Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
Around the world in 2000,
via Asia and Madagascar.
Khajuraho (India )
Bec2004-09-18 17:45:16
Displayed times (last time: )
Satna
Overnight trains had served me fairly well so far in India but there was no railway service to Khajuraho so I had to stop in Satna to board a bus at this terminal for the last 80 kms.
Countryside
The white washed front wall of this village house seen from the bus from Satna to Khajuraho is a sign of wealth and privilege.
As mentioned earlier, the caste system still applies fully in rural villages. Members of one caste may not marry outside their caste. They are also forbidden to eat at the same table as members of an inferior caste under penalty of suffering a defilement that calls for elaborate purification rituals. Each one of the several hundred castes has its own caste rules decreed by the caste council who also has the authority to impose sanctions, that range from fines to exclusion, to offenders.
It is not rare, even today in 2000, to read in the newspaper reports of the murder of a young couple by villagers angered by cross-caste bonding.
The village government is assured by a "panchayat" of five elders generally chosen amongst the higher castes of each village while caste councils run the internal affairs of each caste. Seventy percent of villagers are still illiterate and most work the land of others. Their ignorance, their belief in the inescapable laws of karma and their economic dependency make it possible to maintain the political power at the village level in the hands of the higher caste residents who also own most of the land and control most of the trade around the village.
At the State and Central levels, the illiterate voter is subjected to intense pressure from both the village panchayat and from his caste council which is in turn subjected to pressure from the various parties for their "vote blocks". In any case, few illiterate villagers have access to the information they could need to cast an enlightened vote if they understood the issues. These
...
See photographs from:
India Gallery
