Principal Characteristics of Caste System in India – Essay

Read this comprehensive essay on the Principal Characteristics of Indian Caste System !

The most perfect example of caste is found in India not in our present age, but at that point in the past when the caste system was at its height.


Its principal characteristics are as follows:

1. Segmental Division of Society:

The society is divided into various small social groups called castes. Each of these castes is a well developed social group, the membership of which is determined by the consideration of birth. The children belong to the caste of their parents.


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Caste membership is an indisputable and unalterable fact by which a man’s position in the social structure is wholly determined. The membership of an individual does not undergo any change even if changes in his status, occupation, education, wealth etc. take place.

Since membership is normally life long, there is practically no social mobility. However, as pointed out by M. N. Srinivas, a low-caste has been able in a generation or two, to raise itself in the hierarchy, after acquiring economic and political power, by adopting the Brahmanic customs and ways.

2. Hierarchy:

Hierarchy is a ladder of command in which the lower rungs are encompassed in the higher ones in regular succession. The castes teach us a fundamental social principle of hierarchy.


Castes form a hierarchy, being arranged in an order of superiority and inferiority. At the top of this hierarchy is the Brahmin caste and at the bottom is the untouchable caste. In between are the intermediate castes, the relative positions of which are not always clear. As such disputes among the members of these castes over the social precedence of their respective castes are not very uncommon.

Hierarchy is viewed as the principle by which the elements of a whole are ranked in relation to the whole, it being understood that in the majority of societies it is religion which provides the view of the whole. Hence, ranking assumes religious dimension.

3. Endogamy:

The most fundamental characteristic of the caste system is endogamy. All the thinkers are of the opinion that the endogamy is the chief characteristic of caste, i.e. the members of a caste or sub-caste should marry within their own caste or sub-caste. The violation of the rule of endogamy would mean ostracism and loss of caste. Although endogamy is the common rule for a caste, Anomie and Pratiloma marriage, i.e. hypergamy and hypogamy were also prevalent in exceptional cases.

4. Hereditary Status:

Generally speaking, the membership of a caste is determined by birth and the man acquires the status of a caste in which he is born. In this connection, Ketkar has written that the caste is limited to only those persons who are born as the members of that caste. Thus, membership in the caste is hereditary and once membership does not undergo any change even if change takes place in his status, occupation, education and wealth etc.

5. Hereditary Occupation:

The traditional caste system is characterised by hereditary occupation. Members of a particular caste are expected to follow the occupation meant for the caste. Traditionally a Brahmin was allowed to function as a priest. In some casts the name of caste is dependent upon the very occupation as for instance, Napita (barber), Dhobi, Mochi, Mali etc.

6. Restriction on Food and Drink:

There are rules, for example, what short of food or drink can be accepted by a person and from what castes. Usually a caste would not accept cooked food from any other caste that stands lower than itself in the social scale. A person belonging to a higher caste believes that he gets polluted even by the shadow of a person belonging to the low caste or by accepting food or drink from him.

7. Cultural Difference:

Since each caste has its own set of rules and regulations with regard to endogamy, pollution-purity, occupational specialization, each caste develops its own subculture since the behaviour of the individual is governed by the requirements of his caste. The doctrine says that it is better for a person to follow the ‘dharma’ (religious obligation) of his own caste, no matter how low, than the ‘dharma’ of another caste, no matter how illustrious. The result has been different ‘style of life’ for different castes. “Hence castes are”, to quote Prof. Gharya, “small and complete social worlds in themselves, marked off definitely from one another, though subsisting within the larger society.

8. Social Segregation:

Social segregation is an aspect of caste differentiation. According to Ghurye;

“Segregation of individual castes or of groups of castes in village is most obvious mark of civil privileges and disabilities, and it has prevailed in a more or less definite form all over India”.


Segregation is more severe in South than in the North. In some parts of the county such as Marathi, Telugu and Kanarese speaking regions it is only the impure castes that are segregated and made to live on the outskirts of villages. In the Tamil and Malayalam regions, very frequently different castes occupy distinctly different quarters or sometime the village is divided into three parts occupied by the dominate caste or by Brahmins, allotted to the Shudras and the third reserved for the Panchamas or untouchables.

9. The Concept of Pollution:

The concept of pollution plays a crucial part in maintaining the required distance between different castes. “A high caste man may not touch a low caste man, let alone accept cooked food and water from him. Where the two castes involved belong to either extreme of the hierarchy, the lower caste man may be required to keep a minimum distance between himself and the high caste man”. The pollution distance varies from caste to caste and from place to place.

10. A Particular Name:

Every caste has a particular name though which we can identify it. Sometimes, an occupation is also associated with a particular caste. We can know the profession or occupation of a caste with the help of the name of the caste.

11. Jati Panchayat:

The status of each caste is carefully protected, not only by caste laws but also by the conventions. These are openly enforced by the community. In every region of India there is a governing body or board called Jati Panchayat. These Panchayats in different regions and castes are named in a particular fashion such as Kuldriya in Madhya Pradesh and Jokhila in South Rajasthan. Some of the offences dealt with by it are adultery, violation of any of the prescribed taboos, the killing of sacred animals (the cow), insulting a Brahmin and the punishments awarded are outcasting, fines, feasts to be given to the caste men etc.

12. Taboo:

Another important characteristic of the caste system is the taboo (prohibition) by which the superior castes try to preserve their ceremonial purity and endeavour to neutralize the potentialities for evils believed to exist in every person. These potentialities are supposed to be more active and harmful to others at certain crises of life.

The most current taboos whose observance by the orthodox Hindus often entailed a number of cumbersome observances are the following: the food taboo, which prescribes the kinds of food that a man may eat.

The cooking taboo, which defines the persons who may cook the food. The eating taboo which may lay down the ritual to be followed at meals. The commensal taboo which is concerned with the person with whom one may take food. Finally, the taboo which has to do with the nature of the vessel (whether made of earth, copper or brass) that one may use for drinking or cooking.

A particular name, a particular occupation, hereditary membership, of commensality etc. are the essential features of a caste group. There are sociologists who have defined caste in terms of closed social system which means that there is no freedom of mobility. Caste has been described both as a ritual and an ideology which means that we are referring to the cultural aspect of castes.

Caste is not a social group but also a cultural group in the sense that the caste is a distinct style of life which marks off one caste from another.

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