The Indian Caste System: A Self-Perpetuating Social Order

By Meenakshi Thummisi

Why do people defend social systems that oppress them? Why do the marginalized sometimes work to uphold structures and arrangements that limit their potential? These questions are not just academic—they cut to the heart of human psychology and the powerful forces that shape our societies. System Justification Theory (SJT) (Jost & Banaji, 1994) offers a haunting yet illuminating answer: people are not just passive acceptors but too often the fiercest defenders of injustice.

The Caste System: An Inescapable Destiny?

Few social systems illustrate this phenomenon more clearly than the caste system, one of history’s most enduring hierarchies. Deeply embedded in Indian society, caste consequently dictates the course of an individual's entire life, even before birth, from their profession, social circle, and sense of self. While modern legal structures such as the Indian Constitution have sought to dismantle caste discrimination, its psychological and cultural grip remains ironclad (BBC News, 2018).

Traditionally, the caste system divided the population into four main social categories:

• Brahmins: The scholars and priests devoted to knowledge and possessing spiritual authority.
• Kshatriyas: Warriors and rulers, defenders of the social order.
• Vaishyas: Merchants and landowners, creators of wealth.
• Shudras: Laborers and service providers bound to serve the higher castes.

Beneath this hierarchy lie the Dalits, historically labeled as “Untouchables,” relegated to society’s most grueling and demeaning tasks, from picking up trash barefoot to cremating bodies. Officially outlawed but deeply ingrained, caste discrimination endures, shaping everything from job opportunities to marriage prospects (Cotterill, Sidanius, Bhardwaj, & Kumar, 2014).

Why Do People Justify Their Oppression?

System Justification Theory suggests that people justify and perpetuate social hierarchies because it fulfills underlying psychological needs (Jost, 2020):

• The Need for Certainty (Epistemic Needs): A structured world is easier to process than a chaotic one. Supporting the caste system reduces the mental burden of questioning alternatives.
• The Need for Security (Existential Needs): In times of threat and anxiety, people seek stability. The caste system offers a familiar, predictable structure—one that has existed for centuries.
• The Need for Belonging (Relational Needs): Human beings crave social connection. Conforming to caste norms strengthens bonds within communities, even if it means accepting limitations on personal and social mobility.

These needs explain why both privileged and oppressed groups often uphold the status quo by subconsciously craving its social and psychological safety. For the privileged group, fiercely clinging to their dominance reduces guilt and solidifies their control by eliminating cognitive dissonance and protecting normalcy. For the oppressed group, believing in the fairness of the system provides psychological relief—an explanation for their suffering that feels less painful than the alternative, namely admitting that the world is unjust (Lerner, 1980).

The Role of Religion: Divinity or Doctrine of Control?

Religious and cultural narratives have played a profound role in cementing caste hierarchies (see Jost, 2020). In Hinduism, there are two key beliefs that govern the principles of the caste system:

• Karma: A concept suggesting that a person's caste is due to actions undertaken in their past life, making their deprivation and trauma seem not just acceptable but inevitable and deserved.
• Dharma: The duty to strictly perform the role assigned by one's caste, reinforcing submission as a moral obligation.

This spiritual framework transforms the pain of oppression into a promise of divine justice. Those born into privilege are seen as spiritually superior, while those at the bottom are taught to accept their suffering as preordained (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999).

The Cost of Justifying Caste

Justifying one’s lower caste designation exerts a taxing mental burden, for internalizing and identifying with inferiority leads to low self-esteem, increased anxiety, and diminished aspirations (Jost & Hunyady, 2005). Many lower-caste individuals report feeling powerless to change their circumstances, not because opportunity is absent but because they have been conditioned to believe they do not deserve better.

This is the ultimate and tragic triumph of system justification: it chains the mind before it chains the body.

A Shifting Tide? The Caste System in a Changing World

With time, the effects of education, migration, and activism are decaying the deeply embedded roots of this hopeless social system. Lower-caste individuals now have access to alternative social structures and opportunities, shaking the foundations of caste-based thinking (BBC News, 2018).

Social Life Essential Reads

Is the “Social Cure” a Cultural Universal?

Validation Touches Our Sense of Self

Dalit activists, empowered by global human rights movements, are redefining their identity and challenging centuries of oppression (e.g., see Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Many who have traveled abroad return with a radical realization: caste is not destiny. Yet, even as these awakenings spread, they face fierce resistance from traditionalists who cling to caste as an essential pillar of group identity and social order.

Breaking the Psychological Chains

Dismantling the caste system requires more than just legal reform—it requires a psychological revolution. It means rewriting the narratives that validated it for centuries, dismantling the religious myths of karma and dharma as justification for inequality, and exposing caste for what it truly is: a social construct, not a divine mandate (Jost, 2020).

Understanding System Justification Theory is a useful first step. It reveals the unconscious mechanisms that keep oppressive social systems intact and highlights the need for collective re-education. Until individuals recognize and reject the mental framework that sustains caste designations of both ingroups and outgroups, true equality will remain elusive.

Conclusion: The Battle for Liberation Begins in the Mind

The caste system in India is not just about social hierarchy—it is also about social and psychological control. It thrives because people believe in it, even when it hurts them (Jost, 2020). This is the dark power of system justification: oppression does not necessarily require force when the oppressed accept their chains as natural.

But just as beliefs sustain oppression, they can also dismantle it in the long run. The fight against caste is not only about laws, protests, and economic policies—it is about reshaping minds, reinterpreting histories, and challenging the deeply ingrained ideological narratives that keep millions bound.

So the real question is: Are we ready to challenge not just legislation but the very way in which we see the world?