Castes of mind : colonialism and the making of modern India / Nicholas B. Dirks.

Includes index.

Pt. 1. The "invention" of caste.
One. ntroduction: The modernity of caste ;
Two. Homo hierarchicus: the origins of an idea ;
Three. The ethnographic state --

pt. 2. Colonization of the archive.
Four. The original caste: social identity in the Old Regime ;
Five. The textualization of tradition: biography of an archive ; Six. The imperial archive: colonial knowledge and colonial rule --

pt. 3. The ethnographic state.
Seven. The conversion of caste ;
Eight. The policing of tradition: colonial anthropology and the invention of custom ;
Nine. The body of caste: anthropology and the criminalization of caste ;
Ten. The enumeration of caste: anthropology as colonial rule --

pt. 4. Recasting India: caste, community, and politics.
Eleven. Toward a nationalist sociology of India: nationalism and Brahmanism ;
Twelve. The reformation of caste: Periyar, Ambedkar, and Gandhi ;
Thirteen. Caste politics and the politics of caste ;
Fourteen. Conclusion: Caste and the postcolonial predicament --
Coda: The burden of the past: on colonialism and the writing of history--
Notes--
Index.

The author argues that caste is neither an unchanged survival of ancient India nor a single system that reflects some core culture. Rather than being an expression of Indian tradition, he argues that caste, as we know it now, is a relatively modern phenomenon, the product of the encounter between India and British colonial rule. This is not to suggest that the British invented caste, but to show that it was on account of British domination that caste became a single term capable of naming as well as subsuming India’s diverse forms of social identity and organisation. Dirks also examines the rise of caste politics in contemporary India, in particular caste-based movements and their implications for Indian nationhood.