Caste in India

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes and compares three historians' exploration of the distinctive, ancient origins and purposes of the Hindu caste system from the early 19th to the late 20th centuries. The paper looks at Julius Lipner's "Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices", John Hutton's "Caste in India" and James Mill's "The History of British India". The paper shows how each historian approached the subject in different manners, utilizing contrasting sources and historical philosophies, in order to establish their respective viewpoints.

Outline:
Julius Lipner's "Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices" (1994)
John Hutton's "Caste in India" (1946)
James Mill's "The History of British India" (1817)
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"As human beings, we attempt with varying degrees of success to understand the multiple paradigms of existence that shape our lives in both subtle and profound ways. These paradigms manifest themselves as society, religion, economics, politics, and in other ways that constitute our reality. For the modern historian, it is an impossible yet persistent goal to step back from these various paradigms and describe and interpret events of the past with full objectivity. The impossibility of objectivity, at least in historical scholarship, stems from the inability to completely separate oneself from one's emotions, prejudices, and overall context in time. Indeed, total objectivity implies the unfeasible detachment from the characteristics of our humanness. To believe in the ability to attain full objectivity in historical study and authorship is to imagine human history as a science with clear cause and effect relationships."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bayly, Susan, C. A. Bayly, and Gordon Johnson. Caste, Society and Politics in Indiafrom the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. New York: Cambridge UP, 1999.
• Caroe, Olaf. "The History of British India." Asian Affairs 7.3 (Oct. 1976): 335. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. 1 Dec. 2008
• Figueira, Dorothy M. Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority through Myths of Identity. New York: State University of New York Press, 2002.
• Hutton, J.H. Caste in India. London: Oxford University Press, 1969.
• Iggers, George G. and Q. Edward Wang. A Global History of Modern Historiography. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2008.

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