Breaking down the question

The question asks why caste — repeatedly predicted to wither under industrialisation, urbanisation and democracy — nevertheless continues in India. The phrase according to you invites a reasoned, evaluative answer rather than a neutral catalogue; you are expected to marshal factors and defend their relative weight.

Continuance is the operative word. It signals that the examiner accepts that caste has changed, and wants an explanation of its resilience despite change. A strong answer therefore distinguishes the forms caste has shed from the functions it retains, and identifies the mechanisms — social, economic, religious and political — that keep it alive.

For the descriptive foundation, draw on the note on the features of caste system.

How to approach it

Open by acknowledging the paradox — modernity was expected to dissolve caste, yet it persists in mutated form. Then organise the factors thematically rather than as a loose list, closing with a judgement on which forces are decisive.

  • Social factors — endogamy, commensal restrictions, and the reproduction of caste through the family.
  • Religious and ideological factors — the notions of purity and pollution and the sanction of dharma.
  • Economic factors — the historic tie between caste and occupation, and continuing correlations between caste and class.
  • Political factors — reservations, caste associations and electoral mobilisation.

Model answer

The continuance of caste in India rests on a cluster of mutually reinforcing factors.

The most durable is endogamy. Marriage remains overwhelmingly within caste, so the group reproduces itself biologically and socially each generation. As long as parents arrange marriages by caste, the boundary is renewed regardless of urban anonymity or workplace mixing.

Closely linked are religious and ideological sanctions. The ideas of ritual purity and pollution, which Louis Dumont placed at the core of the caste order, and the doctrine of karma and dharma, lend caste a sacred legitimacy that class hierarchies lack. This ideological anchoring makes caste resistant to purely economic change.

Socialisation within the family transmits caste identity, food habits and notions of appropriate association to each new generation, so the system is internalised early and rarely questioned.

Economic factors reinforce the pattern. The traditional linkage between caste and occupation has loosened, yet caste and class still correlate strongly — the formerly untouchable castes remain concentrated in low-paid, stigmatised work, while land and capital cluster among dominant castes. Material inequality thus keeps caste sociologically alive.

Political factors have, paradoxically, revitalised caste. Rajni Kothari showed how democratic politics politicises caste — parties mobilise caste blocs, and caste associations press collective demands. Reservations, while an instrument of justice, also make caste identity administratively and electorally salient. Vote-bank politics gives caste a fresh public role.

Finally, caste adapts rather than disappears. M. N. Srinivas's concepts of Sanskritisation and the dominant caste show how mobility occurs within the caste idiom, not against it. Groups seek to rise as castes, thereby strengthening the framework even while contesting their place in it.

In sum, caste continues because it is simultaneously a marriage circle, a religious order, an economic reality and a political resource — a many-layered institution that sheds old forms while retaining its grip.

Examiner's perspective

Examiners reward candidates who explain persistence rather than merely describe caste. The strongest scripts show that caste survives by transforming — endogamy endures, occupation loosens, politics intensifies — and cite Srinivas, Dumont and Kothari to anchor each strand.

A common weakness is a moralising lament about caste evils; the question asks for causal analysis. Naming the political dimension — reservations and vote-banks — signals contemporary awareness, while a closing judgement on which factor is most decisive lifts a 10-mark answer above a routine list.