A caste system is a social system where people are ranked into groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste systems are found outside India.
The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one’s birth and may only rarely be transcended. Certain religious minorities may voluntarily constitute a quasi-caste within a society, but they are less apt to be characterised by cultural distinctiveness than their self-imposed social segregation.
A specialised labour group may operate as a caste within a society otherwise free of distinctions (e.g., the ironsmiths in parts of Africa). In general caste functions to maintain the status quo in a society.
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Nowhere is caste better exemplified degree of complexity systematic operation than in India. The Indian term for caste is jati, which generally designates a group varying in size from a handful to many thousands. There are thousands of such jatis, and each has its distinctive rules, customs, and modes f of government.
The term vernal (literally meaning ‘colors’ refers to the ancient and somewhat ideal fourfold division of Hindu society: (1) the Brahmans, the priestly and learned class; (2) the Kshatriyas, the warriors and rulers; (3) the Vaisyas, farmers and merchants; and (4) the Sudras, peasants and labourers.
These divisions may have corresponded to what were formerly large, broad, undifferentiated social classes. Below the category of Sudras were the untouchables, or Panchamas (literally ‘fifth division’), who performed the most menial tasks.
Although there has been much confusion between the two, jati and vernal are different in origin as well as function. The various castes in any given region of India are hierarchically organised, with each caste corresponding roughly to one or die other of the Varna categories.
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Traditionally, caste mobility has taken the form of movement up or down the Varna scale Indian castes are rigidly differentiated by rituals and beliefs that pervade all thought and conduct. Extreme upper and lower castes differ so widely in habits of everyday life and worship that only the close intergrading of intervening castes and the inter-caste language communities serve to hold them together within the single framework of Indian society.
The explanation that Indian castes were originally based of; color lines to preserve the racial and cultural purity conquering groups is inadequate historically to account the physical and cultural variety of such groups. Castes many reflect distinctiveness of religious practice, occupation, locale, culture status, or tribal affiliation, either exclusively or in part.
Divergence within a caste on any of these lines will tend to produce fission that may, in time, result in die formation of new castes. Every type of social group as it appears may be fitted into this system of organising society.
The occupational barriers among Indian castes have been breaking down slowly under economic pressures since the 19th century, but social distinctions have been more persistent. Attitudes toward the untouchables only began to change in the 1930s under the influence of Mohandas Gandhi’s teachings.
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Although untouchability was declared illegal in 1949, resistance to change has remained strong, especially in rural areas. As increased industrialisation produced new occupations and new social and political functions evolved, the caste system adapted and thus far has not been destroyed.