monism-the idea that there is only one creative and providential force in the world (Brahman). Hinduism is regarded as a monistic religion, but can be practiced in many ways.

Common Beliefs

• Ahimsa = principle of nonviolence which applies to all living beings

• atma = the “individual” and personal reality; soul

• karma=the law of cause and effect; what the atman does over the course of each of its lifetime is essential to its maturation and eventual graduation from the cycle of samsara

• Dharma = moral path/obligations

• Brahman = Universal soul

• Samsara = reincarnation (the transmigration of the atman (soul))

• Varna = each of the four Hindu castes, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra

• Jati = subgroups within each varna

• Dalits = individuals outside the varna classifications. Sometimes referred to as untouchables, outcaste, or pancama

• Moksha = permanent liberation from cycle of reincarnation

(Hinduism’s Moksha = Buddhism’s Nirvana = salvation)

Causation in AP World History: Modern

There are numerous examples of the application of the Varna system throughout the AP World History: Modern curriculum. Below are a few examples.

1.) casta system in the Americas

• the Portuguese and other Europeans settled in India commonly applied the word to distinguish certain Indian social groups. Attempts were made to apply this concept in Europe (ie. Iberian peninsula with Jews and Muslims), but the significant successful application occurred in the colonies of the Americas.

• By the end of the colonial period in 1821, over one hundred categories of possible variations of mixture existed

2.) British Raj

• the British colonial government made caste organisation a central mechanism of administration

• The British colonial officials used the census-determined jatis to decide:

  • • which group of people were qualified for which jobs in the colonial government, and people of which jatis were to be excluded as unreliable

    • to formulate land tax rates

    • to frequently target some social groups as "criminal" castes and castes prone to "rebellion".

  • Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 - This law declared everyone belonging to certain castes to be born with criminal tendencies

  • British colonial era laws helped create and erect barriers within land-owning and landless castes

  • Indian castes merged with the traditional British class system during the British Raj

3.) Gandhi

• The Communal Award (1932) created a separate electorate for representation to depressed classes (now known as Scheduled classes) guaranteeing representation for religious and ethnic minorities.

  • • Gandhi went on a hunger strike against this provision claiming that such an arrangement would split the Hindu community into two groups.

4.) Constitution of India (1949)

• Article 15 prohibits discrimination based on caste

• Article 17 declared the practice of untouchability to be illegal

  • • 1955, India enacted the Untouchability (Offences) Act (renamed in 1976, as the Protection of Civil Rights Act).

• The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was enacted for the protection of civil rights.

Causation in AP World History: Modern

There are numerous examples of the application of Bhakti movements throughout the AP World History: Modern curriculum. Below are a few examples.

1.) Role of Women

• Mirabai (1498–1547) , a high-caste woman from northern India who abandoned her upper-class family and conventional Hindu practice. Upon her husband’s death, tradition asserts, she declined to burn herself on his funeral pyre (a practice known as sati). She further ofended caste restrictions by taking as her guru (religious teacher) an old untouchable shoemaker. To visit him, she apparently tied her saris together and climbed down the castle walls at night. Then she would wash his aged feet and drink the water from these ablutions. Much of her poetry deals with her yearning for union with Krishna, a Hindu deity she regarded as her husband, lover, and lord.

  • • What I paid was my social body, my town body, my family body, and all my inherited jewels. Mirabai says: The Dark One [Krishna] is my husband now

2.) Sikhism (Punjab region of northern India)

• Its founder, Guru Nanak (1469–1539), had been involved in the bhakti movement but came to believe that “there is no Hindu; there is no Muslim; only God.” His teachings and those of subsequent gurus also generally ignored caste distinctions and untouchability and ended the seclusion of women, while proclaiming the “brotherhood of all mankind” as well as the essential equality of men and women.

3.) Accessibility of Hinduism

• Bhakti practice was more accessible to ordinary people than the elaborate sacrifices of the Brahmins or the philosophical speculations of intellectuals. Through good deeds, simple living, and emotionally fulfilling rituals of devotion, individuals could find salvation without a complex institutional structure, orthodox doctrine, or prescribed meditation practices.

• This form of Hindu expression sometimes pushed against the rigid caste and gender hierarchies of Indian society by inviting all to an adoration of the Divine. Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu as portrayed in the Bhagavad Gita, a famous section of the long Indian epic Mahabharata, had declared that “those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth—women, vaishyas [merchants] and shudras [workers]—can attain the supreme destination.”

4.) Diffusion of Hinduism into Southeast Asia

• By far the most popular Bhakti deities were Vishnu, the protector and preserver of creation who was associated with mercy and goodness, and Shiva, a god representing the Divine in its destructive aspect, but many others also had their followers.

• The Chola (southeast India) dynasty participated in foreign trade throughout Southeast Asia and built temples for Shiva (and also for Vishnu ) and declared Shaivism was the state religion during their rule.

• their cultural influence (hegemony) spanned from all of eastern India, Sri Lanka, and throughout the Malacca Straits.