A caste system is a social system where people are ranked into groups based on heredity within rigid
systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny
that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely
restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is
prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended.
Certain religious minorities may voluntarily constitute a quasi-caste within a society, but they are less apt to
be characterized by cultural distinctiveness than by their self-imposed social segregation. A specialized
labor group may operate as a caste within a society otherwise free of such distinctions (e.g., the ironsmiths
in parts of Africa). In general, caste functions to maintain the status quo in a society.
Nowhere is caste better exemplified by degree of complexity and systematic operation than in India. The
Indian term for caste is jati, which generally designates a group varying in size from a handful to many
thousands. There are thousands of such jatis, and each has its distinctive rules, customs, and modes of
government. The term varna (literally meaning "color") refers to the ancient and somewhat ideal fourfold
division of Hindu society: (1) the Brahmans, the priestly and learned class; (2) the Kshatriyas, the warriors
and rulers; (3) the Vaisyas, farmers and merchants; and (4) the Sudras, peasants and laborers. These
divisions may have corresponded to what were formerly large, broad, undifferentiated social classes. Below
the category of Sudras were the untouchables, or Panchamas (literally "fifth division"), who performed the
most menial tasks.
Although there has been much confusion between the two, jati and varna are different in origin as well as
function. The various castes in any given region of India are hierarchically organized, with each caste
corresponding roughly to one or the other of the varna categories. Traditionally, caste mobility has taken
the form of movement up or down the varna scale. Indian castes are rigidly differentiated by rituals and
beliefs that pervade all thought and conduct. Extreme upper and lower castes differ so widely in habits of
everyday life and worship that only the close intergrading of intervening castes and the intercaste language
communities serve to hold them together within the single framework of Indian society.
The explanation that Indian castes were originally based on color lines to preserve the racial and cultural
purity of conquering groups is inadequate historically to account for the physical and cultural variety of
such groups. Castes may reflect distinctiveness of religious practice, occupation, locale, culture status, or
tribal affiliation, either exclusively or in part. Divergence within a caste on any of these lines will tend to
produce fission that may, in time, result in the formation of new castes. Every type of social group as it
appears may be fitted into this system of organizing society.
The occupational barriers among Indian castes have been breaking down slowly under economic pressures
since the 19th cent., but social distinctions have been more persistent. Attitudes toward the untouchables
only began to change in the 1930s under the influence of Mohandas Gandhi's teachings. Although
untouchability was declared illegal in 1949, resistance to change has remained strong, especially in rural
areas. As increased industrialization produced new occupations and new social and political functions
evolved, the caste system adapted and thus far has not been destroyed
