Castes of Mind is the second book published by Nicholas Dirks, it was published in 2001. This book focused on the ways in which the caste system changed under British colonial rule, and how it continued to change in the postcolonial era. It develops the theories of his doctoral adviser Bernard Cohn that the

Indian caste system The caste system in India is the paradigmatic ethnographic instance of social classification based on castes. It has its origins in ancient India, and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and modern India, espe ...

took it's rigid form under

British rule The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or dire ...

Reception

The work was praised by his contemporaries in a range of academic journals. According to anthropologist Chris Fuller, an emeritus professor at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, one of the "principal achievements" of the book was that it provided "a theory of the Indian colonial state as an ethnographic state, which was coherent and heuristically valuable." Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan's review in

American Anthropologist ''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 m ...

praised the book as an "attractive synthesis of key arguments that Dirks and others inspired by Bernard Cohn have made about colonial social engineering and colonial discourse in India." Roshan Wijeyeratne in South Asia Research called it a "compelling account of the extent to which customs around caste became positivism under the auspices of the dynamics of the colonial state." In American Ethnologist, Diane P. Mines wrote, "As a historical study of British colonial and anthropological knowledge about caste and of the effects of that knowledge on Indian knowledge and politics today, it has no rival. Dirks convinces us that caste as it is shaped today is hardly a vestige of tradition but is, rather, a precipitate of a historical process mediated through colonialism and nationalism." In

The American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association, for which it is an official publication. It targets readers interested in all period ...

, Sanjay Joshi observed, "The greatest strength of this book perhaps is its location of the discussions about caste firmly within the domain of colonial politics and history." Saurabh Dube in The Economic and Political Weekly echoed the praise, writing "The scope of the study is large, its sentences sculpted, its words measured, and its polemic provocative. This much awaited book raises crucial questions for anthropology and history, the study of the colony and the postcolony."

Criticism

The geneticist David Reich in his 2018 book

Who We Are and How We Got Here ''Who We Are and How We Got Here'' is a 2018 book on the contribution of genome-wide ancient DNA research to human population genetics by the geneticist David Reich. He describes discoveries made by his group and others, based on analysis and c ...

has claimed that the book's theory has been overturned by genetics, and specifically used the book as a counterpoint. It used genetics techniques over a

data set A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more table (database), database tables, where every column (database), column of a table represents a particular Variable (computer sci ...

of more than 250 sub castes spread throughout India, and found that a third of groups (a much larger than expected number than if there was little inbreeding) had seen population bottlenecks in the past, which were as strong or stronger than other groups known for

endogamy Endogamy is the cultural practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting any from outside of the group or belief structure as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relatio ...

such as the

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...

or the

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

, which showed that "long-term

, as embodied in modern Indian society in the institution of caste, has been "overwhelmingly important for millennia."

Awards

The book has won the

Lionel Trilling Award Lionel may refer to: Name *Lionel (given name) Places *Lionel, Lewis, a village in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland *Lionel Town, Jamaica, a settlement Brands and enterprises *Lionel, LLC, an American designer and importer of toy trains and model ra ...

and continues to be taught in graduate curricula in the U.S. and India.

References

{{reflist Books about the caste system in India