的机会。 In India, our chances of mobility is limited. 在印度，我们阶级流动的机会很有限。 Other than a few thousands getting into IIT,IIM,UPSC etc there are not a lot of chances for poor boys and girls to make a living in the modern world leaving their past. Things are improving, but the pace has to be high and impact has to be broad. We need to figure out ways to move millions in parallel up the chain. 除了那几千个考入印度理工学院和印度管理学院的学生以及通过印度公务员考试的人之外，在当今社会，对于穷孩子来说，通过努力工作就可以完全摆脱原生阶层的机会并不多。尽管一切都在好转，但仍然需要加快速度，扩大影响。我们需要找到方法，带领成千上万的人更上一个层次。 When people have mobility there will be lesser discrimination. 当人们可以自由流动时，歧视就会越来越少。 03 Religious war: Caste system is endemic to India not specific Hinduism (Hindus in Bali don’t have a strict caste system while other religions of India too participate in caste discrimination). In fact, when Rig Veda (oldestof Hindu texts) first talk of varnas, they don’t even bother to define it (they assume implicitly that everyone reading would know what they are, meaning things have existed for a long time prior). However, many anticaste activists attack Hinduism than trying to reform the system. This is one of the few areas I disagree strongly with Dr. Ambedkar. You cannot assume any faith say Hinduism/”Brahminism”would die — especially ones that have survived 1000s of years and give a range of positives to the followers. 宗教战争：种姓制度为印度特有，而非印度教特有。（巴厘岛的印度教徒不推崇严格的种姓制度，而印度其他宗教群体中却存在种姓歧视）。事实上，当《梨俱吠陀》（最古老的印度语文本）首次提到“瓦尔纳”时，作者们甚至懒得给它下定义，他们含蓄地假定每个读者都知道这一术语的含义，这意味着种姓在这之前已经存在了很长时间。然而，许多反对种姓制度的活动家攻击印度教，并试图改变这个制度。安贝德卡尔主张改革种姓制度，这是为数不多的几个我与他意见不一的地方。任何信仰，包括印度教或“婆罗门主义”，都不会轻易消失，尤其它已经存活了数千年，为它的追随者创造许多了正能量。 背景补充: 瓦尔纳是印度教经典中解释种姓制度的概念，在《梨俱吠陀》中，这个术语可以意味着：“人的种类、部落、等级、行业”。安贝德卡尔：印度的贱民领袖，主张重振佛教

That means the only way the caste can be fought is working with Hinduism & other Indian religions and not against it. As various third parties utilise the caste angle to expand their base, the fear of losing religion gives the neocons in Hinduism with renewed energy. The liberals and reformers within Hinduism who have the best chance to weaken the caste system are caught between a rock and hard place — between people outside the faith trying to attack the whole faith and people inside the faith who refuse to change at all. 也就是说，唯一与种姓制度作斗争的方式是与印度教或其他印度宗教合作，而不是直接对抗制度。各种第三方组织利用种姓制度在不断扩大规模的同时，对失去宗教的恐惧重新激活了印度教内的新保守主义者。一边是非印度教徒在试图攻击整个信仰体系，另一边是印度教徒拒绝做出任何改变。面对这些，印度教中最有可能削弱种姓制度的的自由派和改革派陷入两难境地。 We need the modern equivalents of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vidyasagar, Gandhi, Rajaji, Vivekananda to clean the systems from within. Such reformers have been weakened due to the factors stated above. Attacks from outside over the past few decades have not yielded any results. 我们需要拉姆、维迪阿萨格、甘地、拉贾吉、维韦卡南达这样的人从内部开始清除种姓制度。但是迫于上述因素这些改革者的权力已经被削弱了。过去几十年里，来自外部的攻击还未产生任何效果。 Finally, people are unlikely to ever give up castes. Even in the west, you can see the various clan names & occupations still persisting as surnames. However, a guy named Carpenter or Smith is not going to be discriminated against in the normal course of things. That is what we should strive for — castes would not die, but caste based discrimination should. 最后，人们不太可能放弃种姓。即使在西方，人们的姓氏中仍旧可以看到各种宗族名字和职业名称存在于人们的姓氏中。事实上在正常生活中，叫Carpenter（意为木匠）或Smith（意为铁匠）的人不会受到歧视。这才是我们应该为之努力的目标。种姓制度不会消亡，但基于歧视的种姓制度应该消失。 更多文章请关注公众号“行走在Quora", 每日分享一篇经典Quora文。