Christianity and Caste

Caste is a social formation peculiar to Indian Society. Whereas societies all over the world, with the possible exception of tribal societies, show similarities in terms of the hierarchical ranking of class formations, Indian society, in addition to class differentiation, shows a unique pattern of caste stratification which often, not always, overlaps with class formation. Caste in its origins may, in effect, have been a kind of functional differentiation within society and there­ fore analogues to class. However, in the course of ages, it acquired racial and religious overtones which predicated it rigidly on birth-determined status with the accompanying notion of ritual purity and impurity. The result was an ambiguous social phenomenon. On the one hand, the votaries of ‘Varnasram’ claim that Indian society acquired an adaptive and integrative genius within a pluralistic set-up, and this enabled it to last through the vicissitudes of his­ tory. On the other hand, critics of caste argue that it has been a factor of disintegration rather than integration, and that caste segregation and exclusivity has hindered the emergence of civil society in contemporary India