Editing Caste (section)

== In South Asia ==

=== India ===
{{Main|Caste system in India|Caste system among South Asian Muslims}} 
Modern India's caste system is based on the superimposition of an old four-fold theoretical classification called [[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]] on the social ethnic grouping called [[jāti]]. The [[Vedic period]] conceptualised a society as consisting of four types of [[Varna (Hinduism)|varnas]], or categories: [[Brahmin]], [[Kshatriya]], [[Vaishya]] and [[Shudra]], according to the nature of the work of its members. Varna was not an inherited category and the occupation determined the varna. However, a person's [[Jāti|Jati]] is determined at birth and makes them take up that Jati's occupation; members could and did change their occupation based on personal strengths as well as economic, social and political factors.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} A 2016 study based on the [[DNA analysis]] of unrelated Indians determined that [[Endogamy|endogamous]] jatis originated during the [[Gupta Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 February 2016 |title=Genetic study suggests caste began to dictate marriage from Gupta reign |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/genetic-study-suggests-caste-began-to-dictate-marriage-from-gupta-reign/ |access-date=5 April 2023 |website=[[The Indian Express]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024105448/https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/genetic-study-suggests-caste-began-to-dictate-marriage-from-gupta-reign/ |archive-date=24 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kalyan |first1=Ray |title=Caste originated during Gupta dynasty: Study |date=27 January 2016 |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/content/525390/caste-originated-during-gupta-dynasty.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301144303/https://www.deccanherald.com/content/525390/caste-originated-during-gupta-dynasty.html |archive-date=1 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Phillip |last=Martin |title=Even with a Harvard pedigree, caste follows 'like a shadow' |url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-03-05/even-harvard-pedigree-caste-follows-shadow |access-date=10 September 2021 |website=The World from PRX |date=27 February 2019 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240729192245/https://theworld.org/stories/2019/02/27/surajs-shadow-wherever-he-goes-his-caste-follows-even-america |archive-date=29 July 2024}}</ref> Today, there are around 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India.<ref>{{cite news |date=19 June 2019 |title=What is India's caste system? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616 |work=BBC News}}</ref>
{{Politics of India}}
From 1901 onwards, for the purposes of the [[Census of India prior to independence|Decennial Census]], [[British Raj|British authorities in India]] categorized all Jātis into the four ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|Varna]]'' categories as described in ancient Indian texts. [[Herbert Hope Risley]], the Census Commissioner, noted that "The principle suggested as a basis was that of classification by social precedence as recognized by native public opinion at the present day, and manifesting itself in the facts that particular castes are supposed to be the modern representatives of one or other of the castes of the theoretical Indian system."<ref>{{cite book |last=Crooke |first=William |chapter=Social Types |editor-last=Risley |editor-first=Herbert Hope |title=The People of India |isbn=}}</ref>

''Varna'', as mentioned in [[Historical Vedic religion|ancient Hindu]] texts, describes society as divided into four categories: [[Brahmin]]s (scholars and yajna priests), [[Kshatriya]]s (rulers and warriors), [[Vaishyas]] (farmers, merchants and artisans) and [[Shudras]] (workmen/service providers). Scholars believe that the ''Varnas'' system was never truly operational in society and there is no evidence of it ever being a reality in Indian history. The practical division of the society has been in terms of ''Jatis'' (birth groups), which are not based on any specific religious principle but could vary from ethnic origins to occupations to geographic areas. The ''Jātis'' have been endogamous social groups without any fixed hierarchy but subject to vague notions of rank articulated over time based on lifestyle and social, political, or economic status. Many of India's major empires and dynasties like the Mauryas,<ref>{{cite book |last=Roy |first=Kaushik |date=2012 |title=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-01736-8}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}} Shalivahanas,<ref>{{cite book |first=William Cooke |last=Taylor |date=1838 |title=Examination and Analysis of the Mackenzie Manuscripts Deposited in the Madras College Library |publisher=Asiatic Society |pages=49–55}}</ref> Chalukyas,<ref>Bilhana, in his Sanskrit work Vikramanakadevacharitam claims the Chalukyas were born from the feet of Brahma, implying they were Shudras, while some sources claim they were born in the arms of Brahma, and hence were Kshatriyas (Ramesh 1984, p. 15)</ref>{{full citation needed|date=February 2025}} Kakatiyas<ref>{{cite book |quote=Most of the Kakatiya records proudly describe them as Shudra. |last=Talbot |first=Austin Cynthia |date=2001 |title=Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19803-123-9}}; Examples include the Bothpur and Vaddamanu inscriptions of Ganapati's general Malyala Gunda senani. The Kakatiyas also maintained marital relations with other Shudra families, such as the Kotas and the Natavadi chiefs. All these evidences indicate that the Kakatiyas were of Shudra origin.[Sastry, P. V. Parabhrama (1978). N. Ramesan, ed. The Kākatiyas of Warangal. Hyderabad: Government of Andhra Pradesh. {{OCLC|252341228}}, p. 29]</ref> among many others, were founded by people who would have been classified as Shudras, under the ''Varnas'' system, as interpreted by the British. It is well established that by the 9th century, kings from all the four Varnas, including Brahmins and Vaishyas, had occupied the highest seat in the monarchical system in Hindu India, contrary to the Varna theory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Altekar |first=Anant Sadashiv |date=1934 |title=The Rashtrakutas And Their Times; being a political, administrative, religious, social, economic and literary history of the Deccan during C. 750 A.D. to C. 1000 A.D. |location=Poona |publisher=Oriental Book Agency |oclc=3793499 |page=331}}</ref> Historically the kings and rulers had been called upon to mediate on the ranks of ''Jātis'', which might number in thousands all over the subcontinent and vary by region. In practice, the ''jātis'' are seen to fit into the ''varna'' classes, but the ''varna'' status of ''jātis'' itself was subject to articulation over time.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.epw.in/journal/2011/33/special-articles/census-colonial-india-and-birth-caste.html |first=Padmanabh |last=Samarendra |title=Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=5 June 2015 |pages=7–8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521102625/https://www.epw.in/journal/2011/33/special-articles/census-colonial-india-and-birth-caste.html |archive-date=21 May 2024}}</ref>

Starting with the [[Census of India prior to independence|1901 Census of India]] led by colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley, all the ''jātis'' were grouped under the theoretical ''varnas'' categories.<ref name=dirks>{{cite book |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7191.html |first=Nicholas B. |last=Dirks |title=Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of New India |year=2001 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-08895-2}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3vnsnma5nW4C |title=The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India |first1=Lloyd I. |last1=Rudolph |author1-link=Lloyd I. Rudolph |author2-link=Susanne Hoeber Rudolph |last2=Rudolph |first2=Susanne Hoeber |year=1984 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |pages=116–117 |isbn=978-0-226-73137-7}}</ref> The terms ''varna'' (conceptual classification based on occupation) and ''jāti'' (groups) are two distinct concepts: while ''varna'' is a theoretical four-part division, ''jāti'' (community) refers to the thousands of actual endogamous social 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 colonial Indologists sometimes confuse the two.<ref name="Chicago">{{citation |last=Dumont |first=Louis |title=Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |year=1980 |pages=66–67 |isbn=978-0-226-16963-7}}</ref> [[Sujata Patel]] argues that colonial ethnographic practices, frequently in association with Brahmin elites, constructed Indian society as traditional and caste-based. These practices, according to Patel, emphasise the cultural and religious dimensions and downplay economic and political factors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Patel |first=Sujata |date=2021-01-04 |title=The nationalist-indigenous and colonial modernity: an assessment of two sociologists in India |url= |journal=The Journal of Chinese Sociology |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=2 |doi=10.1186/s40711-020-00140-9 |doi-access=free |issn=2198-2635}}</ref>

[[File:Seventy-two Specimens of Castes in India (62).jpg|thumb|An image of a man and woman from the toddy-tapping community in Malabar from the manuscript ''Seventy-two Specimens of Castes in India'', which consists of 72 full-color hand-painted images of men and women of various religions, occupations and ethnic groups found in [[Madurai|Madura, India]] in 1837, which confirms the popular perception and nature of caste as Jati, before the British colonial authorities made it applicable only to Hindus grouped under the ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]]'' categories from the 1901 census onwards]]

Upon independence from Britain, the [[Constitution of India|Indian Constitution]] listed 1,108 Jatis across the country as [[Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes|Scheduled Castes]] in 1950, for [[Affirmative action|positive discrimination]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/rule3a.htm |title=The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 |publisher=Lawmin.nic.in |access-date=30 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328234104/http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/rule3a.htm |archive-date=28 March 2015}}</ref> This constitution would also ban discrimination of the basis of the caste, though its practice in India remained intact.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-28/struggle-to-challenge-indias-caste-system/101185772 |title='I would tell the other girls at school that I was Brahmin': The struggle to challenge India's caste system |work=[[ABC News (Australia)|ABC News]] |date=27 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240713213206/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-28/struggle-to-challenge-indias-caste-system/101185772 |archive-date=13 July 2024}}</ref> The Untouchable communities are sometimes called ''[[Dalit]]'' or ''[[Harijan]]'' in contemporary literature.<ref>{{cite news |title=Scaling Caste Walls With Capitalism's Ladders in India |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |first=Lydia |last=Polgreen |date=21 December 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/indias-boom-creates-openings-for-untouchables.html?pagewanted=all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024035014/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/indias-boom-creates-openings-for-untouchables.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=24 October 2023}}</ref> In 2001, Dalits were 16.2% of India's population.<ref name=censtat01>{{cite web |title=Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes population: Census 2001 |year=2004 |publisher=[[Government of India]] |url=http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/scst.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213220715/https://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_Glance/scst.aspx |archive-date=13 February 2021}}</ref> Most of the 15 million bonded child workers are from the lowest castes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unicef.org/pon95/chil0016.html |title=Children pay high price for cheap labour |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627151730/https://www.unicef.org/pon95/chil0016.html |archive-date=27 June 2017 |website=[[UNICEF]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Zama |last=Coursen-Neff |date=30 January 2003 |title=For 15 million in India, a childhood of slavery |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/opinion/30iht-edzama_ed3__0.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=22 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404134622/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/opinion/IHT-meanwhile-for-15-million-in-india-a-childhood-of-slavery.html |archive-date=4 April 2023}}</ref> Independent India has witnessed [[Caste-related violence in India|caste-related violence]]. In 2005, government recorded approximately 110,000 cases of reported violent acts, including rape and murder, against Dalits.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-report-slams-india-for-caste-discrimination-1.693195 |title=UN report slams India for caste discrimination |work=[[CBC News]] |date=2 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119194848/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-report-slams-india-for-caste-discrimination-1.693195 |archive-date=19 January 2024}}</ref>

The socio-economic limitations of the caste system are reduced due to [[Urbanization in India|urbanisation]] and [[Affirmative action in India|affirmative action]]. Nevertheless, the caste system still exists in [[endogamy]] and [[Family patrimony|patrimony]], and politics. The globalisation 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. There is persistence of caste in Indian [[Caste politics|politics]]. Caste associations have evolved into caste-based political parties. Political parties and the state perceive caste as an important factor for mobilisation of people and policy development.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sen |first1=Ronojoy |title=The persistence of caste in Indian politics |journal=Pacific Affairs |date=2012 |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=363–369 |doi=10.5509/2012852363}}</ref>

Studies by Bhatt and Beteille have shown changes in status, openness, mobility in the social aspects of Indian society. As a result of modern socio-economic changes in the country, India is experiencing significant changes in the dynamics and the economics of its social sphere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gandhi |first1=Rag S. |title=From Caste to Class in Indian Society |journal=Humboldt Journal of Social Relations |date=1980 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=1–14}}</ref> While arranged marriages are still the most common practice in India, the internet has provided a network for younger Indians to take control of their relationships through the use of dating apps. This remains isolated to informal terms, as marriage is not often achieved through the use of these apps.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Gandhi |first1=Divya |title= Running in the family |magazine=[[The Hindu]] |date=2 April 2016}}</ref> [[Hypergamy]] is still a common practice in India and Hindu culture. Men are expected to marry within their caste, or one below, with no social repercussions. If a woman marries into a higher caste, then her children will take the status of their father. If she marries down, her family is reduced to the social status of their son in law. In this case, the women are bearers of the egalitarian principle of the marriage. There would be no benefit in marrying a higher caste if the terms of the marriage did not imply equality.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Kingsley |last=Davis |date=13 June 2013 |title=Intermarriage in Caste Societies |journal=[[AnthroSource]] |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=376–395 |doi=10.1525/aa.1941.43.3.02a00030 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, men are systematically shielded from the negative implications of the agreement.
[[File:Select specimen from various Hindu castes, 1874.jpg|thumb|Members of various Hindu castes, 1874]]
Geographical factors also determine adherence to the caste system. Many Northern villages are more likely to participate in exogamous marriage, due to a lack of eligible suitors within the same caste. Women in [[North India]] have been found to be less likely to leave or divorce their husbands since they are of a relatively lower caste system, and have higher restrictions on their freedoms. On the other hand, Pahari women, of the northern mountains, have much more freedom to leave their husbands without stigma. This often leads to better husbandry as his actions are not protected by social expectations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Berreman |first1=Gerald D. |title=Village Exogamy in Northernmost India |journal=[[Southwestern Journal of Anthropology]] |date=1962 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=55–58 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.18.1.3629123 |jstor=3629123 |s2cid=131367161}}</ref>

Chiefly among the factors influencing the rise of exogamy is the rapid [[urbanisation in India]] experienced over the last century. It is well known that urban centers tend to be less reliant on agriculture and are more progressive as a whole. As India's cities boomed in population, the job market grew to keep pace. Prosperity and stability were now more easily attained by an individual, and the anxiety to marry quickly and effectively was reduced. Thus, younger, more progressive generations of urban Indians are less likely than ever to participate in the antiquated system of arranged endogamy.

India has also implemented a form of Affirmative Action, locally known as "reservation groups". Quota system jobs, as well as placements in publicly funded colleges, hold spots for the 8% of India's minority, and underprivileged groups. As a result, in states such as [[Tamil Nadu]] or those in the [[Northeast India|north-east]], where underprivileged populations predominate, over 80% of government jobs are set aside in quotas. In education, colleges lower the marks necessary for the Dalits to enter.<ref>{{Cite news |first=A. |last=R. |date=13 June 2013 |title=Indian Reservations |url=https://www.economist.com/banyan/2013/06/29/indian-reservations |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |access-date=4 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024032557/https://www.economist.com/banyan/2013/06/29/indian-reservations |archive-date=24 October 2023}}</ref>

=== Nepal ===
{{Main|Caste system in Nepal}}
The Nepali caste system resembles in some respects the Indian ''jāti'' system, with numerous ''jāti'' divisions with a ''varna'' system superimposed. Inscriptions attest the beginnings of a caste system during the [[Licchavi (kingdom)|Licchavi]] period. [[Jayasthiti Malla]] (1382–1395) categorised 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 the [[Gorkha Kingdom]] by [[Ram Shah]] (1603–1636).

=== Pakistan ===
{{Main|Caste system among South Asian Muslims}}
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.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Fredrick |last=Barth |date=December 1956 |title=Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan |journal=[[American Anthropologist]] |volume=58 |issue=6 |pages=1079–1089 |doi=10.1525/aa.1956.58.6.02a00080 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Zeyauddin |last=Ahmed |title=The New Wind: Changing Identities in South Asia |editor-first=Kenneth |editor-last=David |publisher=Aldine Publishing Company |year=1977 |isbn=978-90-279-7959-9 |pages=337–354}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=McKim |last=Marriott |title=Caste ranking and community structure in five regions of India and Pakistan |year=1960 |oclc=186146571}}</ref>

=== Sri Lanka ===
{{Main|Caste system in Sri Lanka}}
The caste system in Sri Lanka is a division of society into strata,<ref name="John Rogers 51–77">{{cite journal |first=John |last=Rogers |date=February 2004 |title=Caste as a social category and identity in colonial Lanka |journal=Indian Economic and Social History Review |volume=41 |pages=51–77 |doi=10.1177/001946460404100104 |s2cid=143883066 |number=1}}</ref> influenced by the textbook ''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 [[Kingdom of Kandy|Kandyan-period]] Kadayimpoth – Boundary books as well indicates the continuation of the tradition right up to the end of Sri Lanka's monarchy.{{cn|date=February 2025}}