Showing papers on "Caste published in 2007"

India after Gandhi : the history of the world's largest democracy

Abstract: Born against a background of privation and civil war, divided along lines of caste, class, language and religion, independent India emerged, somehow, as a united and democratic country. The story of its making has never been told before. Now, in this remarkable book, we have an epic account of the world's largest and least likely democracy. As Ramachandra Guha points out, India may sometimes be the most exasperating country in the world but it is always the most interesting. Guha writes compellingly of the myriad protests and conflicts that have peppered the history of free India. But he writes also of the factors and processes that have kept the country together, kept it democratic, and defied the numerous prophets of doom who believed that its poverty and hetereogeneity would force India to break up or come under autocratic rule. Moving between history and biography, "India After Gandhi" is peppered with incredible characters from the longstanding Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi to peasants, tribals, women, workers and musicians. Massively researched and elegantly written, this is the work of a major scholar at the height of his powers.

Degrees Without Freedom?: Education, Masculinities, and Unemployment in North India

Abstract: Degrees Without Freedom? re-evaluates debates on education, modernity, and social change in contemporary development studies and anthropology. Education is widely imputed with the capacity to transform the prospects of the poor. But in the context of widespread unemployment in rural north India, it is better understood as a contradictory resource, providing marginalized youth with certain freedoms but also drawing them more tightly into systems of inequality. The book advances this argument through detailed case studies of educated but unemployed or underemployed young men in rural western Uttar Pradesh. This book draws on fourteen months' ethnographic research with young men from middle caste Hindu, Muslim, and ex-Untouchable backgrounds. In addition to offering a new perspective on how education affects the rural poor in South Asia, Degrees Without Freedom? includes in-depth reflection on the politics of modernity, changing rural masculinities, and caste and communal politics.

Explaining son preference in rural India: the independent role of structural versus individual factors

Abstract: Much research has been done on demographic manifestations of son preference, particularly girls’ excess mortality; however, there is less research that focuses on son preference itself. This paper analyzes the determinants of son preference in rural India. We separate the independent, relative effects of characteristics of individual women and their households, village opportunities for women and village development, and social norms. We look at both socioeconomic and sociocultural variables. Finally, we examine whether predictors of son preference differ by desired family size. Our data come from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) India, 1992–1993. We use an ordered logit model, with dummy variables for state of residence. Our analysis shows that women’s education, particularly at secondary and higher levels, is consistently and significantly associated with weaker son preference, regardless of desired family size. Once factors measuring social norms, such as marriage customs, caste and religion, are included, economic wealth and women’s employment at household or village levels are not significant. Media access remains significant, suggesting an influence of “modernizing” ideas. Among social factors, caste and religion are associated with son preference but, once state of residence is controlled for, marriage patterns and cultivation patterns are insignificant. The strength and significance for son preference of many determinants differs by desired family size. Our results suggest that policy makers seeking to influence son preference need to identify and target different policy levers to women in different fertility and social contexts, rather than try an approach of one size that fits all.

Social exclusion, caste & health: a review based on the social determinants framework

Abstract: Poverty and social exclusion are important socio-economic variables which are often taken for granted while considering ill-health effects. Social exclusion mainly refers to the inability of our society to keep all groups and individuals within reach of what we expect as society to realize their full potential. Marginalization of certain groups or classes occurs in most societies including developed countries and perhaps it is more pronounced in underdeveloped countries. In the Indian context, caste may be considered broadly as a proxy for socio-economic status and poverty. In the identification of the poor, scheduled caste and scheduled tribes and in some cases the other backward castes are considered as socially disadvantaged groups and such groups have a higher probability of living under adverse conditions and poverty. The health status and utilization patterns of such groups give an indication of their social exclusion as well as an idea of the linkages between poverty and health. In this review, we examined broad linkages between caste and some select health/health utilization indicators. We examined data on prevalence of anaemia, treatment of diarrhoea, infant mortality rate, utilization of maternal health care and childhood vaccinations among different caste groups in India. The data based on the National Family Health Survey II (NFHS II) highlight considerable caste differentials in health. The linkages between caste and some health indicators show that poverty is a complex issue which needs to be addressed with a multi-dimensional paradigm. Minimizing the suffering from poverty and ill-health necessitates recognizing the complexity and adopting a perspective such as holistic epidemiology which can challenge pure technocentric approaches to achieve health status.

Religion and Entrepreneurship

Abstract: While considerable concern has emerged about the impact of religion on economic development, little is actually known about how religion impacts the decision making of individuals. This paper examines the influence of religion on the decision for people to become an entrepreneur. Based on a large-scale data set of nearly ninety thousand workers in India, this paper finds that religion shapes the entrepreneurial decision. In particular, some religions, such as Islam and Christianity, are found to be conducive to entrepreneurship, while others, such as Hinduism, inhibit entrepreneurship. In addition, the caste system is found to influence the propensity to become an entrepreneur. Individuals belonging to a backward caste exhibit a lower propensity to become an entrepreneur. Thus, the empirical evidence suggests that both religion and the tradition of the caste system influence entrepreneurship, suggesting a link between religion and economic behavior.

Peopling of South Asia: investigating the caste–tribe continuum in India

Abstract: In recent years, mtDNA and Y chromosome studies involving human populations from South Asia and the rest of the world have revealed new insights about the peopling of the world by anatomically modern humans during the late Pleistocene, some 40,000–60,000 years ago, over the southern coastal route from Africa. Molecular studies and archaeological record are both largely consistent with autochthonous differentiation of the genetic structure of the caste and tribal populations in South Asia. High level of endogamy created by numerous social boundaries within and between castes and tribes, along with the influence of several evolutionary forces such as genetic drift, fragmentation and long-term isolation, has kept the Indian populations diverse and distant from each other as well as from other continental populations. This review attempts to summarize recent genetic studies on Indian caste and tribal populations with the focus on the information embedded in the socially defined structure of Indian populations. BioEssays 29: 91–100, 2007. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Poverty, social divisions, and conflict in Nepal

Abstract: The authors conduct an econometric analysis of the economic and social factors which contributed to the spread of violent conflict in Nepal. They find that conflict intensity is significantly higher in places with greater poverty and lower levels of economic development. Violence is higher in locations that favor insurgents, such as mountains and forests. The authors find weaker evidence that caste divisions in society are correlated with the intensity of civil conflict, while linguistic diversity has little impact.

The Effectiveness of Jobs Reservation: Caste, Religion and Economic Status in India

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of jobs reservation on improving the economic opportunities to persons belonging to India‟s Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Using employment data from the 55 th NSS round we estimate the probabilities of different social groups in India being in one of three categories of economic status: own account workers; regular salaried or wage workers; casual wage labourers. We use these probabilities to decompose the difference between group X and forward caste Hindus in the proportions of their members in regular salaried or wage employment. This decomposition allows us to attribute a proportion of this difference to “attribute” differences” between group X and forward caste Hindus, the remainder being due to “coefficient” differences. We measure the effects of positive discrimination in boosting the proportions of ST/SC persons in regular salaried employment and the discriminatory bias against Muslims who do not benefit from such policies. We conclude that the boost provided by jobs reservation policies was around 5 percentage points. We also conclude that an alternative, and more effective, way of raising the proportion of men, from the SC/ST groups, in regular salaried or wage employment would be to improve their employment-related attributes.

Sex-Linked Genetic Influence on Caste Determination in a Termite

Abstract: The most ecologically successful and destructive termite species are those with both a nymph caste and an irreversibly wingless worker caste. The early developmental bifurcation separating these castes is widely accepted to be strictly environmentally determined. We present evidence that genotype also influences this process. Offspring from four different crosses of nymph- and worker-derived secondary reproductive individuals had strongly differentiated caste and sex ratios, despite uniform rearing conditions. These data fit an X-linked, one-locus-two-allele model. Of five possible genotypes, one was lethal, two resulted in workers, and two resulted in either nymphs or environmentally determined workers. Caste is thus controlled both by environment and by a complex genetic inheritance pattern.

Are female leaders good for education?: Evidence from India

Abstract: This paper shows that the gender of politicians affects the educational levels of individuals who grow up in the districts where these politicians are elected. Increasing female political representation by 10 percentage points increases the probability that an individual attains primary education in urban areas by 6 percentage points, which is 21% of the difference in primary education attainment between the richest and the poorest Indian states. Caste also matters, as female politicians who won seats reserved for lower castes and disadvantaged tribes are those who mainly have an effect. In addition, both the gender and caste of politicians determine who benefits more from their policies: in urban areas female politicians increase educational achievements of those of their gender and caste. A unique dataset collected on politicians in India is matched with individual data by cohort and district of residence. The political data allow the identification of close elections between women and men, which yield quasi-experimental election outcomes used to estimate the causal effect of the gender of politicians.

"Dalit Rights are Human Rights": Caste Discrimination, International Activism, and the Construction of a New Human Rights Issue

Abstract: This article analyzes recent efforts by India’s Dalits (Untouchables) to transform centuries-old caste-based discrimination into an international human rights issue. Comparing early failures and later successes in international activism, the article demonstrates that the Dalits have achieved limited but important advances among transnational NGOs, international organizations, and foreign governments since the late 1990s. What explains these successes—and what lessons does the Dalit experience hold for other groups seeking to transform domestic grievances into internationally recognized human rights issues? The article makes two primary arguments. First, organizational changes among Dalit activists played a major role in these successes, most importantly the formation of a unified Dalit network within India and the subsequent creation of a transnational solidarity network. Second, rhetorical changes played a key role, as Dalits moved from their long-standing focus on caste-based discrimination to a broader framing within the more internationally acceptable terminology of discrimination based on “work * Clifford Bob is Associate Professor of Political Science at Duquesne University. He is the author of The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and has contributed to several edited volumes including Globalization and Human Rights (Alison Brysk ed., Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). His articles have appeared in such journals as Foreign Policy, American Journal of International Law, Social Problems, and Journal of Human Rights. For comments on earlier versions of this article, I thank Elizabeth Hanson, Julie Mertus, Jeremy Pressman, James Ron, Henry Thiagaraj, Claude Welch, and Richard A. Wilson. I presented parts of the argument at the University of Connecticut’s Human Rights Institute in 2003, the 2003 International Studies Association annual meeting, and the 2002 American Political Science Association annual meeting. Vol. 29 168 HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY and descent.” The article concludes by discussing broader implications for international human rights activism by other aggrieved groups.

Worker caste determination in the army ant Eciton burchellii.

Abstract: Elaborate division of labour has contributed significantly to the ecological success of social insects. Division of labour is achieved either by behavioural task specialization or by morphological specialization of colony members. In physical caste systems, the diet and rearing environment of developing larvae is known to determine the phenotype of adult individuals, but recent studies have shown that genetic components also contribute to the determination of worker caste. One of the most extreme cases of worker caste differentiation occurs in the army ant genus Eciton, where queens mate with many males and colonies are therefore composed of numerous full-sister subfamilies. This high intracolonial genetic diversity, in combination with the extreme caste polymorphism, provides an excellent test system for studying the extent to which caste determination is genetically controlled. Here we show that genetic effects contribute significantly to worker caste fate in Eciton burchellii. We conclude that the combination of polyandry and genetic variation for caste determination may have facilitated the evolution of worker caste diversity in some lineages of social insects.

Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat

Abstract: Introduction Part I. The Background: 1. Setting the scene 2. The politics and discourse of reservations and caste Part II. The 1985 Ahmedabad Riots: The historical conjunction between caste and communalism Outlining the riots - the plot 3. The official account 4. The 'living-text', or, the riots within the riot Part III. The Making of Ethnohinduism: 5. The making of ethnohinduism: from the politics of redistribution to the politics of recognition 6. The role of violence in ethnic politics Bibliography.

Resource accessibility and vulnerability in Andhra Pradesh: Caste and non-caste influences

Abstract: This paper illustrates how caste influences socio-economic disparities in coastal Andhra Pradesh. It highlights levels of vulnerability and ‘potential resilience' of individuals to both large-scale disasters and to the everyday crises that continually disturb people's lives. Few earlier studies have provided such empirical evidence.

Employment, Exclusion and 'Merit' in the Indian IT Industry

Abstract: The Indian information technology (IT) industry has been frequently hailed by the media, the state, and industry leaders as a significant new source of high quality and well-paid employment for the educated youth of India. With the recent rapid growth of the industry and expansion in the size of the workforce, the sector already employs more than one million people and is projected to generate many more jobs over the next few years. More important, the IT industry is often represented as providing employment opportunities to wider sections of the population than has been the case for most managerial, professional, and white collar jobs. Industry leaders frequently argue that because of the shortage of technically qualified people, they have had to look far and wide for workers, in the process drawing in many people from non-middle class/ upper caste backgrounds. Linked to this, a common narrative holds that employment does not depend on social connections (influence) or “ascriptive” status (reservations) – unlike in the public sector and “old economy” companies – but is based entirely on “merit”. However, the social reality appears to be somewhat different. In this paper, I present data from a study of the IT workforce in Bangalore and draw on other sources to show that the social profile of IT workers is largely urban, middle class, and high or middle caste. The processes of exclusion that operate in the education system and in the recruitment process to create this relative social homogeneity are delineated. Finally, I discuss the ideology of merit that dominates the industry in the context of the recent debate on reservations. 1

Religion and Entrepreneurship

Abstract: While considerable concern has emerged about the impact of religion on economic development, little is actually known about how religion impacts the decision making of individuals. This paper examines the influence of religion on the decision for people to become an entrepreneur. Based on a large-scale data set of nearly ninety thousand workers in India, this paper finds that religion shapes the entrepreneurial decision. In particular, some religions, such as Islam and Christianity, are found to be conducive to entrepreneurship, while others, such as Hinduism, inhibit entrepreneurship. In addition, the caste system is found to influence the propensity to become an entrepreneur. Individuals belonging to a backward caste exhibit a lower propensity to become an entrepreneur. Thus, the empirical evidence suggests that both religion and the tradition of the caste system influence entrepreneurship, suggesting a link between religion and economic behavior.

Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Politics in the middle: mediating relationships between the citizens and the state in rural North India

Abstract: Caste and patron–client links have been regarded most often as the building blocks of political organization in India, especially in its rural parts (Migdal 1988; Weiner 1989), and caste associations have been thought to be the pre-eminent mode of interest formation and interest articulation for ordinary villagers (Bailey 1957; Morris-Jones 1967; Panini 1997). Caste has changed over the last twenty-five years, however, and the links between caste and occupation and caste and wealth are no longer as close as they used to be (Mayer 1997; Sheth 1999). Many observers continue to stress caste and patron–client linkages as important factors explaining political mobilization in rural India (Karanth 1997; Kothari 1997; Manor 1997). The relation of caste to political organization is mediated, however, by the nature of state policies. Changes produced by state policies over the last twenty-five years have had the result of diminishing the utility for villagers of older caste- and patronage-based conduits. In sixty-nine villages where I studied these features, located in the northern Indian states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, different forms of political association have arisen and gained ground, and the salience of older patronage-based associations has waned considerably in comparison. Varying stimuli produced by the state at different times have resulted in reconfiguring caste and political association, the historical account shows (Bayly 1988; Dirks 2001). As the nature and the rules of the political game have changed once again over the past twenty-five years, caste and other forms of social aggregation have changed further in response.

The Embodiment of Caste Oppression, Protest and Change

Abstract: Caste is often presented as a stable or fixed form of social stratification that conditions the behaviour of its members.This occludes the micro-structural process by which caste is embodied.This article uses empirical work on caste protest to discuss the fluid nature of embodied activity, and the analytical utility of two social constructionist accounts: the tacitly pre-given structures of Bourdieu's model are compared to the continuous creation model of Foucault.Whereas the internalized structures of Bourdieu's habitus initially appear to make most sense of the embodiment and permanence of caste, we contend that a Foucauldian approach offers better insight into the interactional basis of social structures and identity formation.The article reconsiders both theories in light of these empirical data and concludes that analysing interaction at a local level enables us to better comprehend the emergence of social structural features in a caste context.

The gender of globalization : women navigating cultural and economic marginalities

Abstract: As "globalization" moves rapidly from buzzword to cliche, evaluating the claims of neoliberal capitalism to empower and enrich remains urgently important. The authors in this volume employ feminist, ethnographic methods to examine what free trade and export processing zones, economic liberalization, and currency reform mean to women in Argentina, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Ghana, the United States, India, Jamaica, and many other places. Heralded as agents of prosperity and liberation, neoliberal economic policies have all too often refigured and redoubled the burdens of gender, race, caste, class, and regional subordination that women bear. Traders, garment factory operatives, hotel managers and maids, small farmers and agricultural laborers, garbage pickers, domestic caregivers, daughters, wives, and mothers: Women around the world are struggling to challenge the tendency of globalization talk to veil their marginalization.

Genetic polymorphism in leaf-cutting ants is phenotypically plastic

Abstract: Advanced societies owe their success to an efficient division of labour that, in some social insects, is based on specialized worker phenotypes. The system of caste determination in such species is therefore critical. Here, we examine in a leaf-cutting ant (Acromyrmex echinatior) how a recently discovered genetic influence on caste determination interacts with the social environment. By removing most of one phenotype (large workers; LW) from test colonies, we increased the stimulus for larvae to develop into this caste, while for control colonies we removed a representative sample of all workers so that the stimulus was unchanged. We established the relative tendencies of genotypes to develop into LW by genotyping workers before and after the manipulation. In the control colonies, genotypes were similarly represented in the large worker caste before and after worker removal. In the test colonies, however, this relationship was significantly weaker, demonstrating that the change in environmental stimuli had altered the caste propensity of at least some genotypes. The results indicate that the genetic influence on worker caste determination acts via genotypes differing in their response thresholds to environmental cues and can be conceptualized as a set of overlapping reaction norms. A plastic genetic influence on division of labour has thus evolved convergently in two distantly related polyandrous taxa, the leaf-cutting ants and the honeybees, suggesting that it may be a common, potentially adaptive, property of complex, genetically diverse societies.

Overlapping Identities under Liberalization: Gender and Caste in India

Abstract: This article reviews the major theories on identity and economic outcomes to reiterate that identity affects the material well‐being of individuals. Based on two rounds of data from the National Family and Health Survey, this article attempts to examine changes in two of the several identities in India, namely, the gender‐caste overlap. The Gender‐Caste Development Index (GCDI) from an earlier exercise is used to assess changes in the material standard of living of women within broad caste groups. It turns out that, despite improvements in educational outcomes, substantial intercaste gaps persist within Indian women with major regional variation. The data points cover the period 1992–93 to 1998–99, the start of the liberalization of the Indian economy. Since the data points are separated by only 6–7 years, firm conclusions are not possible; however, based on the evidence from the GCDI, this article comments on the possible links between early liberalization and intergroup disparity.

Migration, development and inequality: Eastern Punjabi transnationalism

Abstract: Drawing on original, ethnographic research in India and the UK, in this article we discuss the impact of transnational activity on the Doaba region of East Punjab, India. We argue that some recent studies have underplayed some of the less progressive consequences of Indian transnationalism. In particular, we contend that they have underestimated the extent of division between transnational migrants and Indian non-migrants and downplayed the relationship between transnationalism and caste inequality. This empirical study of transnationalism, when placed in the context of the dynamic caste relations of East Punjab, supports those who contend that access to international migration is becoming an increasingly significant component of contemporary global social stratification, with the ‘broad’ transnational processes of capitalist globalization driving the ‘narrow’ transnationalism studied here. In this article, we question any straightforwardly progressive relationship between transnationalism and ‘development’ within East Punjab, and suggest that the arguments presented have a resonance beyond northwest India.

Beliefs about Chastity, Machismo, and Caste Identity: A Cultural Psychology of Gender

Abstract: The study was conducted with a community sample (N = 1118) of participants from three caste groups (Brahmins, Thevars, and Gounders) from villages that are reported to have an extremely male-biased sex ratio in Tamilnadu, India. Chastity, Machismo, and Caste Identity scales were used to assess cultural beliefs about gender and caste. The correlations among beliefs about caste identity, chastity, and machismo were significant for all three caste groups. There was a significant difference between Brahmins and the other caste groups in beliefs about caste, chastity, and machismo. There was a significant interaction among marital status and gender. Married men’s scores on chastity and machismo were higher than unmarried men for all caste groups. Thevars and Gounders were high on machismo and chastity. Women in all caste groups, particularly Thevar women, were high on caste identity. The implications of the findings for the study of gender and immigration are discussed.

A Theoretical Exploration of Manager and Employee Social Identity, Cultural Values and Identity Conflict Management

Abstract: As social identity conflicts based on ethnic origin, religion, caste, and so on, erupt around the globe, we investigate what may happen when these conflicts carry over into the workplace. In this a...

Caste or colony? indianizing race in the united states

Abstract: Since the 1830s thinkers in both the United States and India have sought to establish analogies between their respective countries. Although many have felt the US black experience to have obvious parallels in India, there has been a fundamental disagreement about whether being black is comparable to being colonized or to being untouchable. By examining these two competing visions, this essay introduces new topics to the study of black internationalism, including the caste school of race relations, B. R. Ambedkar's anti-caste movement, and the changing significance of India for Martin Luther King, Jr.

Toward vernacular democracy : Moral society and post-postcolonial transformation in rural Orissa, India

Abstract: In this article, I consider intercaste negotiations in defining ethically desirable sociopolitical relationships in contemporary Orissa, India. Democratization following local self-government reforms led to the inclusion of hitherto marginalized voices in local political dialogue. Particularly notable is subalterns' employment of egalitarian sacrificial ethics to reinterpret the ontology of caste as founded on participation and cooperation of equal parts rather than on the colonially traditionalized hegemonic values of hierarchy and domination. This may be seen as an attempt to establish a vernacular democracy that mediates embodied sociopolitical morality and the idea and institution of equal participation.

Y-chromosomal insights into the genetic impact of the caste system in India

Abstract: The caste system has persisted in Indian Hindu society for around 3,500 years. Like the Y chromosome, caste is defined at birth, and males cannot change their caste. In order to investigate the genetic consequences of this system, we have analysed male-lineage variation in a sample of 227 Indian men of known caste, 141 from the Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh and 86 from the rest of India. We typed 131 Y-chromosomal binary markers and 16 microsatellites. We find striking evidence for male substructure: in particular, Brahmins and Kshatriyas (but not other castes) from Jaunpur each show low diversity and the predominance of a single distinct cluster of haplotypes. These findings confirm the genetic isolation and drift within the Jaunpur upper castes, which are likely to result from founder effects and social factors. In the other castes, there may be either larger effective population sizes, or less strict isolation, or both.

Since 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants of Delhi

Abstract: Since 1947 is about a series of events--the departure of the British, the inauguration of the post-colonial Indian state, and an unprecedented forced migration that followed Partition. Most importantly, it summarizes the nearly six decade-long efforts at restoring the loss of homes, livelihoods, and national territory in 1947. This study tells the story of Hindus and Sikhs from the North West Frontier Province and West Punjab who made India's capital their new home. Based on the everyday life of the migrants in three resettlement colonies, the book focuses on the period between 1947 and 1965--from the time of Partition till the official closure of resettlement work. It shows how Partition stands as a living theme, a point of reference for the Delhi Punjabis. The narrative is woven with memories of lived and inherited experiences and national histories of Partition. The refugees' journey towards becoming 'locals' is mapped through an exploration of their coping strategies, and gradual identification with the Indian state. This work, thus, shifts focus from standard debates on Hindus-Muslims, Congress party-Muslim League, India-Pakistan, and opens up the inquiry to uncharted territory. Ravinder Kaur also challenges narratives that represent migration as chaotic, disorderly, and hurried. Using personal and governmental narratives, she shows that the population movement--layered by multiple levels of class, caste and gender experience--was far more complicated than we popularly imagine.

Anthropological, historical, archaeological and genetic perspectives on the origins of caste in South Asia

Abstract: A volume that addresses the population diversity, both past and present, of South Asia must obviously include a discussion of caste. The institution of caste undoubtedly plays, and may well long have played, a crucial role in the biological and social ordering of South Asian society. In addition, the analysis of caste has been central to many studies of South Asia, and in particular those undertaken from social anthropological, biological anthropological and historical perspectives. Indeed, it is entirely possible that more has been written about caste than any other single aspect of South Asian society. In spite of this fact, however, or perhaps because of it, the topic of caste remains mired in controversy. This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the controversy that surrounds questions concerning the origins of the caste system in South Asia. Given the centrality of caste in many reconstructions of South Asian population history, however, it is nonetheless crucial to grapple with the problem of caste origins, particularly in a volume such as this. Inspired by the interdisciplinary character of the present volume and the conference from which it stemmed, this chapter will therefore attempt to examine the complex question of caste origins from a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives. In particular, it will examine ideas about caste origins that have emerged within the context of the disciplines of anthropology, history, archaeology and genetics. My aim here is not to resolve the question of caste origins, a task that, at least on current evidence, is a long way from being possible, and is, in addition, very unlikely to lead to simple answers. Rather, I wish to take a comparative approach, and examine how the question of caste origins has been addressed in each of these disciplines, as