Read the passage given below and answer the question.
The English word 'caste' is actually a borrowing from the Portuguese casta, meaning pure breed. The word refers to a broad institutional arrangement that in Indian languages (beginning with the ancient Sanskrit) is referred to by two distinct terms, varna and jati. Varna, literally 'colour', is the name given to a four-fold division of society into brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra, though this excludes a significant section of the population composed of the 'outcastes', foreigners, slaves, conquered peoples and other, sometimes referred to as the panchamas or fifth category. Jati is a generic term referring to species or kinds of anything, ranging from inanimate objects to plants, animals and human beings. The most commonly cited defining features of caste are the following :
1. Caste is determined by birth
2. Membership in a caste involves strict rules about marriage.
3. Caste membership also involves rules about food and food-sharing
4. Caste involves a system consisting of many castes arranged in a hierarchy of rank and status.
The caste system can be understood as the combination of two sets of principles, one based on difference and separation and the other on wholism and hierarchy. The hierarchical ordering of castes is based on the distinction between 'purity' and 'pollution'
Caste system is based on the combination of two sets of principles, please identify the principles.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Difference and separation and wholism and hierarchy
Option (1) Difference and separation and wholism and hierarchy — Correct. By the first principle, difference and separation, each caste is different from every other caste and strictly separated from it, through rules on marriage, food sharing, social interaction and occupation. By the second, wholism and hierarchy, these separate castes exist only as parts of a larger whole, and that whole is a ladder in which every caste has its own rank.
NCERT (2025-26): “Caste in the Past … Theoretically, the caste system can be understood as the combination of two sets of principles, one based on difference and separation and the other on wholism and hierarchy. Each caste is supposed to be different from – and is therefore strictly separated from – every other caste. Many of the scriptural rules of caste are thus designed to prevent the mixing of castes – rules ranging from marriage, food sharing and social interaction to occupation. On the other hand, these different and separated castes do not have an individual existence – they can only exist in relation to a larger whole, the totality of society consisting of all castes. Further, this societal whole or system is a hierarchical rather than egalitarian system. Each individual caste occupies not just a distinct place, but also an ordered rank – a particular position in a ladder-like arrangement going from highest to lowest. 38 The hierarchical ordering of castes is based on the distinction between ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’. This is a division between something believed to be closer to the sacred (thus connoting ritual purity), and something believed to be distant from or opposed to the sacred, therefore considered ritually polluting. Castes that are considered ritually pure have high status, while those considered less pure or impure have low status.…” |