yup mean the same !
see , i am not getting into the finer details for that i'll have to google a lot of facts and i am really lazy for that . hope you dont mind that .
the society is divided into diferent sections and those sections are further subdivided into another set . its sort of never ending groupings .
i believe , you have never had been to pakistan in recent times otherwise you would have understood the caste system in a better way cos as far as i know muslims have this caste system too .
they have it here and they have it in pak . may be its not as pronounced as the hindus .
:::does it really matter in this day and age?
:::
coming back to your question , no it doesn't but dealing with life , you can't ignore certain facts and in here , this is something that you can't ignore .
and let me tell you an interesting fact , india's growth as a tech savvy country especially in the field of computer software and to an extent medicine ( mediacl tourism is one of the most growing industry in here with a growth rate of around 35% ) has its roots in the caste system .
indian economy got libralised in 90's that was also the same time when mandal commission ( caste based quotas , its differnt from affirmative action practised in west ) recommenedtations were accepted by the parliament initiated by the then prime minister (incidentally , he himself comes from a high caste royal family ) in a bid to woo the lower caste votes ( they are very very crucial , no one can win without them , remember they are majority in the society ) he was fighting rajiv gandhi at that time .
once the recommendations were accepted paving the way for quotas for lower castes in all the important institutions thus excluding upper caste students .
now , where could the go with all the education that they had , the new opening software industry with immense potential was the answer . so , inlife everything has a good or bad affect to it . proved!
mandal commision ( even muslims get quota in certain sections , a muslim has seven chances to appear in indian adm . services while someone like me has just four . if this country has stabilised as a democracy there are certain reasons , which ofcourse i am proud of. that is also the reason why i always object when sg would say that we illtreated our minorities . i dont deny the shame of gujrat carnage , though .) apart from shah bano case ( inwhich the rajiv gandhi govt. rejected the supreme court judgemnt by a special proposal in parliamnet which made it mandatory for her husnad to help her fianancially , she was fifty when divorced . rajiv gandhi cowed down mainly cos certain influential mullhas said it was against the tenants of islam ( imagine their slefishnes ) are cited as two of the main reasons for the rise of hindu extremist party . all this culminated in the demolition of babri masjid , its all politics .
that again culminated in bombay blasts followed by massive riots .
so the main culprit , politics and yeah caste too
oh, i just feel i might have gopt confused in between cos i started it from something and ended on something else .
so in case you feel like asking anything , do let me know . there are somany dimensions , infact its an unending conversation .