“Caste system in INDIA”

In India, a caste system organizes division of and power in human society. It is a system of social

stratification,[1] and a basis for affirmative action.[2][3] Historically, it defined communities into

thousands of endogamous hereditary groups called  [4]

The Jātis were grouped by the Brahminical texts under the four well-known caste categories

(the varnas): viz Brahmins, Kshatriyas,  andShudras. Certain people were excluded altogether,

ostracized by all other castes and treated as untouchables.[5][6]

Although strongly identified with Hinduism, caste systems have also been observed among other

religions on the Indian subcontinent, including some groups

of Muslims, Buddhists and Christians.[7][8][9] The latter are similar to the caste system reported in

the I Christian community in Africa.[10][11]

Caste is commonly thought of as an ancient fact of Hindu life, but various contemporary scholars

have argued that the caste system was constructed by the British colonial regime.

Caste is neither unique to Hindu religion nor to India; caste systems have been observed in other

parts of the world, for example, in the Muslim community of Yemen, Christian colonies of

Spain, and Japan.[1][12][13]

The Indian government officially recognizes historically discriminated communities of India

such as Untouchables and Shudras under the designation ofScheduled Castes, and certain

economically backward castes as Other Backward Castes.[5][14] The Scheduled Castes are

sometimes referred to as Dalit in contemporary literature. In 2001, the proportion of Dalit

population was 16.2 percent of India's total population.[15]

Since 1950, India has enacted and implemented many laws and social initiatives to protect and

improve the socio-economic conditions of its Dalit population.[16] By 1995, of all jobs in the

Central Government service, 17.2 percent of the jobs were held by Dalits.[17] Of the highest

paying, senior most jobs in government agencies and government controlled enterprises, over 10

percent were held by members of the Dalit community, a tenfold increase in 40 years but yet to

fill up the 15 percent reserved quota for them. In 1997, India elected K.R. Narayanan, a Dalit, as

the nation's President.[17] In the last 15 years, Indians born in historically discriminated minority

castes have been elected to its highest judicial and political offices.[18][19] While the quality of life

of Dalit population in India, in terms of metrics such as poverty, literacy rate, access to health

care, life expectancy, education attainability, access to drinking water, housing, etc. have seen

faster growth amongst the Dalit population between 1986 and 2006, for some metrics, it remains

lower than overall non-Dalit population, and for some it is better than poor non-Dalit population.[20][21][22][23]

A 2003 report claims inter-caste marriage is on the rise in urban India. Indian societal

relationships are changing because of female literacy and education, women at work,

urbanization, need for two-income families, and influences from the media.[24]

India's overall economic growth has produced the fastest and most significant socio-economic

changes to the historical injustice to its minorities. Legal and social program initiatives are no

longer India's primary constraint in further advancement of India's historically discriminated

sections of society and the poor. Further advancements are likely to come from improvements in

the supply of quality schools in rural and urban India,

That the concept of caste in India is complex has long been known, and the first non-Indian

reference to it comes from Megasthenes in the 3rd century BC. G. S. Ghurye wrote in 1932 that,

despite much study by many people,

... we do not possess a real general definition of caste. It appears to me that any attempt at

definition is bound to fail because of the complexity of the phenomenon. On the other hand,

much literature on the subject is marred by lack of precision about the use of the term.[27]

Ghurye did attempt to find a middle-ground between the complexity and the loose usage. He

defined six characteristics of the Hindu caste system as a "social philosophy", being its state

prior to the relatively modern corruption of this by theories of "rights and duties". He thought

that these could be applied across the country, although he acknowledged that there were

regional variations on the general theme.[28]

Strict segmentation of society, with the various groups being rigidly defined and membership

of them determined by birth.

A hierarchical system that defines a ranking place for all of the castes

Limited choice of occupation, which is enforced within a caste as well as by other castes. A

caste might follow more than one traditional occupation but its members would nonetheless

be constrained to that range

The general practice of endogamy, although in some situations hypergamy is acceptable.

Endogamy applies to the various sub-groups within a caste itself, preventing marriage

between the sub-groups and sometimes imposing an additional geographical constraint, that

one can only marry a person from the same gotra and the same place

Restrictions on dietary and social interactions that defines who could consume what and

accept from whom. As with marriage arrangements, these restrictions apply at sub-caste

level, not merely at the caste level

Physical segregation in, for example, villages. This is accompanied by limitations on

movement and access, including to religious and educational areas and to basic facilities

such as supplies of water. Again, this segregation applies at sub-caste level as well as at the

higher level

Not everyone has agreed with the definition proposed by Ghurye, which in any event was

intended as an exercise to reduce the gap between lax terminological usage and the realities of an

immensely complex system, More recently, Graham Chapman is among those who have

reiterated the complexity, and he notes that there are differences between theoretical constructs

and the practical reality.[29]

[edit]History

Main article: History of the Indian caste system

There are several theories regarding the origins of the Indian caste system. One posits that the

Indian and Aryan classes ("pistras") show similarity,[30] wherein the priests are Brahmins, the

warriors are Kshatriya, the merchants are Vaishya, and the artisans are Shudras.[31][32] Another

theory is that of Georges Dumézil, who formulated[33][34] the trifunctional hypothesis of social

class. According to the Dumézil theory, ancient societies had three main classes, each with

distinct functions: the first judicial and priestly, the second connected with the military and war,

and the third class focused on production, agriculture, craft and commerce. Dumézil proposed

that Rex-Flamen of the Roman Empire is etymologically similar to Raj-Brahman of ancient India

and that they made offerings to deus and devarespectively, each with statutes of conduct, dress

and behavior that were similar. This theory became controversial, but drew support from many

including Sophus Bugge in 1879.[citation needed]

From the Bhakti school, the view is that the four divisions were originally created by Krishna.

"According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four

divisions of human society were created."[35]

[edit]Caste and social status

Doctrinally, caste was defined as a system of segregation of people, each with a traditional

hereditary occupation. In the Hindu system, people were categorized in one or other of five

major ideological schemes: Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaisyas, Shudras and Untouchables. This

ideological scheme was theoretically composed of 3000 sub-castes, which in turn was claimed to

be composed of 90,000 local sub-groups, with people marrying only within their sub-group. This

theory of caste was applied to what was then  in the early 20th century, when the population

comprised about 200 million people, across five major religions, and over 500,000 agrarian

villages, each with a population between 100 to 1000 people of various age groups, variously

divided into numerous rigid castes (British India included modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

and Myanmar