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The Caste system does not demarcate racial division. The Caste system is a social division of people of the same race." [336] Various sociologists, anthropologists and historians have rejected the racial origins and racial emphasis of caste and consider the idea to be one that has purely political and economic undertones. Beteille writes that ...
A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and anthropologists, the Hindu caste system is sometimes used as an analogical basis for the study of caste-like social divisions existing outside Hinduism and India. In colonial Spanish America, mixed-race castas were a category within the Hispanic sector but the social order was otherwise fluid.
This quadruple division is a form of social stratification, quite different from the more nuanced system of Jātis, which correspond to the European term "caste". [8] The varna system is discussed in Hindu texts, and understood as idealised human callings. [9] [10] The concept is generally traced to the Purusha Sukta verse of the Rig Veda.
"India is for the author [of the History of Mankind, Ratzel], a region where races have been broken up pulverized, kneaded by conquerors. Doubtless a pre-Dravidian negroid type came first, of low stature and mean physique, though these same are, in India, the result of poor social and economic conditions.
Jāti is the term traditionally used to describe a cohesive group of people in the Indian subcontinent, like a tribe, community, clan, sub-clan, or a religious sect.Each Jāti typically has an association with an occupation, geography or tribe.
The evolution of the lower caste and tribe into the modern-day Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe is complex. The caste system as a stratification of classes in India originated about 2,000 years ago, and has been influenced by dynasties and ruling elites, including the Mughal Empire and the British Raj.
The caste system has traditionally had significant influence over people's access to power. The privileged upper caste groups benefit more by gaining substantially more economic and political power, while the lower caste groups have limited access to those powers. The caste system distributes to different castes different economic strengths.
Mahishya (IAST: Māhiṣya) is a Bengali Hindu traditionally agrarian caste, [1] [2] and formed the largest caste in undivided Bengal. [3] Mahisyas were, and still are, extremely diverse caste consisting of all possible classes in terms of material conditions and ranks. [4] [5]