Caste is the same as race.
Effectively, yes. Because people of a caste are not permitted to marry outside their caste.
Kind of yes
and no - this being about Hinduism which is about the widest-ranging religious practice globally.
The ancient Vedic and Sanskrit writing don't mention 'caste', castes have evolved as a kind of social-religious class system in the sub-continent.
Most castes have an occupational or regional subtext - and someone's surname (if they have one) usually tells one which caste they have heritage from*
But generally the Brahmin castes are associated with priestly duties and headsmanship; then the Rana/Chettri castes are warriors, royals and so on and so forth. But caste is not the same as economic class - there are some very poor Brahmins and very well off Dalits.
Minority Hindu ethnic groups are essentially casteless but not 'Dalit' either - for example Magar or Gurung populations in Nepal. The same is true for any converts to a Hindu-based
dharma - many of these take the appelation of
sannyasin [student-disciple].
The religious aspect comes in with some
gotra-based [family tree] and regional beliefs about ritual purity - water/food/a person/a house can be made unclean by the contact or presence of someone from a different caste or religious group.
The caste system is evil, I would not dispute this, but the caste-based prejudice is breaking down, and not slowly. There are some very angry people around who fear their status is being eroded. I would make an analogy with some white, working-class rust-belt American men. They are angry because they are not necessarily 'on top' any more, by simple dint of their genetic heritage.
Inter-caste and inter-faith marriages do occur, and fairly regularly but it must be said these can and do cause shock, problems and violence outside of the more tolerant states and urban areas. Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are particularly nasty about it.
In the Hindu side of my family I have several in-laws who married outside their Brahmin caste, into other groups and even other religions. It didn't go down well at the time but like families everywhere, people generally come around to the idea, especially when grandchildren are born. My husband's parents were mixed caste (his mum was Rana, his dad Brahmin) and they ran away to get married, his brother & sisters although having a Brahmin surname married 'down' a bit because that's where the money, land and marriage prospects were.
I'm technically an untouchable non-caste non-Hindu but being married to my husband essentially means I get a free ride in the Brahmin caste. He hates the whole system himself and thinks it's scandalous. He gives it about another 60-100 years before it kind of dies a death through modernity.
Caste isn't race. Although there are many Hindu racists, stemming from the political right of Hindu nationalism
Hindutva, who essentially believe India is 'Hindustan' a country for ethnic Indian Hindus only and believe that anyone who isn't genetically Indian cannot be a 'true' Hindu. The way the caste system
operates though, is analogous to ingrained racism in Europe and America.
Imagine bringing home a brown fiancé back home in the 1950s - it would have been very difficult! 70 years later it's much less so but such attitudes still persist. Then combine that kind of attitude with a religious/cultural snobbery and you have caste-based violence. The two children killed were as innocent as Emmet Till was, and that's the kind of background and stage India is at now - changing but still very dangerous. There will be people who will try to jusify it, as many did during the civil rights era.
*The reform movement of Hinduism, Sikhism, tackles this by all Sikhs having the same surname somewhere in their moniker -
Singh [Lion] and claiming the turban (previously reserved for high-status people) as their own. Sikhism essentially removes caste as a factor in social interactions.
:axem:
