100 articles
Forward caste
Forward caste: Indian caste communities outside the SC, ST, OBC, and EWS schedules; "forward" and "upper" are not legally recognized terms but common scholarly labels for the unreserved, historically privileged groups competing as general category.
French nobility
French nobility (noblesse française): hereditary legal status of the Second Estate under the Ancien Régime, acquired by birth, ennobling office, or royal letters; feudal privileges abolished 1789, with about 3,000 descendant families remaining today.
German nobility
German nobility (Adel): hereditary estate defined by land, rank classes, Uradel vs Briefadel; privileges abolished by Weimar Article 109 in 1919, titles surviving in surnames; ~60,000 name bearers then, ~80,000 today.
Gulamgiri
Gulamgiri (गुलामगिरी, "Slavery") is an 1873 Marathi book by Jyotirao Phule that equates the caste system with slavery and became the foundational text of the Satyashodhak Samaj.
Hidalgo (nobility)
Hidalgo (hidalguía): the lowest, most numerous hereditary rank of the Castilian nobility, untitled and tax-exempt, from fijo d'algo "son of somebody"; proven through chancery lawsuits and cartas ejecutorias, concentrated in northern Spain.
Imperial, royal and noble ranks
Imperial, royal and noble ranks, also called noble ranks, are the graded titles ordering monarchs, their families, and nobility, a system rooted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Iroij
Iroij (also spelled irooj) is the Marshallese term for the hereditary chiefs of the Marshall Islands, who held authority over land, people, and disputes in a matrilineal society.
Isai Vellalar
Isai Vellalar (இசை வேளாளர்), formerly called Devadasi, is a Tamil Nadu caste of hereditary temple musicians and dancers, formed from Melakkarar, Nayanakkarar, and Nattuvanar castes; listed as a Backward Class.
Iyer
Iyer (ஐயர்) is a Hindu Brahmin caste of Tamil origin, also a surname, whose members follow the Smarta tradition and Advaita philosophy of Adi Shankara.
Jat Sikh (ਜੱਟ ਸਿੱਖ)
Jat Sikh (ਜੱਟ ਸਿੱਖ), also Jatt Sikh, is the landowning agrarian caste dominant in Punjab's Sikh community: about 25% of the population owning over 90% of farmland, shaped by colonial policy, gurdwara politics, and diaspora.
Kallar (caste)
Kallar (கள்ளர்), a Tamil caste of southern Tamil Nadu, part of the Mukkulathor/Thevar formation with Maravar and Agamudaiyar; traditionally kaval policemen, criminalized under British rule, now an OBC community.
Kamma (కమ్మ) (caste)
Kammas (కమ్మ), also Chowdary, are a Telugu dominant agrarian caste of coastal Andhra Pradesh, landowning and politically powerful via the TDP, rivals of the Reddys, and heavily represented in US migration. Distinct from Kammara blacksmith communities.
Kanshi Ram (कांशी राम)
Kanshi Ram (कांशी राम), also Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar, 1934-2006, Indian political organizer who founded BAMCEF, DS-4, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (1984), built Bahujan electoral mobilization of Dalits, OBCs, and minorities, and mentored Mayawati.
Kapu (caste)
Kapu is a grouping of agrarian castes, historically a Telugu term for peasants, found mainly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and known for its campaign for Backward Class reservation.
Kayastha (कायस्थ)
Kayastha (कायस्थ) are north, central, and east Indian scribal communities traditionally tied to writing, administration, and record-keeping, distinguished by contested varna rank, high colonial-era literacy, and regional groups such as Bengali, Bihari, and Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas.
Khatri (ਖੱਤਰੀ)
The Khatri (ਖੱਤਰੀ) are a Punjabi community of northern India historically associated with trade, accounting, and civil administration; all ten Sikh Gurus were born into Khatri families.
Koli people
Koli people (कोली), also Son Koli, Mahadeo Koli, are a cluster of fishing and agricultural castes and tribes of western India, about 12 million people in Maharashtra and Gujarat, with 39 surviving Koliwada villages in Mumbai.
Kshatriya
Kshatriya (क्षत्रिय), second of the four Hindu varnas (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra), assigned rulership and warfare; historically a status claimed and legitimated by ruling lineages, distinct from the Vedic term rajanya.
Kumhar (कुम्हार)
Kumhar (कुम्हार, Kumbhakar) is an Indian and Pakistani potter caste, also called Prajapati or Kumbhar, traditionally making earthen vessels; genetically close to Kerala's Kurchas and classified OBC in states like Uttar Pradesh.
Kunbi
Kunbi (कुणबी), also known as Kunbi Marathas or Kanabi, is a cluster of Marathi- and Gujarati-speaking cultivator castes of western and central India, and a generic Deccan term for a farmer.
Kurmi (कुर्मी)
Kurmi (कुर्मी), also Kunbi or Kudmi Mahato, is a Hindu agricultural caste of northern and eastern India, classified OBC, prominent in Bihar politics (Triveni Sangh, Nitish Kumar) with a Jharkhand Scheduled Tribe inclusion proposal pending.
Kuruba (ಕುರುಬ)
Kuruba (ಕುರುಬ), also Dhangar or Halu Mata, is a large shepherd and weaving caste of Karnataka, about 9.5% of the population, classified OBC 2A, seeking ST status; distinct from Jenu, Kadu, and Betta Kuruba Scheduled Tribes.
Kushwaha
Kushwaha is an agrarian caste community of northern India, concentrated in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand; Bihar's 2022 caste census recorded over 5.5 million members.
Landed gentry
Landed gentry: untitled British and Irish landowning families, the lesser nobility below the peerage, graded as knights, esquires, and gentlemen, who held roughly half the land in some counties and dominated local government until their decline after the 1870s.
List of Brahmins
List of Brahmins: roster of the principal Brahmin (Brahman, brāhmaṇa) communities of India and Nepal, the priestly first varna, with the Pancha Gauda and Pancha Dravida divisions, demographics, and named individuals such as Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
List of Chitpavan Brahmins
List of notable Chitpavan (Konkanastha) Brahmins of Maharashtra, from Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath to Tilak, Gokhale, Ranade, Savarkar, Vinoba Bhave, Athavale, and Karmarkar.
List of Dalits
The list of Dalits covers the Dalit communities of South Asia, historically treated as untouchable, officially called Scheduled Castes in India and numbering over 200 million there.
List of Muslim Other Backward Classes communities in India
Muslim Other Backward Classes communities in India: Muslim castes and biradaris listed as OBC by the central and state governments; 494 Muslim castes, 18.98% of the OBC list, with Kerala and Karnataka covering all Muslims.
List of Rajputs
The list of Rajputs covers the Rajput community of India, a community historically granted Kshatriya rank, with their clans and ruling states.
List of Scheduled Castes in Odisha
List of Scheduled Castes in Odisha: 95-entry official list under the Constitution (SC) Order, 1950, Part XIII, amended in 1956, 1976, 2002, 2016 and 2024; published by Odisha's ST & SC Development Department.