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.[1][2] 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 until today. 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. According to UNICEF and Human Rights Watch, caste discrimination affects an estimated 250 million people worldwide.[3][4]

Contents

1 Etymology 2 Caste system of India 3 Caste in rest of South Asia o 3.1 Nepal o 3.2 Pakistan o 3.3 Sri Lanka 4 Caste-like stratification outside South Asia o 4.1 South-east Asia 4.1.1 Myanmar 4.1.2 Indonesia o 4.2 East Asia 4.2.1 Japan o 4.3 West Asia 4.3.1 Yemen o 4.4 Africa 4.4.1 West Africa 4.4.2 Central Africa 4.4.3 East Africa o 4.5 Europe 4.5.1 France and Spain 5 See also 6 Notes 7 Secondary sources 8 Scholarly tertiary sources 9 Further reading 10 External links

Etymology

The English word "caste" derives from the Spanish and Portuguese casta, which the Oxford English Dictionary quotes John Minsheu's Spanish dictionary (1599) to mean, "race, lineage, or breed."[5] When the Spanish colonized the New World, they used the word to mean a "clan or lineage." However, it was the Portuguese who employed casta in the primary modern sense when they applied it to the many in-marrying hereditary Hindu social groups they encountered upon their arrival in India in 1498.[5][6] The use of the spelling "caste," with this latter meaning, is first attested to in English in 1613.[5]

Caste system of India

Main articles: Caste system in India and History of the Indian caste system

An early 20th century "ethnographic" photograph of men and women from the Kurmi caste famed as cultivators and market gardeners[7]sowing their field.[8] Historically, the caste system in India has consisted of thousands of endogamous groups called Jatis or Quoms (among Muslims). The scholarly Brahmans of India envisaged the four wellknown categories to classify the society (the Varnas):[9]

Brahmin or Brahman (fire priests, scholars and teachers) Kshatriyas (warriors, administrators and law enforcers) Vaishyas (agriculturists, cattle raisers and traders) Shudras (service providers and artisans)

It has been pointed out that some people were considered left out from these four caste classifications, and in certain places were called Panchama (literally, the fifth). Regarded as outcastes or the untouchables, these people lived on the fringes of the society. All the Jatis were unilaterally clubbed under the varnas categories during the British colonial Census of 1901.[10] Ancient Indian texts, such as Manusmti and the Puranas make it clear that a caste system was very much a part of Indian society. Manusmti declared sexual relations between men and women of different castes as illegal [11] but also specifies the varna or jati to which the offspring of such liaisons belong. Upon independence from the British rule, the Indian Constitution listed 1,108 castes across the country as Scheduled Castes in 1950, for affirmative action.[12] The Scheduled Castes are sometimes called as Dalit in contemporary literature.[13] In 2001, the proportion of Dalit population was 16.2 percent of India's total population.[14]

Caste in rest of South Asia

Nepal
Main articles: Nepalese caste system and Ethnicity and caste in Nepal The Nepalese caste system resembles that of the Indian Jti system with numerous Jti 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 Lichchhavi period. Jayasthiti Malla (138295) categorized Newars into 64 castes (Gellner 2001). A similar exercise was made during the reign of Mahindra Malla (150675). The Hindu social code was later set up in Gorkha by Ram Shah (160336).

Pakistan
Main article: Caste system among South Asian Muslims Religious, historical and sociocultural factors have helped define the bounds of endogamy for Muslims in some parts of Pakistan. There is a preference for endogamous marriages based on the clan-oriented nature of the society, which values and actively seeks similarities in social group identity based on several factors, including religious, sectarian, ethnic, and tribal/clan affiliation. Religious affiliation is itself multilayered and includes religious considerations other than being Muslim, such as sectarian identity (e.g. Shia or Sunni, etc.) and religious orientation within the sect (Isnashari, Ismaili, Ahmedi, etc.). Both ethnic affiliation (e.g. Sindhi, Baloch, Punjabi, etc.) and membership of specific biraderis or zaat/quoms are additional integral components of social identity.[15] Within the bounds of endogamy defined by the above parameters, close consanguineous unions are preferred due to a congruence of key features of group- and individual-level background factors as well as affinities. 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.[16][17][18]

Sri Lanka
Main article: Caste system in Sri Lanka The Caste system in Sri Lanka is a division of society into strata,[19] influenced by the classic Aryan Varnas of North India and the Dravida Jti system found in South 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.