Caste is a peculiar social system that is found in the Indian sub continent mostly amongst its Hindu population. Caste system may be indigenous to India but the word caste itself is derived from the Spanish word CASTA which means lineage or breed. The Hindus call caste as jati.
The word caste came into prominence not in India but in South America where the Spaniards settled their surplus population in the 16th and 17th centuries and the Portuguese did the same in Brazil. Since navigation in those days by sailing ships was a dangerous affair, Iberian women were not sent overseas and the male Iberians had to arrange relationships with local women of the so called American Indian origin. This resulted in a biracial population called Mestizos who were the offspring of male European and female American Indian. The Portuguese males arranged marriages with slave African women and the result was a biracial population which is called Mulatos. Mestizos and Mulattoes were caste terms in South America. The Portuguese extended their influence to Asian coastal regions. To Asia too, the European women were reluctant to travel beause the navigational techniques were primitive and two out of every ten ships that sailed from Portugal to India were sunk in the high seas. So the Portuguese soldiers arranged relationships with local Asian women and the result wa a biracial population or to be more precise a Luso-Goan population generally known as Mestissos. The British were in India for about two centuries and half and they too left a biracial population. To day the Anglo Indians are very proud of their British connection. In Goa, especially in coastal talukas of Ilhas, Bardez and Salcete, the Portuguese stayed for 451 years leaving a substantial Luso Goan population who spoke somewhat better Portuguese than their counterparts in Korlai and in Trincomalee. When the time came for the Portuguese to leave Indian shores, some Luso Goans left for Portugal where they reside as descendentes (?) or of pure Portuguese origin. but the majority of Luso Goans stayed put in Goa and yet they are reluctant to associate themselves with Portuguese umbilical cord and would rather prefer to display proudly their so called upper caste connections.