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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is a nonfiction book by the American journalist Isabel Wilkerson, published in August 2020 by Random House.The book describes racism in the United States as an aspect of a caste system—a society-wide system of social stratification characterized by notions such as hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, and purity.
For example, the reservation percentage can vary by state but is generally around 15% for Scheduled Castes, but 2019-20 data shows most universities miss this mark. Across the board, there is an average of 14.7% of scheduled caste students, meaning many universities are at a far lower rate than legislated. [105]
In real life, many casta individuals were assigned different racial categories in different documents, revealing the malleable nature of racial identity in colonial, Spanish American society. [ 55 ] Some paintings depicted the supposed "innate" character and quality of people because of their birth and ethnic origin.
Ambedkar views that definitions of castes given by Émile Senart [5] John Nesfield, H. H. Risley and Dr Ketkar as incomplete or incorrect by itself and all have missed the central point in the mechanism of the caste system. Senart's "idea of pollution" is a characteristic of caste in so far as caste has a religious flavour.
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.
For example, the castes have long considered each other as ritually impure, and food prepared by either nobles or artisans castes is considered a taboo to others. Similarly, traditionally, the craftsman and the noble are ritually forbidden to enter the house of the other. Low caste people are expected not to handle farm equipment or cattle. [22]
Castes are an example of a stratification structure based on ascribed status. [7] Although each caste system works differently, generally everyone is born into a specific caste and the caste of the parents generally determines the status of their children, regardless of ability or merit. The ranks of a caste system might include: priests and ...
The German sociologist Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification that defines a status group [1] (also status class and status estate) [2] as a group of people within a society who can be differentiated by non-economic qualities such as honour, prestige, ethnicity, race, and religion. [3]