Definitions and concepts
''Varna'', ''jāti'' and caste
''Varna''
'' Varna'' literally means ''type, order, colour or class'' and was a framework for grouping people into classes, first used in Vedic Indian society. It is referred to frequently in the ancient Indian texts. The four classes were the Brahmins (priestly people), the Kshatriyas (rulers, administrators and warriors; also called Rajanyas), the Vaishyas (artisans, merchants, tradesmen and farmers), and Shudras (labouring classes). The ''varna'' categorisation implicitly had a fifth element, being those people deemed to be entirely outside its scope, such as tribal people and the untouchables (Dalits). India is home to over 200 million Dalits.''Jati''
''Jati'', meaning ''birth'', is mentioned much less often in ancient texts, where it is clearly distinguished from ''varna''. There are four ''varnas'' but thousands of ''jatis''. The ''jatis'' are complex social groups that lack universally applicable definition or characteristic, and have been more flexible and diverse than was previously often assumed. Certain scholars of caste have considered ''jati'' to have its basis in religion, assuming that in India the sacred elements of life envelop the secular aspects; for example, the anthropologist Louis Dumont described the ritual rankings that exist within the ''jati'' system as being based on the concepts of religious purity and pollution. This view has been disputed by other scholars, who believe it to be a secular social phenomenon driven by the necessities of economics, politics, and sometimes also geography. Jeaneane Fowler says that although some people consider ''jati'' to be occupational segregation, in reality the ''jati'' framework does not preclude or prevent a member of one caste from working in another occupation. A feature of ''jatis'' has been endogamy, in Susan Bayly's words, that "both in the past and for many though not all Indians in more modern times, those born into a given caste would normally expect to find marriage partner" within his or her ''jati''. ''Jatis'' have existed in India among Hindus, Muslims, Christians and tribal people, and there is no clear linear order among them.Caste
The term ''caste'' is not originally an Indian word, though it is now widely used, both in English and in Indian languages. According to the '' Oxford English Dictionary'', it is derived from the Portuguese ''casta'', meaning "race, lineage, breed" and, originally, "'pure or unmixed (stock or breed)". There is no exact translation in Indian languages, but ''varna'' and ''jati'' are the two most approximate terms.Ghurye's 1932 description
The sociologistModern perspective on definition
Ronald Inden, the Indologist, agrees that there has been no universally accepted definition. For example, for some early European documenters it was thought to correspond with the endogamous ''varnas'' referred to in ancient Indian scripts, and its meaning corresponds in the sense of '' estates''. To later Europeans of the Raj era it was endogamous ''jatis'', rather than ''varnas'', that represented ''caste'', such as the 2378 ''jatis'' that colonial administrators classified by occupation in the early 20th century. Arvind Sharma, a professor of comparative religion, notes that ''caste'' has been used synonymously to refer to both ''varna'' and ''jati'' but that "serious Indologists now observe considerable caution in this respect" because, while related, the concepts are considered to be distinct. In this he agrees with the Indologist Arthur Basham, who noted that the Portuguese colonists of India used ''casta'' to describe The sociologist Andre Beteille notes that, while ''varna'' mainly played the role of caste in classical Hindu literature, it is ''jati'' that plays that role in present times. ''Varna'' represents a closed collection of social orders whereas ''jati'' is entirely open-ended, thought of as a "natural kind whose members share a common substance." Any number of new ''jatis'' can be added depending on need, such as tribes, sects, denominations, religious or linguistic minorities and nationalities. Thus, "Caste" is not an accurate representation of ''jati'' in English. Better terms would be ethnicity, ethnic identity and ethnic group.Flexibility
Sociologist Anne Waldrop observes that while outsiders view the term caste as a static phenomenon of stereotypical tradition-bound India, empirical facts suggest caste has been a radically changing feature. The term means different things to different Indians. In the context of politically active modern India, where job and school quotas are reserved for affirmative action based on castes, the term has become a sensitive and controversial subject. Sociologists such as M. N. Srinivas and Damle have debated the question of rigidity in caste and believe that there is considerable flexibility and mobility in the caste hierarchies.Origins
Perspectives
There are at least two perspectives for the origins of the caste system in ancient and medieval India, which focus on either ideological factors or on socio-economic factors. * The first school focuses on the ideological factors which are claimed to drive the caste system and holds that caste is rooted in the four ''varnas''. This perspective was particularly common among scholars during the British colonial era and was articulated by Dumont, who concluded that the system was ideologically perfected several thousand years ago and has remained the primary social reality ever since. This school justifies its theory primarily by citing the ancient law book '' Manusmriti'' and disregards economic, political or historical evidence. * The second school of thought focuses on socioeconomic factors and claims that those factors drive the caste system. It believes caste to be rooted in the economic, political and material history of India. This school, which is common among scholars of the post-colonial era such as Berreman, Marriott, and Dirks, describes the caste system as an ever-evolving social reality that can only be properly understood by the study of historical evidence of actual practice and the examination of verifiable circumstances in the economic, political and material history of India. This school has focused on the historical evidence from ancient and medieval society in India, during the Muslim rule between the 12th and 18th centuries, and the policies of the British colonial government from 18th century to the mid-20th century. The first school has focused on religious anthropology and disregarded other historical evidence as secondary to or derivative of this tradition. The second school has focused on sociological evidence and sought to understand the historical circumstances. The latter has criticised the former for its caste origin theory, claiming that it has dehistoricised and decontextualised Indian society.Ritual kingship model
According to Samuel, referencingVedic ''varnas''
The ''varnas'' originated in late Vedic society (c. 1000–500 BCE). The first three groups, Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishya, have parallels with other Indo-European societies, while the addition of the Shudras is probably a Brahmanical invention from northern India. The ''varna'' system is propounded in revered Hindu religious texts, and understood as idealised human callings. The '' Purusha Sukta'' of the '' Rigveda'' and '' Manusmriti''s comment on it, being the oft-cited texts. Counter to these textual classifications, many revered Hindu texts and doctrines question and disagree with this system of social classification. Scholars have questioned the ''varna'' verse in the ''Rigveda'', noting that the ''varna'' therein is mentioned only once. The ''Purusha Sukta'' verse is now generally considered to have been inserted at a later date into the ''Rigveda'', probably as a charter myth. Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton, professors of Sanskrit and Religious studies, state, "there is no evidence in the ''Rigveda'' for an elaborate, much-subdivided and overarching caste system", and "the ''varna'' system seems to be embryonic in the ''Rigveda'' and, both then and later, a social ideal rather than a social reality". In contrast to the lack of details about ''varna'' system in the ''Rigveda'', the ''Manusmriti'' includes an extensive and highly schematic commentary on the ''varna'' system, but it too provides "models rather than descriptions". Susan Bayly summarises that ''Manusmriti'' and other scriptures helped elevate Brahmins in the social hierarchy and these were a factor in the making of the ''varna'' system, but the ancient texts did not in some way "create the phenomenon of caste" in India.''Jatis''
Jeaneane Fowler, a professor of philosophy and religious studies, states that it is impossible to determine how and why the ''jatis'' came into existence. Susan Bayly, on the other hand, states that ''jati'' system emerged because it offered a source of advantage in an era of pre-Independence poverty, lack of institutional human rights, volatile political environment, and economic insecurity. According to social anthropologist Dipankar Gupta, guilds developed during the Mauryan period and crystallised into ''jatis'' in post-Mauryan times with the emergence of feudalism in India, which finally crystallised during the 7th–12th centuries. However, other scholars dispute when and how ''jatis'' developed in Indian history. Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf, both professors of History, write, "One of the surprising arguments of fresh scholarship, based on inscriptional and other contemporaneous evidence, is that until relatively recent centuries, social organisation in much of the subcontinent was little touched by the four ''varnas''. Nor were ''jati'' the building blocks of society." According to Basham, ancient Indian literature refers often to ''varnas'', but hardly if ever to ''jatis'' as a system of groups within the ''varnas''. He concludes that "If caste is defined as a system of group within the class, which are normally endogamous, commensal and craft-exclusive, we have no real evidence of its existence until comparatively late times."Untouchable outcastes and the varna system
The Vedic texts neither mention the concept of untouchable people nor any practice of untouchability. The rituals in the Vedas ask the noble or king to eat with the commoner from the same vessel. Later Vedic texts ridicule some professions, but the concept of untouchability is not found in them. The post-Vedic texts, particularly '' Manusmriti'' mentions outcastes and suggests that they be ostracised. Recent scholarship states that the discussion of outcastes in post-Vedic texts is different from the system widely discussed in colonial era Indian literature, and in Dumont's structural theory on caste system in India.History
Early history and early Vedic period
The existence of ''jati'' and the precursor of caste has been found in Indus Valley Civilisation (3300 BCE - 1900 BCE). Sociologist S C. Malik writes Indus Valley Civilization saw "perpetuation of caste status by birth" and "caste-class patterns" were found in Indian society since this period. Charles Maisels finds caste stratification to have arose from occupational groups upon the devolution from urban Indus Valley society. Romila Thapar finds possibility of a caste as pre-Vedic element, and notes that Jati pre-dated Vedic varna. Thapar further notes that ''Jatis'' were derived from clans of Indus Valley Civilisation which saw emergence of different occupations that were inherited and became hierarchically organised with unequal access to resources with stringent marriage regulations and rituals becoming rigid system over a period of time. Archaeologist M.K. Dhavalikar has also supported existence of caste system in Indus Valley Civilisation. During the time of the Rigveda (1500 - 1200 BCE), there were two : and . The distinction originally arose from tribal divisions. The Vedic tribes regarded themselves as (the noble ones) and the rival tribes were called ''dasa'', ''dasyu'' and ''pani''. The ''dasas'' were frequent allies of the Aryan tribes, and they were probably assimilated into the Aryan society, giving rise to a class distinction. Many ''dasas'' were, however, in a servile position, giving rise to the eventual meaning of ''dasa'' as servant or slave. The ''Rigvedic'' society was not distinguished by occupations. Many husbandmen and artisans practised a number of crafts. The chariot-maker () and metal worker () enjoyed positions of importance and no stigma was attached to them. Similar observations hold for carpenters, tanners, weavers and others. Towards the end of theLater Vedic period (1000–600 BCE)
In an early Upanishad, Shudra is referred to as ''Pūşan'' or nourisher, suggesting that Shudras were the tillers of the soil. But soon afterwards, Shudras are not counted among the tax-payers and they are said to be given away along with the land when it is gifted. The majority of the artisans were also reduced to the position of Shudras, but there is no contempt indicated for their work. The Brahmins and the Kshatriyas are given a special position in the rituals, distinguishing them from both the Vaishyas and the Shudras. The Vaishya is said to be "oppressed at will" and the Shudra "beaten at will."Second urbanisation (500–200 BCE)
Knowledge of this period is supplemented by Pali Buddhist texts. Whereas the Brahmanical texts speak of the four-fold ''varna'' system, the Buddhist texts present an alternative picture of the society, stratified along the lines of ''jati'', ''kula'' and occupation. It is likely that the ''varna'' system, while being a part of the Brahmanical ideology, was not practically operative in the society. In the Buddhist texts, Brahmin and Kshatriya are described as ''jatis'' rather than ''varnas''. They were in fact the ''jatis'' of high rank. The ''jatis'' of low rank were mentioned as ''Early Hinduism (200 BCE–320 CE)
Classical period (320–650 CE)
The Mahabharata, whose final version is estimated to have been completed by the end of the fourth century, discusses the ''varna'' system in section 12.181, presenting two models. The first model describes ''varna'' as a colour-based system, through a character named Bhrigu, "Brahmins ''varna'' was white, Kshatriyas was red, Vaishyas was yellow, and the Shudras' black". This description is questioned by Bharadvaja who says that colors are seen among all the ''varnas'', that desire, anger, fear, greed, grief, anxiety, hunger and toil prevails over all human beings, that bile and blood flow from all human bodies, so what distinguishes the ''varnas'', he asks. The Mahabharata then declares, "There is no distinction of ''varnas''. This whole universe is Brahman. It was created formerly by Brahma, came to be classified by acts." The epic then recites a behavioural model for ''varna'', that those who were inclined to anger, pleasures and boldness attained the Kshatriya ''varna''; those who were inclined to cattle rearing and living off the plough attained the Vaishya ''varna''; those who were fond of violence, covetousness and impurity attained the Shudra ''varna''. The Brahmin class is modeled in the epic as the archetype default state of man dedicated to truth, austerity and pure conduct. In the Mahabharata and pre-medieval era Hindu texts, according to Hiltebeitel, "it is important to recognise, in theory, ''varna'' is nongenealogical. The four ''varnas'' are not lineages, but categories".Late classical and early medieval period (650 to 1400 CE)
Scholars have tried to locate historical evidence for the existence and nature of ''varna'' and ''jati'' in documents and inscriptions of medieval India. Supporting evidence has been elusive, and contradictory evidence has emerged. ''Varna'' is rarely mentioned in the extensive medieval era records of Andhra Pradesh, for example. This has led Cynthia Talbot, a professor of History and Asian Studies, to question whether ''varna'' was socially significant in the daily lives of this region. Most mentions of ''varna'' in the Andhra inscriptions come from Brahmins. Two rare temple donor records from warrior families of the 14th century claim to be Shudras. One states that Shudras are the bravest, the other states that Shudras are the purest. Richard Eaton, a professor of History, writes, "anyone could become warrior regardless of social origins, nor do the ''jati''—another pillar of alleged traditional Indian society—appear as features of people's identity. Occupations were fluid." Evidence shows, according to Eaton, that Shudras were part of the nobility, and many "father and sons had different professions, suggesting that social status was earned, not inherited" in the Hindu Kakatiya population in the Deccan region between the 11th and 14th centuries. In the Tamil Nadu region of India, studied by Leslie Orr, a professor of Religion, "Chola period inscriptions challenge our ideas about the structuring of (south Indian) society in general. In contrast to what Brahmanical legal texts may lead us to expect, we do not find that caste is the organising principle of society or that boundaries between different social groups is sharply demarcated." In Tamil Nadu, during ancient and medieval period, the Vellalar were the elite caste and major patrons of literature. For northern Indian region, Susan Bayly writes, "until well into the colonial period, much of the subcontinent was still populated by people for whom the formal distinctions of caste were of only limited importance; even in parts of the so-called Hindu heartland of Gangetic upper India, the institutions and beliefs which are now often described as the elements of traditional caste were only just taking shape as recently as the early eighteenth century—that is, when the Mughal era was collapsing and western power was expanding into the subcontinent." For western India,Medieval era, Islamic Sultanates and Mughal empire period (1000 to 1750)
Early and mid 20th century Muslim historians, such as Hashimi in 1927 and Qureshi in 1962, proposed that "caste system was established before the arrival of Islam", and it and "a nomadic savage lifestyle" in the northwest Indian subcontinent were the primary cause why Sindhi non-Muslims "embraced Islam in flocks" when Arab Muslim armies invaded the region. According to this hypothesis, the mass conversions occurred from the lower caste Hindus and Mahayana Buddhists who had become "corroded from within by the infiltration of Hindu beliefs and practices". This theory is now widely believed to be baseless and false. Derryl MacLein, a professor of social history and Islamic studies, states that historical evidence does not support this theory; that whatever evidence is available suggests that Muslim institutions in north-west India legitimised and continued any inequalities that existed; and that neither Buddhists nor "lower caste" Hindus converted to Islam because they viewed Islam to lack a caste system. Conversions to Islam were rare, states MacLein, and conversions attested by historical evidence confirms that the few who did convert were Brahmin Hindus (theoretically, the upper caste). MacLein asserts that the caste and conversion theories about Indian society during the Islamic era are not based on historical evidence or verifiable sources, but rather on the personal assumptions of Muslim historians about the nature of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism in the northwest Indian subcontinent. Richard Eaton, a professor of history at Berkley, asserts that the presumption of a rigid Hindu caste system and the oppression of lower castes in pre-Islamic era in India is the cause of "mass conversion to Islam" during the medieval era. This claim has the problem that "no evidence can be found in support of the theory, and it is profoundly illogical".Later-Mughal period (1700 to 1850)
Susan Bayly, an anthropologist, notes that "caste is not and never has been a fixed fact of Indian life" and the caste system as we know it today, as a "ritualised scheme of social stratification," developed in two stages during the post-Mughal period, in 18th and early 19th century. Three sets of value played an important role in this development: priestly hierarchy, kingship, and armed ascetics. With the Islamic Mughal empire falling apart in the 18th century, regional post-Mughal ruling elites and new dynasties from diverse religious, geographical and linguistic background attempted to assert their power in different parts of India. Bayly states that these obscure post-Mughal elites associated themselves with kings, priests and ascetics, deploying the symbols of caste and kinship to divide their populace and consolidate their power. In addition, in this fluid stateless environment, some of the previously casteless segments of society grouped themselves into caste groups. However, in 18th century writes Bayly, India-wide networks of merchants, armed ascetics and armed tribal people often ignored these ideologies of caste. Most people did not treat caste norms as given absolutes writes Bayly, but challenged, negotiated and adapted these norms to their circumstances. Communities teamed in different regions of India, into "collective classing" to mold the social stratification in order to maximise assets and protect themselves from loss. The "caste, class, community" structure that formed became valuable in a time when state apparatus was fragmenting, was unreliable and fluid, when rights and life were unpredictable. In this environment, states Rosalind O'Hanlon, a professor of Indian history, the newly arrived East India Company colonial officials, attempted to gain commercial interests in India by balancing Hindu and Muslim conflicting interests, and by aligning with regional rulers and large assemblies of military monks. The East India Company officials adopted constitutional laws segregated by religion and caste. The legal code and colonial administrative practice was largely divided into Muslim law and Hindu law, the latter including laws for Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. In this transitory phase, Brahmins together with scribes, ascetics and merchants who accepted Hindu social and spiritual codes, became the deferred-to-authority on Hindu texts, law and administration of Hindu matters. While legal codes and state administration were emerging in India, with the rising power of the European powers, Dirks states that the late 18th-century British writings on India say little about caste system in India, and predominantly discuss territorial conquest, alliances, warfare and diplomacy in India. Colin Mackenzie, a British social historian of this time, collected vast numbers of texts on Indian religions, culture, traditions and local histories from south India and Deccan region, but his collection and writings have very little on caste system in 18th-century India.During British rule (1857 to 1947)
Although the ''varnas'' and ''jatis'' have pre-modern origins, the caste system as it exists today is the result of developments during the post-Mughal period and the British colonial period, which made caste organisation a central mechanism of administration.Basis
''Jati'' were the basis of caste ethnology during the British colonial era. In the 1881 census and thereafter, colonial ethnographers used caste (''jati'') headings, to count and classify people in what was then British India (now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma). The 1891 census included 60 sub-groups each subdivided into six occupational and racial categories, and the number increased in subsequent censuses. The colonial era census caste tables, states Susan Bayly, "ranked, standardised and cross-referenced jati listings for Indians on principles similar to zoology and botanical classifications, aiming to establish who was superior to whom by virtue of their supposed purity, occupational origins and collective moral worth". While bureaucratic colonial officials completed reports on their zoological classification of Indian people, some British officials criticised these exercises as being little more than a caricature of the reality of caste system in India. The 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. These census caste classifications, states Gloria Raheja, a professor of Anthropology, were also used by colonial officials over the late 19th century and early 20th century, to formulate land tax rates, as well as to frequently target some social groups as "criminal" castes and castes prone to "rebellion". The population then comprised about 200 million people, across five major religions, and over 500,000 agrarian villages, each with a population between 100 and 1,000 people of various age groups, which were variously divided into numerous castes. This ideological scheme was theoretically composed of around 3,000 castes, which in turn was claimed to be composed of 90,000 local endogamous sub-groups. The strict British class system may have influenced the British preoccupation with the Indian caste system as well as the British perception of pre-colonial Indian castes. British society's own similarly rigid class system provided the British with a template for understanding Indian society and castes. The British, coming from a society rigidly divided by class, attempted to equate India's castes with BritishRace science
Colonial administratorEnforcement
=Jobs for forward castes
= The role of the British Raj on the caste system in India is controversial. The caste system became legally rigid during the Raj, when the British started to enumerate castes during their ten-year census and meticulously codified the system. Between 1860 and 1920, the British incorporated the caste system into their system of governance, granting administrative jobs and senior appointments only to the upper castes.=Targeting criminal castes and their isolation
= Starting with the 19th century, the British colonial government passed a series of laws that applied to Indians based on their religion and caste identification. These colonial era laws and their provisions used the term "Tribes", which included castes within their scope. This terminology was preferred for various reasons, including Muslim sensitivities that considered castes by definition Hindu, and preferred ''Tribes'', a more generic term that included Muslims. The British colonial government, for instance, enacted the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. This law declared that all those who belonged to certain castes were born with criminal tendencies. Ramnarayan Rawat, a professor of History and specialising in social exclusion in the Indian subcontinent, states that the criminal-by-birth castes under this Act included initially=Religion and caste segregated human rights
= Eleanor Nesbitt, a professor of History and Religions in India, states that the colonial government hardened the caste-driven divisions in India not only through its caste census, but with a series of laws in the early 20th century. Colonial officials, for instance, enacted laws such as the Land Alienation Act in 1900 and Punjab Pre-Emption Act in 1913, listing castes that could legally own land and denying equivalent property rights to other census-determined castes. These acts prohibited the inter-generational and intra-generational transfer of land from land-owning castes to any non-agricultural castes, thereby preventing economic mobility of property and creating consequent caste barriers in India. Khushwant Singh, a Sikh historian, and Tony Ballantyne, a professor of History, state that these colonial-era laws helped create and erect barriers within land-owning and landless castes in northwest India. Caste-based discrimination and denial of human rights by the colonial state had similar impact elsewhere in India.=Social identity
= Nicholas Dirks has argued that Indian caste as we know it today is a "modern phenomenon," as caste was "fundamentally transformed by British colonial rule." According to Dirks, before colonial rule caste affiliation was quite loose and fluid, but colonial rule enforced caste affiliation rigorously, and constructed a much more strict hierarchy than existed previously, with some castes being criminalised and others being given preferential treatment. De Zwart notes that the caste system used to be thought of as an ancient fact of Hindu life and that contemporary scholars argue instead that the system was constructed by the colonial authorities. He says that "jobs and education opportunities were allotted based on caste, and people rallied and adopted a caste system that maximized their opportunity". De Zwart also notes that post-colonial affirmative action only reinforced the "British colonial project that ex hypothesi constructed the caste system". Sweetman notes that the European conception of caste dismissed former political configurations and insisted upon an "essentially religious character" of India. During the colonial period, caste was defined as a religious system and was divorced from political powers. This made it possible for the colonial rulers to portray India as a society characterised by spiritual harmony in contrast to the former Indian states which they criticised as "despotic and epiphenomenal", with the colonial powers providing the necessary "benevolent, paternalistic rule by a more 'advanced' nation".Further development
Assumptions about the caste system in Indian society, along with its nature, evolved during colonial rule. Corbridge concludes that British policies towards India's numerous princely sovereign states, as well as enumeration of the population into rigid categories during the 10-year census, particularly with the 1901 and 1911 census, contributed towards the hardening of caste identities. Social unrest during 1920s led to a change in this policy. From then on, the colonial administration began a policy of positive discrimination by reserving a certain percentage of government jobs for the lower castes. In the round table conference held on August 1932, upon the request of Ambedkar, the thenOther theories and observations
Smelser and Lipset propose in their review of Hutton's study of caste system in colonial India the theory that individual mobility across caste lines may have been minimal in India because it was ritualistic. They state that this may be because the colonial social stratification worked with the pre-existing ritual caste system. The emergence of a caste system in the modern form, during the early period of British colonial rule in the 18th and 19th century, was not uniform in South Asia. Claude Markovits, a French historian of colonial India, writes that Hindu society in north and west India (Sindh), in late 18th century and much of 19th century, lacked a proper caste system, their religious identities were fluid (a combination of Saivism, Vaisnavism, Sikhism), and the Brahmins were not the widespread priestly group (but the ''Bawas'' were). Markovits writes, "if religion was not a structuring factor, neither was caste" among the Hindu merchants group of northwest India.Contemporary India
Caste politics
Societal stratification, and the inequality that comes with it, still exists in India, and has been thoroughly criticised. Government policies aim at reducing this inequality byLoosening of the caste system
The Government of India provides financial incentives to inter-caste couples under the Dr. Ambedkar Scheme for Social Integration through Inter-Caste Marriages. Various state governments such as those of Odisha, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra also have similar schemes. A 2003 article in '' The Telegraph'' observed that inter-caste marriage and dating were common in urban India. But on a nationwide basis, the proportion of such practice is still small. A study in 2005 found that inter-caste marriages had nearly doubled between 1981 and 2005 but only reaching the level of 6.1%. A majority of marriages in India are still endogamous with inter-caste and inter-religious marriages found mostly among those who are "economically, educationally, culturally advanced and urban oriented".Caste-related violence
Independent India has witnessed caste-related violence. According to a 2005 UN report, approximately 31,440 cases of violent acts committed against Dalits were reported in 1996. The UN report claimed 1.33 cases of violent acts per 10,000 Dalit people. For context, the UN reported between 40 and 55 cases of violent acts per 10,000 people in developed countries in 2005. One example of such violence is the Khairlanji massacre of 2006. TheIndian diaspora
Caste persists within the Indian diaspora. For example, Dalit people in the United States report experiencing discrimination and violence. In 2020 the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing initiated a lawsuit against Cisco and two of its employees for alleged discrimination against an Indian engineer because he was from a lower caste than them. According to a 2018 survey by civil rights group Equality Labs cited in the lawsuit, 67% of Dalits "reported being treated unfairly at their workplace because of their caste". The Government of the United Kingdom ran a public consultation on ways to ensure legal protection against caste discrimination from March 2017 to September 2017. Based on the consultation the government decided that "the best way to provide the necessary protection against unlawful discrimination because of caste is by relying on emerging case law as developed by courts and tribunals".Affirmative action
Article 15 of the Constitution of India prohibits discrimination based on caste and Article 17 declared the practice of untouchability to be illegal. In 1955, India enacted the Untouchability (Offences) Act (renamed in 1976, as the Protection of Civil Rights Act). It extended the reach of law, from intent to mandatory enforcement. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was passed in India in 1989. * The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was established to investigate, monitor, advise, and evaluate the socio-economic progress of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. * A reservation system for people classified as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has existed for over 50 years. The presence of privately owned free market corporations in India is limited and public sector jobs have dominated the percentage of jobs in its economy. A 2000 report estimated that most jobs in India were in companies owned by the government or agencies of the government. The reservation system implemented by India over 50 years, has been partly successful, because of all jobs, nationwide, in 1995, 17.2 percent of the jobs were held by those in the lowest castes. * The Indian government classifies government jobs in four groups. The Group A jobs are senior most, high paying positions in the government, while Group D are junior most, lowest paying positions. In Group D jobs, the percentage of positions held by lowest caste classified people is 30% greater than their demographic percentage. In all jobs classified as Group C positions, the percentage of jobs held by lowest caste people is about the same as their demographic population distribution. In Group A and B jobs, the percentage of positions held by lowest caste classified people is 30% lower than their demographic percentage. * The presence of lowest caste people in highest paying, senior-most position jobs in India has increased by ten-fold, from 1.18 percent of all jobs in 1959 to 10.12 percent of all jobs in 1995.Recognition
The Indian government officially recognises historically discriminated communities of India such as the untouchables under the designation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and certain economically backward lower castes as Other Backward Class. The Scheduled Castes are sometimes referred to as Dalit in contemporary literature. In 2001, Dalits comprised 16.2 percent of India's total population. Of the one billion Hindus in India, it is estimated that Hindu Forward caste comprises 26%, Other Backward Class comprises 43%, Hindu Scheduled Castes (Dalits) comprises 22% and Hindu Scheduled Tribes (Adivasis) comprises 9%. In addition to taking affirmative action for people of schedule castes and scheduled tribes, India has expanded its effort to include people from poor, backward castes in its economic and social mainstream. In 1990, the government reservation of 27% for Backward Classes on the basis of the Mandal Commission's recommendations. Since then, India has reserved 27 percent of job opportunities in government-owned enterprises and agencies for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs). The 27 percent reservation is in addition to 22.5 percent set aside for India's lowest castes for the last 50 years.Mandal commission
The Mandal Commission was established in 1979 to "identify the socially or educationally backward" and to consider the question of seat reservations and quotas for people to redress caste discrimination.Bhattacharya, Amit. ''Times of India'', 8 April 2006. In 1980, the commission's report affirmed the affirmative action practice under Indian law, whereby additional members of lower castes—the other backward classes—were given exclusive access to another 27 percent of government jobs and slots in public universities, in addition to the 23 percent already reserved for the Dalits and Tribals. WhenOther Backward Classes (OBC)
There is substantial debate over the exact number of OBCs in India; it is generally estimated to be sizable, but many believe that it is lower than the figures quoted by either the Mandal Commission or the National Sample Survey. The reservation system has led to widespread protests, such as theEffects of government aid
In a 2008 study, Desai et al. focussed on education attainments of children and young adults aged 6–29, from lowest caste and tribal populations of India. They completed a national survey of over 100,000 households for each of the four survey years between 1983 and 2000. They found a significant increase in lower caste children in their odds of completing primary school. The number of Dalit children who completed either middle-, high- or college-level education increased three times faster than the national average, and the total number were statistically same for both lower and upper castes. However, the same study found that in 2000, the percentage of Dalit males never enrolled in a school was still more than twice the percentage of upper caste males never enrolled in schools. Moreover, only 1.67% of Dalit females were college graduates compared to 9.09% of upper caste females. The number of Dalit girls in India who attended school doubled in the same period, but was still lower than the national average. Other poor caste groups as well as ethnic groups such as Muslims in India have also made improvements over the 16-year period, but their improvement lagged behind that of Dalits and adivasis. The net percentage school attainment for Dalits and Muslims were statistically the same in 1999. A 2007 nationwide survey of India by the World Bank found that over 80 percent of children of historically discriminated castes were attending schools. The fastest increase in school attendance by Dalit community children occurred during the recent periods of India's economic growth. A study by Darshan Singh presents data on health and other indicators of socio-economic change in India's historically discriminated castes. He claims: * In 2001, the literacy rates in India's lowest castes was 55 percent, compared to a national average of 63 percent. * The childhood vaccination levels in India's lowest castes was 40 percent in 2001, compared to a national average of 44 percent. * Access to drinking water within household or near the household in India's lowest castes was 80 percent in 2001, compared to a national average of 83 percent. * The poverty level in India's lowest castes dropped from 49 percent to 39 percent between 1995 and 2005, compared to a national average change from 35 to 27 percent. The life expectancy of various caste groups in modern India has been raised; but the International Institute for Population Sciences report suggests that poverty, not caste, is the bigger differentiation in life expectancy in modern India.Influence on other religions
While identified with Hinduism, caste systems are found in other religions on the Indian subcontinent, including other religions such as Buddhists, Christians and Muslims.Christians
Social stratification is found among the Christians in India based on caste as well as by their denomination and location. The caste distinction is based on their caste at the time that they or their ancestors converted to Christianity since the 16th century, they typically do not intermarry, and sit separately during prayers in Church.Christian CastesMuslims
Caste system has been observed among Muslims in India. They practice endogamy, hypergamy, hereditary occupations, avoid social mixing and have been stratified. There is some controversy if these characteristics make them social groups or castes of Islam. Indian Muslims are a mix ofSikh
Although the Sikh Gurus criticised the hierarchy of the caste system, one does exist inJains
Caste system in Jainism has existed for centuries, primarily in terms of endogamy, although, per Paul Dundas, in modern times the system does not play a significant role. This is contradicted by Carrithers and Humphreys who describe the major Jain castes in Rajasthan with their social rank.Distribution
Table 1 is the distribution of population of each Religion by Caste Categories, obtained from merged sample of Schedule 1 and Schedule 10 of available data from the National Sample Survey Organisation 55th (1999–2000) and 61st Rounds (2004–05) Round Survey. The Other Backward Class (OBCs) were found to comprise 52% of the country's population by the Mandal Commission report of 1980, a figure which had shrunk to 41% by 2006 when the National Sample Survey Organisation's survey took place.Criticism
There has been criticism of the caste system from both within and outside of India. Since the 1980s, caste has become a major controversy in the politics of India.Indian social reformers
The caste system has been criticised by many Indian social reformers.Basava
Basava (1105–1167) was one of the first social reformers. Basava championed devotional worship that rejected temple worship and rituals, and replaced it with personalised direct worship of Shiva through practices such as individually worn icons and symbols like a small linga. This approach brought Shiva's presence to everyone and at all times, without gender, class or caste discrimination. His teachings and verses such as Káyakavé Kailása (Work is the path to Kailash (bliss, heaven), or Work is Worship) became popular.Jyotirao Phule
Jyotirao Phule (1827–1890) vehemently criticised any explanations that the caste system was natural and ordained by the ''Creator'' in Hindu texts. If ''Brahma'' wanted castes, argued Phule, he would have ordained the same for other creatures. There are no castes in species of animals or birds, so why should there be one among human animals. In his criticism Phule added, "Brahmins cannot claim superior status because of caste, because they hardly bothered with these when wining and dining with Europeans." Professions did not make castes, and castes did not decide one's profession. If someone does a job that is dirty, it does not make them inferior; in the same way that no mother is inferior because she cleans the excreta of her baby. Ritual occupation or tasks, argued Phule, do not make any human being superior or inferior.Vivekananda
Vivekananda similarly criticised caste as one of the many human institutions that bars the power of free thought and action of an individual. Caste or no caste, creed or no creed, any man, or class, or caste, or nation, or institution that bars the power of free thought and bars action of an individual is devilish, and must go down. Liberty of thought and action, asserted Vivekananda, is the only condition of life, of growth and of well-being.Gandhi
In his younger years, Gandhi disagreed with some of Ambedkar's observations, rationale and interpretations about the caste system in India. "Caste," he claimed, has "saved Hinduism from disintegration. But like every other institution it has suffered from excrescences." He considered the four divisions of Varnas to be fundamental, natural and essential. The innumerable subcastes or Jatis he considered to be a hindrance. He advocated to fuse all the Jatis into a more global division of Varnas. In the 1930s, Gandhi began to advocate for the idea of heredity in caste to be rejected, arguing that "Assumption of superiority by any person over any other is a sin against God and man. Thus caste, in so far as it connotes distinctions in status, is an evil." He claimed that Varnashrama of the shastras is today nonexistent in practice. The present caste system is theory antithesis of varnashrama. Caste in its current form, claimed Gandhi, had nothing to do with religion. The discrimination and trauma of castes, argued Gandhi, was the result of custom, the origin of which is unknown. Gandhi said that the customs' origin was a moot point, because one could spiritually sense that these customs were wrong, and that any caste system is harmful to the spiritual well-being of man and economic well-being of a nation. The reality of colonial India was, Gandhi noted, that there was no significant disparity between the economic condition and earnings of members of different castes, whether it was a Brahmin or an artisan or a farmer of low caste. India was poor, and Indians of all castes were poor. Thus, he argued that the cause of trauma was not in the caste system, but elsewhere. Judged by the standards being applied to India, Gandhi claimed, every human society would fail. He acknowledged that the caste system in India spiritually blinded some Indians, then added that this did not mean that every Indian or even most Indians blindly followed the caste system, or everything from ancient Indian scriptures of doubtful authenticity and value. India, like any other society, cannot be judged by a caricature of its worst specimens. Gandhi stated that one must consider the best it produced as well, along with the vast majority in impoverished Indian villages struggling to make ends meet, with woes of which there was little knowledge.B. R. Ambedkar
B. R. Ambedkar was born in a caste that was classified as untouchable, became a leader of human rights campaigns in India, a prolific writer, and a key person in drafting modern India's constitution in the 1940s. He wrote extensively on discrimination, trauma and what he saw as the tragic effects of the caste system in India. He believed that the caste system originated in the practise of endogamy and that it spread through imitation by other groups. He wrote that initially, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras existed as classes whose choice of occupation was not restricted by birth and in which exogamy was prevalent. Brahmins then began to practise endogamy and enclosed themselves, hence Ambedkar defines caste as "enclosed class". He believed that traditions such as sati, enforced widowhood and child marriage developed from the need to reinforce endogamy and Shastras were used to glorify these practices so that they are observed without being questioned. Later, other caste groups imitated these customs. However, although Ambedkar uses the approach of psychologist Gabriel Tarde to indicate how the caste system spread, he also explains that Brahmins or Manu cannot be blamed for the origin of the caste system and he discredits theories which trace the origin of caste system in races.KK Sarachandra Bose
In 2014 KK Sarachandra Bose went on a 40-day ''Bharat Yatra'' (Indian journey) of almost from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi along with over 30 volunteers to campaign for the end of the caste system. Bose also believes that using the term 'caste' conflicts with the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He urged the government of India for constitutional reform to remove all references to the caste system by December 2014.Caste politics
Many political parties in India have indulged in caste-based votebank politics. Parties such asEconomic inequality
A 1995 study notes that the caste system in India is a system of exploitation of poor low-ranking groups by more prosperous high-ranking groups.India – A Country Study, US Library of Congress, 1995, Chapter 5Apartheid and discrimination
The maltreatment of Dalits in India has been described by Anand Teltumbde, Gopal Guru and others as "India's hidden apartheid".Gopal Guru, with Shiraz SidhvaIn popular culture
Mulk Raj Anand's debut novel, ''See also
* Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents * Article 15 * Inter-caste marriages in India * Balinese caste system * Caste systems in Africa * Caste system in Sri Lanka *Notes
References
Bibliography
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* * * * * * Anand A. Yang, Bazaar India: Markets, Society, and the Colonial State in Bihar, University of California Press, 1999. * Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi Rachnawali, Rajkamal Prakashan, Delhi. * Arvind Narayan Das, Agrarian movements in India : studies on 20th century Bihar (Library of Peasant Studies), Routledge, London, 1982. * Atal, Yogesh (1968) "The Changing Frontiers of Caste" Delhi, National Publishing House. * Atal, Yogesh (2006) "Changing Indian Society" Chapter on Varna and Jati. Jaipur, Rawat Publications. * * Duiker/Spielvogel. ''The Essential World History Vol I: to 1800''. 2nd Edition 2005. * Forrester, Duncan B., 'Indian Christians' Attitudes to Caste in the Nineteenth Century,' in ''Indian Church History Review'' 8, no. 2 (1974): 131–147. * Forrester, Duncan B., 'Christian Theology in a Hindu Context,' in ''South Asian Review'' 8, no. 4 (1975): 343–358. * Forrester, Duncan B., 'Indian Christians' Attitudes to Caste in the Twentieth Century,' in ''Indian Church History Review'' 9, no. 1 (1975): 3–22. * Fárek, M., Jalki, D., Pathan, S., & Shah, P. (2017). Western Foundations of the Caste System. Cham: Springer International Publishing. * * * Jain, Meenakshi, Congress Party, 1967–77: Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Vikas, 1991), . * * * * * * * * Murray Milner, Jr. (1994). ''Status and Sacredness: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture'', New York: Oxford University Press. * * * * * Ranganayakamma (2001). ''For the solution of the "Caste" question, Buddha is not enough, Ambedkar is not enough either, Marx is a must'', Hyderabad : Sweet Home Publications. * * Rosas, Paul, "Caste and Class in India," ''Science and Society,'' vol. 7, no. 2 (Spring 1943), pp. 141–167External links
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