Table of Contents

Introduction; 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.

Promotional Information

One of the most powerful statements ever written on the subject of caste in India.

Reviews

'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