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THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CULTURE
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SOCIAL BACKGROUND
It is a peculiarity of Hindu social theory and practice that the
whole of human life is regarded as a duty. Every human being has a series of subsidiary duties to perform as part of the great duty of living. An individual is supposed to be born with duties he owes to God, to ancestors, and to fellow human beings. The duties begin with birth and end with death. Even dying is a duty. This conception of life has led to specified injunctions being laid down for human beings in various stages and stations in life, which are embodied in what is succintly known as Varnasrama-dharma. There is no escape from the duties of a varna and an asrama. This ancient social ordering of life later on deteriorated into the rigid caste system based wholly on birth. The evils of
this system soon manifested themselves and went on increasing. In an era of scientific advance, analytical thinking and the supremacy of machinery, the old social beliefs and dogmas ceased to receive the same credence as before and many of the old religious ceremonies tended to disappear. In particular many of the ritualistic details came to be felt as mere excrescences and therefore disregarded. For instance the sacred thread or upanayana ceremony has now been shorn of many of its elaborations.
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