The Antiquity and Continuity of the Caste System in India: A Dalit Perspective
Published: May 15, 2020
Photo: Prasad
According to Manu, ‘there were originally four varnas and four they must remain’. He also decreed that the untouchables ‘must remain separate and segregated without being a part of the Hindu society’. A still from a Dalit tola located on the peripheries of an upper caste village in Mysore, Karnataka.
Abstract: Why has the caste system survived in India for more than millennia is a question that baffles many. In order to understand it one may have to look into its past and how it was transferred generation after generation. People in denial at most profess to believe that it plays a role only in marriages. Is endogamy not the single most factor for the maintenance of the caste system? There is therefore a need to revisit factors that have kept this system alive and how it is being nurtured even today. Manifestations of the caste system and the inequality and violence it entails are quite broad.
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