Caste System in Nepal

Nepalese are known by castes amongst themselves essentially for their identity.
It affects their family life,

food, dress, occupations and culture. Basically, it determines their way of life. On the whole, caste system
has an important role in social stratification in Nepal. There are many castes in Nepal amongst various
communities mainly in the hills, valleys and the plains.
The caste system is divided into four folds which are Brahman (priests and scholars), Kshatriya (warriors),
Vaisya (merchants and traders), and Sudra (laborers). In this system, the membership is both hereditary
and permanent. Inter-caste marriage is almost impossible as it carries a social disgrace, especially when it
takes place between two castes at the extreme ends of the society. Furthermore, caste determines an
individual's behavior, obligations, and expectations. It also determines the limit access to land, position of
political power, and command of human labor. Violating these rules is liable to certain punishment like
social boycott.
The caste of an individual basically determines his ritual status, purity, and pollution. This is the most
mysterious facet of the caste system. The issue of purity and being impure exists not only between higher
and lower castes but also within one’s caste community. A person of higher caste is declared temporarily
impure if his relative/family is dead, if she is going through menstrual period or if she has given birth to a
child. The time period of one being declared temporarily impure is between a week and one year. If declared
impure, such people are kept in a separate place in the house and generally not touched. Likewise, drinking
water and food is declared impure if it has been consumed by another person. Impure food is thrown away
and not consumed. Likewise, people belonging to a lower caste are declared impure for higher caste people
for a lifetime. They are discriminated and the higher caste people need purification or to be sprinkled by holy
water if touched by them.
Likewise, Pollution means that the lower caste is considered polluted and thus not allowed to touch or stay
close to higher caste people. They are also deprived of entering temples, funeral places, restaurants, shop
and other public places. They are also not allowed to utilize public drinking water taps and wells. They are
also barred from entering the homes of higher castes.
The caste system in Nepal was earlier incorporated in the National law in order to incorporate people of
different origin and bring them under an umbrella. Each caste has its set of family names given to the
members of its community according to their professions. The Brahmin and Kshatriya have the highest
status in social hierarchy and so they had access to fertile lands, power and authority. The Vaisyas come
second and they are the ones who do business and gain wealth. The Sudras are the last amongst all and
are called the impure, polluted and untouchables.
With the advent of democracy in 1950, social discriminations started breaking down especially in the major
cities. Caste based discrimination in the public places and government service especially in the cities is
almost extinct, but it still exists in the rural villages. However, with the development of tourism as one of the
major industry, the people in the rural villages have stopped treating the tourists as
untouchables. Moreover, according to the new constitution of Nepal, any discrimination based on castes,
gender or religion and especially the practice of untouchability has been made punishable. It is one of the
cruelest features of the caste system.
The division of society into caste system might have been the result of higher caste unwilling to work on
lower jobs and enforcing weaker, poor, war prisoners and slaves to do this profession. But today due to
lack of work to sustain one’s life, people regardless of their caste work in every sector. On the other hand,
people of lower sections have slowly risen to the higher position with possibility for their advancement or
economic independence, with dignity of their own. Their professions have undergone expansion with the
changing situation.
So, the caste system is slowly being abandoned because it is difficult to practice in the modern society due
to lack of time and development in educational, legal and social awareness. However, it dominated social
reality in ancient Nepal and was the social compulsion of that time. It was once a convenient mean to
integrate a multicultural society into one complex system. Nepal is surely a common garden for its entire
people.

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Nepalese are known by castes amongst themselves essentially for their identity.

It affects their family life,

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