Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development is a paper written by B. R. Ambedkar, which he presented at an anthropological seminar in New York on May 9, 1916. It was later published in Indian Antiquary in 1917, and Ambedkar received a PhD from Columbia University on the same topic. In this paper, Ambedkar explained how the caste system emerged from the Brahmins' practice of marrying only within their group, influencing other groups to do the same and creating castes.