Changing Nature of Caste in India: A Historical Perspective

Caste in traditional Indian Society was a localized, hierarchical group of hereditary occupation. Rituals of purity and pollution governed relations among different groups. However, economic and political changes after independence have transformed caste to serve as an instrument for levelling inequalities of the old order. Erosion of ritualistic-moral edifice of caste has enabled rural people to empower themselves through institutions of political democracy. A ‘dual Culture’ of tradition and modernity now characterizes situation specific behaviour in rural society, where reverence for kith and kin exists but notions of purity and pollution have gradually weakened.