From 1901 onwards, for the purposes of the Decennial Census, the British classified all Jātis into one or the other of the Varna categories as described in ancient texts.
Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, and the Varna status of Jātis itself was subject to articulation over time. Starting with the British colonial Census of 1901 led by Herbert Hope Risley, all the jātis were grouped under the theoretical varnas categories.
Thus, starting with the 1901 Census, caste officially became India's essential institution, with an imprimatur from the British administrators, augmenting a discourse that had already dominated Indology.
"Despite India's acquisition of formal political independence, it has still not regained the power to know its own past and present apart from that discourse". Upon independence from Britain, the Indian Constitution listed 1,108 castes across the country as Scheduled Castes in 1950, for positive discrimination.
In 2001, Dalits were 16.2% of India's population.
Jayasthiti Malla (1382–1395) categorized Newars into 64 castes (Gellner 2001).
In 2005, government recorded approximately 110,000 cases of reported violent acts, including rape and murder, against Dalits.
For 2012, the government recorded 651 murders, 3,855 injuries, 1,576 rapes, 490 kidnappings, and 214 cases of arson. The socio-economic limitations of the caste system are reduced due to urbanization and affirmative action.
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Page generated on 2021-08-05