Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s2.13

c6.s2.13

Surveys, drawn up on the census returns of 1881, record no less than 855 different castes, numbering at least a thousand members or divided amongst several provinces or native states. If we add those which are less numerous or which exist only in one province or in one state, we reach the figure of 1929. But these calculations are far exceeded by the truth. Under a single head are registered nearly 14,000,000 Brahmans, 12,000,000 Kunbis, 11,000,000 Chamars, etc. All these, though claiming the same title, are in reality resolved into a multitude of secondary castes, which form as many autonomous bodies. These last, more often than not, despise each other and refuse as a rule either to intermarry or to eat together. It is, indeed, a characteristic tendency among all the castes to subdivide into more and more multiple groups, like coteries in the same social sphere.