Description
Book SynopsisAdopting an historical and anthropological approach, the book seeks to account for the development and persistence of India's caste system over 350 years. Unlike many studies of the subject which are highly polemical or too technical for non-specialists, this volume is intended for a student and general market.
Trade Review'The book is extraordinary in the diversity of themes that it handles and the chronological span it covers. ... What emerges is an extraordinarily nuanced understanding of caste that satisfies the historian and provokes the social anthropologist.' Dr Seema Alavi, The Book Review
'Susan Bayley deserves praise for attempting to explain how caste in India has come to mean what it does today. Her analysis covers almost the entire Indian subcontinent, something which today is a rarity, given the current trend of ever more narrowly focused studies.' The Journal of Peasant Studies
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Historical origins of a 'caste society'; 2. The 'Brahman Raj': kings and service people, c. 1700–1830; 3. Western 'Orientalists and the Colonial perception of caste'; 4. Caste and the modern nation: incubus or essence; 5. The everyday experience of caste in Colonial India; 6. Caste debate and the emergence of Gandhian Nationalism; 7. State policy and 'reservations': the politicization of caste-based social welfare goals; 8. Caste in the everyday life of Independent India; 9. 'Caste wars' and the mandate of violence; Conclusion.
