Jati

Jati is the term traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent for a cohesive group such as a caste, sub-caste, clan, tribe or religious sect, often translated approximately as "caste". A person is born into a jati and marries within it; traditionally each was regulated by a caste council and followed a hereditary occupation, exchanging services and produce with others. Many of these thousands of groups straddled two or more varnas, but the British census from 1901 fitted each into one. Madhav Gadgil wrote that the system had been fully crystallised for at least 1,500 years.