The Chronology of Caste system in India
All places of world right from ancient past had different kinds of divisions inherent in their social structure. Indian society unlike western society was based on rigid lines of Caste where the leeway for social mobility was very thin. On the other hand the western society's division was mainly on basis of race,religion etc where interchangeability was not as rigid as Indian Society.
The Impact of Caste system on indian culture is very significant and imposing and hardly there is anyone which is not affected by it. Therefore its true history and its impact over the years should be taught dispassionately to everyone.
Concept of Varna
Before the arrival of Aryans there were many races present in India for e.g. Dravidians,Proto-Austroloid,Tibeto-Burmeses etc. But after the arrival of Aryans the concept of 'Varna' came. As Aryans were more fair skined than the locals therefore for differentiating themselves from the indigenous people 'Varna' was introduced thus at first 'Varna' was more related to color of skin.
How Varna's meaning changed and how it got institutionalised.....
Any society in its inception is a tribal society. And the main characteristic of any tribal society is that there is no surplus, whatever is produced or gathered is consumed by all. There is a sense of equality as everyone is living a same life and having almost equal resources. So there is not much scope for any divisions or social hierarchy.
The early Vedic society of Aryans were also similar to a tribal society as they were nomadic and always in search of food and resources for their survival.
But with time they learned the technique of Domestication of Animals, started using more sophisticated tools and weapons , learnt agriculture and food producing and began to live a more sedantry life. And thus now they started having Surplus.
And whenever there is any Surplus in any society the society will get divided among many sections and all the sections will try to attract the surplus towards them away from others.The same thing happened to Vedic society, the society got divided on the basis of division of labour and chaturvarnashram got established i.e, Bhraman,Khatriya,Vaisya and Shudra. And thus Varna's earlier meaning faded away and it got institutionalized in form of aforementioned divisions.
Was the division done on fair basis?
A close look will tell you that the four divisions were not in horizontal order but rather in Vertical order,it means not every division enjoys equal rights.One key interesting fact to note is that the division was not done on economic factor. Had it be the case ,the Vaishyas who were business class people having more economic resources should have been placed higher than everyone else but this is not the case. The Brahmins here played the trick , they used religion as a tool to establish their supremacy and tried to attract the surplus of society towards them in form of religious donations,and various religious functions were given legitimacy and made compulsory to perform like marriage,Shradhh,Upnayan etc. Using the fear of God and highlighting their closeness to God , they trumped every sections of society and came on top of them.Many Vedas particularly Sama Ved(chants for gods) and Yajur Veda(yagna rituals) were written so that the knowledge can only be used by brahmins for maintaining their position in society i.e. only a brahmin will know how to chant a mantra in a proper way and what are the yagna rituals to be performed.
But still in early Vedic age as the division was done on the basis of labour therefore the social mobilty was there i.e. a brahman can convert to Kshatriya and vice versa but in later vedic age when the division was done on the basis of birth then things took a U turn. Now only a Brahmin's son can become a brahmin and not others thus the social mobility became very difficult and differences became more rigid.
Position of Women in Varna Ashram
As long as there was social mobility in society, the position of women was in much better shape. But later when Birth became the basis of division and there was a decline in social mobility , the position of women got deteriorated. As to protect the purity of their bloodline , movement of women was controlled as every section feared that if they did not control their women they may get married to men of sections below theirs which will make their Varna impure and thus any such marriage where the women is of higher varna than the varna of groom was held illegal and people involved in such marriage were ostracized from Varnashram and chilidrens born of such marriage were also treated the same way. Thus with time the position of Women continued to get deteriorated and with the arrival of Caste in future it will further become worse.
Varna vs Caste
When birth became the basis of division, the interchageability between different divisions became very limited but still it was not completely stopped.Although the divisions were rigid but indian society being a dynamic one , there were always people coming from outside into the Varna system like many foreigners like Kushanas, Sakas and there were always many people who leave the Varna system. Thus this inward and outward flow became hard to maintain and thus for survival of Chatur ashram in changing times more leeway was provided to people i.e. now in one Varna people of different ideology can live without leaving the varnashram. Thus we can see for e.e. in Brahman Varna there are many types like Saraswat,Utkal,Maithil,Kanyakubj etc. Over the period same ideology groups came together and gave themselves a new name distinguishing them from others without leaving their original Varna, this new identity came to known as 'Jati' or 'Caste'. Same thing happened in different Varna and also many subset of parent Varna came into existence. With time the importance of Varna was overshadowed by Caste as it provided more leeway and gave more sense of belonging ness to its people.
In modern times we have more the 6000 types of castes and still its number is going up.