Investigation of the Roots of the Caste System in India

The caste system as a system of social relations has been one of the important issues in the Indian society for centuries. There have been lots of assumptions, discussions, and explanations on its origin, nature and role in the Indian Society. It has been claimed that this system is an ideological system which controls all other relations within the society, and its central idea, in fact, lies in a hierarchy based on “purity” and “pollution”.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the caste system in India and to elaborate the resulted problems and difficulties. The importance of covering the issue is so clear because some of the socio-economic disparities have their roots in the very system. The methodology of this article is documentary- library based, and in different sections of it we will cover the definition of caste, caste dynamics, caste as an ideology, caste and class, and changes in the caste system besides discussing the caste system in the ancient, medieval, and the British colonialism periods.