Social Stratification in India

1. Social
Stratification
Caste and untouchability

2. Social Stratification
❖ Term derived from geology- crusts/layers
❖ Social stratification stands for the placement of individuals
and groups on the basis of social differences in income,
occupation, status etc
❖ Arrangement of people in a society into various layers on
the basis of social status; the criteria for determination of
social status are income, occupation, education, ascriptive
positions (eg.caste)
❖ Caste- a form of social stratification unique to India

3. ❖ Closed system of stratification- existed for more than
3000 years
❖ Largely a feature of the Hindu fold-varna system, but
affected other religions and sects as well
❖ Cultural concept (beliefs and practices) Vs structural
concept (something that shaped the Indian social and
power sharing structure)

4. Caste- origin theories
According to Census of India, 1931- five theories
❖ The divine origin of caste- widely discussed, shastras and
Puranas also advocate. As per ‘purushasukta’ in Rigveda, four
Varnas, constituting the four body parts of the purusha or the
creator (Brahmin-mouth, Kshatriya-arms, Vaishyas-thigh, Shudra-
feet)
❖ Karma and transmigration theory- caste status as determined by
one’s action or Karma in the past incarnations; thus, even the most
wretched man with his most degrading occupation remains
satisfied with the belief that the miseries of his present life are the
since in his previous life!

5. ❖ Occupational theory- propounded by Nesfield, advocates that the
occupation is the lone factor for the development of caste system
(Priesthood-Brahmins, over a period of time it becomes hereditary)
❖ Tribes and religious theory- gradual and silent change from tribes to
caste; most of the lower or exterior castes of today were formerly tribes
❖ Racial theory- Herbert Risley (British Colonial Officer) in the book ‘people
of India’; racial differences and endogamous marriages led to the origin of
caste system; after emigration of Indo-Aryans from Persia where the society
was divided into four classes-priests, warriors, cultivators and artisans;
maintained even after coming here; formed superior racial tracts from non-
Aryans; practiced hypergamy and imposed restrictions on Pratiloma
marriages. (upper caste- Indo Aryan racial traits; lower castes-non Aryan
aboriginal, Mongoloid or other racial group)

6. G.S Ghurye’s Perspective on Caste
System
❖ Earliest sociologist to offer systematic perspective on the
caste system
❖ ‘Caste and Race in India’, 1932-doctoral thesis,
Cambridge
❖ Historical, indological, comparative and integrative
perspective
❖ Caste and Kinship played integrative role in India
❖ Countered Risley’s racial theory; opposed colonial view of
isolating the tribes

7. Ghurye- Six features of caste
system
❖ Caste is an institution based on segmental division (divided into a
number of closed mutually exclusive segments)
❖ Based on hierarchical division
❖ Involves restrictions on feeding and social interaction- rules
governed by purity and pollution
❖ Involves differential rights and duties; civil and religious disabilities
and privileges
❖ Restricts the choice of occupation; hereditary
❖ Caste endogamy and restrictions on marriage

8. ❖ He analysed changing pattern of caste system; believed
in modern education; admitted the fact that caste based
social and political organisations are developing
❖ Tried to glorify the culture of India; depicted caste as an
integrative force in the past India; also acknowledged its
disharmonious present role
❖ Proposed revival of culture to infuse spirit of fraternity to
get rid of the current evils from the caste

9. Caste System as an Evil
❖ A very unequal institution
❖ Some castes benefitted greatly from the system while the others
were condemned to life of endless labour and subordination
❖ A historical peek into caste proves that caste was an open
system earlier and even inter-cast marriages were allowed; only
during later Vedic period, it became rigid and impossible to
change caste
❖ Many believes that its features got diluted due to urbanisation,
secularisation and modernisation
❖ But in reality????

11. ❖ “The Death of Merit”- documentary- 18 Dalit students
committed suicide during 2007-2011
❖ How caste is present in insidious but real ways inside
educational institutions and work spaces
❖ Discrimination of all kinds- caste consciousness- caste
and privilege in art- discarding privileges
❖ Avoid caste tags in your name

12. Untouchability
❖ Limited literal meaning of the word- Refers not just to the
avoidance or prohibition of physical contact, but to a
much broader set of social sanctions and social
disabilities which are ascriptive in nature within the ritual
framework of the caste system
❖ Various types of segregations imposed by the cultural
framework of the caste
❖ “Social distance”- three dimensions- exclusion,
humiliation-subordination and exploitation

13. Two Context of Analysis
❖ In terms of restrictions imposed on Avarna by all other
higher castes- social disabilities (Prohibition from wearing
new clothes, shoes etc), social isolation, religious
disabilities, separation of roads and wells, working at night
(so that even their shadow doesn’t fall on dwijas), no
ownership of property, and imposing Begaar or work without
wages
❖ As an integral aspect of caste system- while Shudra
consider Dalits as untouchables, they themselves are
untouchable to other upper castes in the hierarchy; the same
with Vaishyas and Kshatriyas at the hands of ritually
superior Brahmins

14. ❖ Segregation can be physical or social
❖ Physical segregation- limited physical contact, separate utensils,
prohibition from temple entry, prohibition on using village wells
and ponds etc
❖ Social segregation- restriction on marrying, eating with members
of the other castes, prohibition from entering homes and
restriction on occupational mobility
❖ Ghanshyam Shah, Harsh Mander and Sukhdev Thorat,
Untouchability in Rural India, 2006, concluded that it is still
practiced in various forms in around 80 percent

15. ❖ Violence as the extreme manifestation of untouchability
❖ National Commission for Scheduled Castes Report: UP,
Bihar and Rajastan lead in the registered crimes against
the Dalits
❖ UP alone registered 8,946 crimes against Dalits in 2015

16. Contrasting Perspectives of Gandhi and
Ambedkar
❖ Gandhi was a political revolutionary but not a social
revolutionary
❖ He supported Varna Vyvastha as organising principles of Indian
society, but he contemned the current for of caste system
❖ Varna vyavastha united society, untouchability was exploitative
❖ Without integrating the vast sections of the depressed classes in
the Hindu society and without removing untouchability, it would
be difficult to achieve swaraj
❖ Caste must go untouchability as a crime

17. ❖ Ambedkar- radical view- annihilation of caste system
❖ So degraded and dehumanised that he deemed it beyond repair
❖ Regarded Gandhian view as utopian- it will only make it stronger
❖ Believed that legislative measures and political empowerment as
the only ways to get rid of untouchability
❖ Broken men theory- origin of caste and untouchability; in ancient
times as a result of wars and consequent defeats, a group of
tribes become fragmented and hence became wandering Broken
men

19. Caste and Politics
❖ Caste and democratic political system- theoretically
opposite value systems (hierarchy Vs equality)
❖ Democracy never operates in an ideal manner; they
operate within social milieu
❖ In practice, societies like ours, with limited resources,
caste seek to establish new identities and strive for
positions of power
❖ Caste groupings for political mobilisation

20. ❖ British rule- founding ground for interaction of caste and
politics
❖ Caste and religion- emotional tools for managing the masses
❖ Political mobilisation as a source of empowerment: Justice
party in south , Republican Party (1956) under Ambedkar-
mobilise Dalits and other depressed casts
❖ Post independence- system of universal franchise,
democracy and Panchayat raj- further fuelled these
dynamics

21. ❖ Nadars of Tamil Nadu- positive role played by politics vis-a-
vis caste
❖ Rudolph and Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political
Development in India, 1967- political clout can also be used
to change the status in the caste hierarchy and many rights
can be acquired which were once denied to a caste
❖ Case study of Shanans; an untouchable community; changed
the social status with the help of political mobilisation and
association and ultimately known as Nadars!!!
❖ Both constructive and destructive roles

22. ❖ In the post independence period, caste associations formed with
the political objectives to compete in elections
❖ Bharatiya Kranti Dal evolved as an alliance of four major peasant
castes of UP in 1969 elections- AJGAR (Ahirs, Jats, Gujjars and
Rajputs); Lok Dal was identified with Jats in Up in 1977 and 1980
Parliamentary elections; Samajwadi Party in UP-backward castes
in general and Yadavas in particular 1977 state assembly
elections
❖ BJP is generally identified with upper castes and especially the
business class
❖ Substantialisation of caste and identity politics

23. ❖ Cleavage in Indian society- casteism in elections
❖ Elections are not fought around real issues but sensationalised
around caste related issues
❖ Castes are pitted against each other and numerically weaker
sections lose in this process; breeds animosity
❖ Cow vandalism, forced chanting of Jai Sri Ram, Hindutva/Hindu
nationalism
❖ Secularism giving way for Hindu Nationalism
❖ Increased Dalit attacks under BJP rule-NCRB data

24. Group Activity
❖ Untouchability is a scar on Indian conscience.
Comment.
❖ How can inequality in India be attributed to the rigid
social stratification system that existed for many
centuries?
❖ In the recent times caste is politicised and politics in turn
is limited by casteism. Comment on the role of caste in
Indian politics in the light of this statement