caste

—casteism, n. —casteless, adj.

/kast, kahst/, n.

1. Sociol.

a. an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups.

b. any rigid system of social distinctions.

2. Hinduism. any of the social divisions into which Hindu society is traditionally divided, each caste having its own privileges and limitations, transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next; jati. Cf. class. (def. 13).

3. any class or group of society sharing common cultural features: low caste; high caste.

4. social position conferred upon one by a caste system: to lose caste.

5. Entomol. one of the distinct forms among polymorphous social insects, performing a specialized function in the colony, as a queen, worker or soldier.

adj.

6. of, pertaining to, or characterized by caste: a caste society; a caste system; a caste structure.

[1545-55; < Pg casta race, breed, n. use of casta, fem. of casto < L castus pure, CHASTE]

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I

Any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous (see exogamy and endogamy) occupational groups that constitute traditional societies in certain regions of the world, particularly among Hindus in India.

There caste is rooted in antiquity and specifies the rules and restrictions governing social intercourse and activity. Each caste has its own customs that restrict the occupations and dietary habits of its members and their social contact with other castes. There are about 3,000 castes, or jatis (broadly, "form of existence fixed by birth"), and more than 25,000 subcastes in India. They are traditionally grouped into four major classes, or varnas ("colours"). At the top are the Brahmans, followed by the Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. Those with the most defiling jobs (such as those who dispose of body emissions and dead animals) are ranked beneath the Shudras. Considered untouchable, they were simply dubbed as "the fifth" (panchama) category. Although a great many spheres of life in modern India are little influenced by caste, most marriages are nevertheless arranged within the caste. This is in part because most people live in rural communities and because the arrangement of marriages is a family activity carried out through existing networks of kinship and caste.

II

In biology, a subset of individuals within a colony of social animals (chiefly ants, bees, termites, and wasps) that has a specialized function and is distinguished from other subsets by morphological and anatomical differences.

Typical insect castes are the queen (the female responsible for reproduction), workers (the usually sterile female caretakers of the queen, eggs, and larvae), soldiers (defenders of the colony; also sterile females), and sometimes drones (short-lived males). The differentiation of larvae into various castes is often determined by diet, though hormonal and environmental factors can also play a role.

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▪ biology

      in biology, a subset of individuals within a colony (society) of social animals that is specialized in the function it performs and distinguished by anatomical or morphological differences from other subsets.

      Social insects such as ants, bees, termites, and wasps are the main species known to have developed caste systems. Typical castes in insect societies include the queen, the sexual female responsible for reproduction; the workers, the usually sterile caretakers of the queen and her eggs and larvae; and the soldiers, defenders of the colony (and also sterile). Morphological differences between castes, which enable their members' performance of different tasks, are sometimes noted; e.g., the pollen basket on the legs of the worker honeybee (Apis mellifera) does not exist on the queen. In many insect species, differentiation of insect larvae into various castes is determined by diet, although hormonal and environmental factors can also affect development.

▪ social differentiation

Introduction

      any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus (Hinduism) in India. Although sometimes used to designate similar groups in other societies, the “caste system” is uniquely developed in Hindu societies.

      Use of the term caste to characterize social organization in South Asia, particularly among the Hindus, dates to the middle of the 16th century. Casta (from Latin castus, “chaste”) in the sense of purity of breed was employed by Portuguese observers to describe the division of Hindu society in western and southwestern India into socially ranked occupational categories. In an effort to maintain vertical social distance, these groups practiced mutual exclusion in matters relating to eating and, presumably, marrying. Subsequently, cast, or caste, became established in English and major European languages (notably Dutch and French) in the same specific sense. Caste is generally believed to be an ancient, abiding, and unique Indian institution upheld by a complex cultural ideology.

varnas

      It is essential to distinguish between large-scale and small-scale views of caste society, which may respectively be said to represent theory and practice, or ideology and the existing social reality. On the large scale, contemporary students of Hindu society recall an ancient four-fold arrangement of socioeconomic categories called the varnas, which is traced back to an oral tradition preserved in the Rigveda (dating from perhaps 1000 BCE). The Sanskrit word varna has many connotations including description, selection, classification, and colour. Of these, it is colour that appears to have been the intended meaning of the word as used by the Aryan authors of the Rigveda. The Aryans (Aryan) (arya, “noble,” “distinguished”) were the branch of Indo-European peoples that migrated about 1,500 BCE to northwestern India (the Indus Valley and the Punjab Plain), where they encountered the local, dark-skinned people they called the daha (enemies) or the dasyus (servants). It is also likely that the daha included earlier immigrants from Iran. The tendency of some 20th-century writers to reduce the ancient bipolar classification to racial differences on the basis of skin colour is misleading and rightly no longer in vogue.

      The Aryans and the dasyus may have been antagonistic ethnic groups divided by physical features, culture, and language. Whatever their relations, it is likely that they gradually became integrated into an internally plural social order significantly influenced by the prior social organization of the Aryans. A threefold division of society into priests, warriors, and commoners was a part of the Aryan heritage. In an early period, membership in a varna appears to have been based mainly on personal skills rather than birth, status, or wealth. By the end of the Rigvedic period, however, the hereditary principle of social rank had taken root. Thus the purusha (Universal Man) hymn of the Rigveda (probably a late addition to the text) describes the creation of humanity in the form of varnas from a self-sacrificial rite: Brahmans (Brahman) were the mouth of Purusha, from his arms were made the Rajanyas, from his two thighs, the Vaishyas (Vaishya), and the Sudras were born from his feet. The extent to which the ideology's hierarchical ordering of the four groups mirrored the social reality is unknown.

      The highest ranked among the varnas, the Brahmans, were priests and the masters and teachers of sacred knowledge (veda). Next in rank but hardly socially inferior was the ruling class of Rajanya (kinsmen of the king), later renamed Kshatriya, those endowed with sovereignty and, as warriors, responsible for the protection of the dominion (kshatra). A complex, mutually reinforcing relationship of sacerdotal authority and temporal power was obviously shaped over a long period of time.

      Clearly ranked below the two top categories were the Vaishyas (from vish, “those settled on soils”), comprising agriculturists and merchants. These three varnas together were deemed to be “twice-born” (dvija), as the male members were entitled to go through a rite of initiation during childhood. This second birth entitled them to participate in specified sacraments and gave them access to sacred knowledge. They were also entitled alongside their social superiors to demand and receive menial services from the Sudras, the fourth and lowest ranked varna. Certain degrading occupations, such as disposal of dead animals, excluded some Sudras from any physical contact with the “twice-born” varnas. Considered untouchable, they were simply dubbed “the fifth” (panchama) category.

      In the varna framework, the Brahmans have everything, directly or indirectly: “noble” identity, “twice-born” status, sacerdotal authority, and dominion over the Vaishyas and the Sudras, who accounted for the great majority of the people. This is not surprising, for the ancient Brahmans were the authors of the ideology. The four varnas, together with the notional division of the individual life cycle into four stages, or ashramas (brahmacharya, or the years of learning and extreme discipline; garhasthya, or householdership; vanaprastha, or retirement; and sannyasa, or renunciation of all worldly bonds) may at best be considered an archetypical blueprint for the good, moral life. Indeed, the Hindu way of life is traditionally called the varnashrama dharma (duties of the stages of life for one's varna). The varna order remains relevant to the understanding of the system of jatis, as it provides the ideological setting for the patterns of interaction that are continuously under negotiation.

jatis

      Although the term caste has been used loosely to stand for both varna and jati (broadly, “form of existence fixed by birth”), it is jati—the small-scale perspective represented by local village societies—that most scholars have in mind when they write about the caste system of India. Jatis and relations among them have been accessible to observers from ancient times to the present. (Hereafter jati and caste will be used synonymously.)

      Empirically, the caste system is one of regional or local jatis, each with a history of its own, whether this be Kashmir or Tamil Nadu, Bengal or Gujarat. History may differ, but the form of social organization does not. Everywhere castes have traditionally been endogamous (endogamy); each jati was associated with one or more hereditary occupations, but certain occupations (for example, agriculture or nontraditional civil service) were caste-neutral; and there were jati-specific restrictions on what and with whom one could eat and drink. And, everywhere castes were ranked vertically, with the Brahmans at the top by virtue of their inherent condition of ritual purity, and the Sudras at the bottom. Those among the Sudras who disposed of impure substances (body emissions, dead animals, etc.) were the “untouchables (untouchable).” Between the top and bottom rungs there was considerable fluidity.

      It is reasonable to assume that the caste system, contrary to the popular images of its changelessness, has always been characterized by the efforts of various jatis to raise themselves in the social order. Such efforts have been more successful in the case of low but ritually pure castes than in the case of those living below the line of pollution. As for “untouchability,” this was declared unlawful in the Indian constitution framed after independence and adopted in 1949–50.

      Two routes have been available to castes seeking upward mobility (social mobility). The traditional route consists of the adoption of certain critical elements of the way of life of clean (purification rite) (upper) castes, such as the ritual of initiation into the status of a clean jati, wearing of the sacred thread (a loop of thread worn next to the skin over the left shoulder and across the right hip) symbolic of such status, vegetarianism, teetotalism, abstention from work that is considered polluting or demeaning, and prohibition of the remarriage of widows. The process is gradual and not always successful. The critical test of success lies in the willingness, first, of higher castes to accept cooked food from members of the upwardly mobile jati and, second, of equivalent-status castes to provide them services that are deemed demeaning.

      Within the framework of traditional values, socially ambitious castes have also been known, when possible, to supplement the criterion of ritual purity by the secular criteria of numerical strength, economic well-being (notably in the form of land ownership), and the ability to mobilize physical force to emerge as the wielders of power in village affairs and in local politics. Such a jati is usually referred to as the “dominant caste.” It is important to distinguish between status and dominance, although in historical practice they usually coincided. An important aspect of social change today is the dissociation of ritual status from secular economic and political power.

      Although a great many spheres of life in modern India are little influenced by caste, most marriages are nevertheless arranged within the caste. This is in part because most people live in rural communities and because the arrangement of marriages is a family activity carried out through existing networks of kinship and caste.

T.N. Madan

Additional Reading

M.N. Srinivas, Caste in Modern India (1962, reissued 1989), is the best general book.

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