Q.15) Has caste lost its relevance in understanding the multicultural Indian society. Elaborate your answer with illustrations.(UPSC CSE 2020)(Answer in 150 words,10-marks)

Caste is a collection of families having a name; following the rule of endogamy, support from fellow caste members, a position in the power structure of the region and use of the as a defence against domination and use of caste as a political weapon to empower one’s own caste.

1. Caste has some other features too. It has changed enormously in the last 100 years; it is no longer a system, there is no division of labour barring polluting works, in principle untouchability is gone, in some pockets the upper castes are on the defensive but caste still remains the most important basis for social distance and social division.

2. Caste has one important feature of its linguistic context. One prominent sociologist who was studying kinship all over India for the first time pointed; every linguistic zone has its own caste system, the caste names, ranks, rules are different which marked the multicultural character of Indian society and culture, so caste was a marker of regional communities.

3. She indirectly pointed the Varna system is a myth, it is not an empirical reality either as a real division or as a theoretical Every region its own system of ranking; in Bengal they have a two broad ranks of low people and upper people, in the same manner in Gujarat they say white people and black people. In South India, Varna divisions are even more amorphous; they can not be fitted in any of the 4 linguistic zones of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayali.

4. In Kerala they have a two-tier division; Brahmin and Shudra. Even in this division, one scholar said Nayar are Kshatriya another said they are Shudra. So, the caste name also different in different linguistic zones. Yes, there is only Brahmin caste which is found everywhere barring the north east.

5. So, caste is even today relevant to indicate that India is a multicultural society. The different zones having different castes and different ranks indicate this. In western Uttar Pradesh the Jaats are at the top and in south India, Brahmins everywhere are on top.

The reality of caste or the empirical nature of caste has changed in the last 100 years but it has remained a marker of different cultural areas and it is one of the bases how people could know the existence of different cultural regions.