Caste as Maratha: Social categories, colonial policy and identity in early twentieth-century Maharashtra

Abstract

In the light of recent scholarship emphasising the historicity of caste, this article tracks the transformation of the category 'Maratha' from its precolonial register as a military ethos to that ofa caste in the early twentieth century. Surveying the category's genealogy in non-Brahman literature and colonial ethnographic writings and policy, it argues that this caste-based register of 'Maratha' was shaped through a complex, interactive process by both colonial and Indian discourses. In doing so, the article attempts to historicise 'Maratha' and emphasises the impor tance of locating the modern history of caste and its encounter with colonialism in regional/ local contexts.