CagotThe Cagots (ka.ɡo) were a persecuted minority found in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Aragón, Gascony and Brittany. Evidence of the group exists as far back as 1000 CE. The origins of both the term Cagots (and Agotes, Capots, Caqueux, etc.) and the Cagots themselves are uncertain. It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths defeated by Clovis I at the Battle of Vouillé, and that the name Cagot derives from caas ("dog") and the Old Occitan for Goth gòt around the 6th century.
Caste system in IndiaThe caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic instance of social classification based on castes. It has its origins in ancient India, and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and modern India, especially the Mughal Empire and the British Raj. It is today the basis of affirmative action programmes in India as enforced through its constitution. The caste system consists of two different concepts, varna and jati, which may be regarded as different levels of analysis of this system.
UntouchabilityUntouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging to certain social groups. Although comparable forms of discrimination are found all over the world, untouchability involving the caste system is largely unique to South Asia. The term is most commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities in the Indian subcontinent who were considered "polluting".
Education in IndiaEducation in India is primarily managed by the state-run public education system, which falls under the command of the government at three levels: central, state and local. Under various articles of the Indian Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. The approximate ratio of the total number of public schools to private schools in India is 10:3.
AdivasiThe Adivasi refers to heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term is also used for ethnic minorities, such as Chakmas of Bangladesh, Bhumiputara Khasas of Nepal, and Vedda of Sri Lanka. The Constitution of India does not use the word Adivasi, instead referring to Scheduled Tribes and Janjati.
MayawatiKumari Mayawati (born Kumari Mayawati Das; 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician who served as the 18th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1995 to 1995, 1997 to 1997, 2002 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2012. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social change for Bahujans, more commonly known as Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as well as religious minorities since 2003. She had also served as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from 2012 to 2017 from Uttar Pradesh.
Arya SamajArya Samaj (आर्य समाज, ) is considered a monotheistic Indian Hindu reform movement that promotes values and practices based on the belief in the infallible authority of the Vedas. The samaj was founded by the sannyasi (ascetic) Dayanand Saraswati in the 1870s. Arya Samaj was the first Hindu organization to introduce proselytization in Hinduism. The organization has also worked towards the growth of civil rights movement in India since 1800s.
British RajThe British Raj (rɑːdʒ ; from Hindi , 'kingdom', 'realm', 'state', or 'empire') was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; it is also called Crown rule in India, or Direct rule in India, and lasted from 1858 to 1947. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India from the East India Company in the form of the new British Raj through the Government of India Act 1858.
Narendra ModiNarendra Damodardas Modi (ˈnəɾendɾə dɑmodəɾˈdɑs ˈmodiː; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the 14th Prime Minister of India since May 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister from outside the Indian National Congress.
Dalit Buddhist movementThe Neo Buddhist movement (also known as the Buddhist movement For Dalits, Ambedkarite Buddhist movement or Modern Buddhist movement) is a religious as well as a socio-political movement among Dalits in India which was started by B. R. Ambedkar. It re-interpreted Buddhism and created a new school of Buddhism called Navayana. The movement has sought to be a socially and politically engaged form of Buddhism. The movement was launched in 1956 by Ambedkar when nearly half a million Dalits – formerly untouchables – joined him and converted to Navayana Buddhism.