Caste in Itself, Caste and Class, or Caste in Class

A fter the British conquered Bengal and eventually the whole of India, they set out to administer the colony. In this context they encountered two phenomena with which they were not familiar: (1) the relation of people to land for production (and not for revenue receiving, household living, etc.), and (2) the caste system of India, viz. the jati stratifi cation of society. Soon they realized that the varna stratifi cation of society (which denotes the varnas of Brahmans—mainly the priests, Kshatriya—the warriors, Vai-sya—the husbandmen, and Sudra—the lowly people) is not unique to Indian society. In the late 19th and early 20th century, and others clarifi ed that the varnas denote the status system in Hindu society, which (e.g. varnas) are found with different nomenclatures in other societies of the world. I had discussed this point in my book entitled The Dynamics of Rural Society (1957a). eulogised this " pathbreaking essay " of Srinivas at the All-India Sociological conference in Bhopal. But that jatis denoted the caste system of India was universally acclaimed; namely, the smallest endogamous groups of people within each varna. The relation of Indian people to land for production (and the ancillary activities of trade and petty craft production) did not, at fi rst, undergo this kind of confusion. It was found by the British researchers in the 18th