Afterword

Abstract

If this book seems to raise more questions than it answers, we hope attentive readers will see that this is a failure of our times rather than the failure of this book. It should trouble us immensely that we are not in a position to answer any number of very pressing questions such as the following: What are jatis? What is the nature of relations between jatis? How do we understand the conflicts India has witnessed over the past few decades that have been dubbed ‘caste violence’? Are jatis a part of a ‘social system’ and in what sense may we use the term social system? We nevertheless hope that once the fact that we do not have a sound description of the Indian society sinks in, a new quest to understand India will arise, which will address the questions raised here.