View source for Caste

{{Short description|Social stratification conferring status}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Caste system|the system in India|Caste system in India}}
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{{EngvarB|date=August 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
[[File:Basor Dalit caste.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Basor]]'' weaving bamboo baskets in a 1916 book. The ''Basor'' are a [[Scheduled Caste]] found in the state of [[Uttar Pradesh]] in India.]]
{{Political anthropology|expanded=Basic concepts}}
A '''caste''' is a [[Essentialism|fixed]] [[social group]] into which an individual is born within a particular system of [[social stratification]]: a '''caste system'''. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste ([[endogamy]]), follow lifestyles often linked to a particular occupation, hold a ritual status observed within a hierarchy, and interact with others based on cultural notions of [[social exclusion|exclusion]], with certain castes considered as either more pure or more polluted than others.<ref name=caste-lead>{{bulleted list|
| {{cite book |editor-last=Lagasse |editor-first=Paul |title=The Columbia Encyclopedia |chapter=Caste |chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/caste.aspx#3 |access-date=24 September 2012 |year=2007 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-231-14446-9 |quote='''caste''' [Port., casta=basket], ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars deny that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001133425/https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/anthropology-terms-and-concepts/caste |archive-date=1 October 2023}}
| {{citation |last1=Madan |first1=T. N.|author1-link=T. N. Madan |title=caste |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/98395/caste |date=2012 |quote='''caste''', any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Although sometimes used to designate similar groups in other societies, the "caste system" is uniquely developed in Hindu societies. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024154247/https://www.britannica.com/topic/caste-social-differentiation |archive-date=24 October 2023}}
| {{cite book |last=Gupta |first=Dipankar |chapter=Caste |editor-last=Schaefer |editor-first=Richard T. |title=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMUola6pDnkC&pg=PA246 |location=Thousand Oaks |access-date=5 August 2012 |year=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |isbn=978-1-4129-2694-2 |pages=246–250 |quote='''Caste''': What makes Indian society unique is the phenomenon of caste. Economic, religious, and linguistic differentiations, even race-based discrimination, are known elsewhere, but nowhere else does one see caste but in India.}}
| {{harvnb|Béteille|2002|pages=136–137|ps=. Quote: "'''Caste''': Caste has been described as the fundamental social institution of India. Sometimes the term is used metaphorically to refer to rigid social distinctions or extreme social exclusiveness wherever found, and some authorities have used the term 'colour-caste system' to describe the stratification based on race in the United States and elsewhere. But it is among the Hindus in India that we find the system in its most fully developed form although analogous forms exist among Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other religious groups in South Asia. It is an ancient institution, having existed for at least 2,000 years among the Hindus who developed not only elaborate caste practices but also a complex theory to explain and justify those practices (Dumont 1970). The theory has now lost much of its force although many of the practices continue."}}
| {{cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Geoffrey Duncan |title=A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-a4vvdBrSVgC&pg=PA194 |access-date=10 August 2012 |date=2006 |publisher=Aldine Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-0-202-30878-4 |pages=194–195 |chapter=Castes (part of SOCIAL STRATIFICATION) |location=New Brunswick, NJ |quote='''Castes''' A pure caste system is rooted in the religious order and may be thought of as a hierarchy of hereditary, endogamous, occupational groups with positions fixed and mobility barred by ritual distances between each caste. Empirically, the classical Hindu system of India approximated most closely to pure caste. The system existed for some 3,000 years and continues today despite many attempts to get rid of some of its restrictions. It is essentially connected with Hinduism.}}
| {{citation |chapter=caste, n. |title=Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition; online version June 2012 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford, UK |chapter-url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/28546 |access-date =5 August 2019 |year=1989 |quote='''caste, n.''' 2a. spec. One of the several hereditary classes into which society in India has from time immemorial been divided; ... ''This is now the leading sense, which influences all others.''}}
| {{Cite journal |last=Kanti Ghosh |first=Sumit |date=18 May 2023 |title=Body, Dress, and Symbolic Capital: Multifaceted Presentation of PUGREE in Colonial Governance of British India |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14759756.2023.2208502 |journal=Textile |volume=22 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=334–365 |doi=10.1080/14759756.2023.2208502 |s2cid=258804155 |issn=1475-9756|url-access=subscription }}
}}</ref>{{sfn|Scott|Marshall|2005|p=66}}{{sfn|Winthrop|1991|pp=27–30}} The term "caste" is also applied to morphological groupings in [[eusocial]] insects such as [[ant]]s, [[bee]]s, and [[termites#caste|termites]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=E. O. |year=1979 |title=The Evolution of Caste Systems in Social Insects |journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]] |volume=123 |number=4 |pages=204–210 |jstor=986579}}</ref>

The paradigmatic ethnographic example of caste is the division of [[India]]'s [[Hinduism|Hindu]] society into rigid social groups. Its roots lie in South Asia's ancient history and it still exists;<ref name=caste-lead/>{{sfn|Béteille|2002|p=66}} however, the economic significance of the [[caste system in India]] seems to be declining as a result of urbanisation and affirmative action programs. 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 Empire|Spanish America]], mixed-race ''[[casta]]s'' were a category within the Hispanic sector but the social order was otherwise fluid.

==Etymology==
The English word ''caste'' ({{IPAc-en|k|æ|s|t}}, {{IPAc-en|also|UK|k|ɑː|s|t}}) derives from the Spanish and Portuguese {{lang|es|[[casta]]}}, which, according to the [[John Minsheu]]'s Spanish dictionary (1569), means "race, lineage, tribe or breed".<ref name=oed-caste>{{Cite OED|caste|id=28546}}</ref> The Portuguese and Spanish word "casta" originated in [[Gothic language|Gothic]] "kasts" - "group of animals". The word entered the languages of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] with the sense "type of animal," and soon developed into "race of men" and later "class, condition of men".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Solodow |first=Joseph B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q6UgAwAAQBAJ |title=Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages |date=21 January 2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-48471-8 |pages=189 |language=en}}</ref> When the Spanish colonised the [[New World]], they used the word to mean a 'clan or lineage'. It was, however, the Portuguese, the first Europeans to reach India by sea in 1498, to first employ {{lang|pt|casta}} in the primary modern sense of the English word 'caste' when they applied it to the thousands of endogamous, hereditary Indian social groups they encountered.<ref name=oed-caste/><ref name=pitt-rivers>{{cite book |last=Pitt-Rivers |first=Julian |editor-first=T. O. |editor-last=Beidelman |title=The translation of culture essays to E.E. Evans-Pritchard |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f509AAAAIAAJ&pg=231 |year=1971 |publisher=Tavistock |location=London, UK |pages=231–256 |chapter=On the word 'caste' |id=GGKEY:EC3ZBGF5QC9}}</ref> The use of the spelling ''caste'', with this latter meaning, is first attested in English in 1613.<ref name=oed-caste/> In the Latin American context, the term ''caste'' is sometimes used to describe the ''[[casta]]'' system of racial classification, based on whether a person was of pure European, Indigenous or African descent, or some mix thereof, with the different groups being placed in a racial hierarchy; however, despite the etymological connection between the Latin American ''casta'' system and South Asian caste systems (the former giving its name to the latter), it is controversial to what extent the two phenomena are really comparable.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vinson |first=Ben |title=Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-107-02643-8}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2024}}

== In South Asia ==

=== India ===
{{Main|Caste system in India|Caste system among South Asian Muslims}} 
Modern India's caste system is based on the superimposition of an old four-fold theoretical classification called [[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]] on the social ethnic grouping called [[jāti]]. The [[Vedic period]] conceptualised a society as consisting of four types of [[Varna (Hinduism)|varnas]], or categories: [[Brahmin]], [[Kshatriya]], [[Vaishya]] and [[Shudra]], according to the nature of the work of its members. Varna was not an inherited category and the occupation determined the varna. However, a person's [[Jāti|Jati]] is determined at birth and makes them take up that Jati's occupation; members could and did change their occupation based on personal strengths as well as economic, social and political factors.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} A 2016 study based on the [[DNA analysis]] of unrelated Indians determined that [[Endogamy|endogamous]] jatis originated during the [[Gupta Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 February 2016 |title=Genetic study suggests caste began to dictate marriage from Gupta reign |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/genetic-study-suggests-caste-began-to-dictate-marriage-from-gupta-reign/ |access-date=5 April 2023 |website=[[The Indian Express]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024105448/https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/genetic-study-suggests-caste-began-to-dictate-marriage-from-gupta-reign/ |archive-date=24 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kalyan |first1=Ray |title=Caste originated during Gupta dynasty: Study |date=27 January 2016 |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/content/525390/caste-originated-during-gupta-dynasty.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301144303/https://www.deccanherald.com/content/525390/caste-originated-during-gupta-dynasty.html |archive-date=1 March 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Phillip |last=Martin |title=Even with a Harvard pedigree, caste follows 'like a shadow' |url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-03-05/even-harvard-pedigree-caste-follows-shadow |access-date=10 September 2021 |website=The World from PRX |date=27 February 2019 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240729192245/https://theworld.org/stories/2019/02/27/surajs-shadow-wherever-he-goes-his-caste-follows-even-america |archive-date=29 July 2024}}</ref> Today, there are around 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India.<ref>{{cite news |date=19 June 2019 |title=What is India's caste system? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616 |work=BBC News}}</ref>
{{Politics of India}}
From 1901 onwards, for the purposes of the [[Census of India prior to independence|Decennial Census]], [[British Raj|British authorities in India]] categorized all Jātis into the four ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|Varna]]'' categories as described in ancient Indian texts. [[Herbert Hope Risley]], the Census Commissioner, noted that "The principle suggested as a basis was that of classification by social precedence as recognized by native public opinion at the present day, and manifesting itself in the facts that particular castes are supposed to be the modern representatives of one or other of the castes of the theoretical Indian system."<ref>{{cite book |last=Crooke |first=William |chapter=Social Types |editor-last=Risley |editor-first=Herbert Hope |title=The People of India |isbn=}}</ref>

''Varna'', as mentioned in [[Historical Vedic religion|ancient Hindu]] texts, describes society as divided into four categories: [[Brahmin]]s (scholars and yajna priests), [[Kshatriya]]s (rulers and warriors), [[Vaishyas]] (farmers, merchants and artisans) and [[Shudras]] (workmen/service providers). Scholars believe that the ''Varnas'' system was never truly operational in society and there is no evidence of it ever being a reality in Indian history. The practical division of the society has been in terms of ''Jatis'' (birth groups), which are not based on any specific religious principle but could vary from ethnic origins to occupations to geographic areas. The ''Jātis'' have been endogamous social groups without any fixed hierarchy but subject to vague notions of rank articulated over time based on lifestyle and social, political, or economic status. Many of India's major empires and dynasties like the Mauryas,<ref>{{cite book |last=Roy |first=Kaushik |date=2012 |title=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-01736-8}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}} Shalivahanas,<ref>{{cite book |first=William Cooke |last=Taylor |date=1838 |title=Examination and Analysis of the Mackenzie Manuscripts Deposited in the Madras College Library |publisher=Asiatic Society |pages=49–55}}</ref> Chalukyas,<ref>Bilhana, in his Sanskrit work Vikramanakadevacharitam claims the Chalukyas were born from the feet of Brahma, implying they were Shudras, while some sources claim they were born in the arms of Brahma, and hence were Kshatriyas (Ramesh 1984, p. 15)</ref>{{full citation needed|date=February 2025}} Kakatiyas<ref>{{cite book |quote=Most of the Kakatiya records proudly describe them as Shudra. |last=Talbot |first=Austin Cynthia |date=2001 |title=Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19803-123-9}}; Examples include the Bothpur and Vaddamanu inscriptions of Ganapati's general Malyala Gunda senani. The Kakatiyas also maintained marital relations with other Shudra families, such as the Kotas and the Natavadi chiefs. All these evidences indicate that the Kakatiyas were of Shudra origin.[Sastry, P. V. Parabhrama (1978). N. Ramesan, ed. The Kākatiyas of Warangal. Hyderabad: Government of Andhra Pradesh. {{OCLC|252341228}}, p. 29]</ref> among many others, were founded by people who would have been classified as Shudras, under the ''Varnas'' system, as interpreted by the British. It is well established that by the 9th century, kings from all the four Varnas, including Brahmins and Vaishyas, had occupied the highest seat in the monarchical system in Hindu India, contrary to the Varna theory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Altekar |first=Anant Sadashiv |date=1934 |title=The Rashtrakutas And Their Times; being a political, administrative, religious, social, economic and literary history of the Deccan during C. 750 A.D. to C. 1000 A.D. |location=Poona |publisher=Oriental Book Agency |oclc=3793499 |page=331}}</ref> Historically the kings and rulers had been called upon to mediate on the ranks of ''Jātis'', which might number in thousands all over the subcontinent and vary by region. In practice, the ''jātis'' are seen to fit into the ''varna'' classes, but the ''varna'' status of ''jātis'' itself was subject to articulation over time.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.epw.in/journal/2011/33/special-articles/census-colonial-india-and-birth-caste.html |first=Padmanabh |last=Samarendra |title=Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=5 June 2015 |pages=7–8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521102625/https://www.epw.in/journal/2011/33/special-articles/census-colonial-india-and-birth-caste.html |archive-date=21 May 2024}}</ref>

Starting with the [[Census of India prior to independence|1901 Census of India]] led by colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley, all the ''jātis'' were grouped under the theoretical ''varnas'' categories.<ref name=dirks>{{cite book |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7191.html |first=Nicholas B. |last=Dirks |title=Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of New India |year=2001 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-08895-2}}</ref> According to political scientist [[Lloyd Rudolph]], Risley believed that ''varna'', however ancient, could be applied to all the modern castes found in India, and "[he] meant to identify and place several hundred million Indians within it."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3vnsnma5nW4C |title=The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India |first1=Lloyd I. |last1=Rudolph |author1-link=Lloyd I. Rudolph |author2-link=Susanne Hoeber Rudolph |last2=Rudolph |first2=Susanne Hoeber |year=1984 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |pages=116–117 |isbn=978-0-226-73137-7}}</ref> The terms ''varna'' (conceptual classification based on occupation) and ''jāti'' (groups) are two distinct concepts: while ''varna'' is a theoretical four-part division, ''jāti'' (community) refers to the thousands of actual endogamous social groups prevalent across the subcontinent. The classical authors scarcely speak of anything other than the ''varnas'', as it provided a convenient shorthand; but a problem arises when colonial Indologists sometimes confuse the two.<ref name="Chicago">{{citation |last=Dumont |first=Louis |title=Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |year=1980 |pages=66–67 |isbn=978-0-226-16963-7}}</ref> [[Sujata Patel]] argues that colonial ethnographic practices, frequently in association with Brahmin elites, constructed Indian society as traditional and caste-based. These practices, according to Patel, emphasise the cultural and religious dimensions and downplay economic and political factors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Patel |first=Sujata |date=2021-01-04 |title=The nationalist-indigenous and colonial modernity: an assessment of two sociologists in India |url= |journal=The Journal of Chinese Sociology |volume=8 |issue=1 |article-number=2 |doi=10.1186/s40711-020-00140-9 |doi-access=free |issn=2198-2635}}</ref>

[[File:Seventy-two Specimens of Castes in India (62).jpg|thumb|An image of a man and woman from the toddy-tapping community in Malabar from the manuscript ''Seventy-two Specimens of Castes in India'', which consists of 72 full-color hand-painted images of men and women of various religions, occupations and ethnic groups found in [[Madurai|Madura, India]] in 1837, which confirms the popular perception and nature of caste as Jati, before the British colonial authorities made it applicable only to Hindus grouped under the ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]]'' categories from the 1901 census onwards]]

Upon independence from Britain, the [[Constitution of India|Indian Constitution]] listed 1,108 Jatis across the country as [[Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes|Scheduled Castes]] in 1950, for [[Affirmative action|positive discrimination]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/rule3a.htm |title=The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 |publisher=Lawmin.nic.in |access-date=30 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328234104/http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/rule3a.htm |archive-date=28 March 2015}}</ref> This constitution would also ban discrimination of the basis of the caste, though its practice in India remained intact.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-28/struggle-to-challenge-indias-caste-system/101185772 |title='I would tell the other girls at school that I was Brahmin': The struggle to challenge India's caste system |work=[[ABC News (Australia)|ABC News]] |date=27 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240713213206/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-28/struggle-to-challenge-indias-caste-system/101185772 |archive-date=13 July 2024}}</ref> The Untouchable communities are sometimes called ''[[Dalit]]'' or ''[[Harijan]]'' in contemporary literature.<ref>{{cite news |title=Scaling Caste Walls With Capitalism's Ladders in India |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |first=Lydia |last=Polgreen |date=21 December 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/indias-boom-creates-openings-for-untouchables.html?pagewanted=all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024035014/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/asia/indias-boom-creates-openings-for-untouchables.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=24 October 2023}}</ref> In 2001, Dalits were 16.2% of India's population.<ref name=censtat01>{{cite web |title=Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes population: Census 2001 |year=2004 |publisher=[[Government of India]] |url=http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/scst.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213220715/https://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_Glance/scst.aspx |archive-date=13 February 2021}}</ref> Most of the 15 million bonded child workers are from the lowest castes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unicef.org/pon95/chil0016.html |title=Children pay high price for cheap labour |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627151730/https://www.unicef.org/pon95/chil0016.html |archive-date=27 June 2017 |website=[[UNICEF]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Zama |last=Coursen-Neff |date=30 January 2003 |title=For 15 million in India, a childhood of slavery |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/opinion/30iht-edzama_ed3__0.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=22 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404134622/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/opinion/IHT-meanwhile-for-15-million-in-india-a-childhood-of-slavery.html |archive-date=4 April 2023}}</ref> Independent India has witnessed [[Caste-related violence in India|caste-related violence]]. In 2005, government recorded approximately 110,000 cases of reported violent acts, including rape and murder, against Dalits.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-report-slams-india-for-caste-discrimination-1.693195 |title=UN report slams India for caste discrimination |work=[[CBC News]] |date=2 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119194848/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-report-slams-india-for-caste-discrimination-1.693195 |archive-date=19 January 2024}}</ref>

The socio-economic limitations of the caste system are reduced due to [[Urbanization in India|urbanisation]] and [[Affirmative action in India|affirmative action]]. Nevertheless, the caste system still exists in [[endogamy]] and [[Family patrimony|patrimony]], and politics. The globalisation and economic opportunities from foreign businesses has influenced the growth of India's middle-class population. Some members of the Chhattisgarh Potter Caste Community (CPCC) are middle-class urban professionals and no longer potters unlike the remaining majority of traditional rural potter members. There is persistence of caste in Indian [[Caste politics|politics]]. Caste associations have evolved into caste-based political parties. Political parties and the state perceive caste as an important factor for mobilisation of people and policy development.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sen |first1=Ronojoy |title=The persistence of caste in Indian politics |journal=Pacific Affairs |date=2012 |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=363–369 |doi=10.5509/2012852363}}</ref>

Studies by Bhatt and Beteille have shown changes in status, openness, mobility in the social aspects of Indian society. As a result of modern socio-economic changes in the country, India is experiencing significant changes in the dynamics and the economics of its social sphere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gandhi |first1=Rag S. |title=From Caste to Class in Indian Society |journal=Humboldt Journal of Social Relations |date=1980 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=1–14}}</ref> While arranged marriages are still the most common practice in India, the internet has provided a network for younger Indians to take control of their relationships through the use of dating apps. This remains isolated to informal terms, as marriage is not often achieved through the use of these apps.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Gandhi |first1=Divya |title= Running in the family |magazine=[[The Hindu]] |date=2 April 2016}}</ref> [[Hypergamy]] is still a common practice in India and Hindu culture. Men are expected to marry within their caste, or one below, with no social repercussions. If a woman marries into a higher caste, then her children will take the status of their father. If she marries down, her family is reduced to the social status of their son in law. In this case, the women are bearers of the egalitarian principle of the marriage. There would be no benefit in marrying a higher caste if the terms of the marriage did not imply equality.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Kingsley |last=Davis |date=13 June 2013 |title=Intermarriage in Caste Societies |journal=[[AnthroSource]] |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=376–395 |doi=10.1525/aa.1941.43.3.02a00030 |doi-access=free}}</ref> However, men are systematically shielded from the negative implications of the agreement.{{cn|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Select specimen from various Hindu castes, 1874.jpg|thumb|Members of various Hindu castes, 1874]]
Geographical factors also determine adherence to the caste system. Many Northern villages are more likely to participate in exogamous marriage, due to a lack of eligible suitors within the same caste. Women in [[North India]] have been found to be less likely to leave or divorce their husbands since they are of a relatively lower caste system, and have higher restrictions on their freedoms. On the other hand, Pahari women, of the northern mountains, have much more freedom to leave their husbands without stigma. This often leads to better husbandry as his actions are not protected by social expectations.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Berreman |first1=Gerald D. |title=Village Exogamy in Northernmost India |journal=[[Southwestern Journal of Anthropology]] |date=1962 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=55–58 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.18.1.3629123 |jstor=3629123 |s2cid=131367161}}</ref>

Chiefly among the factors influencing the rise of exogamy is the rapid [[urbanisation in India]] experienced over the last century.{{cn|date=September 2025}} It is well known that urban centers tend to be less reliant on agriculture and are more progressive as a whole{{cn|date=September 2025}}. As India's cities boomed in population, the job market grew to keep pace. Prosperity and stability were now more easily attained by an individual, and the anxiety to marry quickly and effectively was reduced. Thus, younger, more progressive generations of urban Indians are less likely than ever to participate in the antiquated system of arranged endogamy.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

India has also implemented a form of Affirmative Action, locally known as "reservation groups". Quota system jobs, as well as placements in publicly funded colleges, hold spots for the 8% of India's minority, and underprivileged groups. As a result, in states such as [[Tamil Nadu]] or those in the [[Northeast India|north-east]], where underprivileged populations predominate, over 80% of government jobs are set aside in quotas. In education, colleges lower the marks necessary for the Dalits to enter.<ref>{{Cite news |first=A. |last=R. |date=13 June 2013 |title=Indian Reservations |url=https://www.economist.com/banyan/2013/06/29/indian-reservations |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |access-date=4 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024032557/https://www.economist.com/banyan/2013/06/29/indian-reservations |archive-date=24 October 2023}}</ref>

=== Nepal ===
{{Main|Caste system in Nepal}}
The Nepali caste system resembles in some respects the Indian ''jāti'' system, with numerous ''jāti'' divisions with a ''varna'' system superimposed. Inscriptions attest the beginnings of a caste system during the [[Licchavi (kingdom)|Licchavi]] period.{{cn|date=September 2025}} [[Jayasthiti Malla]] (1382–1395) categorised Newars into 64 castes (Gellner 2001). A similar exercise was made during the reign of Mahindra Malla (1506–1575). The Hindu social code was later set up in the [[Gorkha Kingdom]] by [[Ram Shah]] (1603–1636).{{cn|date=September 2025}}

=== Pakistan ===
{{Main|Caste system among South Asian Muslims}}
McKim Marriott claims a social stratification that is hierarchical, closed, endogamous and hereditary is widely prevalent, particularly in western parts of Pakistan. Frederik Barth in his review of this system of social stratification in Pakistan suggested that these are castes.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Fredrick |last=Barth |date=December 1956 |title=Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan |journal=[[American Anthropologist]] |volume=58 |issue=6 |pages=1079–1089 |doi=10.1525/aa.1956.58.6.02a00080 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Zeyauddin |last=Ahmed |title=The New Wind: Changing Identities in South Asia |editor-first=Kenneth |editor-last=David |publisher=Aldine Publishing Company |year=1977 |isbn=978-90-279-7959-9 |pages=337–354}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=McKim |last=Marriott |title=Caste ranking and community structure in five regions of India and Pakistan |year=1960 |oclc=186146571}}</ref>

=== Sri Lanka ===
{{Main|Caste system in Sri Lanka}}
The caste system in Sri Lanka is a division of society into strata,<ref name="John Rogers 51–77">{{cite journal |first=John |last=Rogers |date=February 2004 |title=Caste as a social category and identity in colonial Lanka |journal=Indian Economic and Social History Review |volume=41 |pages=51–77 |doi=10.1177/001946460404100104 |s2cid=143883066 |number=1}}</ref> influenced by the textbook ''jāti'' system found in India. Ancient Sri Lankan texts such as the Pujavaliya, Sadharmaratnavaliya and Yogaratnakaraya and inscriptional evidence show that the above hierarchy prevailed throughout the feudal period.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Goghari |first1=Vina M. |last2=Kusi |first2=Mavis |date=2023 |title=An introduction to the basic elements of the caste system of India |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=14 |article-number=1210577 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1210577 |doi-access=free |issn=1664-1078 |pmc=10764522 |pmid=38179495}}</ref> The repetition of the same caste hierarchy even as recently as the 18th century, in the [[Kingdom of Kandy|Kandyan-period]] Kadayimpoth – Boundary books as well indicates the continuation of the tradition right up to the end of Sri Lanka's monarchy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Karava of Sri Lanka - Govigama |url=https://karava.org/other/govigama |access-date=2025-10-21 |website=karava.org}}</ref>

==Rest of Asia ==
=== Southeast Asia ===
[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een soedra een man uit de laagste kaste van Bali. TMnr 60002169.jpg|thumb|upright|A Sudra caste man from [[Bali]]. Photo from 1870, courtesy of [[Tropenmuseum]], [[Netherlands]].]]

==== Indonesia ====
{{Main|Balinese caste system}}
[[Bali]]nese caste structure has been described as being based either on three categories—the noble triwangsa (thrice born), the middle class of ''dwijāti'' (twice born), and the lower class of ''ekajāti'' (once born), much similar to the traditional Indian [[Varna (Hinduism)|BKVS social stratification]] — or on four castes<ref name="boon">{{cite book |title=The Anthropological Romance of Bali 1597-1972: Dynamic Perspectives in Marriage and Caste, Politics and Religion |first=James |last=Boon |year=1977 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] Archive |isbn=978-0-521-21398-1}}</ref>
*[[Brahmin]]as – [[priest]]
*[[Kshatriya|Satrias]] – [[knight]]hood
*[[Vaishya|Wesias]] – [[commerce]]
*[[Shudra|Sudras]] – [[Involuntary servitude|servitude]]

The Brahmana caste was further subdivided by Dutch ethnographers into two: Siwa and Buda. The Siwa caste was subdivided into five: Kemenuh, Keniten, Mas, Manuba and Petapan. This classification was to accommodate the observed marriage between higher-caste Brahmana men with lower-caste women. The other castes were similarly further sub-classified by 19th-century and early-20th-century ethnographers based on numerous criteria ranging from profession, endogamy or exogamy or polygamy, and a host of other factors in a manner similar to ''castas'' in [[Spanish Empire|Spanish colonies]] such as [[New Spain|Mexico]], and caste system studies in British colonies such as India.<ref name="boon" />

====Philippines====
[[File:Naturales 3.png|thumb|upright|A [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]] royal couple (''[[maginoo]]''), from the [[Boxer Codex]] ({{Circa|1590}})]]
In the Philippines, pre-colonial societies do not have a single social structure. The class structures can be roughly categorised into four types:<ref name="Scott1979">{{cite journal |last1=Scott |first1=William Henry |title=Class Structure in the Unhispanized Philippines |journal=Philippine Studies |date=1979 |volume=27 |issue=2, Special Issue in Memory of Frank Lynch |pages=137–159 |jstor=42632474}}</ref>
* Classless societies – egalitarian societies with no class structure. Examples include the [[Mangyan people|Mangyan]] and the [[Kalanguya people]]s.<ref name="Scott1979" />
* Warrior societies – societies where a distinct warrior class exists, and whose membership depends on martial prowess. Examples include the [[Mandaya people|Mandaya]], [[Bagobo people|Bagobo]], [[Tagakaulo people|Tagakaulo]], and [[B'laan people]]s who had warriors called the ''bagani'' or ''magani''. Similarly, in the [[Cordillera Central (Luzon)|Cordillera highlands]] of [[Luzon]], the [[Isneg people|Isneg]] and [[Kalinga people]]s refer to their warriors as ''mengal'' or ''maingal''. This society is typical for [[head-hunting]] ethnic groups or ethnic groups which had seasonal raids (''[[mangayaw]]'') into enemy territory.<ref name="Scott1979" />
* Petty [[Plutocracy|plutocracies]] – societies which have a wealthy class based on property and the hosting of periodic prestige feasts. In some groups, it was an actual caste whose members had specialised leadership roles, married only within the same caste, and wore specialised clothing. These include the ''kadangyan'' of the [[Ifugao people|Ifugao]], [[Bontoc people|Bontoc]], and [[Kankanaey people|Kankanaey]] peoples, as well as the ''baknang'' of the [[Ibaloi people]]. In others, though wealth may give one prestige and leadership qualifications, it was not a caste per se.<ref name="Scott1979" /> 
*Principalities – societies with an actual ruling class and caste systems determined by birthright. Most of these societies are either [[Greater India|Indianized]] or [[Islamized]] to a degree. They include the larger coastal ethnic groups like the [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]], [[Kapampangan people|Kapampangan]], [[Visayan people|Visayan]], and [[Moro people|Moro]] societies. Most of them were usually divided into four to five caste systems with different names under different ethnic groups that roughly correspond to each other. The system was more or less [[feudalistic]], with the ''datu'' ultimately having control of all the lands of the community. The land is subdivided among the enfranchised classes, the ''sakop'' or ''sa-op'' ([[vassal]]s, lit. "those under the power of another"). The castes were hereditary, though they were not rigid. They were more accurately a reflection of the interpersonal political relationships, a person is always the follower of another. People can move up the caste system by marriage, by wealth, or by doing something extraordinary; and conversely they can be demoted, usually as criminal punishment or as a result of debt. Shamans are the exception, as they are either volunteers, chosen by the ranking shamans, or born into the role by innate propensity for it. They are enumerated below from the highest rank to the lowest:<ref name="Scott1979" /><ref name="arcilla">{{cite book |last=Arcilla |first=José S. |title=An Introduction to Philippine History |publisher=[[Ateneo de Manila University Press]] |year=1998 |page=14&ndash;16 |isbn=978-971-550-261-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxEYobbU-D8C&q=timawa&pg=PA14}}</ref><ref name="scott2">{{cite book |last=Scott |first=William Henry |title=Barangay: sixteenth-century Philippine culture and society |publisher=[[Ateneo de Manila University Press]] |isbn=978-971-550-135-4 |year=1994}}</ref>{{pn|date=February 2025}}
:* Royalty – ([[Visayan people|Visayan]]: ''[[kadatoan]]'') the ''[[datu]]'' and immediate descendants. They are often further categorised according to purity of lineage. The power of the ''datu'' is dependent on the willingness of their followers to render him respect and obedience. Most roles of the datu were judicial and military. In case of an unfit ''datu'', support may be withdrawn by his followers. ''Datu'' were almost always male, though in some ethnic groups like the [[Banwaon people]], the female shaman (''[[Philippine shamans|babaiyon]]'') co-rules as the female counterpart of the ''datu''. 
:* Nobility – (Visayan: ''[[tumao]]''; [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]]: ''[[maginoo]]''; [[Kapampangan people|Kapampangan]] ''ginu''; [[Tausug people|Tausug]]: ''bangsa mataas'') the ruling class, either inclusive of or exclusive of the royal family. Most are descendants of the royal line or gained their status through wealth or bravery in battle. They owned lands and subjects, from whom they collected taxes.
:* [[Philippine shamans|Shamans]] – (Visayan: ''babaylan''; Tagalog: ''katalonan'') the spirit mediums, usually female or feminised men. While they were not technically a caste, they commanded the same respect and status as nobility. 
:* Warriors – (Visayan: ''[[timawa]]''; Tagalog: ''[[maharlika]]'') the martial class. They could own land and subjects like the higher ranks, but were required to fight for the ''datu'' in times of war. In some Filipino ethnic groups, they were often tattooed extensively to record feats in battle and as protection against harm. They were sometimes further subdivided into different classes, depending on their relationship with the ''datu''. They traditionally went on seasonal raids on enemy settlements. 
:* Commoners and slaves – (Visayan, [[Maguindanao people|Maguindanao]]: ''[[ulipon]]''; Tagalog: ''[[alipin]]''; Tausug: ''kiapangdilihan''; [[Maranao people|Maranao]]: ''kakatamokan'') – the lowest class composed of the rest of the community who were not part of the enfranchised classes. They were further subdivided into the commoner class who had their own houses, the servants who lived in the houses of others, and the slaves who were usually captives from raids, criminals, or debtors. Most members of this class were equivalent to the European [[serf]] class, who paid taxes and can be conscripted to communal tasks, but were more or less free to do as they please.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

=== East Asia ===

==== Tibet ====
{{See also|Social classes of Tibet}}
There is significant controversy over the [[social classes of Tibet]], especially with regards to the [[serfdom in Tibet controversy]].{{cn|date=February 2025}} There were three main feudal social groups in [[Tibet]] prior to 1959, namely ordinary [[Laity|laypeople]] (''mi ser'' in Tibetan), lay nobility (''sger pa''), and [[monk]]s.<ref>Snellgrove, ''Cultural History'', pp. 257–259</ref> 

{{ill|Heidi Fjeld|no|vertical-align=sup}} has put forth the argument that pre-1950s Tibetan society was functionally a caste system, in contrast to previous scholars who defined the Tibetan social class system as similar to European [[Feudalism|feudal]] [[serfdom]], as well as non-scholarly western accounts which seek to romanticise a supposedly egalitarian ancient Tibetan society.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

==== Japan ====
{{Main|Edo society}}
[[File:Edo social structure.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories.<ref name="tokyoshoseki"/><ref name="uki300823"/><ref name="shimonoseki"/> Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest [[List of Japanese court ranks, positions and hereditary titles|court ranks]], higher than most court nobles.<ref name="kakaku">{{cite web |url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%AE%B6%E6%A0%BC-43286# |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307120204/https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%AE%B6%E6%A0%BC-43286 |script-title=ja:家格 |language=ja |title=Kakaku |trans-title=Family status |website=Kotobank |archive-date=7 March 2024 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref>]]
In Japan's history, social strata based on inherited position, rather than personal merit, were rigid and highly formalised in a system called {{lang|ja-latn|mibunsei}} ({{lang|ja|身分制}}). At the top were the Emperor and Court nobles ([[kuge]]), together with the [[Shōgun]] and [[daimyō]].{{cn|date=February 2025}}

Older scholars believed that there were {{nihongo3|[[Four divisions of society|four classes]]|士農工商|Shi-nō-kō-shō}} of "[[samurai]], peasants (''hyakushō''), craftsmen, and merchants (''[[chōnin]]'')" under the daimyo, with 80% of peasants under the 5% samurai class, followed by craftsmen and merchants.{{sfn|Beasley|1972|p=22}} However, various studies have revealed since about 1995 that the classes of peasants, craftsmen, and merchants under the samurai are equal, and the old hierarchy chart has been removed from Japanese history textbooks. In other words, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants are not a social pecking order, but a social classification.<ref name="tokyoshoseki">{{cite web |url=https://www.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/question/e/syakai.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130175341/https://www.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/question/e/syakai.html |script-title=ja:「士農工商」や「四民平等」の用語が使われていないことについて |language=ja |title='Shinōkōshō' ya ' sì mín píng děng ' No yōgo ga tsukawa rete inai koto ni tsuite |trans-title=Regarding the absence of the terms "Shi-no-Ko-Sho" and "Equality of the Four Classes" |website=[[Tokyo Shoseki]] |archive-date=30 November 2023 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="uki300823">{{cite web |url=https://www.city.uki.kumamoto.jp/2028316 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830135959/https://www.city.uki.kumamoto.jp/2028316 |script-title=ja:第35回　教科書から『士農工商』が消えた ー後編ー　令和3年広報うき「ウキカラ」8月号 |language=ja |title=Dai 35-kai kyōkasho kara "shinōkōshō" ga kieta ̄ kōhen ̄-rei wa 3-nen kōhō uki 'ukikara' 8 tsuki-gō |trans-title=No. 35: The disappearance of the four classes of samurai, farmers, artisans and merchants from textbooks - Part 2 - August issue of the Reiwa 3rd year Uki Public Relations "Ukikara" |website=[[Uki, Kumamoto]] |archive-date=30 August 2023 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="shimonoseki">{{cite web |url=https://www.city.shimonoseki.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/58936.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606001503/https://www.city.shimonoseki.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/58936.pdf |script-title=ja:人権意識のアップデート |language=ja |title=Jinken ishiki no appudēto |trans-title=Update on human rights awareness |website=[[Shimonoseki]] |archive-date=6 June 2023 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref>
[[File:The four classes of society by Ozawa Nankoku.jpeg|thumb|The four classes of society in Japan during the [[Edo period]]. The [[samurai]] represented a hereditary social class defined by the right to bear arms and to hold public office, as well as high social status.]]
Marriage between certain classes was generally prohibited. In particular, marriage between [[daimyo]] and court nobles was forbidden by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] because it could lead to political maneuvering.{{cn|date=February 2025}} For the same reason, marriages between daimyo and high-ranking [[hatamoto]] of the samurai class required the approval of the Tokugawa shogunate. It was also forbidden for a member of the samurai class to marry a peasant, craftsman, or merchant, but this was done through a loophole in which a person from a lower class was adopted into the samurai class and then married. Since there was an economic advantage for a poor samurai class person to marry a wealthy merchant or peasant class woman, they would adopt a merchant or peasant class woman into the samurai class as an adopted daughter and then marry her.<ref name="asahi">{{cite web |url=https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/42642?page=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307171356/https://dot.asahi.com/articles/-/42642?page=2 |script-title=ja:結婚は主君の許可が必要だが、離婚するときはどうだった？江戸時代「武士」の一生行事 |language=ja |title=Kekkon wa shukun no kyoka ga hitsuyōdaga, rikon suru toki wa dōdatta? Edo jidai 'bushi' no isshō gyōji |trans-title=Marriage required the permission of the lord, but what about divorce? The life events of the Edo period "samurai" |publisher=[[The Asahi Shimbun]] |date=31 January 2022 |archive-date=7 March 2024 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref><ref name="livedoor">{{cite web |url=https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/24377409/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307171300/https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/24377409/ |script-title=ja:江戸時代の武家の結婚は簡単じゃなかった。幕府の許可も必要だった|language=ja |title=Edo jidai no buke no kekkon wa kantan janakatta. Bakufu no kyoka mo hitsuyōdatta |trans-title=Marriage among samurai in the Edo period was not easy. They needed permission from the shogunate. |website=Livedoor News |date=6 June 2023 |archive-date=7 March 2024 |access-date=7 March 2024}}</ref> Samurai had the right [[Kiri-sute gomen|to strike and even kill]] with their sword anyone of a [[Four divisions of society|lower class]] who compromised their [[honour]].<ref name=World>[https://samurai-world.com/kirisute-gomen/ Kirisute-gomen - Samurai World]</ref>

[[Japan]] had its own untouchable caste, shunned and ostracised, historically referred to by the insulting term ''eta'', now called ''[[burakumin]]''. While modern law has officially abolished the class hierarchy, there are reports of discrimination against the ''buraku'' or ''burakumin'' underclasses.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nair |first=Ravi |url=http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF39.htm |title=Class, Ethnicity and Nationality: Japan Finds Plenty of Space for Discrimination |publisher=South Asia Human Rights Documentation System |date=18 June 2001 |access-date=30 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331133636/https://hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF39.htm |archive-date=31 March 2022}}</ref> The ''burakumin'' are regarded as "ostracised".<ref>{{cite journal |first=William H. |last=Newell |date=December 1961 |title=The Comparative Study of Caste in India and Japan |journal=[[Asian Survey]] |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=3–10 |doi=10.2307/3023467 |jstor=3023467}}</ref> The ''burakumin'' are one of the main [[demographics of Japan|minority groups in Japan]], along with the [[Ainu people|Ainu]] of [[Hokkaido]] and those of [[Zainichi Korean|Korean]] or [[Chinese in Japan|Chinese]] descent.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

==== Korea ====
{{Korean caste system}}
[[File:Korea-History-Goban Game in Seoul Korea 1904 (LOC).jpg|thumb|upright|A typical Yangban family scene from 1904. The Yoon family had an enduring presence in Korean politics from the 1800s until the 1970s.]]
The [[baekjeong]] ({{lang|ko|백정}}) were an "untouchable" outcaste of Korea. The meaning today is that of butcher. It originates in the [[Goryeo-Khitan Wars|Khitan invasion of Korea]] in the 11th century. The defeated [[Khitan people|Khitans]] who surrendered were settled in isolated communities throughout Goryeo to forestall rebellion. They were valued for their skills in hunting, herding, butchering, and making of leather, common skill sets among nomads. Over time, their ethnic origin was forgotten, and they formed the bottom layer of Korean society.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

In 1392, with the foundation of the Confucian [[Joseon dynasty]], Korea systemised its own native class system. At the top were the two official classes, the [[Yangban]], which literally means "two classes". It was composed of scholars ({{lang|ko-latn|munban}}) and warriors ({{lang|ko-latn|muban}}). Scholars had a significant social advantage over the warriors. Below were the {{lang|ko-latn|jung-in}} ({{lang|ko|중인-中人}}: literally "middle people"). This was a small class of specialised professions such as medicine, accounting, translators, regional bureaucrats, etc. Below that were the {{lang|ko-latn|sangmin}} ({{lang|ko|상민-常民}}: literally 'commoner'), farmers working their own fields. Korea also had a [[serf]] population known as the ''nobi''. The nobi population could fluctuate up to about one third of the population, but on average the nobi made up about 10% of the total population.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rodriguez |first1=Junius P. |title=The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=978-0-87436-885-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalencycl01rodr/page/392 392] |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalencycl01rodr |url-access=registration |quote=10 percent of the total population on average, but it could rise up to one-third of the total. |access-date=14 February 2017 |language=en |year=1997}}</ref> In 1801, the vast majority of government nobi were emancipated,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kim |first1=Youngmin |last2=Pettid |first2=Michael J. |title=Women and Confucianism in Choson Korea: New Perspectives |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=978-1-4384-3777-4 |page=141 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwgUa6WWFBMC&pg=PA141 |access-date=14 February 2017 |language=en |date=1 November 2011}}</ref> and by 1858 the nobi population stood at about 1.5% of the total population of Korea.<ref name="nobi">{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Gwyn |title=Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-75917-9 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J0iRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 |access-date=14 February 2017 |language=en |date=23 November 2004}}</ref> The hereditary nobi system was officially abolished around 1886–87 and the rest of the nobi system was abolished with the [[Gabo Reform]] of 1894,<ref name="nobi" /> but traces remained until 1930.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

The opening of Korea to foreign [[Christian mission]]ary activity in the late 19th century saw some improvement in the status of the {{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}}. However, everyone was not equal under the Christian congregation, and even so protests erupted when missionaries tried to integrate {{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}} into worship, with non-{{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}} finding this attempt insensitive to traditional notions of hierarchical advantage.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} Around the same time, the {{lang|ko-latn|baekjeong}} began to resist open social discrimination.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=In Search of Human Rights: The Paekchŏng Movement in Colonial Korea |title=Colonial Modernity in Korea |first=Joong-Seop |last=Kim |editor1-first=Gi-Wook |editor1-last=Shin |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-last=Robinson |year=1999 |page=326 |publisher=Harvard Univ Asia Center |isbn=978-0-674-00594-5}}</ref> They focused on social and economic injustices affecting them, hoping to create an [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]] Korean society. Their efforts included attacking social discrimination by upper class, authorities, and "commoners", and the use of degrading language against children in public schools.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Korean Paekjŏng under Japanese rule: the quest for equality and human rights |first=Joong-Seop |last=Kim |year=2003 |page=147}}</ref>

With the [[Gabo reform]] of 1896, the class system of Korea was officially abolished. Following the collapse of the [[Enlightenment Party|Gabo government]], the new cabinet, which became the Gwangmu government after the establishment of the [[Korean Empire]], introduced systematic measures for abolishing the traditional class system. One measure was the new household registration system, reflecting the goals of formal [[social equality]], which was implemented by the loyalists' cabinet. Whereas the old registration system signified household members according to their hierarchical social status, the new system called for an occupation.<ref name="proper">{{cite journal |last=Hwang |first=Kyung Moon |date=2004 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |title=Citizenship, Social Equality and Government Reform: Changes in the Household Registration System in Korea, 1894–1910 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=355–387 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X04001106}}</ref>

While most Koreans by then had surnames and even {{lang|ko-latn|[[bongwan]]}}, although still substantial number of {{lang|ko-latn|[[cheonmin]]}}, mostly consisted of [[serfs]] and slaves, and [[Untouchability|untouchables]] did not. According to the new system, they were then required to fill in the blanks for surname in order to be registered as constituting separate households. Instead of creating their own family name, some {{lang|ko-latn|cheonmins}} appropriated their masters' surname, while others simply took the most common surname and its {{lang|ko-latn|bongwan}} in the local area. Along with this example, activists within and outside the Korean government had based their visions of a new relationship between the government and people through the concept of citizenship, employing the term {{lang|ko-latn|inmin}} ("people") and later, {{lang|ko-latn|kungmin}} ("citizen").<ref name="proper"/>

==== North Korea ====
{{Main|Songbun}}
The [[Committee for Human Rights in North Korea]] reported that "Every North Korean citizen is assigned a heredity-based class and socio-political rank over which the individual exercises no control but which determines all aspects of his or her life."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9313174/North-Korea-caste-system-underpins-human-rights-abuses.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9313174/North-Korea-caste-system-underpins-human-rights-abuses.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=North Korea caste system 'underpins human rights abuses' |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=UK |date=6 June 2012 |access-date=3 November 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Called ''[[Songbun]]'', [[Barbara Demick]] describes this "class structure" as an updating of the hereditary "caste system", a combination of [[Confucianism]] and [[Communism]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Demick |author-link=Barbara Demick |title=Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea |publisher=Fourth Estate |location=London |date=2010 |pages=26–27}}</ref> It originated in 1946 and was entrenched by the 1960s, and consisted of 53 categories ranging across three classes: loyal, wavering, and impure. The privileged "loyal" class included members of the [[Workers' Party of Korea|Korean Workers' Party]] and [[Korean People's Army]] officers' corps, the wavering class included peasants, and the impure class included [[Collaboration with Imperial Japan|collaborators with Imperial Japan]] and [[Land tenure|landowners]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cha |first=Victor D. |url=http://archive.org/details/impossiblestaten0000chav_j2c1 |title=The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future |publisher=Ecco |others=Internet Archive |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-06-199850-8 |location=New York |page=186 |language=en}}</ref> She claims that a bad family background is called "tainted blood", and that by law this "tainted blood" lasts three generations.{{sfn|Demick|2010|pp=28, 197, 202}}

=== West Asia ===
==== Kurdistan ====
===== Yazidis =====
{{further|Yazidi social organization}}
There are three hereditary groups, often called castes, in [[Yazidism]]. Membership in the Yazidi society and a caste is conferred by birth. Pîrs and Sheikhs are the [[priestly caste]]s, which are represented by many sacred lineages ({{langx|ku-Latn|Ocax}}). Sheikhs are in charge of both religious and administrative functions and are divided into three endogamous houses, Şemsanî, Adanî and Qatanî who are in turn divided into lineages. The Pîrs are in charge of purely religious functions and traditionally consist of 40 lineages or clans, but approximately 90 appellations of Pîr lineages have been found, which may have been a result of new sub-lineages arising and number of clans increasing over time due to division as Yazidis settled in different places and countries. Division could occur in one family, if there were a few brothers in one clan, each of them could become the founder of their own Pîr sub-clan ({{Langx|ku-Latn|ber}}). Mirîds are the lay caste and are divided into [[Kurdish tribes|tribes]], who are each affiliated to a Pîr and a Sheikh priestly lineage assigned to the tribe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pirbari |first1=Dimitri |last2=Mossaki |first2=Nodar |last3=Yezdin |first3=Mirza Sileman |date=March 2020 |title=A Yezidi Manuscript:—Mišūr of P'īr Sīnī Bahrī/P'īr Sīnī Dārānī, Its Study and Critical Analysis |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=53 |issue=1–2 |pages=223–257 |doi=10.1080/00210862.2019.1669118 |s2cid=214483496 |issn=0021-0862}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Omarkhali |first=Khanna |date=31 December 2008 |title=On the Structure of the Yezidi Clan and Tribal System and its Terminology among the Yezidis of the Caucasus |journal=[[Journal of Kurdish Studies]] |volume=6 |pages=104–119 |doi=10.2143/jks.6.0.2038092 |issn=1370-7205}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Omarkhali |first=Khanna |title=The Yezidi religious textual tradition: from oral to written categories, transmission, scripturalisation and canonisation of the Yezidi oral religious texts |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-447-10856-0 |page=27 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |oclc=1007841078}}</ref>

==== Iran ====
Pre-Islamic [[Sassanid]] society was immensely complex, with separate systems of social organisation governing numerous different groups within the empire.<ref name="Nicolle, p. 11">Nicolle, p. 11</ref> Historians believe society comprised four<ref>
These four are the three common "Indo-Euoropean" [[Trifunctional hypothesis|social tripartition]] common among ancient Iranian, Indian and Romans with one extra Iranian element (from Yashna xix/17). cf. Frye, p. 54.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Persian Night: Iran under the Khomeinist Revolution |date=1986 |first=Amir |last=Taheri |publisher=Encounter books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Why the Middle East Lagged Behind: The Case of Iran |page=72 |first=Kāẓim |last=ʻAlamdārī |publisher=University Press of America}}</ref> [[social class]]es, which linguistic analysis indicates may have been referred to collectively as "pistras".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chaudhuri |first=K. N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYY6AAAAIAAJ&dq=pistra+iran&pg=PA55 |title=Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750 |date=1990 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press|CUP Archive]] |isbn=978-0-521-31681-1 |language=en}}</ref> The classes, from highest to lowest status, were priests ({{transliteration|fa|Asravan}}), warriors ({{transliteration|fa|Arteshtaran}}), secretaries ({{transliteration|fa|Dabiran}}), and commoners ({{transliteration|fa|Vastryoshan}}).{{cn|date=September 2025}}

==== Yemen ====
{{further|Al-Akhdam}}
In [[Yemen]] there exists a hereditary caste, the [[Africa]]n-descended [[Al-Akhdam]] who are kept as perennial manual workers. Estimates put their number at over 3.5 million residents who are discriminated, out of a total Yemeni population of around 22 million.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-999239 |title=Yemen's Al-Akhdam face brutal oppression |work=[[CNN]] |access-date=22 October 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131129072703/http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-999239 |archive-date=29 November 2013}}</ref>

== Africa ==
{{Main|Caste systems in Africa}}
Various sociologists have reported caste systems in Africa.<ref name="Obinna1">{{cite journal |title=Contesting identity: the Osu caste system among Igbo of Nigeria |first=Elijah |last=Obinna |pages=111–121 |journal=African Identities |volume=10 |issue=1 |year=2012 |doi=10.1080/14725843.2011.614412 |s2cid=144982023}}</ref><ref name="James B. Watson 356–379">{{cite journal |title=Caste as a Form of Acculturation |first=James B. |last=Watson |journal=[[Southwestern Journal of Anthropology]] |volume=19 |number=4 |date=Winter 1963 |pages=356–379 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.19.4.3629284 |s2cid=155805468}}</ref><ref name="tamari1" /> The specifics of the caste systems have varied in ethnically and culturally diverse Africa; however, the following features are common – it has been a closed system of social stratification, the social status is inherited, the castes are hierarchical, certain castes are shunned while others are merely endogamous and exclusionary.<ref>{{cite web |title=Caste discrimination in Africa |first=Leo |last=Igwe |publisher=International Humanist and Ethical Union |date=21 August 2009 |url=http://www.iheu.org/caste-discrimination-africa |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003061801/http://www.iheu.org/caste-discrimination-africa |archive-date=3 October 2009}}</ref> In some cases, concepts of purity and impurity by birth have been prevalent in Africa. In other cases, such as the ''[[Nupe people|Nupe]]'' of Nigeria, the ''[[Beni Amer]]'' of East Africa, and the ''[[Tira people|Tira]]'' of Sudan, the exclusionary principle has been driven by evolving social factors.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Caste and government in primitive society |first=S. F. |last=Nadel |journal=[[Journal of Anthropological Society]] |volume=8 |pages=9–22 |year=1954}}</ref>

===West Africa===
[[File:GriotFête.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Griot]], who have been described as an endogamous caste of West Africa who specialise in oral story telling and culture preservation. They have been also referred to as the bard caste.]]
Among the [[Igbo people|Igbo]] of [[Nigeria]] – especially [[Enugu State|Enugu]], [[Anambra State|Anambra]], [[Imo State|Imo]], [[Abia State|Abia]], [[Ebonyi State|Ebonyi]], [[Edo State|Edo]] and [[Delta state|Delta]] states of the country – scholar [[Elijah Obinna]] finds that the [[Osu caste system]] has been and continues to be a major social issue. The Osu caste is determined by one's birth into a particular family irrespective of the religion practised by the individual. Once born into Osu caste, this Nigerian person is an outcast, shunned and ostracised, with limited opportunities or acceptance, regardless of his or her ability or merit. Obinna discusses how this caste system-related identity and power is deployed within government, Church and indigenous communities.<ref name="Obinna1"/>

The ''osu'' class systems of eastern [[Nigeria]] and southern [[Cameroon]] are derived from indigenous religious beliefs and discriminate against the "Osus" people as "owned by deities" and outcasts.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

The [[Songhai people|Songhai]] economy was based on a caste system. The most common were metalworkers, fishermen, and carpenters. Lower caste participants consisted of mostly non-farm working immigrants, who at times were provided special privileges and held high positions in society. At the top were noblemen and direct descendants of the original Songhai people, followed by freemen and traders.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.africankingdoms.com|title=Kingdoms of Ancient African History |website=africankingdoms.com |access-date=22 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190519102901/http://africankingdoms.com/ |archive-date=19 May 2019}}</ref>

In a review of social stratification systems in Africa, Richter reports that the term caste has been used by French and American scholars to many groups of West African artisans. These groups have been described as inferior, deprived of all political power, have a specific occupation, are hereditary and sometimes despised by others. Richter illustrates caste system in [[Ivory Coast]], with six sub-caste categories. Unlike other parts of the world, mobility is sometimes possible within sub-castes, but not across caste lines. Farmers and artisans have been, claims Richter, distinct castes. Certain sub-castes are shunned more than others. For example, exogamy is rare for women born into families of woodcarvers.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Further considerations of caste in West Africa: The Senufo |first=Dolores |last=Richter |journal=[[Africa (journal)|Africa]] |date= January 1980 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=37–54 |doi=10.2307/1158641 |jstor=1158641 |s2cid=146454269}}</ref>

Similarly, the [[Mandé peoples|Mandé]] societies in [[Gambia]], [[Ghana]], [[Guinea]], [[Ivory Coast]], [[Liberia]], [[Senegal]] and [[Sierra Leone]] have social stratification systems that divide society by ethnic ties. The Mande class system regards the ''jonow'' slaves as inferior. Similarly, the [[Wolof people|Wolof]] in Senegal is divided into three main groups, the ''geer'' (freeborn/nobles), ''jaam'' (slaves and slave descendants) and the underclass ''neeno''. In various parts of West Africa, [[Fula people|Fulani]] societies also have class divisions. Other castes include ''Griots'', ''Forgerons'', and ''Cordonniers''.<ref name="Griot">{{cite journal |last1=Feder |first1=Lisa |title=Negotiating between Manding and American1 Sensibilities. Anthropology and Humanism |journal=Two World Systems Collide |date=June 2020 |volume=45 |issue=1 |page=60 |doi=10.1111/anhu.12280 |url=https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/anhu.12280 |access-date=8 March 2025 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Tamari has described endogamous castes of over fifteen West African peoples, including the [[Toucouleur people|Tukulor]], [[Songhai people|Songhay]], [[Dogon people|Dogon]], [[Senufo people|Senufo]], [[Minyanka language|Minianka]], Moors, [[Mandinka people|Manding]], [[Soninke people|Soninke]], [[Wolof people|Wolof]], [[Serer people|Serer]], [[Fula people|Fulani]], and [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]]. Castes appeared among the [[Mandinka people|''Malinke'' people]] no later than 14th century, and was present among the ''Wolof'' and ''Soninke'', as well as some ''Songhay'' and ''Fulani'' populations, no later than 16th century. Tamari claims that wars, such as the ''Sosso-Malinke'' war described in the ''Sunjata'' epic, led to the formation of blacksmith and bard castes among the people that ultimately became the Mali empire.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

As West Africa evolved over time, sub-castes emerged that acquired secondary specialisations or changed occupations. Endogamy was prevalent within a caste or among a limited number of castes, yet castes did not form demographic isolates according to Tamari. Social status according to caste was inherited by off-springs automatically; but this inheritance was paternal. That is, children of higher caste men and lower caste or slave concubines would have the caste status of the father.<ref name="tamari1">{{cite journal |journal=[[The Journal of African History]] |year=1991 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=221–250 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700025718 |title=The Development of Caste Systems in West Africa |first=Tal |last=Tamari |s2cid=162509491}}</ref>

===Central Africa===
[[Ethel M. Albert]] in 1960 claimed that the societies in [[Central Africa]] were caste-like social stratification systems.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Socio-Political Organization and Receptivity to Change: Some Differences between Ruanda and Urundi |first=Ethel M. |last=Albert |journal=[[Southwestern Journal of Anthropology]] |volume=16 |number=1 |date=Spring 1960 |pages=46–74 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.16.1.3629054 |s2cid=142847876}}</ref> Similarly, in 1961, Maquet notes that the society in [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]] can be best described as castes.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Premise of Inequality in Ruanda: A Study of Political Relations in a Central African Kingdom |first=Jacques J. |last=Maquet |year=1962 |pages=135–171 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=London |isbn=978-0-19-823168-4}}</ref> The [[Tutsi]], noted Maquet, considered themselves as superior, with the more numerous [[Hutu]] and the least numerous [[Twa]] regarded, by birth, as respectively, second and third in the hierarchy of Rwandese society. These groups were largely endogamous, exclusionary and with limited mobility.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Power in Ruanda |first=Helen |last=Codere |journal=[[Anthropologica]] |volume=4 |number=1 |year=1962 |pages=45–85 |jstor=25604523 |doi=10.2307/25604523}}</ref>

=== Horn of Africa ===
In Ethiopia, there have been a number of studies of castes. Broad studies of castes have been written by [[Alula Pankhurst]], who has published a study of caste groups in [[South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region|SW Ethiopia]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pankhurst |first=Alula |date=1999 |title='Caste' in Africa: the evidence from south-western Ethiopia reconsidered |journal=[[Africa (journal)|Africa]] |volume=69 |number=4 |pages=485–509 |doi=10.2307/1160872 |jstor=1160872}}</ref> and a later volume by Dena Freeman writing with Pankhurst.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Freeman |first1=D. |last2=Pankhurst |first2=A. |date=2003 |title=Peripheral people: The excluded minorities of Ethiopia |location=Lawrenceville, NJ |publisher=Red Sea Press}}</ref>{{pn|date=February 2025}}

[[File:NSRW Africa Midgan.png|thumb|upright|The [[Madhiban]] (Midgan) specialise in leather occupation. Along with the Tumal and Yibir, they are collectively known as ''sab''.<ref name="Lewis" />]]
In a review published in 1977, Todd reports that numerous scholars report a system of social stratification in different parts of Africa that resembles some or all aspects of caste system. Examples of such caste systems, he claims, are to be found in [[Ethiopia]] in communities such as the [[Gurage people|Gurage]] and [[Konso people|Konso]]. He then presents the Dime of Southwestern Ethiopia, amongst whom there operates a system which Todd claims can be unequivocally labelled as caste system. The Dime have seven castes whose size varies considerably. Each broad caste level is a hierarchical order that is based on notions of purity, non-purity and impurity. It uses the concepts of defilement to limit contacts between caste categories and to preserve the purity of the upper castes. These caste categories have been exclusionary, endogamous and the social identity inherited.<ref>{{cite journal |title=La Caste en Afrique? (Caste in Africa?) |first=D. M. |last=Todd |journal=[[Africa (journal)|Africa]] |date=October 1977 |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=398–412 |doi=10.2307/1158345 |jstor=1158345 |s2cid=144428371}}</ref>

Among the [[Kingdom of Kafa|Kafa]], there were also traditionally groups labelled as castes. "Based on research done before the Derg regime, these studies generally presume the existence of a social hierarchy similar to the caste system. At the top of this hierarchy were the Kafa, followed by occupational groups including blacksmiths (Qemmo), weavers (Shammano), bards (Shatto), potters, and tanners (Manjo). In this hierarchy, the Manjo were commonly referred to as hunters, given the lowest status equal only to slaves."<ref>{{cite book |first=Sayuri |last=Yoshida |chapter=Why did the Manjo convert to Protestant? Social Discrimination and Coexistence in Kafa, Southwest Ethiopia? |title=Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies |editor1-first=Svein |editor1-last=Ege |editor2-first=Harald |editor2-last=Aspen |editor3-first=Birhanu |editor3-last=Teferra |editor4-first=Shiferaw |editor4-last=Bekele |location=Trondheim |date=2009 |pages=299–309 [299]}}</ref>

The [[Borana Oromo]] of southern [[Ethiopia]] in the [[Horn of Africa]] also have a class system, wherein the Wata, an acculturated hunter-gatherer group, represent the lowest class. Though the Wata today speak the [[Oromo language]], they have traditions of having previously spoken another language before adopting Oromo.<ref name="Westermann">{{cite book |first1=Edwin William |last1=Smith |first2=Cyril Daryll |last2=Forde |first3=Diedrich |last3=Westermann |title=Africa |year=1981|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=853}}</ref>

The traditionally nomadic [[Somali people]] are divided into clans, wherein the [[Rahanweyn]] agro-pastoral clans and the occupational clans such as the [[Madhiban]] were traditionally sometimes treated as outcasts.<ref>{{cite book |first=I. M. |last=Lewis |title=A pastoral democracy: a study of pastoralism and politics among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa |publisher=LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster |date=1999 |pages=13–14}}</ref> As Gabooye, the Madhiban along with the [[Yibir]] and Tumaal (collectively referred to as ''sab'') have since obtained political representation within [[Somalia]], and their general social status has improved with the expansion of urban centers.<ref name="Lewis">{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=I. M. |title=Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History, Society |year=2008 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-70084-9 |page=8}}</ref>

The [[Aari people]] caste system lasted for 4,500 years and prevented the exchange of genes between groups.<ref>[[Who We Are and How We Got Here]] 9 Rejoining Africa to the Human Story</ref>

==Europe==

=== Basque Country ===
For centuries, through the modern times, the majority regarded [[Cagot]]s who lived primarily in the [[Basque Country (greater region)|Basque region]] of France and Spain as an inferior caste, and a group of untouchables.<ref>{{cite book |last=Delacampagne |first=Christian |title=L'invention du racisme: Antiquité et Moyen-Âge |language=fr |trans-title=The invention of racism: Antiquity and the Middle Ages |publisher=[[Fayard]] |series=Hors collection |date=1983 |location=Paris |isbn=9782213011172 |doi=10.3917/fayar.delac.1983.01 |url=https://www.cairn.info/l-invention-du-racisme--9782213011172.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419111416/https://www.cairn.info/l-invention-du-racisme--9782213011172.htm |archive-date=19 April 2023 |pages=114–115, 121–124}}</ref> While they had the same skin color and religion as the majority, in the churches they had to use segregated doors, drink from segregated fonts, and receive communion on the end of long wooden spoons. It was a closed social system. The socially isolated Cagots were endogamous, and chances of social mobility non-existent.<ref name="indi-2008-07-28">{{cite news |last=Thomas |first=Sean |date=28 July 2008 |title=The Last Untouchable in Europe |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-last-untouchable-in-europe-878705.html |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |access-date=28 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112024608/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/last-untouchable-europe-878705.html |archive-date=12 January 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Jolly |first=Geneviève |date=2000 |title=Les cagots des Pyrénées: une ségrégation attestée, une mobilité mal connue |language=fr |trans-title=The cagots of the Pyrenees: an attested segregation, a poorly known mobility |journal={{ill|Le Monde alpin et rhodanien|fr}} |volume=28 |number=1–3 |pages=197–222 [205] |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/mar_0758-4431_2000_num_28_1_1716 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213120731/https://www.persee.fr/doc/mar_0758-4431_2000_num_28_1_1716 |archive-date=13 February 2023 |quote=L'étendue des aires matrimoniales et la distribution des patronymes constituent les principaux indices de la mobilité des cagots. F. Bériac relie l'extension des aires matrimoniales des cagots des différentes localités étudiées (de 20 à plus de 35 km) à l'importance et la densité relative des groupes de cagots, corrélant la recherche de conjoints lointains à l'épuisement des possibilités locales. A. Guerreau et Y. Guy, en utilisant la documentation gersoise exploitée par G. Loubès et les documents publiés par Fay pour le Béarn et la Chalosse (XVe–XVIIe s.) concluent que l'endogamie des cagots semble s'opérer au sein de trois sous-ensembles qui correspondent à ceux que distingue la terminologie à partir du XVIe siècle: agotes, cagots, capots. Au sein de chacun d'eux, les distances moyennes d'intermariage sont relativement importantes: entre 12 et 15 km en Béarn et Chalosse, plus de 30 km dans le Gers, dans une société où plus de la moitié des mariages se faisaient à l'intérieur d'un même village. |trans-quote=The extent of marital areas and the distribution of surnames are the main indices of cagot mobility. F. Bériac links the extension of the matrimonial areas of the Cagots of the different localities studied (from 20 to more than 35 km) to the importance and the relative density of the groups of cagots, correlating the search for distant spouses with the exhaustion of possibilities local. {{ill|Alain Guerreau|fr}} and Y. Guy, using the [[Gers]] documentation exploited by G. Loubès and the documents published by Fay for Béarn and [[Chalosse]] (15th–17th century) conclude that the endogamy of Cagots seems to operate within three subsets that correspond to those distinguished by terminology from the 16th century: agotes, cagots, capots. Within each of them, the average intermarriage distances are relatively long: between 12 and 15 km in Béarn and Chalosse, more than 30 km in the Gers, in a society where more than half of marriages took place at home, inside the same village.}}</ref>

=== United Kingdom ===
In July 2013, the UK government announced its intention to amend the [[Equality Act 2010]], to "introduce legislation on caste, including any necessary exceptions to the caste provisions, within the framework of domestic discrimination law".<ref>{{cite web |website=Government Equalities Office |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225658/130726-Caste-Discrimination.pdf |title=Caste legislation introduction – programme and timetable |access-date=2 June 2016}}</ref> Section 9(5) of the Equality Act 2010 provides that "a [[Minister (government)|Minister]] may by [[Statutory order|order]] amend the statutory definition of race to include caste and may provide for exceptions in the Act to apply or not to apply to caste".{{cn|date=February 2025}}

From September 2013 to February 2014, [[Meena Dhanda]] led a project on "Caste in Britain" for the UK [[Equality and Human Rights Commission]] (EHRC).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/research-report-91-caste-britain-socio-legal-review |title=Research report 91: Caste in Britain: Socio-legal Review |website=[[Equality and Human Rights Commission]] |access-date=21 October 2017 |archive-date=27 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227084332/https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/research-report-91-caste-britain-socio-legal-review}}</ref>

== Americas ==
=== Latin America ===
{{Main|Casta}}
{{See also|Mestizaje}}
[[File:Casta painting all.jpg|thumb|150px|Casta painting showing 16 racial groupings. Anonymous, 18th century]]
In colonial Spanish America (16th-early 19th centuries), there were legal divisions of society, the Republic of Spaniards ({{lang|es|República de Españoles}}), comprising European whites, African slaves ({{lang|es|negros}}), and mixed-race {{lang|es|[[casta]]s}}, the offspring of unions between whites, blacks, and indigenous. The Republic of Indians ({{lang|es|República de Indios}}) comprised all the various indigenous peoples, now classified in a single category, {{lang|es|indio}}, by their colonial rulers. In the social and racial hierarchy, European Spaniards were at the apex, with legal rights and privileges. Lower racial groups (Africans, mixed-race castas, and pure indigenous), had fewer legal rights and lower social status. Unlike the rigid caste system in India, in colonial Spanish America there was some fluidity within the social order.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cope |first=R. Douglas |title=The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660–1720 |location=Madison |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |date=1994}}</ref>

=== United States ===
{{main|Caste discrimination in the United States}}
In the opinion of [[W. Lloyd Warner]], discrimination in the Southern United States in the 1930s against [[African Americans|Blacks]] was similar to Indian castes in such features as [[Residential segregation in the United States|residential segregation]] and marriage restrictions.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1086/217391 |title=American Caste and Class |journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]] |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=234–237 |year=1936 |last1=Warner |first1=W. Lloyd |s2cid=146641210}}</ref> In her 2020 book ''[[Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents]]'', journalist [[Isabel Wilkerson]] used caste as an analogy to understand racial discrimination in the United States.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

[[Gerald Berreman|Gerald D. Berreman]] contrasted the differences between discrimination in the United States and India. In India, there are complex religious features which make up the system, whereas in the United States race and color are the basis for differentiation. The caste systems in India and the United States have higher groups which desire to retain their positions for themselves and thus perpetuate the two systems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berreman |first=Gerald |date=September 1960 |title=Caste in India and the United States |journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]] |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=120–127 |jstor=2773155 |doi=10.1086/222839 |s2cid=143949609}}</ref>

The process of creating a homogenized society by social engineering in both India and the Southern US has created other institutions that have made class distinctions among different groups evident. Anthropologist [[James C. Scott]] elaborates on how "global [[capitalism]] is perhaps the most powerful force for homogenization, whereas the state may be the defender of local difference and variety in some instances".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scott |first=James C. |author-link=James C. Scott |title=Seeing like a state: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed |date=1998 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=0-300-07016-0 |location=New Haven |page=8 |oclc=37392803}}</ref> The caste system, a relic of feudalistic economic systems, emphasizes differences between socio-economic classes that are obviated by openly free market capitalistic economic systems, which reward individual initiative, enterprise, merit, and thrift, thereby creating a path for social mobility.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}} When the feudalistic slave economy of the [[southern United States]] was dismantled, [[Jim Crow laws]] and acts of [[domestic terrorism]] committed by [[white supremacists]] prevented many industrious [[African Americans]] from participating in the formal economy and achieving economic success on parity with their white peers, or destroying that economic success in instances where it was achieved, such as [[Greenwood District, Tulsa|Black Wall Street]], with only rare but commonly touted exceptions to lasting personal success such as [[Maggie L. Walker|Maggie Walker]], [[Annie Turnbo Malone|Annie Malone]], and [[Madam C. J. Walker|Madame C.J. Walker]]. Parts of the United States are sometimes divided by race and class status despite the national narrative of integration.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

A survey on caste discrimination conducted by Equality Labs{{efn|Described as a "Dalit rights organisation"<ref name="The Hindu opposes">{{cite news |first=Sriram |last=Lakshman |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/group-opposes-protection-from-caste-discrimination-in-california-varsitys-faculty-union/article38319866.ece |title=Group opposes protection from caste discrimination in California Varsity's faculty union |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=24 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250114005223/https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/group-opposes-protection-from-caste-discrimination-in-california-varsitys-faculty-union/article38319866.ece |archive-date=14 January 2025}}</ref> and a "nonprofit organization focused on ending what it calls caste apartheid".<ref>{{cite news |first=Nani Sahra |last=Walker |url=https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-04/fight-to-add-caste-as-protected-category-in-us |title=Even in the U.S. he couldn't escape the label 'untouchable' |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=4 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814010520/https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-04/fight-to-add-caste-as-protected-category-in-us |archive-date=14 August 2024}}</ref>}} found 67% of Indian Dalits living in the US reporting that they faced caste-based harassment at the workplace, and 27% reporting verbal or physical assault based on their caste.{{sfn|Equality Labs, 2018|pp=20, 27}} However, the [[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] study in 2021 criticizes Equality Labs findings and methodology noting Equality Labs study "relied on a nonrepresentative snowball sampling method to recruit respondents. Furthermore, respondents who did not disclose a caste identity were dropped from the data set. Therefore, it is likely that the sample does not fully represent the South Asian American population and could skew in favor of those who have strong views about caste. While the existence of caste discrimination in India is incontrovertible, its precise extent and intensity in the United States can be contested".<ref>{{cite web |date=9 June 2021 |first1=Sumitra |last1=Badrinathan |first2=Devesh |last2=Kapur |first3=Jonathan |last3=Kay |first4=Milan |last4=Vaishnav |title=Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2021/06/social-realities-of-indian-americans-results-from-the-2020-indian-american-attitudes-survey?lang=en |publisher=[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] |access-date=9 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128050508/https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2021/06/social-realities-of-indian-americans-results-from-the-2020-indian-american-attitudes-survey?lang=en |archive-date=28 January 2025}}</ref>

In 2023, [[Seattle]] became the first city in the United States to ban discrimination based on caste.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64727735 |title= Seattle becomes first US city to ban caste discrimination |first=Max |last=Matza |date=22 February 2023 |work=[[BBC News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241228045646/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64727735 |archive-date=28 December 2024}}</ref>

== Racial casteism ==
Racial casteism is a term used to identify the relationship between caste, race, and colorism. In modern-day India, the caste system has expanded to include groups and identities from diasporic groups as well such as the Africana [[Siddi|Siddis]] and Kaffirs. Siddis make up 40,000 of India's vast population and are perceived as untouchables under the caste framework.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}This categorization is paired with anti-black ideology in the country, that is often adapted by broader uses of the term caste in western countries, most notably the United States. Like the Siddis, Africana caste [[Sri Lanka Kaffirs]] make up a small minority of the population with scholars noting that the exact number is hard to determine due to exclusion and lack of recognition from the government. Siddis and Kaffirs are considered untouchables due to their darker skin color alongside other physical factors that distinguish the group as lower caste.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

The migration of Africana groups such as the Siddis and Kaffirs to South Asia is widely considered to be a result of the [[Indian Ocean slave trade|Indian Ocean Slave Trade]], initiated by Muslim Arabs. During the trade, enslaved Africans were often brought as court servants, herbalists, midwives, or as bonded labor. The limited awareness of these groups can be attributed to caste-ideology fueled from this trade.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

The racial understanding of caste has largely been debated by scholars, with some like [[B. R. Ambedkar|Dr. B. R. Ambedkar]] arguing that caste differences between higher caste Aryans and lower cast native-Indians being more due to religious factors. While the term remains contended, it is widely understood that this racial assessment is based on the way lower-caste people are treated. Africana diasporic groups who do not fit the caste system reflected by the [[Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes|scheduled tribe]] are thus considered inferior for their darker skin and grouped in with the untouchables.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}} Since caste is inherited at birth and is inflexible to change throughout a lifetime, this can lead to a racial caste system where colorism largely influences the mobility one has in their lifetime. Terminology shifted away from race-conscious terms in South Asian antiquity, where Aryans had pre-conceived social hierarchies built off of race, to a caste framework during [[Buddhism]]'s rise in the [[3rd century BC|third century BCE]].<ref>Jayawardene, Sureshi M. (2016). "Racialized Casteism: Exposing the Relationship Between Race, Caste, and Colorism Through the Experiences of Africana People in India and Sri Lanka". ''[[Journal of African American Studies]]''. '''20''': 323–345 – via EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier.</ref>

Racial caste is embedded in the institutions that make up South Asia, particularly its governing bodies. When it comes to the electorate of India, voter preference is often based on race, caste, religion, alongside other attributing physical and political factors. This power imbalance alongside the rigid nature of caste can work against those of darker skin complexion to hold positions of power.<ref>Ahuja, Amit, Susan, Ashish (2016). "Is Only Fair Lovely in Indian Politics? Consequences of Skin Color in a Survey Experiment in Delhi". ''Journal of race, ethnicity, and politics''. '''1.2''': 227–252 – via Cambridge University Press Journals.</ref>

== Caste and higher education ==
The foundational divisions of caste have historically been seen as a determining factor in one's skills and career prospects. Today, many people perceive higher education as a means of achieving their own professional goals, but there are still methods based on caste assumptions used to keep lower caste out of universities.{{cn|date=September 2025}} This leads to their exclusion from the potential to be part of higher-paying jobs that are perceived as more elite. This social expectation and prevention of access to education and opportunity have elongated the struggle for financial and social equity amongst people from scheduled tribes and castes.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

Affirmative Action has been a global phenomenon to develop more spaces in politics, jobs, and education for people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, which has led to the reservation system being applied to universities. Even with these regulations, caste nevertheless remains a largely determining factor in the university system in [[Reservation in India|India]].{{cn|date=September 2025}} The guarantee of admittance to a certain proportion of people from oppressed castes is not enough to deal with the implications of divisions in higher education. For example, the reservation percentage can vary by state but is generally around 15% for Scheduled Castes, but 2019–20 data shows most universities miss this mark. Across the board, there is an average of 14.7% of scheduled caste students, meaning many universities are at a far lower rate than legislated.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nagaraj |first=Anuradha |date=November 29, 2021 |title=Indian student's fight against caste discrimination raises Dalit hopes |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-education-caste-idUSKBN2IF0C9/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125175224/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-education-caste-idUSKBN2IF0C9/ |archive-date=Nov 25, 2023 |work=[[Reuters]]}}</ref> These reservation systems have backlash from upper caste groups, who claim that people are only admitted due to their caste status, as opposed to merit, in a similar argument playing out to affirmative action in the United States.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

Reservation policies constitute a first step in providing access to admittance into higher education opportunities but do not overcome the overarching challenge of casteism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kahali |first1=Sonu |last2=Sagarika |first2=Sipra |date=October 2021 |title=Education and Caste Based Discrimination: A Sociological Understanding |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356161834 |journal=Social Issues & Problems |volume=10 |issue=2 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> Caste-based discrimination and social stigma can still affect the experiences of students from marginalized communities in academic institutions. Universities are a crucial place of integration and moving to offer equitable opportunity beyond just attendance, but implementing protective policies to ensure students can be successful. Attendance at university has already been shown to impact how people view caste and has the potential to shape equity building beyond the current interpersonal and systemic relationship.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gundemeda |first=Nagaraju |date=2020 |title=Caste in Twenty First Century India: Sociological Reflections on University Students' Perceptions in South India |url=https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/05281234AAS_20-1_Gundemeda.pdf |journal=Asian and African Studies |volume=29 |issue=1 |publisher=SAV |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125175212/https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/05281234AAS_20-1_Gundemeda.pdf |archive-date=Nov 25, 2023}}</ref>

Several forms of discrimination manifest in universities:
* Social discrimination: Students from marginalized castes face social discrimination, exclusion, and/or isolation on campuses. This affects their general educational experience and mental well-being. Numerous cases of harassment and bullying based on caste lines have been reported, with drastic consequences for the victims, but often none for the perpetrators. This promotes a hostile environment for students and hampers their ability to engage positively in the academic community.{{cn|date=September 2025}}
:: "When I was enrolled for an undergraduate course, I was vocal about his Dalit identity and vouched for the rights of Dalits and marginalized sections. Most of my upper-caste mates were against reservation. I was always typecast, stereotyped and even labeled with derogatory nicknames," Nishat Kabir, who is studying film at Ambedkar University in New Delhi, told Anadolu Agency.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Adil |first=Ahmad |date=January 24, 2022 |title=India 'struggling' with casteism in higher education |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/india-struggling-with-casteism-in-higher-education/2483623 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125175225/https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/india-struggling-with-casteism-in-higher-education/2483623 |archive-date=Nov 25, 2023 |work=[[Anadolu Agency]]}}</ref>
* Campus facilities: Discrimination can also be observed in access to living facilities, food services, and other campus amenities. Students from marginalized castes may encounter difficulties in availing of these services without bias, and the living arrangements are often internally segregated.{{cn|date=September 2025}}
* Academic and faculty discrimination: Discrimination may extend to the academic sphere, with students facing biased treatment, unfair grading, or limited access to academic resources based on their caste background. Instances of discrimination can involve faculty members, who may hold biases that affect their interactions with students. This comes from the inherent hierarchical nature of caste having built centuries of prejudice against lower caste and indigenous students. This influences academic mentorship, guidance, and opportunities for students from marginalized backgrounds.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

Eighty-four percent of the SC/ST students surveyed said examiners had asked them about their caste directly or indirectly during their evaluations. One student said: "Teachers are fine till they do not know your caste. The moment they come to know, their attitude towards you changes completely."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sitlhou |first=Makepeace |date=November 21, 2017 |title=India's Universities Are Falling Terribly Short on Addressing Caste Discrimination |url=https://thewire.in/caste/india-universities-caste-discrimination |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125175211/https://thewire.in/caste/india-universities-caste-discrimination |archive-date=Nov 25, 2023 |website=[[The Wire (India)|The Wire]]}}</ref>

Due to the challenges experienced on top of the normal pressure of being a student, the discrimination that Dalits and people of OBCs face has led to increased rates of suicide, with numerous examples shown to be tied directly to campus harassment and lack of administrative support.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

The clarity that comes from people sharing their experiences has led to significant pushback in the 21st century, where students have been centering fights for justice and equity, often based on movements that student activists of the past have used. Allahabad University has seen a spike in student protests and demonstrations against institutional discrimination.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kumar |first=Satendra |chapter=Transforming universities: Student activism, caste, and politics in North India |date=2022-05-31 |title=Universities as Transformative Social Spaces |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/43057/chapter/361484410 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780192865571.003.0008 |isbn=978-0-19-286557-1}}</ref> Students used tactics of information spreading from pamphlets and court cases, to public civil disobedience through marches and sit-ins to disrupt the flow of university life and lead to broader discussions. The student unrest was not unique to Allahabad University but was strong enough to last over 90 days.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

==Caste in sociology and entomology==
The initial observational studies of the division of labour in ant colonies attempted to demonstrate that ants specialized in tasks that were best suited to their size when they emerged from the pupae stage into the adult stage.{{Sfn|Gordon|2010|p=26}} A large proportion of the experimental work was done in species that showed strong variation in size.{{sfn|Gordon|2010|p=26}} As the size of an adult was fixed for life, workers of a specific size range came to be called a "caste", calling up the traditional caste system in India in which a human's standing in society was decided at birth.{{sfn|Gordon|2010|p=26}}

The notion of caste encouraged a link between scholarship in entomology and sociology because it served as an example of a division of labour in which the participants seemed to be uncompromisingly adapted to special functions and sometimes even unique environments.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=80}} To bolster the concept of caste, entomologists and sociologists referred to the complementary social or natural parallel and thereby appeared to generalize the concept and give it an appearance of familiarity.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=80&ndash;82}} In the late 19th- and early 20th centuries, the perceived similarities between the Indian caste system and [[Ant#polymorphism|caste polymorphism]] in insects were used to create a correspondence or parallelism for the purpose of explaining or clarifying racial stratification in human societies; the explanations came particularly to be employed in the United States.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=81}} Ideas from [[heredity]] and [[natural selection]] influenced some sociologists who believed that some groups were predetermined to belong to a lower social or occupational status.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=81}} Chiefly through the work of [[W. Lloyd Warner]] at the [[University of Chicago]], a group of sociologists sharing similar principles came to evolve around the creed of caste in the 1930s and 1940s.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=81}}

The ecologically oriented sociologist [[Robert E. Park]], although attributing more weight to environmental explanations than the biological nonetheless believed that there were obstacles to the assimilation of blacks into American society and that an "accommodation stage" in a biracially organized caste system was required before full assimilation.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} He did disavow his position in 1937, suggesting that blacks were a minority and not a caste.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} The Indian sociologist [[Radhakamal Mukerjee]] was influenced by Robert E. Park and adopted the concept of "caste" to describe race relations in the US.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=81&ndash;82}} According to anthropologist Diane Rodgers, Mukerjee "proceeded to suggest that a caste system should be correctly instituted in the (US) South to ease race relations."{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|pp=81&ndash;82}} Mukerjee often employed both entomological and sociological data and clues to describe caste systems.{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} He wrote "while the fundamental industries of man are dispersed throughout the insect world, the same kind of polymorphism appears again and again in different species of social insects which have reacted in the same manner as man, under the influence of the same environment, to ensure the supply and provision of subsistence."{{sfn|Mukerjee|1926|p=228}} Comparing the caste system in India to caste polymorphism in insects, he noted, "where we find the organization of social insects developed to perfection, there also has been seen among human associations a minute and even rigid specialization of functions, along with ant- and bee-like societal integrity and cohesiveness."{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}} He considered the "resemblances between insect associations and caste-ridden societies" to be striking enough to be "amusing".{{sfn|Rodgers|2008|p=82}}

== See also ==
{{Div col}}
* [[Estates of the realm]]
* [[Inter-caste marriages in India]]
* [[Job]]
* [[Kamaiya]]
* [[Priestly caste]]
* [[Propiska in the Soviet Union|Propiska]]
* [[Social exclusion]]
* [[Kshatriya|Warrior caste]]
{{Div col end}}

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
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* {{cite book |last=Sooryamoorthi |first=Radhamany |editor-last=Leonard |editor-first=Thomas M. |chapter=Caste Systems |title=Encyclopedia of the Developing World |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mE04D9PMpAC&pg=PA252 |access-date=5 August 2012 |year=2006 |location=New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-97662-6 |pages=252–}}
* {{cite book |last=Winthrop |first=Robert H. |title=Dictionary of Concepts in Cultural Anthropology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xoB_3C5N5QC&pg=PA27 |access-date=10 August 2012 |year=1991 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=978-0-313-24280-9 |pages=27–30}}
* {{Citation |last1=Zwick-Maitreyi |first1=M. |last2=Soundararajan |first2=T. |last3=Dar |first3=N. |last4=Bheel |first4=R. F. |last5=Balakrishnan |first5=P. |title=Caste in the United States: A survey of Caste among South Asian Americans |publisher=Equality Labs |date=2018 |isbn=978-0-692-94411-0 |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58347d04bebafbb1e66df84c/t/603ae9f4cfad7f515281e9bf/1614473732034/Caste_report_2018.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903051757/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58347d04bebafbb1e66df84c/t/603ae9f4cfad7f515281e9bf/1614473732034/Caste_report_2018.pdf |archive-date=3 September 2021 |ref={{sfnref|Equality Labs, 2018}}}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web |last=Ludden |first=David |title=Spectres of Agrarian Territory |url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dludden/Dharma.htm |website=[[University of Pennsylvania]] |year=2001 |access-date=18 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240419100901/https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dludden/Dharma.htm |archive-date=19 April 2024}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ludden |first=David |title=Spectres of agrarian territory in southern India |journal=Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=39 |issue=2–3 |year=2002 |pages=233–257 |doi=10.1177/001946460203900206 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/001946460203900206|url-access=subscription }}
* "Early Evidence for Caste in South India", pp.467–492 in ''Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in honour of David G. Mandelbaum'', Edited by Paul Hockings and Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, Amsterdam, 1987.{{ISBN missing}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{Wiktionary|caste}}
* {{Britannica|98395}}
* [https://www.casteless.org/ Casteless]
* [http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/comte/Philosophy3.pdf Auguste Comte on why and how castes developed across the world – in The Positive Philosophy, Volume 3 (see page 55 onwards)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707043953/http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/comte/Philosophy3.pdf |date=7 July 2012 }}
* [http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5110/merton_sociology_science.pdf Robert Merton on Caste and The Sociology of Science]
* [http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1168367/?site_locale=en_GB Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age] {{ISBN|9780521798426}} – [[Susan Bayly]]
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061105095243/http://www.countercurrents.org/hr-marguerite250404.htm|title=Caste In Yemen}} by [[Marguerite Abadjian]] (Archive of the [[Baltimore Sun]])
* [http://idsn.org/ International Dalit Solidarity Network: An international advocacy group for Dalits]

{{Segregation by type|state=collapsed}}
{{Discrimination}}
{{Social class}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Caste| ]]
[[Category:Social status]]