Religion And The Cast System
By Kamala Sarup
I was brought up in a traditional family in a remote village located in the Western part of Nepal. Most of the people
living in that village practice the Hindu faith. Also, the cast system forms the basic foundation of Nepal's social
structure. While I studied I wrote articles about religious rights issues. I became confused about the results of my
religious and social upbringing. Then, a serious occurrence in my family changed my thinking about my religion and the
cast system.
Then, one of my sister fell in love and married a man with different religious and different caste. From that day my
parents did not allowed her to come to their house. I felt very confused by these events. After this incidents no one
there would talk to her when she visited my village. They even did not allowed my sister to celebrate our biggest
festival. Everywhere she was criticised because the villagers assumed she abandoned Hinduism.
One day, I gave a book and pictures to the villagers about culture and religion and I discussed these subjects
extensively. Villagers learned about the importance of religion and culture and how to deal with conflicts that occurred
because of them. I have teach many children in the school how to reconcile them to reduce conflicts. Slowly, my
villagers began to realize and they allowed my sister to enter the village. I am still getting many responses to it.
It is true, Nepali are overjoy to receive religious harmony which they love immeasurably. Meanwhile, with religious
permission Nepali people responding to the world with tolerance. Nepali please to see that the religious relationships
are very close. Such relationships are rare, so I hope that Nepal cherish our fortuitous inheritance.
Nepali are fortunate to have such a lovely and admirable religious relationship between the people. it is true, religion
has very much outer beauty and very much inner beauty. we can relate very well to the religion values because we brought
up with similar ones. We can surely be proud of the values. Some time my friends have a question about on Hinduisms.
They said that Hindus are supposed to be born Hindus, but then they said that one can become Hindus too. Does that mean
that there two kinds of Hindus, those who are born into it and those who adopt it? If so, does that mean that the Hindus
distinguish between the two kinds?
But reality is Nepali become happy when they can practice their religion. One of the more respectful aspects about Nepal
is the religious beliefs. This is perhaps true. Why did this occur? The simple reason that some religions have either
been perceived.
Can religion advocate attitudes and ways of living? Of course, that is what religions do.
Those who advocate sudden or violent change religion usually have some sort of agenda. If they do so, they should be
prepared for the consequences because traditional religion probably has more effect these days on many ordinary people's
lives for love and tolerance. The most effective religious groups inside Nepal have been those who have quietly gone
about their religious activities without interfering in outsiders matters. Some of these date back hundreds of years.
However, if one believes in trusting the religion it is easy to beat the hate and violence.
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Journalist Kamala Sarup (M.A.in Journalism) is an editor of peacejournalism.com. Kamala Sarup is specialising in
in-depth reporting and writing on Peace Resolutions, Anti war, Women, Terrorism, Democracy, Development, Politics and
HIV/AIDS. She wrote and published many articles, books and research papers.Some of her publications are: Women's
Empowerment(Booklet). Prevention of trafficking in women for prostitution through media, (Book) Efforts to Prevent
Trafficking in Women & Girls - A Pre-Study for Media Activism. Her interests include international conflict resolution, cross-cultural
communication, philosophy, feminism, political, socio-economic and literature. Kamala Sarup has been nominated as
Universal Peace Ambassador [2006] in the framework of the Universal Peace Ambassadors Circle, Geneva Switzerland.