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The Scheduled Castes, as a constitutional category in India, emerged from the practice of untouchability in the caste system associated with Hinduism. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950 initially recognized only adherents of Hinduism for Scheduled Caste status.
The caste system consists of two different concepts, varna and jati, which may be regarded as different levels of analysis of this system. The caste system as it exists today is thought to be the result of developments during the collapse of the Mughal era and the rise of the British colonial government in India.
Each broad caste level is a hierarchical order that is based on notions of purity, non-purity and impurity. It uses the concepts of defilement to limit contacts between caste categories and to preserve the purity of the upper castes. These caste categories have been exclusionary, endogamous and the social identity inherited. [85]
Definitions of caste vary, and opinions differ on whether the term can be used to denote social stratification in non-Hindu communities. Ghaus Ansari uses the term "caste" to describe Muslim social groups with the following characteristics: endogamy within the group; hierarchical gradation of groups; determination of group membership by birth ...
The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower and upper classes. [66] One example of the contest of this term is that in the United States "middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered ...
Scheduled Castes (SCs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups. [7] [8] Scheduled Castes are given reservation status guaranteeing political representation, preference in promotion, quota in universities, free and stipended education, scholarships, banking services, various government schemes.
California's legislation targets the caste system in South Asian immigrant communities by adding caste to the list of categories protected under the state's anti-discrimination laws.
The British institutionalised caste into the workings of the major government institutions within India. The main benefactors of this indirect rule were the upper castes or forward castes, which maintained their hegemony and monopoly of control and influence over government institutes long after independence from the British.