Caste System (India)

The traditional view of caste system in India is largely associated with the rituals and practices of Hindus, wherein social stratification is explained and justified in terms of purity and pollution. The concepts of purity and pollution are complex, but in general are interpreted in terms of deeds, occupation, language, dress patterns, and food habits. One can also distinguish between timed pollution—at birth and death—and internal and external pollution, which originates from either a polluting action or an object, and thus, there is a connection between ritual purity and matters of hygiene and sanitation. The caste system is an ancient institution with its origin in religious ideology; the social, economic, and political organization of the village; and rituals and traditions that evolved over centuries. The system is usually used to describe the whole varna-jati system where varna is a design to organize society, and jati refers to communities and subcommunities often identified with their respective job functions. There are four varnas— Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra—which represent the functional hierarchy among Hindus within the caste system. D. L. Sheth cites a 16th-century empirical work of Portuguese writer and trader Duarte Barbosa who identified caste in India as a hierarchy with the ritually purest Brahmans at the top and Shudras (untouchables) at the bottom; untouchability as linked to the idea of pollution; separation of castes by endogamy, occupation, and commensality; application of sanctions by castes to maintain customs and rules; and relationship of caste with the political organization. Although the traditional varna hierarchy has diminished over the years, and untouchability was abolished after India's independence in 1947, a large number of jatis, despite having undergone changes over time, continue to have an important place and identity in the social structure of India.

During British colonial rule in India, caste was seen in terms of local hierarchies that were embedded in the religious and cultural context of a region. By the end of British rule, the caste system had undergone many changes in the horizontal organization of castes occupying a similar location in different local hierarchies, and development of a [Page 91]collective identity among lower castes that led them to question the traditional caste hierarchy through the modern ideas of justice and equality. During the first two decades after India's independence, the Congress Party evolved a stable electoral base across castes by expressing political issues in terms of common priorities of economic development and national integration. A key factor in the success of the Congress Party was its strategy of forming a vertical link between the upper-caste national elite and the numerically strong but traditionally lower-caste landowning peasants who were typically located in the rural areas. Since the mid-1970s, the lower castes of peasants, artisans, and the ex-untouchables began to challenge the political domination of the Congress Party, which found it increasingly difficult to manage the aspirations and demand of these castes. This development was helped by the affirmative action policy of the state that provided quotas for government jobs and education seats for selected lower castes—scheduled castes (SCs)—and tribal communities—schedule tribes (STs)—as well as by the escalation of appeals made by many non-Congress parties that mobilized their support primarily on the basis of caste.

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