Caste System

The caste system is a rigid form of social stratification in which a person’s social position is determined by birth and remains fixed for life, with strict rules governing marriage, occupation, commensality, and social interaction. It is most closely associated with India, where the traditional varna framework of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras coexists with thousands of local jatis, while those outside the hierarchy were historically stigmatized as untouchable or Dalit. Louis Dumont’s Homo Hierarchicus interpreted caste through the religious opposition of purity and pollution, whereas M. N. Srinivas introduced the concept of Sanskritization to describe upward cultural mobility by lower groups. B. R. Ambedkar offered a powerful critique, condemning caste as a system of graded inequality that must be annihilated. Max Weber compared caste with class and status groups, and Oliver Cox argued that caste is better understood as a form of racial and economic domination. Sociologists distinguish caste from class because mobility is largely blocked, and they study its persistence in contemporary politics, education, labor markets, and discrimination, including legal prohibitions and affirmative action policies.