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Glossary of the study of the caste system in India

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This is a Glossary of the study of the caste system in India.

The glossary provides key figures, works, and concepts relevant to the sociology and ethnography of the study of the caste system in India. It includes early colonial administrators,[1] missionaries, and ethnographers who documented caste hierarchies, social practices, and rural communities prior to 1900. Seminal works in older times include Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies by Abbé Dubois (1770–1848), Castes and Tribes of Southern India (1909) by Edgar Thurston (1855–1935), and the ethnographic studies of William Crooke (1848–1923) and the caste surveys and racial classifications of the 'anthropologist and imperialist'[2] Herbert Hope Risley (1851–1911). Many of the former works (like those of Risley) are strongly connected with race theory and scientific racism. The glossary also covers major 20th-century contributions such as Caste in India[3] by John Henry Hutton (1885-1968) and the sociological analyses of Louis Dumont (1911–1998), highlighting ideological interpretations and hierarchical structures. This glossary also acknowledges the contributions of Indian scholars who analyzed the caste system from within the society. Figures such as Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848–1909) examined economic and social structures, while M. N. Srinivas (1916–1999) developed the concept of Sanskritisation to explain social mobility. B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) was one of the pioneers of Indian sociology.[4] Their work provides critical indigenous perspectives complementing colonial and European ethnographic studies. Foundational concepts, including varṇa, jāti, and endogamy/exogamy rules, shaped social organization and occupational hierarchies. By compiling colonial surveys, travel accounts, and early ethnographic research alongside later theoretical works, this glossary serves as a reference for researchers, historians, and students exploring the origins and evolution of the study of the caste system in India and the colonial construction of Hinduism.

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Note: The information provided does not claim to be complete or up-to-date.

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A

  • Administrative divisions (Province or State) of India during the British Raj (in the time of the study of J. H. Hutton as used in his Caste in India, p. 199)
Provinces: 1. Ajmer Merwara 2. Andamans and Nicobars 3. Assam 4. Baluchistan (Districts & Administered Territories) 5. Bengal 6. Bihar and Orissa 7. Bombay 8. Burma 9. Central Provinces and Berar 10. Coorg 11. Delhi 12. Madras 13. North-West Frontier Province 14. Punjab 15. United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
States and Agencies: 16. Assam States 17. Baluchistan States 18. Baroda State 19. Bengal States 20. Bihar and Orissa States 21. Bombay States 22. Central India Agency 23. Central Provinces States 24. Gwalior State 25. Hyderabad State 26. Jammu and Kashmir State 27. Madras States Agency — Cochin State — Travancore State — Other Madras States 28. Mysore State 29. North-West Frontier Province (Agencies and Tribal Areas) 30. Punjab States 31. Punjab States Agency 32. Rajputana Agency 33. Sikkim State 34. United Provinces States 35. Western India States Agency
  • Arjun Appadurai (born 4 February 1949), Indian-American anthropologist; Is Homo Hierarchicus? (Review article)
  • Asiatic Researches, or, Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for inquiring into the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences and literature of Asia (journal), Calcutta 1788-1839

B

  • François Bernier (1620–1688), French physician and traveller; Voyages de François Bernier Docteur en Médecine de la Faculté de Montpellier. Contenant la Description des Etats du Grand Mogol, de l'Hindoustan, du Royaume de Kachemire, &c. Où il est traitté des Richesses, des Forces, de la Justice & des causes principales de la decadence des Etats de l'Asie, & de plusieurs évenemens considérables. Paul Marret, Amsterdam 1699-1709
  • André Béteille (1934–), Indian sociologist known for work on social hierarchies, inequality, and the caste system.
  • Pramatha Nath Bose (1855–1934), Indian geologist and paleontologist; History of Hindu Civilisation during British Rule (4 vols.)
  • Célestin Bouglé (1870–1940), French sociologist and student of Émile Durkheim; analyzed social hierarchies and classifications, including comparative studies of caste and racial theories; Essais sur le Régime des Castes (Travaux de l’Année Sociologique). Paris, 1908 (English Essays on the Caste System, translated with an introduction by D. F. Pocock)
  • Francis Buchanan (1762–1829), A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar (1807)

C

  • Caste in India: Its Nature, Function and Origins (1946), book by J. H. Hutton, providing a detailed analysis of the caste system and discussing developments since earlier censuses.
More information Census, Census administrator ...
  • Census of India 1891, earlier British census that already collected caste information and formed the basis for later racial classifications.
  • Census of India 1931, the census in British India that aimed to systematically record castes and ethnic groups; served as an important source for ethnographic and sociological studies.
  • Simon Charsley: ‘Untouchable’: What is in a Name? (1996)
  • William Crooke (1848–1923), British ethnographer and folklorist who published numerous detailed studies on castes and tribes in India; emphasized material and occupational aspects of caste as opposed to racial approaches; The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. 4 vols., Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta 1896
  • Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893), British archaeologist and civil servant; early observations of Indian social organization and historical context.

D

  • Depressed Classes, see Dalit
  • S. C. Dube (1922–1996), Indian anthropologist; contributions to rural society and caste structure in India.
  • Louis Dumont (1911–1998), French anthropologist known for his sociological interpretation of the Indian caste system; emphasized the ideology and hierarchy of purity and pollution; Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications (French: Homo Hierarchicus: Essai sur le système des castes; 1966).
  • Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848–1909), Indian historian and economist who examined India’s economic and social structure, addressing aspects of the caste system in his works; Origin and Growth of Caste in India

E

  • Verrier Elwin (1902–1964), British-born Indian anthropologist, ethnologist and tribal activist
  • Endogamy – Marriage restricted within a social group; widely documented in 19th-century ethnographic reports.
  • R. E. Enthoven (1869–1952), administrator in the Indian Civil Service of the British Raj; author of The Tribes and Castes of Bombay (3 vols.) that formed a part of the Ethnographic Survey of India
  • Ethnographic Survey of India project, formally instituted by the Government of British India.
  • Exogamy – Marriage rules requiring partners from outside a specified social group; described in early studies of Indian kinship systems.

G

  • Edward Albert Gait (1863–1950), British Indian administrator (Report on the Census of Bengal, 1901)
  • G. S. Ghurye (1893–1983), Indian sociologist; studied caste, religion, and social structure in India, author of Caste and class in India (1957), Caste and Race in India (first published 1932)
  • F. S. Growse (1847–1911), British administrator and writer; published travelogues and accounts of Indian rural and social life; Mathura: A District Memoir

H

  • Hierarchical social structure – Organization of society by rank, purity, or prestige; central aspect of the caste system.
  • A. M. Hocart (1883–1939), British anthropologist; The Basis of Caste in India (in Acta Orientalia, xiv. Leyden, 1936). Les Castes. Traduit de l'anglais par E. J. Lévy et J. Auboyer (P. Geuthner, 1938); Caste: A Comparative Study (London: Methuen & Co., 1950; reprinted by Taylor & Francis in Routledge Revivals series, 2018)
  • William W. Hunter (1840–1900), British civil servant and historian; wrote on India’s administration, society, and ethnography.
  • John Henry Hutton (1885–1968), British ethnographer and civil servant; author of Caste in India: Its Nature, Function and Origins, a comprehensive study of the Indian caste system.

I

  • Indian Antiquities, early compilations of social, religious, and ethnographic descriptions of Indian communities.
  • Charles Alexander Innes (1874–1959), British civil servant and colonial administrator; Gazetteer of the Malabar and Anjengo Districts. Edited by F. B. Evans. Madras 1908

J

  • A. M. T. Jackson (1866–1909), British officer in Indian Civil Services; "Note on the History of the Caste System" (Journal of ... the Asiatic Society of Bengal, N. S. 3, 1907, pp. 509-515)
  • Jāti – Subcaste or endogamous social group; in practice forms the basis of the caste system.

K

  • Shivaram Vithal Karandikar: Hindu Exogamy. D. B. Taraporevala, 1929
  • Irawati Karve (1905–1970), Indian anthropologist and social scientist, known for ethnographic studies on caste.
  • Shridhar Venkatesh Ketkar (1884-1937): The history of caste in India: evidence of the laws of Manu on the social conditions in India during the third century A.D. Taylor & Carpenter, Ithaca, N.Y. 1909-1911 (2 vols.)

L

M

  • D. N. Majumdar (1903–1960), Indian anthropologist; Caste and Communication in an Indian Village. Asia Publishing House 1958
  • McKim Marriott (1924–2024), American anthropologist who studied social organization and caste categorization, especially in North India, and their role in religious and economic practices.
  • Adrian C. Mayer: (1922-): Caste and Kinship in Central India: A Village and Its Region. London: Routledge; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1960.
  • James Philip Mills (1890–1960), member of the Indian Civil Service and ethnographer, author of an ethnological study of the Ao people of Nagaland; The Ao Nagas (1926)
  • C. S. Mullan, Census Superintendent of Assam during the Census of India 1931, British administrator responsible for recording caste information.

N

O

  • Occupation-based hierarchy – Early ethnographers documented the link between profession and social rank, particularly in caste contexts.

P

R

  • Benudhar Rajkhowa (1872-1955), writer, poet and dramatist from Assam; Short Accounts of Assam (1915)
  • Herbert Hope Risley (1851–1911), British civil servant in the Indian Civil Service and ethnographer; considered castes as biologically and racially determined; author of The People of India, in which he discusses 'physical types', social types, 'caste in proverbs and popular sayings', caste and marriage, religion, and the origins of the caste system. The author was Director of Ethnography for India, Officer D'Academie, France, Corresponding Member of the Anthropological Societies of Rome and Berlin, and of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland; The Tribes and Castes of Bengal (Calcutta, 1891–1892. V. 1–9)
  • R. V. Russell (1873-1915): The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India. 1916 (4 vols.)

S

  • Sanskritisation (or Sanskritization) – Process in which lower castes adopt the cultural practices of higher castes to improve social status (M. N. Srinivas).
  • Émile Senart (1847–1928), French Indologist, Sanskritist, and historian; known for his studies on religion, society, and ethnography of India; provided theoretical foundations for classifying castes and social groups; Les Castes dans l'Inde. Les Faits et le Système (Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris, 1927, first published in 1896, Annales du Musée Guimet).
  • M. A. Sherring (1826-1880): Hindu Tribes and Castes, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, & Co., 1872–1881. 3 volumes, as follows: Vol. 1: Hindu tribes and castes, as represented in Benares; Vol. 2: Hindu tribes and castes; together with an account of the Mahomedan tribes of the North-West Frontier and of the aboriginal tribes of the Central Provinces; Vol. 3: Hindu tribes and castes; together with three dissertations: on the natural history of Hindu caste; the unity of the Hindu race; and the prospects of Indian caste; and including a general index of the three volumes.
  • Pierre Sonnerat (1748–1814): Voyage aux Indes orientales et à la Chine, fait depuis 1774 jusqu'à 1781
  • M. N. Srinivas (1916–1999), Indian sociologist known for studies on social mobility and caste; developed the concept of „Sanskritisation“, whereby lower castes adopt cultural practices of higher castes to gain social status.

T

  • N. A. Thoothi: The Vaishnavas of Gujarat: Being a Study in Methods of Investigation of Social Phenomena. Longmans, Green, 1935

U

  • Untouchability / Dalit – Social exclusion of groups at the bottom of the hierarchy, often synonymous with “untouchables.”
  • The Untouchables, by B. R. Ambedkar; critical analysis of discrimination against “untouchables.”

V

  • Varna – Classical Vedic division of society into four main groups: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras.
  • Village communities – Observed as basic units of rural social organization in India; analyzed in travel accounts and colonial reports.

W

  • Max Weber (1864–1920), German sociologist who analyzed India’s caste system as a form of social order and integrated it into his theories of status groups and social structure.
  • John Wilson (1804-1875), Scottish Christian missionary and orientalist; History of the Suppression of Infanticide in Western India, under the Government of Bombay: Including Notices of the Provinces and Tribes in which the Practice has Prevailed. 1855
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