CASTE :

 

 

Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution.

Its paradigmatic ethnographic example is the division of India’s Hindu society into rigid social groups, with roots in India’s ancient history and persisting to the present time.

However, the economic significance of the caste system in India has been declining as a result of urbanization and affirmative action programs. A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and anthropologists, the Hindu caste system is sometimes used as an analogical basis for the study of caste-like social divisions existing outside Hinduism and India. The term “caste” is also applied to morphological groupings in female populations of ants and bees.

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

 

BIRTH OF CASTE SYSTEM :

This is the debatable issue and each one has different theories regarding the establishment of the caste system in India. Manusmriti is one of the oldest legal books of Hindu law. As per the religious theory, the caste system originated from Brahma, and further, the caste system is divided into four categories that are Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya’s, and Sudras.

 

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 fourfold arrangement of socioeconomic categories called the varnas, which is traced back to an oral tradition preserved in the Rigveda (dating perhaps from between 1500 and 1200 BCE). The Sanskrit word varna has many connotations, including colour, description, selection, and classification.

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 Shudras, 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, the years of learning and extreme discipline; garhasthya, householdership; vanaprastha, retirement; and sannyasa, 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.

 

JATI GROUP :

Jati, also spelled jat, caste, in Hindu society. The term is derived from the Sanskrit jata, “born” or “brought into existence,” and indicates a form of existence determined by birth. In Indian philosophy, jati (genus) describes any group of things that have generic characteristics in common.

CONCLUSION OF CASTE SYSTEM :

The caste system had a great affect on the Indian society. All of India’s people played a role in their society and had certain jobs. The former caste members are now more tolerant of other castes and sub-castes‘ people, and the divisions in the society are gradually diminishing.