03-10-2019
To Discuss…..
Caste system
Origins, Features &
transFOrmatiOns
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Caste Origins - Aryan Migration
 3000 BCE – Indus valley Civilization
 1500 BCE – Aryans migrate (invasion) –
Indo European origins – Lake Aries in Iran
 Aryans – Nomadic tribes – looking for
pastures – settled in the Indus valley –
raised cattle and horses
 Aryan Religion, culture and language –
mix with the cultures in the Indus river
valley
4 5
Hindus – Changing Connotations
 Hindustan – referred to the territory –
Hindustanis –inhabitants
 Colonial period – consolidation of
Hinduism as a primal and ancient religion
of the subcontinent
7 8
Caste – Social Institution


Vedic Age and Aryan Migration
Hindus – Changing connotations
 Documentation– Manusmriti
 European colonization - Casta
 Consolidation of caste as a nomenclature
 Diverse theories on the origin of the
caste system
 Features of the Caste System
 Transformations – Caste system
3
Hindus – Changing Connotations
 Hinduism – a mixture of the cultures of
Aryan and Indus valley
 Hindu - was originally Sindhu – referring to
the Indus river – Sindhus – people living by
the river banks
 Persians – pronounced Sindhus as Hindus
 Hindu – in ancient times - did not refer to a
person’s religion
 Hindus – in ancient India – not a person’s
religion – a geographical location
6
Vedic age and Aryan migration
 Scholars – Joanna Liddle and Rama Joshi –
consider Aryan invasion as the basis or
beginnings of caste system
 Pre- Aryan culture was egalitarian and
free from caste (Liddle & Joshi)
 Vedic age – culminated with Aryan
migration – Rig veda - origins of the caste
system
9
 Caste – a pivotal marker of a person’s
identity – central symbol for India (Dirks,
2001)
 Predominant feature of the Hindu Social
organization
 Caste an integral part of the Indian
society and culture
 Manifested in diverse beliefs and practices
- contemporary times – caste – plays a
pivotal role in socio-political organization
Hindus – Changing Connotations
 In ancient times – Hinduism – referred to
as Brahminism – alongside Buddhism and
Jainism – violent confrontations
 Brahminism – absorbed many indigenous
traditions – attained social and political
hegemony during 6th and 10th CE
 During the same period – subcontinent –
referred to as Hindustan or Al-Hind in
Arabic
Rig Veda – social divisions
 Rig Veda – ‘Purushashukta’ - describes the
origin of the universe through a ritual
performed by Gods – Sacrifice of a
“cosmic being” – Purusha
 Four Varnas – believed to have emanated
from different parts of the body of
Purusha
 Brahmins – Mouth ; Kshatriya – two arms
; Vaishya – thighs ; Shudra – feet

Documenting Caste - Manusmriti
 Manu , codifier of laws - Manusmriti (Law book of Manu) –
explains that for the sake of preservation of the entirety of
creation – Purusha – assigned separate duties to each varna
 Brahmin- teaching, performing sacrificial rites (twice-born)
Kshatriya – protection of people, giving away wealth and

performance of sacrificial rites(twice-born)
 Vaishyas – trade and commerce, agriculture, performance of
sacrificial rites (twice-born)
 Shudras – subservient to the other three classes and serve
them sincerely
10
Iberian Ideology - Purity of Descent
 Charles Boxer, historian of Dutch and Portuguese
Maritime history – Iberian attitudes and
convictions – racial ideologies spread across the
globe
 Earliest instance of purity of blood – in Spain
against the Jewish and Muslim converts to
Christianity – use of ethonym “Moro” – ethnic
Muslims in Philippines
 Muslim and black Africans – systematically cast as
evil and inferior respectively
 Certain occupations like executioner and tanner
– deemed to “stain “ the character of the
practitioner and his descendants
13
European Casta – Parallels in India
 16th
century – Mughal administration
used the term “qaum” for dominant
groups in the society
 Western India – “Qaum” – “Khum” –
denominate various communities
 Nomenclatures vary from region to
region
 East - “ Quam” – religion “Zat” – caste
 West – “quam” – caste , “Zat”- tribe or
clan
16
Caste as a nomenclature
 Portuguese – early conquest of Asian
waters – their tongue became the lingua
franca in the Asian seas.
 Casta – Portuguese – initially a collective
noun - referred to pure blood-line or
species
 Casta – applied to humans – alluded to a
social order centered on “pure descent”
– purity and nobility
11
Iberian Ideology - Purity of Descent
 “……..the ideology of purity of blood had
produced a Spanish society obsessed with
genealogy and in particular with the idea
that having only Christian ancestors, and
thus a “pure lineage” was the critical sign
of a person’s loyalty to the faith. Descent
and religion – blood and faith – were the
two foundations of that ideology”
- Martinez, Maria Genealogical
Fictions
14
Caste – established nomenclature
 European powers – initially found the
segregations in Indian society useful for
administration
 Caste becomes an established nomenclature
to describe the divisions within the Hindu
society
 Sixteenth century onwards - Caste system –
amalgamated European notions of racial
purity with Brahminical notions of religious
purity (which included ideas of
contamination and bodily substance)
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Caste as a nomenclature
Iberian kingdoms – Spain and portugal –

obsessed with the ideology of purity of
blood
 Spain and Portugal – pioneered overseas
expansion – initiated the Atlantic slave trade
in the 15th and 16th centuries
 1494 – papal endorsement – divided the
non- Christian world between them
 Spain and Portugal – trade world wide – 17th
century – trade between Goa and Portugal
12
 Portuguese and the later European
powers colonizing India – comfortable
with Brahminic order of the Hindu
society
 Casta was deployed in inventive ways by
the European powers in Asia
15
Caste System Origins - Theories
 Religious theory - caste system –
divine origin -Doctrines of ‘Karma” and
‘Dharma”
 Karma –a person born into a particular
caste due to actions in the previous birth
 Dharma – living according to the
respective caste norms and principles
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Caste System Origins - Theories
 Occupational theory – Nesfield –
castes developed according to the
occupation of people
 Economic Theory – Morton Klass and
Gail Omvedt – caste system emerged due
to unequal distribution of land and wealth
 Political theory – Ghurye – caste
system a device by the Brahmins to
remain the most influential in state
governance
19
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Social exchange – in the form of marriage
alliance – rare – occurred ‘within’ the
community and not ‘between’
communities
 Klass argues that this pre-caste Asian
system – endogamous clusters of
exogamous non- stratified equalitarian
hunting and gathering community –
transformed – stratified socio-economic
system – Caste
22
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Population pressure –absence of free land
 Klass points out – effects of population
increase – region divided into three
distinct categories
1. Those who own cultivable lands
2. Those who are willing to establish
settlements in other regions
3. Those who seek to remain in the
territory and seek some means of
sharing the harvest
25
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Morton Klass – Caste : The Emergence of
South Asian Social System
 Klass - accepts the theory that Aryans
invaded India
 However, rejects the theory propounded by
Liddle and Joshi that the Aryan invasion was
the basis of the caste formation in India
 Klass argues – before the stratification of the
society – subcontinent was inhabited by
various hunting and gathering societies
20
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Klass attributes “absolute surplus” as one
of the main reasons of caste system
 His theory based on Marvin Harris
research paper titled “ The Economy has
no Surplus” which emphasizes that for
occurrence of stratification anywhere, the
occurrence of ‘absolute surplus’ is
necessary
23
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Agricultural economy – sanctions the
emergence of ‘land owning groups’ and
‘landless groups’ dependent on the former
for survival
 Landless groups offered services in exchange
for the share of harvest
 Services – ranged from working in the fields
to animal husbandry
 Slowly, it included menial jobs from clearing
night soil to burying the dead
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Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Based on different ecosystems – there
must have been significant differences in
terms of social organization and ideology
 Groups should have been economically
and socially independent - spoke different
and mutually unintelligible languages
 Economic exchange must have been
minimal and reciprocal – restricted to raw
materials
21
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Klass theorizes – the emergence of
agriculture as an alternative occupation for
livelihood had engineered stratification
among hunting and gathering societies
 The advent of agriculture – resulted in the
acquisition of cultivable land
 At an earlier stage – land might have been
available in plenty
 Increasing number of communities shifting
occupation - hunting to agriculture –
cultivable land must have slowly become
scarce
24
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 The social divide between the landowners and
landless – enabled the emergence of ‘absolute
surplus’
 Klass argues – ‘absolute surplus’ coupled with
‘equalitarian clan’ structured societies – led to
caste stratified societies – different occupations
were subsumed under the notion of Varna
 Endogamy characterized the social groups –
exogamy characterized the sub-units within the
group – which later came to be referred to as Jati
 Exchange of goods and services between the
groups – based on hierarchy
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Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 John Nesfield’s Brief View of the Caste
System of the North-Western Provinces and
Oudh (1885)
 Occupational theory – echoes Klass ideas
on the emergence of caste system
 Nesfield – castes originated in the division
of labor or specialization of various
functions in society
 Nesfield – gradation of castes in India
correspond to the levels of civilization
28
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
Colonial Interventions
 Omvedt – In India - Pre- capitalist societies –
classes were defined not merely in economic
terms – rather in social, religious, political
and other super structural forms
 Beginning of capitalism during the colonial
rule – caste system was separated from the
class structure
 Colonial government redefined and reshaped
caste as a separate social phenomenon
31
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
Colonial Interventions
 However, pre-existing power, wealth and
social status of the upper castes enabled
them to control the lands legally as
“landlords”
 British aligned with the landlords for
political stability
 Village production – organized through
jajmani or yajman system continued to
subordinate the artisans and untouchable
laborers
34
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
 Primitive occupation of hunting – earliest
occupation of human beings - correspond
to the lowest castes
 Next in order were the fishing castes
 Above them the pastoral castes
 Agricultural castes above pastoral castes
 At the top were the Kshatriayas – the
ruling class and Brahmins – their priests
and guru
29
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
Colonial Interventions
 In the feudal society – the very
structuring of the relations of production
were defined in terms of caste
 During harvest times – agricultural
produce was distributed based on the
services performed by different castes
 Caste – a crucial aspect in defining the
relations to production
32
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
Colonial Interventions
 Colonial government maintained the pre-
capitalist forms of production for stabilizing
its power
 Though caste was formally separated from
class – both continued to be interlinked in
colonial and post-colonial India
 Caste and class – socio-economic material
base in India – on which the social, religious
and political superstructures are formed
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Caste as a Socio- Economic system
Colonial Interventions
 Gail Omvedt – Similar to Klass and Nesfield
– interconnectedness of caste and class
 Gail Omvedt – Caste, Class and land in India
 Marxist analyses – base in the Indian social
structure – caste and class
Omvedt – caste has co existed with different

modes of production
 System of caste relied on the existence of
surplus and economic inequality
30
Caste as a Socio- Economic system
Colonial Interventions
 During the colonial period – Indian feudalism
was transformed to suit the needs of the
development of capitalism in Britain
 British imposed legal relationships of land
ownership and tenancy, which in turn was
suppose to abolish the pre-existing caste
based access to land
 Legal rights of property ownership –
produced classes of landlords , tenants and
laborers – legal –economic entities formally
separated from caste system
33
Caste as a Religious phenomenon
 Contrary to socio-economic interpretation of the
caste system – Hocart, Dumont and Ambedkar
theorize religious ideology as the basis for the
functioning of the case system
 Analysis of caste – based on Vedic theory -
however, they differ in their analysis
 Dumont – hierarchy – predominant feature of the
caste system
 Hocart – sacrificial ritual – pivotal element of the
caste system
 Ambedkar – endogamy – basic characteristic of
the caste system
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Hierarchy - Central feature of the
Caste system
 Dumont – Homo Heirarchichus - most
influential contribution to the study of
caste in India
 Dumont – draws a distinction between
traditional and modern societies
 Traditional ideology – places the highest
value on the moral value of the society
 Modern ideology – places highest value
on the idea of the individual
37
Principles of the caste system
 Celestin Bougle –enumerated three principle
features of the caste system – separation,
interdependence and hierarchy
 Separation – in matters of marriage and
social contact
 Interdependence – each group assigned a
specific profession and depend on the
services of other communities
 Hierarchy – ranks the groups as relatively
superior or inferior to one another
40
Refuting Dumont’s theory
 Dumont’s theory – criticized as Brahminic
view of caste – fails to reflect the actual,
lived world of caste
 M.N.Srinivas – there are two models of
caste – Varna – Vedic classification of the
four ranked occupational orders – Jati –
ranked hereditary, endogamous and
occupational groups
 Jati model – the power of the king is
substituted by the dominant caste
 Jati model of caste in a village – dominant
caste and the Brahmins assume supremacy
43
Hierarchy - Central feature of the
Caste system
 Traditional society – holistic
 Modern society – individualistic
 Modern west – hierarchy or inequality is
perceived in terms of “exploitation”,
“discrimination”, or “segregation”
 In traditional society – hierarchy is
perceived in terms of holism
 Dumont – interprets the principle of
hierarchy as “the attribution of a rank to
each element in relation to the whole “
38
Hierarchy - Purity and Pollution
 Dumont insists that the three characteristics
are reducible to “single principle of
hierarchy” premised on the notions of purity
and pollution
 Based on the principle of purity - Brahmins
were accorded the highest status in the
caste structure
 Brahmins – enjoyed ritual status- performed
the sacrificial rites on behalf of the king –
guaranteed the spiritual welfare of their
political masters
41
Refuting Dumont’s Theory
 In some areas dominant caste show respect to
Brahmins
 However, there are areas where the dominant
castes are antogonistic to Brahmins and refuse to
consider them as higher caste
 Srinivas – argues – Brahmins assumed importance
at the royal or kingly level to legitimate the
powers of the king in the coronation ceremony
 Absence of coronation ceremony in the jati
system – relegates the importance of the
Brahmins
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Hierarchy - Central feature of the
Caste system
 Since the ranking is religious in nature –
there is consensus of values regarding
hierarchy in traditional societies
 Dumont – we need to transcend our
modern individualistic ideology to
understand the holistic vision of the
traditional society
39
Purity and Pollution
 Politically dominant Kshatriyas ranked next in
order
 Other ranks in society – segregated according to
the hierarchical principle of purity and impurity
 Caste order – Apex – Brahmins – Bottom –
untouchables
 Opposition between pure and impure was
sustained by the ritual status of the Brahmins and
political power of the Kshatriyas
 Dumont – in the ideology of caste – temporal
authority of the kings subordinated to the
spiritual authority of the Brahmans
42
Brahmins –degrees of purity
 Quigley contends Dumont’s claim –
Brahmins form the apex of caste hierarchy
because of their purity
 Quigley argues – to regard Brahmins as the
purest in the caste structure is a position
fraught with contradictions - varying degrees
of purity assigned to different Brahmins
 Quigley – priestly activity is a source of
degradation and impurity – priesthood is the
quintessential source of impurity
45

Brahmins – degrees of purity
 Quigley – “purest” Brahmin is the renouncer -
who does not belong to the ordinary world of
social relations – does not perform any priestly
function and does not accept any reward
 Next in order – guru purohita - Brahmin who
functions as the spiritual guide
 Among the Brahmins workings as priests –
highest – purohita – family priests performing
sacrificial rituals for wealthy patrons - the
impurity of the patron is supposed to have been
absorbed by the family priests, through the
payments he receives for performing the rituals
46
Hocart – Caste order
 Hocart – Kshatriyas- highest in the caste
order - Second in caste hierarchy –
Brahmins who perform rituals for the
king – third in caste order – Vaishyas –
support the king and the Brahmans –the
lowest – Shudras
49
Pre-colonial period
Heterogeneous Social identity
 Pre-colonial India – caste was not a single
logic for categorization and identity
 Regional, village, residential and temple
communities, territorial groups, lineage
segments and occupational groups were
other significant units of identification
 Social identity was importantly political
and political affiliations decided the way
caste was organized in pre-colonial India
52
Brahmins – degrees of purity
 The temple priests are considered
inferior to family priests – since they
absorb the impurity of all and sundry –
who make offerings to the gods in the
temple
 The funeral priests are lower in rank than
the temple priests – absorb the pollution
of death
 Lowest in order – priests who officiate as
funeral priests to lower castes
47
Caste as a Colonial Construct
 Scholars like Bernard Cohn, Ronald Inden and
Nicholas Dirks argue – caste is a product of
colonialist imperial designs to strengthen their
power over the native Indians
 Colonial government endeavored to gain not only
political control but also cultural domination
 Efforts to construct a Oriental “other” the British
in Colonial India labeled beliefs, customs and
practices as tradition
 Foremost among the social institutions was Caste
system identified as traditional and opposed to
western modernity
50
Caste titles - Political in origin
Dirks points out – present standardized
caste titles and social positions were
political markers in the old regime of
kingship
 Dirks points out – in pre-colonial India -
the structure of privileged landholdings
reflects the structure of political power
and social positions in the state and
village institutions
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Kshatriyas – the highest rank
 Hocart – caste system – revolves around
four concepts – Kingship, domination,
ritual and pollution
 Hocart assets – Kshatriya caste – at the
apex of the caste system
 King’s function – offer sacrifices for the
well-being of the community
 Since performing rituals brings pollution –
the king commands the Brahmin priests
to perform the rituals
48
Caste always political
 Nicholas Dirks argues – caste was not a
basic tradition or core civilizational value in
ancient India.
 During the colonial period – caste became a
central symbol of Indian society
 Dirks counters the notion that caste is a
fundamental religious and social order
 He argues that caste has always been
political and has shaped political struggle and
processes in pre-colonial India.(Dirks Castes
of Mind)
51
Caste titles - Political in origin
 Dirks draws evidence from an analysis of princely
kingdom – Pudukkottai in Tamil nadu
 Pre-colonial period – Tondaiman dynasty of Kallar
kings ruled Pudukkottai
 Based on archival evidence – Dirks affirms –
seventy five percent of agricultural land enjoyed
tax free benefice or inam
 The chief landholders in Puddukottai during the
Kallar regime – Jagirdars and Cervaikarars
 Jagirdars – collateral relations of the king –had
small courts – enjoyed full inam grants
 Cervaikarar – same subcaste as the king –
enjoyed inam grants
54

Caste titles - Political in origin
 Kuriakarars – Kallar subcaste but not the
same as the king - enjoyed lesser inam grants
than the Jagirdar and Cervaikar certainly
more benefits and privileges than the other
communities in Pudukottai
 Uriaykarar – different caste (not Kallars)
Akampatiyar caste– protected the royal
family and court – due to their connections
to the king enjoyed more benefits than
other Akampatiyars in Pudukottai
55
Social hierarchy – not determined
by caste
 Pre-colonial period – social hierarchy was
not determined by caste but by political
hierarchy and the proximity to the royal
family
 Dirks - Politics was fundamental to the
processes of hierarchy and the formation
of units of identity
58
Hegemony of Brahminical
Discourses
 Colonial government – sanctioned the
hegemony of Brahminical discourses on
caste
 Brahmin and non – Brahmin categories were
consolidated during the British period –
survived much longer than the colonial
regime
 Dirks – During the British period – caste
became a single term to express and
systematize diverse forms of social identity,
community and organization
61
Caste titles - Political in origin
 The village headman – called Ambalam –were
from the Kallar or Maravar caste – enjoyed
grants of land
 In some places the occupational term
Ambalam was used as caste title
 Maniam or inam lands were given by the
state to the village officers or headman or
priests of small temples or shrines
 Since receiving maniyam from the state -
accorded a privileged status and established
links with the king , in some areas it came to
designate a social and caste title Maniyakar
56
Colonial period
Ascendance of Brahmins
 Colonial period – Brahmins assumed importance
because of their knowledge of the Vedas and religious
scriptures
 Rebellion of 1857 - the need to consolidate British
sovereignty over Indians
 British administration – for matters of governance –
counted and classified Indians based on their social
identity – caste emerged as a fundamental marker of
Identity to know and rule India
 British relied on Brahminical knowledge in all
religious matters - ideology of purity common ground
in European and Hindu social order - established the
superiority of Brahmins – notions of purity and
pollution consolidated during the colonial period
59
Caste not a Colonial Construct
 Susan Bayle – The New Cambridge History of India,
1999
 Bayle – refutes the idea – caste was a colonial
construct
 Though the subcontinent became more caste –
conscious during the colonial regime – erroneous to
focus only on the colonial regime
 Bayle points out – pre- colonial period - Mughal
commentators had written about the prevalence of
caste system
 Bayle – British were not the first to classify caste
groups – census was taken during the Nayakar regime
in South Tamil Nadu in the pre-colonial period
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Brahmins – not any special status
 Dirks points out - Brahmin priests were
granted lands –but they did not enjoy any
special status in the society – gained
respect from the kings due to their
knowledge
 Dirks argues – in the Kallar regime – the
kings enjoyed absolute authority and the
temporal authority was not subordinated
to spiritual authority
57
The role of census - colonial period
 Census taken in 1881 and 1931 further
consolidated the caste system
 British –slotted all Hindu groups into caste-
ordered pigeonholes
 Bernard Cohn – anthropologist – principle
of organization – place castes within the four
Varna or as outcastes
 Cohn – 1881 census – the then Lieutenant
Governor – ordered that any confusion
about a caste’s position – to be resolved by
consulting and clarifying with an eminent
Brahmin scholar
60
Anthropometric/ racial classification
 Bayle – refutes the theory that the British pigeonholed caste
identities
 Landowners from castes middle or lower in hierarchy –
consolidated themselves as a superior caste through the
census
 Bayle – Caste was not a single category of classification
during the colonial period
 Colonial officers – Herbert Risely, Edgar Thurston and
Hunter – Risely used anthropometric method of analyzing
physical features - sought to categorize Indians on racial
basis
 Anthropometric classification – divided Indians into seven
racial types – with fair skinned Aryans as the most
ethnologically “advanced” and dark-skinned Dravidians as
most “primitive”
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Caste - Changing Configurations

Caste System – Features Caste - Changing Configurations
Substantialisation of Castes
 Pre-colonial and colonial period – legitimized  Louis Dumont – modern Indian society –
caste discrimination
 Social divisions of the Hindu community  Modern independent Indian society –
hierarchical ranking of caste has been
 Hereditary and Occupational status Constructional equality – political leveling of caste dismantled – each caste has become
 Hierarchy – Vertical structure
– caste hierarchy cannot be legitimately defended distinctive
in public spaces
 Traditional “interdependence” of caste –
 Endogamy  Chris Fuller, M.N.Srinivas and Andre Bateille –
elimination of hierarchical values from legitimate replaced by “competition”
 Commensal restrictions public discourse – does not negate the existence  Dumont – Substantialisation of castes –
 Restrictions in intake of food of caste
 Caste –an empirical fact of social change – its
transition from structure to substance–
 Notions of purity and pollution move from vertical to horizontal – each
meaning has been altered and transformed over
the years caste assuming importance

64 65 66

Caste - Changing Configurations Socio - Economic status in lieu of

Substantialisation of Castes
 Dumont – Substantialistion – confined to the politico-economic
domain – does not signify a fundamental transformation of the
caste system
Fuller – Dumont’s theory of Substantialisation – evident at the

ideological level but contradictory at the empirical level
 Substantialisation – castes become internally heterogeneous – each
caste emerging stronger but there is an increasing differentiation of
status, power and wealth developing within each caste – difference
rather than hierarchy becomes a marker of separation
 Michael Mofatt – castes lower in hierarchy replicate caste hierarchy
within their caste group – e.g. Heirarchy within the Scheduled caste
Commensal norms and Endogamy
Caste
 Mayer – study on the changing nature of caste values in Ramkheri , a village
in north India from 1954 - 1992  Andre Bateille – meaning and legitimacy of
 Mayer – 1954 – caste – pivotal aspect of an individual’s social position and caste has changed significantly in urban

identity
Commensality – deciding factor in caste rank
spaces
 Commensal relations – expressed through taking kacca food(food cooked  Urban India – more status conscious than

in water), drawing water from common wells and smoking together
Prohibition of commensal values – implied that the caste was superior or
caste conscious
distinct  Difference in status due to education,
 1992 when Mayer visited the village – anti-caste legislation and political
equality – commensal norms changed – no separate dining for the lower
occupation and income assumes more
castes importance than caste
Mayer - Overt level – commensal changes – Covert level – commensal
 Modern India – the social world of a

restrictions followed by the upper castes
 Caste endogamy continues to be followed Brahmin judge, engineer and a diplomat not
 However, caste-based occupations not followed equal to a Brahmin cook or a temple priest

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Socio - Economic status – in lieu of Sanskritisation – Emulation of Caste in the Public &
Caste Brahminical practices Domestic Sphere
 While economic status is valued within  M.N.Srinivas – explains the changing nature  Fuller – despite a consistent denial of
of caste in terms od ‘‘Sanskritisation’’
the civil society – in the political domain caste in the public domain evaluations of
 Sanskritisation – Emulation and
caste identities are strengthened appropriation of Brahminical practices by caste differences continue to prevail in
 After independence – extensive use of subordinated castes – endeavor towards the private sphere
upward mobility
caste affiliations for the mobilization of  Srinivas – “Sanskritisation” not in the
 Inequalities based on cultural
political support during elections political - more in the social domain distinctiveness are widely recognized and
 Most importantly – implementation of  Karanath – views this emulation by the approved in the domestic sphere, though
Mandal commission report gave a fresh lower castes as an act of defiance not endorsed in public
 Karanath – Sanskritisation – more an act of
lease to caste identities resistance than imitation

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English as Meta Language
 Vivek Dhareshwar – English acts as a “meta
language” – those who appropriate English
are free from caste and religious markings
 Modern subjectivity framed in English has
allowed caste to be restricted to the private
domain suffused with the vernacular
 Casteism – invariable associated with the
lower castes
 However, in the 1990’s with Mandal
commission recommendations – Caste
became a central focus of public discourses
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Caste in other religions
 Does conversion to Christianity or Islam
mitigate caste segregations?
 Louis Dumont – interrogates the existence
of caste among non-Hindus
 Dumont – Caste in non – Hindu societies is
“ weakened or incomplete, but not lacking
altogether”
 Though non – Hindu communities follow a
different theology from Hinduism they are
not independent of their environment in
which caste values are vibrant
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Caste in other religions
 Chris Fuller – study of Syrian Christians In Kerala – in
spite of the theological differences between Syrian
Christians and Hindus in Kerala , people from both
the groups share a common ideological
conceptualization of caste
 Early missionaries – determined to deny any public
recognition of caste
 However, over the years – missionaries tolerant of
some of the caste practices carried out by converts
 Hyphenated identities like Nadar-Christians,Vellala
Christians and Dalit- Christians prevalent in
contemporary society
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM85zVt6xCU
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