Jāti (in Devanagari: जाति Tamil:சாதி) (the word literally means 'thus born') is the term used to denote the thousands of clans, tribes, communities and sub-communities in India. It is a term used across religions. Each jāti typically has an association with a traditional job function or tribe, although religious beliefs (e.g. Sri Vaishnavism or Veera Shaivism) or linguistic groupings may define some jatis. A person's surname typically reflects a community (jati) association: thus Gandhi = perfume seller, Dhobi = washerman, Srivastava = military scribe, etc. In any given location in India 500 or more jatis may co-exist, although the exact composition will differ from district to district.

Rajiv Malhotra, born September 1950, is an Indian-American author, philanthropist, public speaker and writer on current affairs, world religions and cross-cultural encounters. He is the founder of the Infinity Foundation. He is also a former telecommunication entrepreneur. After a career in the software, computer, and telecom industries Malhotra took an early retirement to pursue philanthropic and educational activities. He founded the Infinity foundation in 1995.

Prema A. Kurien considers him to be at "...the forefront of American Hindu effort to challenge the Eurocentricism in the academia." He has been considered by Hinnells to lead the traditional Hindu criticism of Wendy Doniger's methodology for the examination of Hinduism

He considers that a positive stance on India has been underrepresented in American academia, this was derived from programmes staffed by Westerners, their "Indian - American Sepoys" and Indian Americans wanting to be white - whom he describes as "career opportunists" and "Uncle Toms" who in their desire to become even marginal members of the Western Grand Narrative sneer at Indian culture in the same manner as colonialists once did. Academia according to him promoted "a perscective on India using worldviews which are hostile to India's interests", and that "...Indian American donors were hoodwinked into thinking that they were supporting India through their monetary contributions to such programmes". He has claimed that American scholarship has undermined India by encouraging paradigms that oppose its unity and integrity, with scholars playing crirical roles, often under the garb of 'human rights' in channeling foreign intellectual and material support to exacerbate India's internal cleavages. He has accused the academia of abetting the Talibanisation of India, which would also lead to the Talibanisation of other Asian countries.