1. Daily Question: How does Hinduism affect the social structure of India? Warm-up Question: - Read the card about which caste you have been placed in. - Go to the section of the room designated for your caste. - Do the task designated for your caste.

2.  Untouchables – sit on the floor and pick up papers on the floor.  Sudras – stand in the back of the room and wait for someone from the Brahmin class to need you to get them something.  Viasya – sit cramped up in the back of the room and fold papers into four.  Kshatryia – sit in the center of the room and watch everyone else to make sure they are following the rules.  Brahmins – sit in the front of the room with plenty of space and write the beliefs/rules of the classroom.

3.  How did it feel to be a member of the caste you were placed in?  How did it feel to not have a choice in your caste?

4.  Imagine you are a Hindu, and that you have lived many lives before this one, and you will live at least four lives in the future.  What caste would you currently be in and why?  What will you do in this life and what caste will you be in the next?  Where will you go after that, and again after that?  At least one page

5.  READ the article as a group  Take turns going around with each person reading a paragraph  We will talk about the article at the end  CIRCLE any words you don’t know and guess their meaning using CONTEXT CLUES  ANSWER the question at the end of the article

6.  My American friends frequently ask me why India’s caste system, a pre-feudalistic division of labor that assigns one’s line of work at birth, has persisted into the 21st century in defiance of every civilized notion of justice and equality. I thought I knew the answer: The need of the privileged upper castes for cheap labor to do their dirty work. But there is an even more tragic explanation that I discovered during a recent visit to New Delhi while talking to Maya, the dalit or untouchable—the lowest of the four castes—who has serviced my family for 35 years. Maya herself clings to her caste because it offers her the best possible life, even in modern India.

7.  Does the caste system still exist in India today?  What does the caste system look like in India today?  What is it like in India as a “Untouchable”?

8.  Review guidelines  Go over the project outline  Go over ‘How to write an introduction’

9. Watch:

10.  Venn Diagram of ALL FOUR religions