jati

Now how do you maintain this political system if people are free to leave a jati or intermarry with another jati willy-nilly?

The other problem to solve in this jati system is that how do you keep some jati doing the dirty or undesirable jobs?

Otherwise how can they disagree with the so called constituent properties of the jati and yet are willing to continue with their affiliation to their jati.

Meaning, one jati would consider the other jati as untouchable.

This makes sense only when they think that these are not constituent properties of the jati traditions.

There was no discrimination within jatis, in fact, they all supported each other for the sustenance of their jati.

Anyway caste, varna and jati prejudice exists in India and in dispirit communities with lots of first generation immigrants.

There was fluidity among varnas long before the British arrived and also inter-varna and inter-jati marriages.

The rigidity of the varna-jati system started after the Mughal invasions, due to their exploitative taxation.

Nobody asks which varna or jati you are from, or no one even mentions these words at least in urban parts.

Is there a source of truth which states which jati belongs to which Varna?

This was because varna-jati was not considered important by the Indians of that time.

In the case of Lingayat swamis, inter-jati marriage is viewed as a way to unite the Lingayats." The real biggest problem is: what is a caste?

But show strong solidarity along the "jati" line.

For example, Rajput is supposedly an upper caste, but by just changing it to "Rajput Bhamta" and bribing some officials one can get classified as "Vimukta Jati" in Maharashtra (which has tons of benefits at).

That said, in India caste (varna and jati) correlate with genetic clusters that have maintained for millennia by higher levels of endogamy than, say, Ashkenazi Jews: “What the data were showing us was that the genetic distinctions among jati groups within India were in many cases real, thanks to the long-standing history of endogamy in the subcontinent.

Caste is used to refer to both Varna and Jati.

* Jati, meaning birth, is mentioned less often and clearly distinguished from varna.