Did British colonial powers invent the Indian caste system?

‘Caste’ has no direct translation in many Indian languages

Question: Did British colonial powers invent the Indian caste system?
Position1 of 5›: Yes, British colonial powers invented the Indian caste system
Argument‹4 of 4: ‘Caste’ has no direct translation in many Indian languages

Direct translations of 'caste' are scant in Indian languages. If caste was born from Indian culture, this would be reflected in the subcontinent's linguistics.

The argument

If the caste system was an Indian construct, there would be a word in Indian languages that conveys its meaning. Caste has no literal translation in many Indian languages. This is strong evidence to suggest that the caste system is not an Indian construct. The word "caste" has been given as a loan word from the Spanish and Portuguese language family. Numerous English and Roman languages have variations of the word "caste." The Portuguese word for caste is "casta." Castas were first documented during the late medieval period and described a social hierarchy very similar to the modern Indian caste system. Castes are used to describe hierarchies in social systems, deemed by station at birth in the case of India. The caste system makes it incredibly difficult for an individual to rise above their given socioeconomic class or intermarry. Castes are rigid and built to keep groups separate and in power. Caste systems are characteristic of colonial societies, who assert power over other groups to stay in control. Implementing the caste system in India allowed the British to divide society and pit them against one another so that they could not rise up or fight for independence.

Context

Language and word choice can directly reflect a region's worldview, thought processes, and structure. If there is no word or direct translation to convey an idea or phrase, it is unlikely that it originated from that area.

Premises

[P1]Proponents argue that if caste were an indigenous Indian construct there would be a native word for it, yet 'caste' has no direct translation in many Indian languages and derives from the Spanish/Portuguese 'casta,' documented in late-medieval Europe describing a similar birth-based hierarchy. [P2] They note caste systems—rigid structures keeping groups separate and subordinate—are characteristic of colonial societies, and that imposing caste let the British divide Indian society and prevent it uniting for independence. [C] Because the very concept and word are argued to be imported, proponents hold that British colonial powers invented the Indian caste system.

Counter-arguments

The caste system has origins in Ancient India from Brahma. Brahma is the Hindu God of creation. The caste system was legally formalized in Indian texts around 1000 BCE in a treaty called Manusmriti. According to the treaty, Indian social society was divided into four categories, with the rich at the top and poor at the bottom. Over time, those four categories became the modern castes we see today.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise confuses a word with a thing: "caste" is a European loanword, but varna and jati are indigenous terms of long standing, and the Portuguese applied casta to a system of birth-ascribed, endogamous groups they encountered — which is naming rather than inventing. [Rejecting P2] The claim that such hierarchies are characteristic of colonial societies does not survive the dating, since varna appears in Sanskrit texts more than two millennia before European arrival; what the colonial record does support is the sibling positions in this debate — that census classification, legal codification and preferment hardened fluid local hierarchies into a rigid all-India system, which is reshaping rather than invention.

Framing

Language is the lens through which societies interpret the world. It is reflective of their values, culture, and belief system.