As for the common features I would name intolerance as the first of them. Intolerance of the people toward other people and feeling of superiority where some believe that some definite group of people can be regarded as chosen and superior by birth but not by some achievements and deeds. These two characteristics exist both in the caste and racism discrimination. Both caste and race point on the big abyss in the relations between the people and their roots can be traced deeply in the history of the countries. In the caste system there are people who stand on the bottom of the social ladder ( in India this class makes the majority of population) and who are mistreated. And the demand of the better treatment to this group seems quite natural and understandable. But at the same time they have the position, though the lowest, in the society and are not neglected by it. The situation with the racism differs here. People of the other races such as for example American Indians were expelled from the parts of the South; there were demands perceived warmly in the society to make the African Americans move to Africa. This means that these groups of people were neglected completely by the society.

The difference lies also in the legitimacy of discrimination in two societies. In India the castes are legalized social stratification and historically got the religious approvement and even more – they were created by Brahman – superior spirit and the highest power of the Universe. And, in contrast, racism was never justified by the religion of any confession and the racial discrimination and slavery were considered sinful by almost all the religions of the world. This way people who stand for caste division in India can feel themselves “chosen” and respectful to keep the order meant by God and customs of the society which can never happen in the situation with racial discrimination.

The system of Indian castes is closed and there are almost no possible ways to change it. The child gets there by birth (but what is important when the Varnas system started its existence the varna wasn’t defined by birth) and must stay there despite anything and neither social deeds no financial or religion gains can let the person get to another caste. Same happens with the racial discrimination. If person is treated differently or mistreated because of the skin color or the shape of the eyes given by nature it can not be changed by this person. Only the attitude of others can be changed and that doesn’t depend on a person. And though racism and caste discrimination originate from different sources ( in India the origin was a religious division of Hindu and in the US colonial wars and invasions were the first reasons) now it stands for the same notion – discrimination in social, political, cultural life where people of “lower” quality are limited in their rights, possibilities for growth and self-realization. The influenced of the cast was widespread on the people of all religious confessions of India and restricts to the followers of different religions. Both racism and castes are social event now. With the flow of time the caste system loses more and more its religious background and becomes alike in this point with the race discrimination.

Both racial discrimination and caste division deny the ideas of equality of all the people in the world and neglect the ideas of equal rights and possibilities for everyone. Both make the normal functioning of the democratic society impossible. This way prejudices and stereotypes influence the structure of the state and define its policy. And one more thing that make racism and castes similar is how resistant can be such prejudice in the minds of people and how hard they can be to get rid of. It’s difficult to wait for the changes in the attitude to the problem if they come from outside but are not assimilated by the minds of people. It’s not enough to give compensations to the discriminated layers of society. The steps directed to stop this discrimination should be done.