Siri Guru Granth Sahib is equally clear on the invalidity of the caste system: (as translated) 'recognize One light in all, and ask not the caste - the caste is not recognized hereafter'.
Anthropologists and sociologists were hired to explain things like the effect of the caste system on rural computer usage.
The Communists, who opposed closer ties with Washington, have since linked arms with Ms. Mayawati, 52, the nation's most powerful politician of the Dalits, as Indians on the lowest rungs of the caste ladder are known.
The Indian Constitution initially guaranteed affirmative action for these two groups, but over the years other castes on the lower and middle rungs of the caste ladder have been included — often after political agitations — as "Other Backward Castes" (O.B.C.s).
Various sub-classifications of the caste system exist, many based on the geographical origin of the caste.
Many things restrain India's economy, from a government that depends on Communist support to the caste system, power cuts and rigid labour laws.
The densely descriptive novel follows the the childhood experiences of fraternal twins, commenting as much on human nature as it does on Indian politics, religion and the caste system.
In the Indian context, his paternalist approach to caste exploitation – calling on the privileged castes to "uplift" the downtrodden – served to marginalise radical voices, such as that of the Dalit leader Bhimrao Ambedkar, who wanted more profound changes.
Recently she took on the Thakurs, a powerful upper caste, by jailing a prominent Thakur landowner and legislator who had long ruled his area like a feudal lord.
His description of Andrei Lugovoi, the alleged poisoner of Alexander Litvinenko, is an apt comment on the FSB caste: "Some vital moral part is empty and lacking, as if someone had hacked off his conscience with a pair of giant scissors".
