Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s8.2

c6.s8.2

All those who have observed Hindu society at close range are agreed in noting the existence of a constant stir and change in the composition, rank, and occupations of the castes. One of the most farseeing goes so far as to declare that if descent constituted a presumption in favour of the claims of the following generation, it is mere presumption modified or weakened by an infinite number of circumstances.¹ It is impossible to open any of the documents which are accessible to us without coming across a multitude of facts and affirmations, which show us in this world of neighbouring and overlapping corporate bodies a continued movement of disintegration and reconstitution.