A recent article in Newsweek by Lisa Miller indicated that Americans "are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity." The author cites the following poll data: 67 percent of Americans believe that many religions, not only Christianity can lead to eternal life, reflecting pluralistic Hindu ethos rather than monotheistic Christian view; 30 percent of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious;" 24 percent say they believe in reincarnation; and more than a third choose cremation rather than burial. http:/ /www.newsweek .com/id/212155.

To this list may be added the growing caste-like pluralism and multiculturism of the  American populace.

This essay describes features of India's caste system, its origin, the negative impact  of Muslim and British imperial rule on caste, and concludes with a description of the  American social landscape.

Introduction

Caste is India's badge. When we think of Hindu India, we think of caste. Caste has become the subject of national shame. All have paid tribute to the caste system: Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, Orientalists, James Mill, Abbe Dubois, and anthropologists G. S. Ghurye and M. N. Srinivas. Caste is a specter that continues to haunt India. Yet, India's caste based society preserves and values social diversity. Nicholas Dirks tells us that caste is not the basic expression of the Indian tradition. Rather, caste is a modern phenomenon. It is "the product of an historical encounter between India and the British colonial rule." Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, Princeton University Press, 2001, P. 5.

In pre-colonial society, Indians had multiple identities, consisting of temple communities, village communities, lineage and family groups, occupational guilds and devotional societies. Caste identification was one among the several social groupings. Under the British, caste became "a single term" to categorize and systematize complex Indian reality, writes Dirks.

European travelers in the 16th and 17th centuries noted caste only in passing. They did not emphasize its importance in understanding Hindu society. Alexander Dow of the East India Company published The History of Hindustan in 1768. He devotes only one page to caste.

Caste did not strike early European writers as something peculiar to India. They knew it in their own countries and saw it that way. J. S. Mill in his essays on Political Economy said that occupational groups in Europe were "almost equivalent to an hereditary distinction of caste".

Abbe Dubois, a French missionary, was one of the most influential European travelers. He learned Tamil and lived among ordinary people. Dubois had difficulty in converting Hindus to Christianity. The upper castes would not convert. He attributed this difficulty to the Hindu caste prejudices. Hindus are addicted to their superstitions and prejudices born of caste affiliation. Nobody can change them. His book Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies (1816) became the official gospel of the East India Company.