Caste

Gopal Guru

Gopal Guru

Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Search for more papers by this author

Abstract

Caste in contemporary India is not a static social reality. It has been expanding beyond endogamy but with ideology of purity pollution. It has expanded into ecology, urban cities, sports, and rental markets. Hence, textual production of caste through its thick description in various anthropological accounts does not fully inform us about the expansive dimension of caste. Similarly, it is not simply the thought of the Hindu law giver Manu that gives us the idea of caste as truth. In fact, it is very much the practice of caste that helps us comprehend caste as social reality. In contemporary India caste is shifting its spheres and occupying those spheres that have not been accounted for in the available anthropological literature.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.