The essentials
Caste is a uniquely Indian form of social stratification. The term covers both varna (the fourfold scheme of Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, with "untouchables" kept outside it) and jati (thousands of local, endogamous groups). Membership is by birth, marriage is within the group (endogamy), there are rules about food and social contact, occupations are hereditary, and groups are ranked in a hierarchy based on ideas of purity and pollution.
Under colonial rule, caste became more rigid in some ways. The census, especially the 1901 census under Herbert Risley, tried to classify and rank castes, which made caste identity more conscious. Land revenue settlements gave legal weight to upper-caste customary rights, and towards the end of colonial rule lists ("schedules") of castes and tribes were drawn up for special treatment.
After independence the state aimed to abolish caste discrimination, yet caste continued to shape politics, marriage and opportunities. M.N. Srinivas showed how dominant castes, numerically large landowning intermediate castes, came to hold power in villages. For the urban upper-caste middle class, caste has become "invisible" because their privileges have already turned into educational and economic capital, while for SCs, STs and OBCs caste remains highly visible.
Key points
- Features: ascription by birth, endogamy, food and contact rules, hereditary occupation, hierarchy.
- Purity-pollution separates castes ritually; untouchability is the extreme form.
- The colonial census made caste a subject of official classification.
- Dominant castes include examples such as Jats, Yadavs, Vokkaligas, Reddys and Marathas in their regions.
- Caste and class overlap but are not identical.
Common mistakes
Varna and jati are not the same; jati is the real working unit of caste in everyday life.