Caste is a form of social stratification characterized
by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a
lifestyle which often includes an occupation,
status in a hierarchy, customary social interaction,
and exclusion.
It is an extreme evolution of a system of
legally-entrenched social classes, also endogamous
and hereditary, such as that of feudal Europe.
Although caste systems exist in various regions,
its paradigmatic ethnographic example is the
division of Indian society into rigid social
groups, with roots in India's ancient history
and persisting until today; it is sometimes
used as an analogical basis for the study
of caste-like social divisions existing outside
India.
In biology, the term is applied to role stratification
in eusocial animals like ants and termites,
though the analogy is imperfect as these also
involve extremely stratified reproduction.
== Etymology ==
The origins of the term 'caste' are attributed
to the Spanish and Portuguese casta, which,
according to the John Minsheu's Spanish dictionary
(1599), means "race, lineage, or breed".
When the Spanish colonized the New World,
they used the word to mean a "clan or lineage".
It was, however, the Portuguese who first
employed casta in the primary modern sense
of the English word ‘caste’ when they
applied it to the thousands of endogamous,
hereditary Indian social groups they encountered
upon their arrival in India in 1498, as a
direct extension of the concept of ‘casta’
in contemporary Portugal.
The use of the spelling "caste", with this
latter meaning, is first attested in English
in 1613.
== In South Asia ==
=== India ===
Modern India's caste system is based on the
social groupings called jāti and the theoretical
varna.
The system of varnas appears in Hindu texts
dating back to 1000 BCE and envisages the
society divided into four classes: Brahmins
(scholars and priests), Kshatriyas (warriors
and nobles), Vaishyas (farmers, merchants,
and artisans) and Shudras (laborers/service
providers).
The texts do not mention any separate, untouchable
category in varna classification.
Scholars believe that the system of varnas
was a theoretical classification envisioned
by the Brahmins, but never truly operational
in society.
The practical division of the society had
always been in terms of jātis (birth groups),
which are not based on any specific principle,
but could vary from ethnic origins to occupations.
The jātis have been endogamous groups without
any fixed hierarchy but subject to vague notions
of rank articulated over time based on lifestyle
and social, political or economic status.
In many instances, as in Bengal, historically
the kings and rulers had been called upon,
when required, to mediate on the ranks of
jātis, which might number in thousands all
over the subcontinent and vary by region.
In practice, the jātis may or may not fit
into the varna classes and many prominent
jatis, for example the Jats and Yadavs, straddled
two varnas i.e.
Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, and the varna status
of jātis itself was subject to articulation
over time.
Starting with the British colonial Census
of 1901 led by Herbert Hope Risley, all the
jātis were grouped under the theoretical
varnas categories.
According to political scientist Lloyd Rudolph,
Risley believed that varna, however ancient,
could be applied to all the modern castes
found in India, and "[he] meant to identify
and place several hundred million Indians
within it."
The terms varna (conceptual classification
based on occupation) and jāti (groups) are
two distinct concepts: while varna is the
idealised four-part division envisaged by
the Twice-Borns, jāti (community) refers
to the thousands of actual endogamous groups
prevalent across the subcontinent.
The classical authors scarcely speak of anything
other than the varnas, as it provided a convenient
shorthand; but a problem arises when even
Indologists sometimes confuse the two.Upon
independence from Britain, the Indian Constitution
listed 1,108 castes across the country as
Scheduled Castes in 1950, for positive discrimination.
The Untouchable communities are sometimes
called Scheduled Castes, Dalit or Harijan
in contemporary literature.
In 2001, Dalits were 16.2% of India's population.
Most of the 15 million bonded child workers
are from the lowest castes.Independent India
has witnessed caste-related violence.
In 2005, government recorded approximately
110,000 cases of reported violent acts, including
rape and murder, against Dalits.
For 2012, the government recorded 651 murders,
3,855 injuries, 1,576 rapes, 490 kidnappings,
and 214 cases of arson.The socio-economic
limitations of the caste system are reduced
due to urbanization and affirmative action.
Nevertheless, the caste system still exists
in endogamy and patrimony, and thrives in
the politics of democracy, where caste provides
ready made constituencies to politicians.
The globalization and economic opportunities
from foreign businesses has influenced the
growth of India's middle-class population.
Some members of the Chhattisgarh Potter Caste
Community (CPCC) are middle-class urban professionals
and no longer potters unlike the remaining
majority of traditional rural potter members.
The co-existence of the middle-class and traditional
members in the CPCC has created intersectionality
between caste and class.
There is persistence of caste in Indian politics.
Caste associations have evolved into caste-based
political parties.
Political parties and the state perceive caste
as an important factor for mobilization of
people and policy development.
It is not politics that gets caste-ridden;
it is caste that gets politicized.
=== Nepal ===
The Nepalese caste system resembles that of
the Indian jāti system with numerous jāti
divisions with a varna system superimposed
for a rough equivalence.
But since the culture and the society is different
some of the things are different.
Inscriptions attest the beginnings of a caste
system during the Licchavi period.
Jayasthiti Malla (1382–1395) categorized
Newars into 64 castes (Gellner 2001).
A similar exercise was made during the reign
of Mahindra Malla (1506–1575).
The Hindu social code was later set up in
Gorkha by Ram Shah (1603–1636).
=== Pakistan ===
McKim Marriott claims a social stratification
that is hierarchical, closed, endogamous and
hereditary is widely prevalent, particularly
in western parts of Pakistan.
Frederik Barth in his review of this system
of social stratification in Pakistan suggested
that these are castes.
=== Sri Lanka ===
The caste system in Sri Lanka is a division
of society into strata, influenced by the
textbook varnas and jāti system found in
India.
Ancient Sri Lankan texts such as the Pujavaliya,
Sadharmaratnavaliya and Yogaratnakaraya and
inscriptional evidence show that the above
hierarchy prevailed throughout the feudal
period.
The repetition of the same caste hierarchy
even as recently as the 18th century, in the
British/Kandyan period Kadayimpoth – Boundary
books as well, indicates the continuation
of the tradition right up to the end of Sri
Lanka's monarchy.
== Southeast Asia ==
=== Indonesia ===
Balinese caste structure has been described
in early 20th-century European literature
to be based on three categories – triwangsa
(thrice born) or the nobility, dwijāti (twice
born) in contrast to ekajāti (once born)
the low folks.
Four statuses were identified in these sociological
studies, spelled a bit differently from the
caste categories for India:
Brahminas – priest
Satrias – knighthood
Wesias – commerce
Sudras – servitudeThe Brahmana caste was
further subdivided by these Dutch ethnographers
into two: Siwa and Buda.
The Siwa caste was subdivided into five: Kemenuh,
Keniten, Mas, Manuba and Petapan.
This classification was to accommodate the
observed marriage between higher-caste Brahmana
men with lower-caste women.
The other castes were similarly further sub-classified
by these 19th-century and early-20th-century
ethnographers based on numerous criteria ranging
from profession, endogamy or exogamy or polygamy,
and a host of other factors in a manner similar
to castas in Spanish colonies such as Mexico,
and caste system studies in British colonies
such as India.
== East Asia ==
=== China and Mongolia ===
During the period of Yuan Dynasty, ruler Kublai
Khan enforced a Four Class System, which was
a legal caste system.
The order of four classes of people was maintained
by the information of the descending order
were:-
Mongolian
Semu people
Han people (in the northern areas of China)
Southerners (people of the former Southern
Song dynasty)Today, the Hukou system is considered
by various sources as the current caste system
of China.There is also significant controversy
over the social classes of Tibet, especially
with regards to the serfdom in Tibet controversy.
=== Japan ===
In Japan's history, social strata based on
inherited position rather than personal merit,
were rigid and highly formalized in a system
called mibunsei (身分制).
At the top were the Emperor and Court nobles
(kuge), together with the Shōgun and daimyō.
Below them, the population was divided into
four classes: samurai, peasants, craftsmen
and merchants.
Only samurai were allowed to bear arms.
A samurai had a right to kill any peasants,
craftsman or merchant who he felt were disrespectful.
Merchants were the lowest caste because they
did not produce any products.
The castes were further sub-divided; for example,
peasants were labelled as furiuri, tanagari,
mizunomi-byakusho among others.
As in Europe, the castes and sub-classes were
of the same race, religion and culture.
Howell, in his review of Japanese society
notes that if a Western power had colonized
Japan in the 19th century, they would have
discovered and imposed a rigid four-caste
hierarchy in Japan.De Vos and Wagatsuma observe
that Japanese society had a systematic and
extensive caste system.
They discuss how alleged caste impurity and
alleged racial inferiority, concepts often
assumed to be different, are superficial terms,
and are due to identical inner psychological
processes, which expressed themselves in Japan
and elsewhere.Endogamy was common because
marriage across caste lines was socially unacceptable.Japan
had its own untouchable caste, shunned and
ostracized, historically referred to by the
insulting term Eta, now called Burakumin.
While modern law has officially abolished
the class hierarchy, there are reports of
discrimination against the Buraku or Burakumin
underclasses.
The Burakumin are regarded as "ostracised".
The burakumin are one of the main minority
groups in Japan, along with the Ainu of Hokkaidō
and those of residents of Korean and Chinese
descent.
=== Korea ===
The baekjeong (백정) were an "untouchable"
outcaste of Korea.
The meaning today is that of butcher.
It originates in the Khitan invasion of Korea
in the 11th century.
The defeated Khitans who surrendered were
settled in isolated communities throughout
Goryeo to forestall rebellion.
They were valued for their skills in hunting,
herding, butchering, and making of leather,
common skill sets among nomads.
Over time, their ethnic origin was forgotten,
and they formed the bottom layer of Korean
society.
In 1392, with the foundation of the Confucian
Joseon dynasty, Korea systemised its own native
class system.
At the top were the two official classes,
the Yangban, which literally means "two classes".
It was composed of scholars (munban) and warriors
(muban).
Scholars had a significant social advantage
over the warriors.
Below were the jung-in (중인-中人: literally
"middle people".
This was a small class of specialized professions
such as medicine, accounting, translators,
regional bureaucrats, etc.
Below that were the sangmin (상민-常民:
literally 'commoner'), farmers working their
own fields.
Korea also had a serf population known as
the nobi.
The nobi population could fluctuate up to
about one third of the population, but on
average the nobi made up about 10% of the
total population.
In 1801, the vast majority of government nobi
were emancipated, and by 1858 the nobi population
stood at about 1.5% of the total population
of Korea.
The hereditary nobi system was officially
abolished around 1886–87 and the rest of
the nobi system was abolished with the Gabo
Reform of 1894, but traces remained until
1930.
The opening of Korea to foreign Christian
missionary activity in the late 19th century
saw some improvement in the status of the
baekjeong.
However, everyone was not equal under the
Christian congregation, and even so protests
erupted when missionaries tried to integrate
baekjeong into worship, with non-baekjeong
finding this attempt insensitive to traditional
notions of hierarchical advantage.
Around the same time, the baekjeong began
to resist open social discrimination.
They focused on social and economic injustices
affecting them, hoping to create an egalitarian
Korean society.
Their efforts included attacking social discrimination
by upper class, authorities, and "commoners",
and the use of degrading language against
children in public schools.With the Gabo reform
of 1896, the class system of Korea was officially
abolished.
Following the collapse of the Gabo government,
the new cabinet, which became the Gwangmu
government after the establishment of the
Korean Empire, introduced systematic measures
for abolishing the traditional class system.
One measure was the new household registration
system, reflecting the goals of formal social
equality, which was implemented by the loyalists'
cabinet.
Whereas the old registration system signified
household members according to their hierarchical
social status, the new system called for an
occupation.While most Koreans by then had
surnames and even bongwan, although still
substantial number of cheonmin, mostly consisted
of serfs and slaves, and untouchables did
not.
According to the new system, they were then
required to fill in the blanks for surname
in order to be registered as constituting
separate households.
Instead of creating their own family name,
some cheonmins appropriated their masters'
surname, while others simply took the most
common surname and its bongwan in the local
area.
Along with this example, activists within
and outside the Korean government had based
their visions of a new relationship between
the government and people through the concept
of citizenship, employing the term inmin ("people")
and later, kungmin ("citizen").
==== North Korea ====
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
reported that "Every North Korean citizen
is assigned a heredity-based class and socio-political
rank over which the individual exercises no
control but which determines all aspects of
his or her life."
Regarded as Songbun, Barbara Demick describes
this "class structure" as an updating of the
hereditary "caste system", combining Confucianism
and Stalinism.
She claims that a bad family background is
called "tainted blood", and that by law this
"tainted blood" lasts for three generations.
=== Tibet ===
Heidi Fjeld has put forth the argument that
pre-1950s Tibetan society was functionally
a caste system, in contrast to previous scholars
who defined the Tibetan social class system
as similar to European feudal serfdom, as
well as non-scholarly western accounts which
seek to romanticize a supposedly 'egalitarian'
ancient Tibetan society.
== Middle East ==
Yezidi society is hierarchical.
The secular leader is a hereditary emir or
prince, whereas a chief sheikh heads the religious
hierarchy.
The Yazidi are strictly endogamous; members
of the three Yazidi castes, the murids, sheikhs
and pirs, marry only within their group.
=== Iran ===
Pre-Islamic Sassanid society was immensely
complex, with separate systems of social organization
governing numerous different groups within
the empire.
Historians believe society comprised foursocial
classes:
priests (Persian: Asravan‎)
warriors (Persian: Arteshtaran‎)
secretaries (Persian: Dabiran‎)
commoners (Persian: Vastryoshan‎)
=== Yemen ===
In Yemen there exists a hereditary caste,
the African-descended Al-Akhdam who are kept
as perennial manual workers.
Estimates put their number at over 3.5 million
residents who are discriminated, out of a
total Yemeni population of around 22 million.
== Africa ==
Various sociologists have reported caste systems
in Africa.
The specifics of the caste systems have varied
in ethnically and culturally diverse Africa,
however the following features are common
– it has been a closed system of social
stratification, the social status is inherited,
the castes are hierarchical, certain castes
are shunned while others are merely endogamous
and exclusionary.
In some cases, concepts of purity and impurity
by birth have been prevalent in Africa.
In other cases, such as the Nupe of Nigeria,
the Beni Amer of East Africa, and the Tira
of Sudan, the exclusionary principle has been
driven by evolving social factors.
=== West Africa ===
Among the Igbo of Nigeria – especially Enugu,
Anambra, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Edo and Delta
states of the country – Obinna finds Osu
caste system has been and continues to be
a major social issue.
The Osu caste is determined by one's birth
into a particular family irrespective of the
religion practised by the individual.
Once born into Osu caste, this Nigerian person
is an outcast, shunned and ostracized, with
limited opportunities or acceptance, regardless
of his or her ability or merit.
Obinna discusses how this caste system-related
identity and power is deployed within government,
Church and indigenous communities.The osu
class systems of eastern Nigeria and southern
Cameroon are derived from indigenous religious
beliefs and discriminate against the "Osus"
people as "owned by deities" and outcasts.
The Songhai economy was based on a caste system.
The most common were metalworkers, fishermen,
and carpenters.
Lower caste participants consisted of mostly
non-farm working immigrants, who at times
were provided special privileges and held
high positions in society.
At the top were noblemen and direct descendants
of the original Songhai people, followed by
freemen and traders.In a review of social
stratification systems in Africa, Richter
reports that the term caste has been used
by French and American scholars to many groups
of West African artisans.
These groups have been described as inferior,
deprived of all political power, have a specific
occupation, are hereditary and sometimes despised
by others.
Richter illustrates caste system in Ivory
Coast, with six sub-caste categories.
Unlike other parts of the world, mobility
is sometimes possible within sub-castes, but
not across caste lines.
Farmers and artisans have been, claims Richter,
distinct castes.
Certain sub-castes are shunned more than others.
For example, exogamy is rare for women born
into families of woodcarvers.Similarly, the
Mandé societies in Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone
have social stratification systems that divide
society by ethnic ties.
The Mande class system regards the jonow slaves
as inferior.
Similarly, the Wolof in Senegal is divided
into three main groups, the geer (freeborn/nobles),
jaam (slaves and slave descendants) and the
underclass neeno.
In various parts of West Africa, Fulani societies
also have class divisions.
Other castes include Griots, Forgerons, and
Cordonniers.
Tamari has described endogamous castes of
over fifteen West African peoples, including
the Tukulor, Songhay, Dogon, Senufo, Minianka,
Moors, Manding, Soninke, Wolof, Serer, Fulani,
and Tuareg.
Castes appeared among the Malinke people no
later than 14th century, and was present among
the Wolof and Soninke, as well as some Songhay
and Fulani populations, no later than 16th
century.
Tamari claims that wars, such as the Sosso-Malinke
war described in the Sunjata epic, led to
the formation of blacksmith and bard castes
among the people that ultimately became the
Mali empire.
As West Africa evolved over time, sub-castes
emerged that acquired secondary specializations
or changed occupations.
Endogamy was prevalent within a caste or among
a limited number of castes, yet castes did
not form demographic isolates according to
Tamari.
Social status according to caste was inherited
by off-springs automatically; but this inheritance
was paternal.
That is, children of higher caste men and
lower caste or slave concubines would have
the caste status of the father.
=== Central Africa ===
Ethel M. Albert in 1960 claimed that the societies
in Central Africa were caste-like social stratification
systems.
Similarly, in 1961, Maquet notes that the
society in Rwanda and Burundi can be best
described as castes.
The Tutsi, noted Maquet, considered themselves
as superior, with the more numerous Hutu and
the least numerous Twa regarded, by birth,
as respectively, second and third in the hierarchy
of Rwandese society.
These groups were largely endogamous, exclusionary
and with limited mobility.
=== Horn of Africa ===
In a review published in 1977, Todd reports
that numerous scholars report a system of
social stratification in different parts of
Africa that resembles some or all aspects
of caste system.
Examples of such caste systems, he claims,
are to be found in Ethiopia in communities
such as the Gurage and Konso.
He then presents the Dime of Southwestern
Ethiopia, amongst whom there operates a system
which Todd claims can be unequivocally labelled
as caste system.
The Dime have seven castes whose size varies
considerably.
Each broad caste level is a hierarchical order
that is based on notions of purity, non-purity
and impurity.
It uses the concepts of defilement to limit
contacts between caste categories and to preserve
the purity of the upper castes.
These caste categories have been exclusionary,
endogamous and the social identity inherited.
Alula Pankhurst has published a study of caste
groups in SW Ethiopia.Among the Kafa, there
were also traditionally groups labeled as
castes.
"Based on research done before the Derg regime,
these studies generally presume the existence
of a social hierarchy similar to the caste
system.
At the top of this hierarchy were the Kafa,
followed by occupational groups including
blacksmiths (Qemmo), weavers (Shammano), bards
(Shatto), potters, and tanners (Manno).
In this hierarchy, the Manjo were commonly
referred to as hunters, given the lowest status
equal only to slaves."The Borana Oromo of
southern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa also
have a class system, wherein the Wata, an
acculturated hunter-gatherer group, represent
the lowest class.
Though the Wata today speak the Oromo language,
they have traditions of having previously
spoken another language before adopting Oromo.The
traditionally nomadic Somali people are divided
into clans, wherein the Rahanweyn agro-pastoral
clans and the occupational clans such as the
Madhiban were traditionally sometimes treated
as outcasts.
As Gabboye, the Madhiban along with the Yibir
and Tumaal (collectively referred to as sab)
have since obtained political representation
within Somalia, and their general social status
has improved with the expansion of urban centers.
== Europe ==
=== Basque country ===
For centuries, through the modern times, the
majority regarded Cagots who lived primarily
in the Basque region of France and Spain as
an inferior caste, the untouchables.
While they had the same skin color and religion
as the majority, in the churches they had
to use segregated doors, drink from segregated
fonts, and receive communion on the end of
long wooden spoons.
It was a closed social system.
The socially isolated Cagots were endogamous,
and chances of social mobility non-existent.
=== United Kingdom ===
In July 2013, the UK government announced
its intention to amend the Equality Act 2010
to "introduce legislation on caste, including
any necessary exceptions to the caste provisions,
within the framework of domestic discrimination
law".
Section 9(5) of the Equality Act 2010 provides
that "a Minister may by order amend the statutory
definition of race to include caste and may
provide for exceptions in the Act to apply
or not to apply to caste".
From September 2013 to February 2014, Meena
Dhanda led a project on "Caste in Britain"
for the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission
(EHRC).
== United States ==
In view of W. Lloyd Warner relationship between
Blacks and Whites in USA historically showed
many features of caste like residential segregation,
marriage restrictions.
== See also ==
Estates of the realm
Kamaiya
Propiska
Social exclusion
== References ==
== 
Sources ==
== Further reading ==
Spectres of Agrarian Territory by David Ludden
11 December 2001
"Early Evidence for Caste in South India",
p. 467-492 in Dimensions of Social Life: Essays
in honor of David G. Mandelbaum, Edited by
Paul Hockings and Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin,
New York, Amsterdam, 1987.
== External links ==
Auguste Comte on why and how castes developed
across the world - in The Positive Philosophy,
Volume 3 (see page 55 onwards)
Robert Merton on Caste and The Sociology of
Science
Caste, Society and Politics in India from
the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age - Susan
Bayly
Class In Yemen by Marguerite Abadjian (Archive
of the Baltimore Sun)
International Dalit Solidarity Network: An
international advocacy group for Dalits
