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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2020/Paper II/Indian Society, Caste & Civilization
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper II 2020 20 Marks Model Answer Available

Characteristics of the Caste System in India — 2020 Paper II

Question · 2020 · Paper II · 20 Marks

Discuss the characteristics of caste system in India.

Model Answer

VAID ICS

Approach

  • Demand of Question: Discuss the defining structural and cultural characteristics of the Indian caste system.
  • Structuring the Response: Use Ghurye’s classical formulation, supplement it with Dumont, Srinivas and Béteille, and end with continuity and change.

Model Answer

Introduction

The Indian caste system is primarily organized through jati, involving hereditary membership, endogamy, hierarchy and traditionally differentiated occupations. G.S. Ghurye, in Caste and Race in India (1932), identified several characteristic features that became foundational to its anthropological study.

  1. Segmental division of society

Society is divided into numerous jati groups, membership in which is generally acquired by birth.

Each caste historically possessed:

  • distinctive customs;
  • rules of marriage;
  • occupational traditions;
  • mechanisms of social control.

Thus:

Birth → Caste membership → Rights and obligations → Social identity

  1. Hierarchy

Castes are arranged in a graded order of social status.

Louis Dumont, in Homo Hierarchicus (1966), regarded hierarchy based on purity and pollution as the ideological core of caste.

However, actual ranking may vary regionally and can be contested.

  1. Endogamy

Marriage generally takes place within the caste or sub-caste.

Endogamy helps reproduce:

  • caste boundaries;
  • property relations;
  • social status;
  • cultural continuity.

At the same time, rules of clan/gotra exogamy may operate within a caste.

  1. Restrictions on commensality and social intercourse

Traditional caste relations involved rules governing:

  • acceptance of cooked food;
  • drinking water;
  • physical proximity;
  • inter-dining.

These restrictions reflected notions of ritual purity and pollution.

  1. Hereditary occupation

Many castes were historically associated with particular occupations such as:

  • cultivation;
  • priesthood;
  • artisanal work;
  • service occupations.

The jajmani system linked occupationally specialized castes through hereditary relations of service and exchange.

However, occupational mobility has considerably weakened this feature in contemporary India.

  1. Civil and religious privileges and disabilities

Traditional caste hierarchy involved differential access to:

  • temples;
  • wells and water sources;
  • education;
  • public spaces;
  • ritual privileges.

Untouchability represented the most extreme manifestation of these inequalities and has been constitutionally abolished under Article 17.

  1. Purity and pollution

Ideas of purity and pollution influenced:

  • occupation;
  • food;
  • birth and death rituals;
  • bodily contact;
  • caste ranking.

Dumont saw this opposition as central to the ideological organization of caste.

  1. Localized nature of caste

Caste hierarchy is not identical throughout India. The same caste may occupy different positions in different regions.

Therefore:

Varna = Broad ideological model
Jati = Lived, localized social reality

Anthropological village studies demonstrated the importance of studying actual local caste relations rather than relying solely on the four-varna model.

  1. Dominant caste and power

M.N. Srinivas showed that ritual rank alone does not determine power.

A dominant caste may acquire influence through:

  • numerical strength;
  • landownership;
  • education;
  • economic resources;
  • political mobilization.

This introduced a distinction between ritual hierarchy and secular power.

  1. Mobility within caste

Caste is hereditary, yet collective mobility has historically occurred.

Srinivas’s concept of Sanskritization describes the adoption of practices associated with higher castes to claim improved social status.

Hence caste combines:

Structural persistence + Positional mobility

Contemporary transformation

Modernization has altered several traditional features through:

  • urbanization;
  • education;
  • occupational mobility;
  • constitutional safeguards;
  • democratic politics;
  • migration.

Yet caste continues strongly in:

  • marriage;
  • electoral politics;
  • social networks;
  • identity;
  • access to resources.

André Béteille demonstrated that caste, class and power increasingly intersect without completely coinciding.

Conclusion

The Indian caste system is characterized by birth-based membership, endogamy, hierarchy, occupational specialization and historically regulated social interaction. Modernization has weakened many ritual and occupational restrictions, but caste has adapted into new forms of identity, association and political mobilization.

2026 What are the major debates related to the concept of jajmani system? 2026 Does caste as a social category exist among the non-Hindu communities in India? Illustrate your answer with suitable examples. 2025 Caste domination, factionalism and political power 2025 Characteristics and communication between Little and Great Traditions

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