<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Balagangadhara inteview in the Hindu
I donât really know if there ever was a âcaste systemâ, or a caste hierarchy in India. <b>There are castes or jatis, but was there ever a system? </b>We have no evidence of a clear-cut demarcation of jobs. Though the Brahmins are said to have been the only ones with access to learning, less than 10 per cent of them constituted the literate class when the British came.
And then again, what hierarchy can you talk about with regard to castes today? <b>The so-called caste system therefore is something that the Westerner developed in order to explain the so-called âdegenerationâ in Indian culture.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I donât really know if there ever was a âcaste systemâ, or a caste hierarchy in India. <b>There are castes or jatis, but was there ever a system? </b>We have no evidence of a clear-cut demarcation of jobs. Though the Brahmins are said to have been the only ones with access to learning, less than 10 per cent of them constituted the literate class when the British came.
And then again, what hierarchy can you talk about with regard to castes today? <b>The so-called caste system therefore is something that the Westerner developed in order to explain the so-called âdegenerationâ in Indian culture.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->