Caste and Race in India

Caste is the most dominant single aspect of Indian society and no study of Indian society can be complete without getting into the ramifications of the Hindu caste system. Caste and Race in India, since its first publication in History of Civilisation series, edited by C. K. Ogden in 1932, has remained a basic work for students of Indian sociology and anthropology, and has been acclaimed by teachers and reviewers as a sociological classic. The present edition is an expanded version with five new chapters, comprehensive enough for a separate volume. Answering his critics, the author elaborates his arguments on the evolution of sub-castes and examines caste, sub-caste and kinship in its proper perspective. The relationship between caste and politics, which he has briefly dealt with in the 1932 edition, is developed in the present edition, with a provocative and thorough-going analysis of caste and politics in Tamil Nadu from early times to the present day. The concluding chapter is an incisive analysis of contemporary India: the author apprehends that India will develop into a plural society and not a casteless one, which was a dream of architects of her Constitution.