Answer:

Caste is an institution uniquely associated with the Indian sub-continent. The English word ‘caste’ is actually a borrowing from the Portuguese casta, meaning pure breed. The word refers to a broad institutional arrangement that in Indian languages

(beginning with the ancient Sanskrit) is referred to by two distinct terms, varna and jati. It is generally agreed , that the four Varna classification is roughly three thousand years old. However, the ‘caste system’ stood for different things in different time periods.,

The institution of caste as we know it today has been profoundly impacted by the Brtish Colonial rule as well as developments since independence: