Upper Caste

Upper caste may be a relative or an absolute term. It may refer to:

  • A caste perceived to be higher than another caste. In any given region there may be dozens of castes.
  • A caste considered "higher" than a scheduled caste. For example a newspaper report may term a Gujar as "higher caste than a Jatav. However in some regions Gujars may themselves be considered "Lower case" relative to others.[1]
  • Forward Castes in the context of politics and reservation
  • Ritual status in the Varna system, generally referring to the twice-born (dvija) varnas, viz., Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya.

References
  1. ‘Tell Everyone We Scalped You!’ How Caste Still Rules in India, Jeffrey Gettleman and Suhasini Raj, New York times, Nov. 17, 2018
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