Invention

Caste and Occupation

In the oldest occupational system still operating, your family name is your job title.

South Asia · Ancient

The Sanskrit word varna originally referred to color or class. The Rigveda, composed between roughly 1500 and 1200 BCE, describes four varnas: Brahmins (priests and scholars), Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (merchants and farmers), and Shudras (laborers and servants). Each varna was associated with specific occupational duties considered part of the cosmic order, or dharma.1

Over centuries, the varna system subdivided into thousands of jati, hereditary occupational groups tied to specific trades. A Kumhar made pots. A Lohar worked iron. A Dhobi washed clothes. The family name signaled the occupation, and the occupation was inherited at birth.2

The system was not merely social convention. It was reinforced through religious texts, marriage rules, residential segregation, and ritual purity hierarchies. The Manusmriti, a legal text compiled between roughly 200 BCE and 200 CE, codified rules governing which castes could perform which work, prescribing severe penalties for violations.3

British colonial administration further rigidified caste categories. The Census of India, first conducted in 1871, required every individual to declare a caste, turning fluid social identities into fixed administrative labels.4

1871

The year the first Census of India required every individual to declare a caste, rigidifying fluid social categories into fixed administrative labels.

India's Constitution, adopted in 1950, abolished untouchability and prohibited caste-based discrimination. Article 15 forbids discrimination on grounds of caste, and Article 17 specifically abolishes the practice of untouchability.5 Reservation policies now guarantee seats in educational institutions and government employment for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

A 2019 survey published in the Economic and Political Weekly found that members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes remained significantly underrepresented in professional and managerial occupations relative to their share of the population. Caste-based surnames still influence hiring decisions in some sectors, as documented in correspondence audit studies that sent identical resumes with different caste-associated names to employers.6

Timeline

c. 1500-1200 BCE

The Rigveda describes four varnas associated with specific occupational duties.

c. 200 BCE-200 CE

The Manusmriti codifies rules governing which castes can perform which work.

1871

The first Census of India requires every individual to declare a caste.

1950

India's Constitution abolishes untouchability and prohibits caste-based discrimination.

Endnotes

1 Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History (New York: Penguin Press, 2009), 116-118.

2 Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).

3 Patrick Olivelle, trans., Manu's Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Manava-Dharmasastra (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

4 Nicholas Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).

5 Constitution of India, Articles 15 and 17 (adopted January 26, 1950).

6 Sukhadeo Thorat and Paul Attewell, "The Legacy of Social Exclusion: A Correspondence Study of Job Discrimination in India," Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No. 41 (2007), 4141-4145.