ABSTRACT
Caste has often been viewed as a peculiar social institution that evolved in India, among the Hindus, and survived for centuries because it was supported by the Hindu religious ideology. This popular view of caste presents it as a simple system of hierarchy, structured around the ideas of varna and jati. The idea of varna was a model or a framework of social organization that divided the Hindus into four categories: the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Shudras. Beyond the four varnas were the achhoots (the untouchables). These four categories occupied different statuses in the Hindu society, with the Brahmins at the top, followed by the other three varnas in the order of ranking as mentioned above, with the achhoots occupying a position at the very bottom. The jati was a sub-unit of varna, a concrete social grouping, strictly governed by the normative frames of occupational segregation and reproduced itself through the practice of endogamous marriage. Unlike the varnas, jatis were large in numbers and their constellations varied from region to region. They were often further divided into sub-units, within the larger frame of the varna system. According to one estimate in each linguistic region ‘there were about 200 caste groups which were further sub-divided into about 3000 smaller units each of which was endogamous and constituted the area of effective social life for the individual’ (Srinivas 1962: 65).
