What of the future? What Toynbee said of race applies to caste too. Clearly inter-marriage is the long-term nemesis of caste. And marriages across the caste divide happen increasingly and easily among the rich, the middle class and the poor in urban settings. Those who would like to see a quick demise of the caste system should agitate not for rural welfare funding, but for urban development.

Having said that, as a betting person one could argue that the genius of Indian civilisation will certainly attempt to resurrect caste in different ways. For instance, English-speaking Indians could very well be considered a caste where the precise sub-caste one is assigned to may depend on one’s accent rather than on one’s birth. Another fascinating caste is that of NRIs; and of course one can find dozens of sub-castes among NRIs. A hereditary choice of occupations has been one of the features of the caste system. One finds this feature quite prevalent among politicians and film stars. We might see it getting extended to other professions. The more things change.

The writer divides his time between Mumbai and Bangalore jerry.rao@expressindia.com