Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India.
Is India's caste system the remnant of ancient India's social  practices or the result of the historical relationship between  India and British colonial rule? Dirks (history and  anthropology, Columbia Univ.) elects to support the latter view.  Adhering to the school of Orientalist thought promulgated by  Edward Said and Bernard Cohn, Dirks argues that British colonial  control of India for 200 years pivoted on its manipulation of  the caste system. He hypothesizes that caste was used to  organize India's diverse social groups for the benefit of  British control. His thesis embraces substantial and powerfully  argued evidence. It suffers, however, from its restricted focus  to mainly southern India and its near polemic and obsessive  assertions. Authors with differing views on India's ethnology  suffer near-peremptory dismissal. Nevertheless, this  groundbreaking work of interpretation demands a careful  scholarly reading and response. John F. Riddick, Central  Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. PleasantCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.