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The other castes were similarly further sub-classified by 19th-century and early-20th-century ethnographers based on numerous criteria ranging from profession, endogamy or exogamy or polygamy, and a host of other factors in a manner similar to castas in Spanish colonies such as Mexico, and caste system studies in British colonies such as India.
The Indian government officially recognises historically discriminated communities of India such as the untouchables under the designation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and certain economically backward Shudra castes as Other Backward Class. [259] The Scheduled Castes are sometimes referred to as Dalit in contemporary literature.
Although Islam does not recognize any castes (only socio-economic classes), [9] existing divisions in Persia and India were adopted by local Muslim societies. Evidence of social stratification exists in later Persian works such as Nizam al-Mulk's 11th-century Siyasatnama, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's 13th-century Akhlaq-i Nasiri, and the 17th-century Jam-i-Mufidi.
In India, anthropologists now more often speak of 'sub-castes' or Jatis, as the building blocks of society [rather than castes]. However, unless there is a strong element of political control or territoriality associated with such groups these too tend to disintegrate upon closer inspection as soon as essentially exogamous practices such as ...
Although comparable forms of discrimination are found all over the world, untouchability involving the caste system is largely unique to South Asia. [1] [2] [3] The term is most commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities in the Indian subcontinent who were considered "polluting".
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.
The first list of castes and tribes was created through two orders: The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, containing 821 castes and 296 tribes (overlapping nature), respectively, derived from colonial lists.
There exists evidence to show that Christian individuals have mobility within their respective castes. [2] But, in some cases, social inertia caused by their old traditions and biases against other castes remain, causing caste system to persist among South Asian Christians, to some extent.