It is borrowed from the Portuguese word 'casta', meaning pure breed.

Varna and jati.

Four: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra.

Roughly three thousand years old.

Endogamy.

Purity and pollution.

The census, especially 1901 under Herbert Risley.

Depressed classes, including untouchables, for special state treatment.

Lower castes adopting upper caste rituals to raise status.

M.N. Srinivas.

• Varna is a broad, all-India four-fold classification based on color and occupation.
• Jati refers to local, regional sub-classifications with thousands of castes.
• Varna excludes outcastes; jati includes complex hierarchies varying by region.
• Scholars debate exact relation, but jati seen as varna's local manifestation.
• Ex: Brahmana varna spans many jatis like regional priests.

• Birth-determined: Inherited from parents, no choice.
• Endogamy: Marriage within caste only.
• Food rules: Prescribed diets and sharing limits.
• Hierarchy: Ranked system with status positions.
• Segmental: Sub-castes within each caste.
• Occupational: Hereditary jobs exclusive to caste.

• Surveys and censuses (e.g., 1901) recorded hierarchies, rigidifying fluid identities.
• Petitions for higher rank showed competition and official validation.
• 1935 Act created Scheduled Castes/Tribes for welfare.
• Unintended: Made caste more enumerated and political.
• Ex: British ethnologists' reports on customs.

• Pure: Close to sacred, high status (e.g., Brahmins).
• Polluting: Distant/opposed, low status (e.g., outcastes).
• Linked to power: Defeated in wars assigned low.
• Rules prevent mixing to maintain distinctions.
• Ex: Upper castes avoid lower's touch/food.

• Mobilized depressed classes against untouchability (1920s protests).
• Reformers like Phule, Ambedkar, Gandhi pushed abolition.
• Congress agenda included upliftment while reassuring upper castes.
• Treated caste as colonial divide-and-rule evil.
• Ex: Gandhi-Ambedkar Poona Pact.

• Process where lower castes emulate upper rituals for status rise.
• Involves adopting vegetarianism, Sanskrit names, festivals.
• Criticized for reinforcing hierarchy, not challenging it.
• Common in middle/lower castes.
• Ex: Leather workers adopting Brahmin-like purity rites.

• Intermediate castes with land rights, numbers, economic/political power post-reforms.
• Not upper but influential in villages/regions.
• Depend on lower labor but gained from absentee landlord dispossession.
• Key in electoral democracy.
• Ex: Yadavs (Bihar/UP), Marathas (Maharashtra).

• Created non-traditional jobs, weakening occupational rules.
• Collective living erodes segregation.
• Liberal ideas reduce extremes, but recruitment often caste-based.
• Prejudice persists, less extreme than villages.
• Ex: Mumbai mills with caste-dominated departments.

• Most marriages still within caste boundaries.
• Modernization flexible for similar status groups.
• Cultural/domestic sphere least changed.
• Patrolled borders maintain distinctions.
• Ex: Increasing but minority inter-caste unions.

• Upper/urban classes see decline due to privileges.
• Actually, caste reinforces inequalities subtly.
• Development benefits them most.
• Lower castes experience persistence.
• Ex: Elite denial vs. reservation debates.

• Late Vedic (900-500 BC): Varna system with four divisions, fluid and not birth-based.
• Movement across categories common; not rigid or elaborate.
• Post-Vedic: Became birth-determined, rigid institution with strict rules.
• Excluded outcastes; jati emerged as local complexities.
• Scriptural prescriptions on endogamy, food, occupation enforced.
• Linked to inequality: Upper high status, lower endless subordination.
• Ex: Early varna as occupational guilds vs. later hereditary traps.
• Debate: Continuous system or period-specific forms.

• Difference/separation: Rules prevent mixing (marriage, food, interaction, occupation).
• Wholism/hierarchy: Castes complementary in total societal whole, ranked ladder.
• Purity-pollution: Pure (sacred-close) high; polluting low status.
• Power association: Economic/military linked to rank; defeated low-assigned.
• Non-competing: Each caste's place fixed, no mobility in division of labour.
• Segmental sub-divisions maintain internal order.
• Ex: Brahmins pure, avoid Shudra pollution.
• Expanded: Balances individualism vs. collective interdependence.

• Began 1860s, regular from 1881; 1901 Risley sought rank order.
• Petitions with evidence claimed higher positions, showing fluidity pre-census.
• Official recording rigidified identities, gave new life to institution.
• Administrative surveys by ethnologists documented customs.
• Unintended: Turned local hierarchies into enumerated national ones.
• Scholars: More colonial product than ancient tradition.
• Ex: Hundreds of caste reps to Commissioner.
• Relevance: Basis for modern reservations.

• Constitution abolishes untouchability, caste distinctions.
• No radical economic reforms undermining inequality base.
• Caste-blind policies (e.g., jobs) except SC/ST reservations.
• Assumed blindness leads to erosion; contradicted by resilience.
• Nationalist legacy: Upliftment without upper caste alienation.
• Development intensified changes but caste adapted.
• Ex: Equal competition favored educated uppers.
• Debate: Partial break or continuity.

• Industry created new jobs without caste rules.
• Urbanization's collective living challenged segregation.
• Recruitment often kinship/caste-based (e.g., mills).
• Prejudice lingered, milder in cities.
• Private sector sped change, but caste networks persisted.
• Land reforms empowered intermediate castes.
• Ex: Jute mills with regional caste floors.
• Expanded: Modernity erodes but doesn't eliminate.

• From independence: Conditioned democratic functioning.
• Early elections: Solidarities decisive.
• Later: Complex party competitions using caste calculus.
• 1980s: Explicit caste-based parties emerged.
• Dominant castes key in regions via numbers/power.
• M.N. Srinivas concepts explain processes.
• Ex: Yadavs in Bihar elections.
• Relevance: Central yet unpredictable.

• Began 19th century: Upper reformers + lower leaders.
• Phule (Satyashodhak), Ayyankali (roads/schools), Guru (one caste), Periyar (rationalism).
• Gandhi/Ambedkar 1920s protests vs. untouchability.
• Nationalist agenda: Abolish as social evil.
• Empowered depressed classes pre-independence.
• Legacy: Constitutional abolition, reservations.
• Ex: Phule's scorn for purity rules.
• Debate: Success in law vs. practice.

• Endogamy: Most marriages intra-caste despite increases.
• Domestic practices least affected by modernity.
• Flexible for similar socio-economic groups.
• Food/ritual rules persist in homes.
• Politics amplifies via vote banks.
• Upper denial hides lower persistence.
• Ex: Patrolled marriage borders.
• Expanded: Cultural core vs. economic erosion.

• Tribe: Colonial term; now self-defined communities asserting rights.
• Historical marginalization; contemporary struggles (links Ch5).
• Family: Diverse (joint/nuclear); regulates kinship amid change.
• Pressures: Urbanization, women’s roles, caste interlinks.
• Continuity: Endogamy ties to caste.
• Change: Adaptation to modernity.
• Ex: Adivasi self-ID vs. official schedules.
• Goal: Explore evolution like caste.

• Continuity: Core features (hierarchy, endogamy) persist.
• Change: Colonial rigidity, post-independence politics/economy.
• Reforms challenge but don't eradicate inequality.
• Sanskritisation/dominant castes show adaptation.
• Invisibility paradox: Upper see decline, lower not.
• Tribe/family: Similar evolution patterns.
• Ex: Caste from Vedic fluid to modern electoral.
• Holistic: Institutions regulate amid transformations.