Society

There is a version of the caste debate that almost everyone is having, and it is the wrong one. The question being asked is whether caste is a good or bad thing — morally, socially, historically. The question worth asking is simpler and more uncomfortable: why does it persist, and what have we actually replaced it with? Social Endogamy Is Not Unique to Caste Walk through any modern city and look at who marries whom.

The traditional varna system has become a convenient target for modern criticism—dismissed as an archaic hierarchy incompatible with democratic values. Yet something curious happens when you observe contemporary society closely: the patterns that varna described haven’t disappeared. They’ve simply gone underground, operating informally while we collectively pretend they don’t exist. What Actually Happens Strip away the rhetoric about equal opportunity and meritocracy, and look at the facts. The child of lawyers becomes a lawyer.