The terms caste and the caste system are mostly applied to the traditional social hierarchy found in Indian society and based on ancient Hindu scriptures. The traditional Hindu term for caste is varna. This hierarchical system categorizes individuals into distinct castes, assigning them specific roles, occupations, and social statuses. The caste system has evolved into a complex web of discrimination and inequality, perpetuating social stratification and hindering progress in various spheres of life.

Historical Origins of the caste system can be traced back to ancient Indian texts, particularly the Rigveda and Laws of Manu, where society was delineated into four main varnas or social classes: the Brahmins (priests and scholars), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (merchants and farmers), and Shudras (laborers and servants). This varna system, initially based on an individual's qualities and skills, gradually transformed into a hereditary system, determining an individual's caste by birth. Later the fifth caste was added, the “Untouchables” (Panchama or Antyaja in Hindu)

One of the defining features of the caste system is its rigid social division, wherein individuals are born into a specific caste and remain in it throughout their lives. Each caste is associated with a set of privileges, restrictions, and expectations, leading to a starkly unequal distribution of resources, power, and opportunities. Caste-based discrimination is deeply ingrained, manifesting in various forms such as untouchability, limited inter-caste marriage, and restricted access to education and employment.

The caste system has a profound impact on economic opportunities and mobility. Traditionally, occupations have been linked to specific castes, leading to an unequal distribution of wealth and resources. Occupational limitations have hindered social mobility, with individuals finding it challenging to escape the constraints imposed by their caste, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and limited opportunities for upward mobility.

The caste system has also infiltrated the political landscape of India. Caste-based politics often influence elections and government policies, as politicians seek to garner support from specific caste groups. This form of identity-based politics has sometimes resulted in the neglect of broader developmental issues, further perpetuating social divisions and hindering progress.

In recent years, there have been efforts to challenge the caste system and promote social equality. India's constitution provides safeguards against caste-based discrimination and reservation policies aimed at promoting affirmative action for marginalized communities. Additionally, civil society organizations, educational institutions, and grassroots movements have emerged to fight against caste-based discrimination, raise awareness, and promote social integration.

French sociologist Célestin Bouglé, in his study of the caste regime in India Essais sur le régime des castes (1908), concluded that such a hierarchical structure impacts not only the legal system but also induces weak economic development. In his opinion, the essence of caste organization is the union of three tendencies - prohibition and refusal of contacts between castes, hereditary specialization, and hierarchy - and the caste of Brahmins (religious leaders) had the greatest benefit from such a system. 

                  The Caste System in the Western Society

American anthropologist and sociologist William Lloyd Warner wanted to apply the way he studied kinship, marriage, social solidarity, and religious life among Aborigines to the study of small communities in the United States. The first such research was conducted in the late 1930s in a small town in the state of Massachusetts (that city is known by the nickname given to it by Warner - Yankee City). Warner hypothesized that the role that kinship plays in tribal society, in modern society, is taken over by social stratification because stratification affects economic relations, sense of identity and belonging to a community, value systems, and forms of solidarity. He was primarily interested in status stratification, which determines the level of privilege, specific rights, and duties of members of a certain class and their patterns of living.

The results of Warner's research are presented in the book The Status System of a Modern Community, 2 vols. (1941, 1942). In the city where he conducted his research, Warner identified six specific classes. Warner discovered another type of stratification in the "city of the Yankees", and that was ethnic and racial stratification. Whites and blacks formed two separate "castes," and that caste division intersected class divisions diagonally, and decisively influenced patterns of interaction. 

Works:

Bauman. Memories of Class (1982);

Berreman, G. Caste and Other Inequities (1981);

Beteille, Andre  Caste: Old and New (1969);

Beteille, A. The Backward Classes in Contemporary India (1992);

Beidelman, T. O. A Comparative Analysis of the Jajmani System (1959);

Bouglé. Essais sur le régime des castes (1908);

Brass, Paul R. Caste, Faction and Party in Indian Politics. Faction and Party, 2 vol (1983,1985);

Breman, Jan  Patronage and Exploitation (1974);

Cox. Caste, Class, and Race (1948);                                                                 

Dumont, L. Homo Hierarchicus (1970); 

Elias. On the Process of Civilisation (2012, in French 1839);

Galanter, M. Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India (1984)

Ghurye, G. S. Caste and Race in India (1969);

Gould, Harold A. The Hindu Caste System: The Sacralization of a Social Order (1987);

Horowitz, Donald L. Ethnic Groups in Conflict (1985);

Hutton, J. H. Caste in India (1961);

Jaffrelot, C. India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India (2003);

Kolenda, Pauline  Caste in Contemporary India: Beyond Organic Solidarit (1978);

Kothari, Rajni  Caste in Indian Politics. New Delhi: Orient Longman (1970);

Leach, E. R. (ed.) Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon, and North-West Pakistan (1960);

Lenski. Human Societies (1970);

Mahar, J. M. (ed.) The Untouchables in Contemporary India (1972);

Mendelsohn, O. & Vicziany, M. The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern India (1998);

Moore. Social Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (1966);

Runciman. „Towards a Theory of Social Stratification“, in Frank Parkin (ur.) The Social Analysis of Class Structure (1974);

Scott, James C. Domination And The Arts Of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (1990);

Schwartz, Barton. Caste in Overseas Indian Communities (1967);

Spengler. The Decline of the West. 2 Vol. (2021, in German 1918, 1922);

Srinivas, M.N. Caste in Modern India (1962);

     -     Social Change in Modern India (1969);

     -     The Dominant Caste and Other Essays (1987);

Tilly. The Vendée (1964);      

Tocqueville. The Old Regime and the French Revolution (2014, in French 1856); 

Warner. The Status System of a Modern Community, 2 vols. (1941, 1942);

Weber, Max. The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism (1958);