Includes index.

"'Caste' invokes tradition, a remnant of the ancient past. According to this popular view, caste was a closed system of hierarchy and it was/is unique to South Asia. It presumably tied everyone to the social collective that they were born into, with no individual choice of occupation, mobility, or marriage. Privileges and statuses were all pre-given, with no one ever questioning the social order. This notion of caste also claimed that the source of its origin and legitimacy lay in the religious cosmos of the Hindus, who practised it as a matter of dharma or faith. The traditional order thus persisted without any change and reproduced itself for ages in the spatial universe of its innumerable village communities"-- Provided by publisher.