India

India is the only ancient continuously living culture & society that still exists. It is the only one that has the ability to assimilate everything and still stand alone. India is known by many names - Bharat is one of the ancient names which is still used. The greeks called the land east of the river Sindhu (Indus) as Indica. Hence most europeans know this land as India. Persians called it Hindu and still it is commonly refered as Hindustan or land of Hindus. People who lived east of River Sindhu (Indus) is commonly known as Hindus. The British & christian missionaries used this term to denote the faith or belief system of people of India. Sanatan Dharma or Eternal Way of Life is what is followed in the land of Bharat or India / Hindustan. Today it is commonly known as Hinduism. Varna and Caste are two different things and should not be confused with one another. Most european scholars misunderstood this and many used it to denigrate the faith, belief system and way of life of the Hindus. Varna system is a division of society on the basis of one's ability to do certain duties, tasks etc. There are four Varnas, commonly refered to as Chatur Varna. Brahman(those who can impart education - not just priestly job), Kshatriya(Warriors - those who protect the society from dangers), Vaishya(Agriculturists & Traders - the one who can generate wealth for the society and oneself) and Shudra(those who do Service for a living). One's Varna is not determined by birth, but by the vocation one chooses to be in. Anyone can move from one varna to another based on their ability to carry out those tasks and duties. The ancient Rishis, Sages & Seers who devised this system were geniuses who appreciated the talents of each and every one in the society. They saw great benefit in channelising these individual abilities, talents according to ones liking will benefit the humanity as whole. Caste system is a later development when the priestly class who came to dominate the society when the Kshatriya's or the Warriors became weak and wayward. While following Varna system, people following every Varna had to compulsorily know about Vedas, that means educate themselves irrespective of what Varna one is in currently. when this ceased to be, the one's who had the advantage of superior knowledge took advantage of the situation. Caste in India is known as Jaati. The word caste has its origin from spanish / portuguese word 'Casta'. for more details on Casta, please refer to wikipedia. Jaati has a wider meaning compared to Caste. The english word caste does not bring out the right meaning while stressing on one aspect of it. This basically a social division according to race, creed, lineage etc. The narrow concept of Jaati has taken strong roots in India for quite some time now. May be for the last 500 or 1000 years it has spread its root deep down into the Indian society. Western media generally portrays the wrong side of the caste system of India. Stray incidents of caste conflict as portrayed as large scale conflicts within the society. If that was the case, India would have ceased to exist today. This wrong portrayal is funded actively by the christian missionaries, along with muslims hold a long standing grudge against the Hindus who outrightly refused to accept the Semetic belief systems as superior. It is a hard reality that caste conflicts do happen in India. Many of these are localised between two lower castes or sub-castes. It will be highly inappropriate to blame brahmans for all caste conflicts. brahmans consist a minority in Hinduism and with literacy & education, they have completely lost their control they once had. today most caste conflicts are amongst the once lower castes which occur generally due to political differences. Any specific queries you have, I will try my best to answer it.