High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Sanskritization or Sanskritisation is a particular form of social change found in India and Nepal. It denotes the process by which castes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek upward mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the upper or dominant castes. It is a process similar to passing in sociological terms. This term was made popular by Indian sociologist M. N. Srinivas in the 1950s, although earlier references to this process can be found in Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. The earliest references to this process of "descent of imitation from the top to the bottom of social ladder", in another context, can be found in The Laws of Imitation by Gabriel Tarde.