“Caste strengthening in politics”

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  • While there is evidence of the decline of caste in some domains in India, clearly it is strengthening in the political domain
  • It is difficult to talk about caste in clear, simple, lucid terms, primarily because of its diverse manifestations and variations in forms throughout the subcontinent
  • One unique feature of the Indian society is the way loyalty to the community of birth overrides one's loyalty to one's religion.
  • Until the second half of the 19{+t}{+h}century, when serious ethnographic mapping of Indian society was begun by the British, the caste system in India was believed to be based on the division of society into four varnas: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra. There is a difference between this four-fold division and the division of society from currently existing innumerable jathis, or sub castes.
  • Varna represents the conceptual design of Hindu society, and jathis represent the living system. While the Varna system has been there since time immemorial and cannot be changed, it could be made obsolete. “Today varna is obsolete but jathis are not.”
  • Varna provided a whole language for discussion of social order: Rules of inclusion and exclusion in rituals of purity and pollution; rules for spousal selection; and choice of occupation
  • they have been considerably weakened over the years.
  • More inter caste marriages are happening these days, and the law has rendered these ancient rules without legal validity.
  • Today caste is only generally associated with occupatio
  • eople in rural areas are less obsessed with caste than those in the cities
  • education and employment are two domains in which strife and conflict between castes exists.
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