 Claude Markovits, a French historian of colonial India, writes that Hindu society in north and west India (Sindh), in late 18th century and much of 19th century, lacked a proper caste system, their religious identities were fluid (a combination of Saivism, Vaisnavism, Sikhism), and the Brahmins were not the widespread priestly group (but the "Bawas" were).Markovits writes, "if religion was not a structuring factor, neither was caste" among the Hindu merchants group of northwest India.Societal stratification, and the inequality that comes with it, still exists in India, and has been thoroughly criticised.