subcaste

American  

[suhb-kast] / ˈsʌbˌkæst /

noun

1. a subdivision of a caste; any of the socially ranked groups forming part of a caste.

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Example Sentences

In the Indian caste system, an infinitely more elaborate hierarchy, the subcaste, or jati, to which a person was born established the occupation their family fulfilled, from cleaners of latrines to priests in the temples.

From New York Times

Epigeneticists, once a subcaste of biologist nudged to the far peripheries of the discipline, now find themselves firmly at its epicenter.

From The New Yorker

By the time the fathers discovered that their families were of the same gotra, or subcaste, generally making marriage taboo, their children had texted and emailed enough that they were hooked.

From New York Times

They were from the same caste and even the same subcaste.

From New York Times

Their leader was a fierce man, for he had been arrested by the police, and he had vowed vengeance on all patels, the subcaste to which most policemen in that region belonged: he had sworn to cut off the nose of every patel he met.

From Time Magazine Archive