History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.51
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.51
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v7.c96.s1.51
There are now several thousand castes and sub-castes in India. How they arose is, according to the present author, an insoluble problem. Sherring in ‘Hindu Tribes and Castes’ (1881, vol. III. p 231) held that caste was an invention (of the brāhmaṇas). How such a huge system could be invented and imposed upon millions of people by a small minority without physical or political power never occurred to the prejudiced Christian missionary of the third quarter of the 19th century.