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The quality of sources on the Indian caste system varies widely, and while there is some solid contemporary scholarship on the system and individual communities, the more accessible sources often date back to the Raj Era, or are pseudo-histories written and published by members of the various caste communites. And even some recent sources rely heavily on the Raj-era surveys and inherit the problems.
The topic has been discussed numerous time on the Reliable Sources Noticeboard, India project noticeboard and various caste-related articles. This essay is an effort to document the issues with some of the popularly-cited sources, and to provide guidance on when use of these sources is (in)appropriate.