Dallas Stribley / Getty Images A caste system segregates people into fixed social groups based on discriminatory notions of purity and contamination. People are placed into fixed social groups in ...

Purnima Dhavan, a history professor at the University of Washington who specializes in the social and cultural history of early modern south Asia, can help explain the complex caste system.

Caste is an ancient system of social hierarchy based on one’s birth that is tied to concepts of purity and social status. Its history, evolution and current state are complicated. A move to ...

Even in India, where the caste system was most rigid, the practice has been officially banned since 1950. Essentially, a caste system is a rigid assignment of social status based on inheritance.

Any number of random metrics could be used to divide and rank people in a caste system—ethnicity, lineage, religion, language. In our case, the early colonists took otherwise neutral ...

For millions across India, a rigid caste system thousands of years old still dictates much of daily life – from social circles to dating pools to job opportunities and schooling. The Indian ...

Two Hindu professors are suing the head of their university system to oppose the addition of caste to an anti-discrimination policy amid a broader battle over whether colleges should explicitly ...

Twice-impeached former president Donald Trump apparently thinks that the U.S. government should be a caste system, rather than a democracy — but that doesn’t mean he can explain how a caste ...

Why do people defend social systems that oppress them? Why do the marginalized sometimes work to uphold structures and arrangements that limit their potential? These questions are not just ...