Deadly Dharma -- Caste-Related Homicide in Illinois

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The ancient concept of dharma may have driven an Indian immigrant to homicide in Oak Forest, Illinois. According to an Associated Press report [1], prosecutors said Subhash Chander set fire to an apartment, killing his pregnant daughter, son-in-law, and three year-old nephew for marrying beneath her station within the ancient Hindu caste system.

Dharma, the principle underlying the caste system, had been well established in India by the beginning of the Christian Era. Lucille Shulberg [2] wrote that dharma entailed the universe as "a harmonious whole only when each of its three component parts -- nature, the gods and men -- function correctly, fulfilling its dharma, or set of prescribed duties."

People followed their "prescribed duties" from generation to generation. Four castes, or strictly segregated classes, kept up their end of universal harmony:

• BRAHMANS, the top caste, whose members Shulberg said "were like divinities." Their role was to study and teach the holy Vedas and to perform religious sacrifices.

• KSHATRIYA. the class of kings and warriors, who protected the people and studied the Vedas.

• VAISHYAS, the farmers and merchants, who also studied the Vedas.

• SHUDRAS, or serfs, who existed to serve the upper castes. Not only were they forbidden to study the Vedas, religious law prescribed that molten lead be poured into the ears of any serf who might even accidentally overheard the reading of Vedic verses. [2]

"Caste," said the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, "has come to mean a group of persons set apart by economic, social, religious, legal, or political criteria, such as occupation, status, religious denomination, legal privilege, skin color, or some other physical characteristic. Members of a caste tend to associate among themselves and rarely marry outside the caste. Castes are more socially separate from each other than are social classes." [4]

The word "caste" comes from Portuguese "casta" (a race, originally a "pure breed"). The Portuguese who came to India first gave this name to the social classes they encountered. Latin "castus" (chaste, pure) is the root of the Portuguese word. [5]

The AP report said that the Illinois deaths "served as a reminder that the caste system ... still is honored by Indians more than 60 years after it was outlawed" in its country of origin.

Sources Cited:

[1] Published as "Police: Hindu Caste System Led to Blaze" on page 4A of the January 3, 2008 issue of The Beaufort (South Carolina) Gazette.

[2] Schulberg, Lucille (and the Editors of Time-Life Books). Historic India. New York: Time-Life Books, 1968; p. 136.

[3] Ibid, p. 137.

[4] "Caste." New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition, 2002. http://www.bartleby.com/59/17/caste.html, accessed on January 3, 2008.

[5] Skeat, Walter W. A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Capricorn Books, 1968; p.79.