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Its roots lie in South Asia's ancient history and it still exists; [1] [5] however, the economic significance of the caste system in India has been declining as a result of urbanisation and affirmative action programs. A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and anthropologists, the Hindu caste system is sometimes used as an analogical ...
Historically speaking, the alliance and the open status group, whether war band or religious sect, dominated medieval and early modern Indian history in a way descent and caste did not." [130] Adi Purana, an 8th-century text of Jainism by Jinasena, is the first mention of varna and jati in Jain literature. [131]
Practically, it is an institution that portends tremendous consequences. It is a local problem, but one capable of much wider mischief, for "as long as caste in India does exist, Hindus will hardly intermarry or have any social intercourse with outsiders; and if Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem ...
Austrian ethnologist Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf theorized that untouchability originated as class stratification in urban areas of the Indus Valley civilisation. According to this theory, the poorer workers involved in 'unclean' occupations such as sweeping or leather work were historically segregated and banished outside the city limits.
Among Hassaniya Arabic speakers in southern Morocco and Mauritania, states Sean Hanretta – a professor of African History, the term Bidan is a "caste synecdoche" that refers to Hassani (warrior) and Zwaya (clerical) clans. In the slave castes, they recognized two layers, the `Abid (slaves) and Haratins (freed slaves). [60]
Caste, which eventually effects class, is one of the most important factors in determining a woman's successful inclusion into the political system. This may be due to the fact that higher castes challenge the role of the traditional Indian woman and so their caste position gives them a greater range of options that are not available to lower ...
Tribal casteism encompasses South Asian practices of social marginalisation within tribes. These practices are often overlooked by scholars and the media because of a colonial legacy that employed orientalist empiricism [ 1 ] to construct tribes as egalitarian and structurally opposite to Hindu caste society . [ 2 ]
The Scheduled Castes [1] and Scheduled Tribes are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. [2] The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designated in one or other of the categories.