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(Western) theories for the origins of the caste system: Voluntary explanations

(Western) theories for the origins of the caste system: Voluntary explanations Caste as an extreme form of already known institutions Historical explanations The current view of caste: Louis Dumont’s “Homo Hierarchicus ”.

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(Western) theories for the origins of the caste system: Voluntary explanations

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  1. (Western) theories for the origins of the caste system: • Voluntary explanations • Caste as an extreme form of already known institutions • Historical explanations • The current view of caste: Louis Dumont’s “Homo Hierarchicus”

  2. Dumont: the caste system is not a unified, homogeneous system valid for the whole of India, but is made of a multiplicity of local hierarchical systems • Therefore the status of one single jati can vary from one locality to another • However, all castes are structured according to a basic framework: they are ordered according a linear hierarchical order limited by two poles: Brahmans and Untouchables

  3. Caste and marriage • Caste and diet • Caste and social mobility • Individual and collective mobility • The justice of caste: the panchayat • Caste and the distribution of land produce

  4. The general effect on society of the caste system: • The dominance of the local dimension over the national dimension • The system is strongly localized • Although there is a general idea of “good”, in the sense that everyone has to do his duty, there is no single law: the “law”, dharma, is different for each varna, and therefore also for each jati

  5. An emphasis on duty rather than right • An emphasis on every person’s limits, rather than on what a person can do • The result is an emphasis on tolerance and pluralism • Moreover, no caste has a stable dominance: the necessity of bargaining: a natural tendency to democracy?

  6. The other side of the coin: A) Politics is weak, because in theory, when everyone does his duty, there is no need for the political power to intervene. Therefore the political dimension is theoretically marginal in India B) There has always been a gap between the local and the national levels that no political power has been able to fill

  7. How has the situation changed with the Muslim invasions? • Muslim Arab invasions from the 8th century onwards • Main Muslim penetration in India from the 10th century by Turko-afghan invaders • Sultanate of Delhi founded in 1206 • Mughal empire founded in 1526 (lasted till 1858)

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