Jati

Published on 18th February, 2018, in Mid-day. As an Odia child raised in Mumbai, I am often asked about my roots. My parents told me we belong to the 'karana' caste. No one in Mumbai had heard of this caste. Later, I learned that karana caste is what is known as karanam in Andhra Pradesh, kayastha in the Gangetic plains and Bengal, and as prabhu in Maharashtra. This is a jati of people who served kings as scribes, bureaucrats and accountants, who went on to become influential courtiers and landowners. While Pattanaik and Mohanty are common karana surnames in Odisha, in the Gangetic plains there ..

Published on 12th March, 2017, in Mid-day. For thousands of years, Indians have followed the jati system. By this system, your birth determines your vocation, hence your status in society, and only members of your jati will share food (roti, in Hindi) with you and give their daughters (beti) to marry into your household. This roti-beti system ensured communities to survive, and keeping their knowledge systems to within the group. This system of endogamy was fairly fluid for a long time, but became rigid 1,900 years ago, according to genetic studies. The dehumanising practice of untouchability, whereby different vocations were classified as polluting and pure, ..