"A Century of Collective Vision: Devanga Sangha at 100."
The Indian caste system has historically been one of the principal dimensions through which society in India has been socially differentiated alongside class, religion, region, tribe, gender, and language. While such forms of differentiation exist in all human societies, they become problematic when one or more of these dimensions overlap and turn into the sole basis for systematic ranking and unequal access to valued resources such as wealth, income, power, and prestige. The Indian caste system is considered a closed system of social stratification, meaning that an individual’s social status is determined by the caste into which they are born. Social mobility is traditionally restricted, and there are prescribed limits on interaction and behavior between individuals of different social statuses. The caste system classifies people into four hierarchically ranked groups known as varnas. Anthropologists have further observed that Hindu society has been divided along caste lin...