Caste System

Answer : In the modern industrial society caste and occupational mobility is rapidly increasing because of social change. In the traditional Indian society, under the Varna system, each caste or varna has been assigned a particular type of occupation which others are prohibited to do. For example, a Brahamin cannot involve in trade and commerce of society and so on. But evidence have been found that the occupational change in the various castes have occurred as the ....

Answer : The cultural and structural aspect of the caste are the two sides of the same coin. However, some sociologists believe that the caste system can be better understood if approached and analysed in terms of ideas, norms and values associated with caste system. This has come to be known as cultural view about caste. Similarly there are other sociologist who believe the dynamic of the caste system can be better understood if analysed in terms ....

Answer : The caste system is still relevant today though the rules are not as rigid as they were in the past. People have become progressive in many aspects with western education, contact with foreigners, media, globalization and modern communications. Although casteism was outlawed after Independence and in 1962, a law was passed making it illegal to discriminate against the untouchable castes. In practice however, discrimination still continues today. This can be seen in continuing opposition to ....

Answer : Post-Poona pact Gandhi was looked on as one of the strongest enemies of the Untouchables by Ambedkar and his followers. Ambedkar, born into the “untouchable” caste of Mahars, found himself in conflict with Gandhi, who had declared himself an untouchable by choice. While Ambedkar argued for a broad civil rights organization which would focus on gaining civic rights for Dalits – entry into public places, use of public facilities, broad civil liberties — and he ....

Answer : Dumont’s perspective on caste system was primarily concerned with the ideology of the caste system. For him caste is set of relationships of economic, political and kinship systems, sustained by certain values which are mostly religious in nature. Dumont says that caste is not a form of stratification but a special form of inequality. Here he identifies hierarchy as the essential value underlying the caste system supported by Hinduism. His analysis is based on a ....

Answer : Ghurye considers presence of caste in different parts of country at different parts of time, inter-relation between different castes and forms of different entitlements of different caste groups.

Features of Caste

• Segmental division of society: Ghurye considers that Indian society is divided into multiple localized communities called as caste, people belonging to a caste are largely dispersed cutting across a village. Historically speaking culture unified India and caste divided India. Hence, Indian society driven by caste is ....

Answer : Social reforms made ceaseless efforts for the removal of untouchability and the material progress of untouchables. The reform movement of untouchables firmly believed that the progress of the nation could not be realized without first removing untouchability.

Neo-vedantik movement was initiated by Hindu religious and social reformers. These movements attempted to remove untouchability by taking them into the fold of the caste system.

Dayanand Saraswati the founder of Arya Samaj believed that the caste system was ....

Answer : In India there is a distinct feature of class structure is the overlapping of caste structure and consciousness that inter-penetration of caste and class has proceeded with the development of capitalism and exploitation in society leading to extreme poverty in Indian society.

Poverty and the poor are always associated with (a) resourcelessness, (b) choicelessness, (c) insecurity and (d) deprivation which creates incapacities in the pursuit of dignified life in a given society for a person, household, ....

Answer : Srinivas used the term dominant caste for the first time in his essay ‘Social System of a Mysore village’. The concept of dominant caste says that in a social setting of rural India, there is sometimes a caste which dominates the social, economic and political affairs of the village. The members of a dominant caste have an upper hand in all the affairs of the locality and enjoy many special opportunities as well as privileges. ....

Answer : Andre Beteille conducted his fieldwork in Shripuram village in Thanjavurdistrict of Tamil Nadu. He adopted the Weberian approach to study stratification in the Indian society.

Weberian model consists of three dimension of stratification. These are class, status and power. The stratification based on economic inequality leads to different classes. The stratification based on caste inequality leads to different status and the stratification based on political inequality leads to unequal power.

As Beteille has adopted Weberian model, his ....

Answer : Westernization is a process of adopting certain ideals, beliefs, practices and culture in areas such as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, language and values.

This western culture developed in the west over a long period of time and is people of West have imbibed that culture in them. But, when we borrow and apply them to India it leads to mixed results i.e. both positive and negative.

The biggest positive contribution of westernization is our constitution. It ....

Answer : Annihilation of caste is a book written by Ambedkar where he has suggested the ways in which caste system can be ended. As he thinks that the caste system derives its legitimacy from the Hindu religion, he has talked about various ways in which Hindu religion can be reformed to end the iniquitous caste system.

In this book he has questioned the ethics and morality of Hindu religion. To quote him: “The effect of caste on ....

Answer : Louis Dumont was an indologist and highlighted the role of ideology to understand the caste system and its interactions. This ideology is of purity and pollution and there exists hierarchy of castes based on their level of purity.

According to Dumont, inter caste relations are maintained in such a way that the purity of each caste is maintained. Based on Bougle’s classification he identified three principles of caste system.

1. Separation in the matters of marriage and contact: ....

Answer : In his book ‘Religion and Society Among the Coorgs of South India’, M.N. Srinivas has provided a methodological alternative to caste study and indicated that caste should not be studied as a system of values differently attached with different groups to formulate a hierarchy as spelled out by indologists rather caste is a product of real empirical relationship among people in a contextual plain.

Hence caste must be studied in terms of structure, comparison should be ....

Answer : Broadly speaking, the untouchables of the Hindu caste system are officially known as the scheduled castes. The same category of castes is also called Harijana, the children of god, a term coined by Mahatma Gandhi in 1933. However, the word ‘Harijan’ has now acquired a negative meaning. The members of these castes now prefer to be called as dalit.

Dalit or the downtrodden have been referred to in history as people without history of their own ....

Answer : The phenomenon of caste has raised more controversy than any other aspect of Indian life and thought. Some see India’s caste system as the defining feature of Indian culture and some have dismissed it as a colonial artefact. Since the days of the British rule both historians and a anthropologists referred to India as a caste society.

Caste is also explained as a system of elaborately stratified social hierarchy that distinguishes people of India into different ....

Answer : Parsis and Marwaris were, for long known as collaborators and middlemen with the British who then ventured into setting up of industries and established some of India’s first industries. The Parsi community were the collaborators of the British and sympathised with them. They partly financed the military defence of the Bombay fort and were loyal to the British during the mutiny of 1857, financing the British military apparatus. Also, a part of the Parsi community ....

Answer : Louis Dumont in his book Homo Hierarchies: The Caste System and its Implications, developed a theory of caste hierarchy that locates its basis in the nation of purity and pollution. He approaches the Hindu caste system from a structuralist perspective that focuses on the underlying structure of idea of a system. Dumont rejects the idea that caste is just another form of stratification like class or estate. He asserts that caste is peculiar to India ....

Answer : More than sixty years of Independence and Untouchability is still alive and thriving in India’s hinterland. Pockets of social change have been but mere drops in this vast ocean of casteism, prejudice and discrimination. Untouchability has not only survived the constitutional ban but taken new avatars in many parts of the country. It might be a legal offence, punishable under Indian law, however millions of dalits-ex-untouchables by law but untouchable in practice, across the country ....

Answer : Weber talked of social stratification in three terms-class, status and power. Class refers to group formation based on economic criteria on person’s position in the market situation. Status, on the other hand stratifies society in terms of prestige, honour and respect. Caste system is based on this principle of status ascribed by birth. And lastly power signifies the political power.

According to Weber, all these three forces are not exclusive and often work in relation to ....

Answer : Louis Demont looks upon Indian society as caste society. According to him ideological basis of Hindu society is reflected through the caste system. This caste system in is totality based on the notion of purity and pollution. The relation between pure and impure is fundamental principle underlying the Hindu caste system. This principle is implicit in three predominat features of the caste system. According to Louis Demont caste system comprises a series of hereditary groups ....

Answer : Govind Sadashive Ghurye’s explanation on castes, evolution of influenced the Hindu culture etc. exhibit indological elements. But his writings are greatly influenced by historicity.

However, the indological position of G.S. Ghurye can be beet explained by his insights into the origin of caste in India. He believes that Aryans are the original inhabitants of India who evolved an unique culture and this culture was transmitted from one generation to another by great saints of India. Citing ....

Answer : Concept of Hierarchy in Louis Dumont’s writing: A clear statement of acute attributes and the work there functions to create structures or patterns of interaction are found in the work of Dumont in his book, Home Hierarchicus. His major emphasis was on three attributes of castes: Hierarchy, separation and, division of Labour.

Influenced by French intellectual milieu of his time he views equality and inequality on contract concepts. He considers egalitarianism as value of West and ....

Answer : SNDP Movement: Sri Narayan Guru Dharma Paripalana Sabha (SNDP): The ideology of the movement was mainly formulated by Sri Narayana Guru Swamy. He transformed the outlook of his followers mainly Izhavas of Kerala, by giving them a programme action for their uplift, and encouraged the founding of an all Kerala Association the SNDP Yogam. The Izhavas form not only the majority of the backward classes but are also the single largest caste in Kerala. They ....

Answer : There are two major impact of Muslim on Indian society that attract our attention. First, the changes which have occurred in the life of the Muslims because of the endogenous change within the tradition of Islam in India. Second, the interaction between Hinduism and Islam during its long history which has produced a composite culture.

The significant development in this respect took place in the early phase of Islamic expansion and its consolidation. It broadly ....

Answer : Caste mobilisation in North India has been seen in the light of democratization. The process of democratization bestows political power and activity upon the groups which have numerical strength provided that strength could be politically mobilized, which is possible if the existential situation of the group as such is homogeneous and uniform. These conditions are fulfilled more in the case of lower or subaltern castes. Emergence of lower caste based political parties such as B.S.P., ....

Answer : Like Hindu, the caste system or caste like hierarchy is found among the Muslims in India. A.K. Nazmal Karim, in his "Changing Society in India and Pakistan" (1953), has referred to four main caste groups like Hindu Varna system in the Muslim. These are Sayed, Mughal, Sheikh, and Pathan which are, according to Karim, counter parts of the Hindu four fold structure. This views of Karim has been supported by J.D. Cunningham who said that ....

Answer : In India under caste system, it was almost an accepted fact that occupation of the father will be followed by the son. There was therefore, no occupational diversification. The social structure was based on immobility of occupations. The Brahmins were to impart education, Kshatriyas to fight, Vaishyas to trade and the Shudras to do other jobs. All this served its purpose for a long time and as long as the economy was simple, the people, ....

Answer : M.N. Srinivas developed the concept of dominant caste on the basis of his long continued study in Rampura village in his paper entitled, Dominant caste in Rampura’. According to him, a feature of rural life in many parts of India is the existence of dominant land owning caste. For a caste to be dominant, it should own a sizable amount of the arable land locally available, have strength of numbers and occupy a high place ....

Answer : Brahmins constitute a large segment of the population of India. They occupy top-notch status in the social, economic and political life of the country. Traditionally, they have been dominating over the Indian society. The regional distribution of Brahmin population is disparate. They are living in almost all regions, parts and states of the country. The Brahmin community in India is not a homogeneous social group, the inequality and differentiation may be traced among them. In ....

Answer : The notions of purity and pollution is inherent in the Hindu social organisation. Under the Varna system. The so-called Shudra was considered as the untouchable. An untouchable caste many not touch the Dwija and even their shadow may pollute the higher castes. They also may not enter into the temple, use tubewell and ponds etc. A Nayar is an untouchable of Kerala and had to keep a distance of seventy four to one hundred feet ....

Answer : In the present time, two diamensional changes are taking place in the caste-politics nexus, first the caste is entering into the politics and second politics is entering into the caste system. Anil Bhatt, on the basis of his study in U.P., Gujarat, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh found that the higher cates had more interest than the middle and the lower caste. He did not find any relationship between caste status and identification with political ....

Answer : Theoretically, caste as a system of social organisation has no place in Christianity, but practically it is not so among Indian Christians. Jacob and Dube argue that the sect wise division among the christian is in harmony with caste division. They identify at least four caste group among the Christians in Kerala. These groups are hierarchically organised and at the top are Syrian Christians. They are originally descendants of local upper caste (Namboodri Brahmins) who ....

Answer : Generally it is believed that the traditional caste system was a closed system. The report of the Indian Statutory Commission (1930) states, “Every Hindu necessarily belongs to the caste of his parents and in that caste he inevitably remains.” No accumulation of wealth, no exercise of talent can alter his caste status and marriage outside his caste is prohibited or severely discouraged". However, this was found to be a common sense and not a sociological ....

Answer : The term "Social Justice", in the Indian context, chiefly refers to the social, economic, political, educational and religious justice to the backward sections, caste and groups of society. In the traditional Indian society the socio-economic rewards have been unequally distributed under the Varna and caste systems. The Sudra which is now represented by the SC and OBC, and lower castes are still relatively deprived from due opportunity and rights and social prestige and status. They ....

Answer : Under the socio-religious movement and after independence, several caste associations have been formed which are playing significant roles in the upliftment of the status of SC and OBC. First, in 1932, the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi formed the "All Indian Harijan Sangh" under which the untouchability was frequently opposed. Baba Saheb Ambedkar who had experienced the worst form of castiest discrimination during his childhood, fought against upper caste throughout his life. He organised ....

Answer : The Dalit consciousness refers to the consciousness of Schedule Caste and Other Backward Castes to their due social-economic, political and religious rights and status in the society. With the establishment of the British rule and spread of the modern humanistic ideas, new awareness had developed in India against the oppressive nature of caste movement. The activities of Christian missionaries to win converts among lower castes and various socio-religious reform movements among Hindu further contributed to ....

Answer : In the present or modern India, the traditional structure and function of caste have greatly changed and some new dimensional change has occurred in it. Caste and politics, caste and class, schedule caste and other backwards caste, sanskritization etc. are the connotation which are used in the context of caste. In the traditional society the cast is viewed in terms of ritual purity, pollution, and function. Under the Varna system of stratification, different Varna and ....

Answer : Caste, in the ancient time was relatively open system. It was primarily an occupational division of labour rather than a rigid system of stratification. Thus, inter-caste mobility was quite common and inter-caste marriage took place frequently. According to K.M. Panniker since the fifth century B.C. every known royal family has come from non-Kshatriya caste. Historians believe that Maurya was of the Shudra origin and Gupta were perhaps the Vaishya, while Satvahana claimed themselves to ....