“Fun fact: The Birth of Racism”

The Indus Valley was brimming with culture and sophisticated civilization. It was an evolved society by every definition of the term: with proper urban planning, sophisticated drainage and water management systems, non-residential buildings as well as art. They had even developed a writing system.

And in came the Aryans, who were very unlike the people of the Valley, had no writing. The Harappans (the Indus Valley people) were peaceful people, with weapons designed only for defence. Unlike the patriarchal society of the Aryans, they had a matriarchal take on things. The Aryans came in full swing with their warrior-like demeanour and offensive weapons such as long swords.

The Aryans were originally from the Central Asian Steppes. They were a violent folk, who raised cattle to live. For reasons unknown, they decided to migrate and what they came to find was a fully developed, peaceful civilization. When they invaded the Valley, they asserted along with their power, two other things: their native tongue of Samskrutham (Sanskrit) and the foundation of religious texts called the Vedas.

But there was something else that happened here. The Aryans were lighter-skinned compared to the darker-skinned Harappan inhabitants. When they came in with their Gods and saw this difference, they read into it a bit too much. And what happened there has echoed through the ages and into our lives today.

They made it the way of God and even put in a rigid system to hold it to place. They said society had to be put into different castes - for every soul to be born into and live out its life, for that was determined by their karma. And these classes were grouped by the colour of people’s skin called the four-fold varna system. Varna in Samskrutham literally means colour.

(We are not sure what kind of system of classification, if at all, existed before this time in India, but this is what happened after the Aryan invasion.)

The top layer was the Brahmins: priests and teachers.

Then came the Kshatriyas: Kings, aristocrats & warriors.

After that were the Vaisyas: Traders, merchants, and craftsmen.

The bottom layer was the Sudras: Servants and farm workers.

There was one more, Dalits: whose jobs were things such as cleaning latrines, etc.

The Dalita, who were referred to as the Untouchables, were to be held outside of these four-folds. They were called the Panchama or the fifth varna. And were supposedly permanently unclean. The very word Dalita means broken or scattered. It was said that even if their shadow was to touch you, it was polluting. And the punishments were, and still remain to be harsh in certain regions.