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The main focus of this book is to examine the nature and motivation of caste hierarchy and factionalism among the different religious communities in India like Hindu, Muslim and Christian. This study also explores the connections between economic and political power, through analysis of local political systems and discussion of the extent to which class and party’s interest link people of different castes and subcaste groups. Many newly emerging social questions have also been discussed, i.e., the degree to which these changes have affected patterns of rank, the extent to which the caste system is still a factor of social organisation, and to what extent, to which the new situation, has stimulated larger caste groupings in the form of regional and national caste associations.
CONTENTS
PREFACE (V)
1. INTRODUCTION 1
Definition 1
Traditional Origin of Varnas 3
Traditional Origin of Jatis 5
Criticism of Manu’s Theory 7
Justification of Manu’s Varna Division 9
Risley’s Theory on Varna Division 12
Senart’s Theory about the Origin of the Caste System 13
Criticism of Senart’s Theory 15
Colour Question 16
Occupational basis of Caste System 18
Criticism of Nesfield’s Theory 18
Tribal basis of Caste 20
Cosmopolitanism and Law of Karma 22
2. THE ESSENCE AND REALITY OF THE CASTE SYSTEM 27
The Reality of the System 31
Essential Tendencies of Indian Caste System 37
3. THE NATURE OF CASTE HIERARCHY: SOME REFLECTION 57
Characteristic Feature of Caste System 60
Dualist Interpretation 63
Re-examination of Varna and Caste 68
The Rank of Caste and its Relation with other Castes 70
Landowning Caste and Agricultural Labour Caste 75
4. CASTE ‘BOUNDARIES’ AND THE PRINCIPLE OF KINSHIP AMITY: A MARATHA CASTE PURANA 81
A Maratha Caste Purana 86
The Evidence of Kin Classification and Comparative Evidence 91
Conclusion 94
5. CASTE DOMINANCE AND FACTIONALISM 101
Analysis of Ethnographic Data 106
Concluding Comment 126
6. UNTOUCHABLES AND THE CASTE SYSTEM: A TAMIL CASE STUDY 129
Existence of Untouchable Sub-Culture 133
Analysis of the Internal Social Organisation 141
7. CASTE IN ISLAM AND THE PROBLEM OF DEVIANT SYSTEMS: A CRITIQUE OF RECENT THEORY 145
8. CASTE AND CASTELESSNESS AMONG SOUTH INDIAN CHRISTIANS 167
Mass Movement Conversion 172
Individual Conversion 173
Self-Identities 180
Ideologies of Caste 185
The Ideology of ‘Castelessness’ 191
Conclusion 194
9. CASTE AND RELIGION IN URBAN INDIA: A CASE STUDY 203
Objectives 204
Sample and Method 206
Setting 206
The Persistence of Caste 209
Caste Ranking 212
Some Associations between Varna and Selected Variables 216
Conclusion 221
BIBLIOGRAPHY 227
INDEX 241
ISBN - 9788182205727
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