Indians weren't exactly lying when they say the British were responsible for the caste system becoming more rigid. But they sort of miss the nuance, it became more rigid because the British turned up and asked the local Brahmins and Kings how the system worked, and they gave the most aspirational answer they could. It'd be like a medieval priest in Europe explaining the great chain of being like it was some real, unfixable thing.And also becauseBritish were the only ones to actually properly administer India. India just seemed weirdly parochial with village confederations across rivers that were super autonomous, and some distant ruler in a castle with nothing in between. The jump from village confederation/temple to ruling king was massive, with barely any administrative structure padding it. All the ruling elites and foreign conquerors just sliced a bit off the top with tax, dumped mercenaries onto the problem whenever there was a flare up, and the area seemed to run itself pretty autonomously. People in certain regions of the sub-continent seemed to have no idea what was even happening 50km away a lot of the time, it was that parochial. The caste system was so fluid because some Brahmin in one region didn't even recognize brahmins in another region, it was all based on the locality. And also when a bad monsoon hit, irrigation channels got fucked up, and they had to flee the region, they typically fell into a lower caste a region over. The caste system was a constant churning of higher castes slowly losing rank, falling down, and then failing to reproduce themselves, only to be replaced by the failed families of higher castes. But the fault really isn't the British imo. They were trying to make a blanket standard for the whole region to administer it properly, and they needed an answer that tickled the ego of local elites. There was no reason for Indians themselves to keep caste after becoming a republic.
didn't read ranjeet
>>219319945/thread
>>219319886Thank you for the informative post, Ranjeet.
>>219319886Kiaora, my whanaunga. While it is true the Pakeha are evil and steal their mana whakatipu from rightful owners of the lands around the ao-marama, the Indians have themselves to blame.
