Nicholas B. Dirks — Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India

The standard scholarly account of how the British colonial administration, through the census and ethnographic classification, gave caste its rigid modern form. Supports the doctrine’s claim that Britain “did not invent caste, but codified and hardened it.” The publisher’s own summary: “Dirks does not contend that caste was invented by the British. But under British domination caste did become a single term…” Trust tier: secondary (first-rank monograph).