100 articles
Aarakshan (आरक्षण)
Aarakshan is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language political drama directed by Prakash Jha, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, and Deepika Padukone, about India's caste-based reservation quotas.
Agrawal (अग्रवाल)
Agrawal (अग्रवाल), also Aggarwal, a North Indian Bania (Vaishya) mercantile caste with exogamous gotras, caste endogamy, surnames like Gupta and Mittal, and documented genetic homogeneity.
Ahir
Ahir (from Sanskrit Abhira) is a north Indian pastoral caste of cattle-herders and milk sellers, largely consolidated under the name Yadav; classified OBC, dominant in Haryana's Ahirwal, largest OBC group in Bihar.
Aristocracy (class)
Aristocracy (class): hereditary privileged elite, also meaning rule by a small privileged minority (Greek-derived term, cognate with nobility). Distinguished by inherited land, titles, and legal privilege; classical examples include Rome's patricians and Europe's medieval nobility.
Arora (ਅਰੋੜਾ)
Arora (ਅਰੋੜਾ), also Aror or Arore, a Punjabi Hindu and Sikh mercantile caste named after Aror (Rohri, Sindh); historically in south-west Punjab and Bahawalpur, 775,734 in the 1931 census, closely tied to the Khatris.
Balija
Balija: Telugu trading caste of southern India, also called Naidu, Vadugan, or Kavarai; historically merchant-warriors who became Vijayanagara Nayaka rulers of Madura and Tanjore.
Bania (बनिया) (caste)
Bania (बनिया, also Baniya, Vania) is a north and west Indian cluster of Hindu and Jain Vaishya trading castes, including Agarwals, Oswals, and Marwaris, traditionally bankers, moneylenders, and shopkeepers, classified as a forward caste.
Bengali Kayastha
Bengali Kayasthas (বঙ্গীয় কায়স্থ) are a Bengali-speaking Hindu community historically associated with administrative, clerical, and record-keeping occupations. They form a regional Kayastha tradition distinct from the Chitragupta Kayasthas of northern India and.
Bhat (भट्ट)
Bhat (भट्ट, Sanskrit bhaṭṭa) is a South Asian surname and title meaning lord or learned one, borne by Brahmin, bard, and Muslim communities; Bhatt ranks about 2,021st worldwide with roughly 271,000 bearers, concentrated in India and Nepal.
Bhumihar
Bhumihar (Babhan) is a landowning Hindu caste of Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand claiming Brahmin status; dominant agrarian caste with caste associations, militias, and shifting forms of caste assertion.
Brahmin (ब्राह्मण)
Brahmin (ब्राह्मण, Brahman): highest of the four Hindu varnas, historically priests, teachers, and scholars. About 65–70 million people in India and Nepal, over 1,800 endogamous subgroups divided into Pancha Gauda and Pancha Dravida.
Bunt (community)
Bunts (also Nadavas), a landholding community of Tulu Nadu in coastal Karnataka, traditionally matrilineal via aliya santana, with recorded history from a 9th-century inscription and bhuta spirit worship.
Burakumin (部落民)
Burakumin (部落民), also called the Dowa issue, are Japan's largest minority, descendants of Tokugawa-era eta and hinin outcastes, legally emancipated in 1871 yet still facing employment, marriage, housing, and family-registry-based discrimination.
Casta
Casta (Spanish/Portuguese for lineage) was the ancestry-based classification of colonial Latin America's sociedad de castas, ranking Spaniards, mestizos, and mixed groups, documented in casta paintings and softened by gracias al sacar exemptions.
Caste
Caste is birth-ascribed, endogamous social stratification, paradigmatic in South Asia through varna and jati, ranked by purity and pollution, with Dalits at the bottom, colonial-era rigidification, and continuing legal and diaspora debates.
Caste politics
Caste politics: mobilization of caste identity in Indian electoral politics, reservation policy, and the census. Covers colonial enumeration (1871-1931), the Mandal-era OBC politics, the 50% quota cap, and the 2025 caste census decision.
Caste system among South Asian Muslims
Caste system among South Asian Muslims: hierarchical, endogamous biradari stratification ranked as Ashraf (noble, foreign-origin), Ajlaf (convert commoners), and Arzal; shaped by kaf'aa marriage rules, regional variation, OBC reservation politics, and the Pasmanda movement.
Caste system in India
Caste system in India (jati, varna): hereditary social hierarchy with Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and Dalits outside; hardened under British census rule, banned in the 1950 constitution, addressed by reservations capped at 50%, and counted fully in the 2027 census.
Caste system in Kerala
Caste system in Kerala: the regional caste hierarchy of Malabar, Cochin and Travancore, marked by extreme distance pollution (300-foot rule), agrestic slavery, reformers like Ayyankali and Sree Narayana Guru, the 1924-25 Vaikom Satyagraha, and persisting Dalit land and education inequality.
Caste system in Nepal
Caste system in Nepal: hereditary caste hierarchy codified by the Muluki Ain of 1854 under Jang Bahadur Rana, with five categories including untouchable Dalits; discrimination now illegal but persistent.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is Isabel Wilkerson's 2020 Random House bestseller arguing that US racism is a caste system, compared with India and Nazi Germany; adapted into Ava DuVernay's film Origin.
Chamar
Chamar (चमार) is a Dalit caste of northern India and the Nepal Terai, listed as a Scheduled Caste in statewise lists under India's Constitution. Distinct from unrelated namesakes, it is known for the Ad Dharm movement in Punjab and Chamar pride identity.
Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu
Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP, Chandraseniya Prabhu) is a caste of Maharashtra and Gujarat, a regional Kayastha sub-group of scribes and warriors, ritually high, with documented Shilahara-era history and disputed Chandrasen origin legends.
Chhetri (क्षेत्री)
Chhetri (क्षेत्री, also Kshetri, Chettri) is Nepal's largest caste/ethnic group: 4,796,995 people, 16.45% in the 2021 census, descended from the Khas people and titled Chhetri by the Muluki Ain of 1853-54.
Creamy layer
Creamy layer: socially and economically advanced members of India's Other Backward Classes, excluded from OBC reservation under the 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment and the DoPT Office Memorandum of 8 September 1993; income limit now Rs 8 lakh per annum.
Dalit
Dalit: self-designation of South Asia's historically "untouchable" communities at the bottom of the caste hierarchy. Term popularized from the 1970s; Ambedkar's movement, Poona Pact, Dalit Panthers, and Article 17 define its history.
Dashrath Manjhi (दशरथ मांझी)
Dashrath Manjhi (दशरथ मांझी), the "Mountain Man", was a Musahar labourer from Gehlaur, Gaya, Bihar, who spent 22 years (1960–1982) carving a 110 m road through a hill with hammer and chisel after his wife Falguni Devi died lacking timely medical care, cutting Atri–Wazirganj distance from 55 km to 15 km; died 17 August 2007.
Deshastha Brahmin
Deshastha Brahmin (देशस्थ ब्राह्मण): a Marathi Brahmin sub-caste of the Deccan plateau, Maharashtra's largest and oldest Brahmin community, split into Rigvedi and Yajurvedi branches, traditionally priests, with gotras such as Kashyap and Bharadwaj.
Dhangar
Dhangar (धनगर/धंगड़), pastoral shepherd caste-cluster of Maharashtra, India; 22 endogamous castes from a common stock; NT (C) 3.5% quota; ST-status demand rejected by Bombay High Court in 2024; distinct from the Dhangad Scheduled Tribe.
Ezhava
The Ezhava are Kerala's largest Hindu caste group, traditionally coconut cultivators and toddy tappers, transformed by Narayana Guru's reform movement, the 1903 SNDP Yogam, and the Vaikkam satyagraha.