Showing papers on "Caste published in 1994"

The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660-1720

Abstract: Challenges the traditional view of castas (members of the caste system created by Spanish overlords) as alienated and dominated by a desire to improve their status. This text argues that instead, social control by the Spanish rested on patron-client networks.

The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business Strategies and the Working Classes in Bombay 1900-1940

Abstract: 1. Problems and perspectives 2. The setting: Bombay city and its hinterland 3. The structure and development of the labour market 4. Migration and the rural connections of Bombay's workers 5. Girangaon: the social organization of the working class neighbourhoods 6. The development of the cotton textile industry: a historical context 7. The workplace: labour and the organization of production in the cotton textile industry 8. Rationalizing work, standardizing labour: the limits of reform in the cotton textile industry 9. Epilogue: workers politics, class caste and nation.

This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India

Abstract: In the first part of the book, the authors present a general theory of ecological history which attempts a paradigm shift from Weberian and Marxian theories of human society. Here they ask under what conditions humans exercise prudence in their use of natural resources; they examine infrastructures, property systems, political ideologies, religions, social idioms and the belief structures that characterize human interactions with resource bases; they analyse the varieties of social conflict that appear over the exploitation of natural resources; and, finally, they explore the impact of changing patterns of resource use upon human societies. In the second part the authors provide a fresh interpretive history of pre-modern India. They also provide, in this section, an ecological interpretation of the caste system which adds a significant dimension to existing ideas on caste. In the third part the authors draw on a huge wealth of source material to offer a socioecological analysis of the modes of resources use which were introduced by the British, and which continued, with modifications, after Independence in 1947. (This is a paperback edition of the HB issued in 1992.)

Status and Sacredness: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture

Abstract: Status and Sacredness provides a new theory of status and sacral relationships and a provocative reinterpretation of the Indian caste system and Hinduism. Milner shows how in India and many other social contexts status is a key resource, and that sacredness can be usefully understood as a special form of status. By analysing the nature of this resource Milner is able to provide powerful explanations of the key features of the social structure, culture, and religion. He argues against the widely held view that the Indian caste system is best understood as a unique cultural development, demonstrating that many of the seemingly exotic features are variations on themes common to other societies. Milner's analysis is rooted in a new theoretical framework called "resource structuralism" that helps to clarify the nature and significance of power and symbolic capital. The book thus provides a bold new analysis of India, an innovative approach to the analysis of religion, and an important contribution to social theory.

Dominant caste and other essays

Abstract: The pioneering work of sociologist M. N. Srinivas has stimulated intense debate on the structure of Indian society and the changes taking place there. This volume brings together eight of Srinivas's most important essays, centering on three institutions basic to Indian society: village, caste, and joint family. The author brings a fresh outlook to his work, revealing the continuities amidst the changes taking place in India today.

Caste, Nationalism and Communism in South India: Malabar 1900-1948

Abstract: Preface List of abbreviations Glossary Map of Malabar District administrative divisions Introduction 1. The agrarian economy and households, 1900-1930 2. Shrines and the community of worship, 1900-1910 3. Shrines, temples and politics, 1900-1930 4. Civil disobedience and temple entry, 1930-1933 5. The transformation of rural politics, 1934-1940 6. Community and conflict, 1940-1948 Conclusion Bibliography Index.

Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varna System and the Origins of Caste

Abstract: This is a comprehensive examination of the 'varna' system - a classificatory scheme laid out in the classical Hindu Vedic literature and thought to underlie the concept of caste, which continues to exert a powerful and pervasive influence over Indian life.

Struggling with destiny in Karimpur, 1925-1984

Abstract: Susan Wadley first visited Karimpur - the village 'behind mud walls' made famous by William and Charlotte Wiser - as a graduate student in 1967. She returned often, adding her observations and experiences to the Wisers' field notes from the 1920s and 1930s. In this long-awaited book, Wadley gives us a work of unprecedented scope: a portrait of an Indian village as it has changed over a sixty-year period. She hears of changes in agriculture, labor relations, education, and the family. But Karimpur's residents do not speak with one voice in describing the ways their lives have changed - viewpoints vary considerably depending on the speaker's gender, economic status, and caste. Using cultural documents such as songs and stories, as well as data on household budgets and farming practices, Wadley examines what it means to be poor or rich, female or male. She demonstrates that the forms of subordination prescribed for women are paralleled by those prescribed for lower castes. Villagers also speak of political struggles in India, and of the importance of religion when confronting change. Their stories, songs, and life histories reveal the rich fabric of Karimpur and show how much can be learned from listening to its people.

Contextualising Caste : Post-Dumontian Approaches

Abstract: Introduction. 1. Is a Theory of Caste still Possible?: D. Quigley (Queena s University of Belfast). 2. Caste, Democracy and the Politics of Community in India: S. Mitra (University of Hull). 3. Berreman Revisited Caste and the Comparative Method: U. M. Sharma (University of Keele). 4. Girasias and the Politics of Difference in Rajasthan: Caste, Kinship and Gender in a Marginalised Society: M. Unnithan (University of Sussex). 5. Caste without a System a Study of South Indian Harijans: R. Deliege (University of Louvain/FNRS). 6. Religion, Caste and other identities: Mary Searle--Chatterjee (Manchester Metropolitan University). 7. Caste -- A Personal Perspective: A. Shukra. Notes on Contributors. Index

The Disintegration of Caste and Changing Concepts of Indian Ethnic Identity in Mauritius

Abstract: Most scholars (Mayer 1967; Benedict 1961; Jayawardena 1971) discussing the issue of caste among overseas Indians observe that the caste system as it functions in village India was never successfully established overseas There castes do not form important social units, and intercaste relations are unimportant One reason given for this is that the economic and political systems in the host societies where indentured Indian laborers were introduced had conditions that were not conducive to the maintenance of caste The indenture pattern of emigration tended to weaken the social restrictions governed by caste Caste was not an important principle of social organization in the plantations and all Indians were laborers (coolies) doing the same kind of work and sharing the same living conditions Mayer (1967:3) writes: Not only were ritual purity and occupational specialization dealt mortal blows by the circumstances of immigration and initial settlement, but the immigrants came from different localities in India and were unable to reform the small-scale organization on which caste-groups behaviour had been based The Indians in Mauritius do not deviate much from these conclusions and this article analyzes the external as well as internal factors which contributed to the gradual disintegration of caste among Hindu Mauritians In doing so the emphasis is on factors which led to the disintegration of caste and transformed caste identity into Indian ethnic identity within a sociopolitical context of increased competition for political power and scarce resources It is also an attempt to show how caste differences among overseas Indians came to be understood differently in terms of content and meaning A particularly interesting phenomenon is the emergence and importance of caste (or socioreligious) associations as interest groups lobbying for political purposes A similar development, but different in character, has been observed in India where caste associations appear as political pressure groups or lobbies, sometimes creating new alliances within a more competitive social order (Kothari 1970; Cohn 1987; Beteille 1991) Therefore, is it feasible to speak of caste taking on new dimensions and functions or should they no longer be considered castes at all? One position claims that the caste system and hierarchy of interrelated groups could not survive outside the cultural environment of Hindu India Dumont (1980) went as far as to describe caste systems outside India, as in Nepal and Sri Lanka, as quasi-caste Pocock (1957), writing about East African Indians, states that while there is no longer a hierarchy or a division of labor based on caste, castes persist by virtue of difference; that is, separation Dumont (1980) questioned whether castes can be said to exist unless as parts of a system and Leach (1960) argued that castes are groups which exist not in isolation but as units in interdependence Among the Hindus in Mauritius, there is no system of hierarchically ordered groups, but caste populations still exist as kinship groups, although the endogamous units have undergone considerable change Both Mayer (1967) and Brown (1981) pointed out that the degrees of caste and varna endogamy and hypergamy indicate that there is still some degree of caste division along traditional lines Brown (1981) re-examined data on endogamous marriages among Fiji Indians and found that as caste populations increase, so does the frequency of endogamy Some named subcaste and caste populations exist due to endogamy, but the boundaries of the endogamous unit may change Benedict (1961) and Kuper (1960) have made the important point that the linguistic-cultural population may become the endogamous unit This process has taken place among the small communities of Telugus and Marathis, but to a lesser degree among the Tamils, who show greater internal differentiation partly due to the larger size of its community In some cases there are indications that the varna category has replaced the caste as the endogamous unit …

The Formation of a Three-Caste Society: Evidence from Wills in Antebellum New Orleans

Abstract: In the Americas, two types of racial systems developed at the confluence of migration streams from Europe and Africa. In the Caribbean, free persons of color emerged as an intermediary group between whites and large populations of Negro slaves. In British mainland colonies, whites came to treat all blacks, whether free or enslaved, mulatto or Negro, as a single social category (Hoetink 1967; Morner 1967: 136–38).

juthaa in Trinidad: food, pollution, and hierarchy in a Caribbean diaspora community

Abstract: Focusing on the Hindi term juthaa—food and drink that have become “polluted” by being partially consumed—this article explores pollution ideology and its implications for social relations and the construction of identity among Hindu and Muslim East Indians in Trinidad. It suggests that in this overseas community the salience of the concept of juthaa, though caste derived, is indicative of an egalitarian morality at work in concert with hierarchical principles. This, in turn, has implications for the way we understand cultural reproduction and change, ritual, and stratification among diaspora populations. [pollution ideology, social stratification, South Asian diaspora, transnational identities, Trinidad]

Fertility Control and Politics in India

Abstract: The authors discuss the role of population numbers in electoral politics at the central and state levels in India in sections on Indias diversity Indias federal democratic political system religion and the politics of fertility ethnic and caste diversity and fertility control economic diversity and fertility control the federal polity and problems of fertility control and Indias democratic political system and fertility control. The family planning program in India is at the heart of the politics of an extremely diverse federal and democratic structure. Each identity-bound group whether religious or ethnic caste or linguistic feels that its safety lies in numbers and percentages and feels threatened when its demographic leverage decreases. Anxiety over numbers is therefore the central problem of the Indian family planning program. Although developmental politics is the only way to solve the problem electoral politics will no doubt persist in the short and medium terms.

Voice to the Voiceless: The Power of People's Theatre in India

Abstract: From early times, theatre in India has addressed social issues. Folk-theatre publicly admonishes evil-doers, and in the 19th century it raised popular consciousness against British rule. As the independence movement grew, many plays risked censorship. Founded in 1941, the Indian People's Theatre Association developed rural audiences, while the street theatre movement evolved from the explosion of radical political theatre in the late 1940s, dramatising capitalist and caste exploitation. The Indian government has used plays for public education on themes like birth control and the use of fertilisers.

This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India

Abstract: In the first part of the book, the authors present a general theory of ecological history which attempts a paradigm shift from Weberian and Marxian theories of human society. Here they ask under what conditions humans exercise prudence in their use of natural resources; they examine infrastructures, property systems, political ideologies, religions, social idioms and the belief structures that characterize human interactions with resource bases; they analyse the varieties of social conflict that appear over the exploitation of natural resources; and, finally, they explore the impact of changing patterns of resource use upon human societies. In the second part the authors provide a fresh interpretive history of pre-modern India. They also provide, in this section, an ecological interpretation of the caste system which adds a significant dimension to existing ideas on caste. In the third part the authors draw on a huge wealth of source material to offer a socioecological analysis of the modes of resources use which were introduced by the British, and which continued, with modifications, after Independence in 1947. (This is a paperback edition of the HB issued in 1992.)

Bengal : communities, development and states

Abstract: Contributions from eminent scholars collected here share a concern with state intervention and its effect on community formation in Bengal. Ruling elites have different priorities in the different policies adopted in Bengal under the co, the state of Pakistan, the state of pakistan, the state of Bangladesh. These policies have different impact on various communities and caste hierarchies.

The Indian Armed Forces' Sikh and Non-Sikh Officers' Opinions of Operation Blue Star*

Abstract: THE GREAT MUTINY OF 1857 caused the British to reexamine the recruitment of Indian soldiers into the three respective presidency armies of Bengal, Bombay and Madras. Despite repeated recommendations that these forces henceforth be composed of "different nationalities and castes . . . mixed promiscuously through each regiment"' as a classic "divide and rule" precaution, regimental commanders soon began favouring recruitment of men from north and northwest India. Here were communities which, for any number of reasons, British officers identified as having greater war-like characteristics than the central and southern peoples who had made up the bulk of pre-Great Mutiny troops.2 The communal character of the Indian Army (unified in 1893) became entrenched with the introduction of "class" and "class company" regiments; the former made up of the same caste, or ethnic group, the latter with a different class in each of its three companies.

Urban ‘untouchables’ and Hindu nationalism

Abstract: The ‘untouchables’ of India are excluded from various areas of social and cultural life. Despite this, the higher castes do not exclude them from the category of ‘Hindu’ since, for them, the term is counterposed to the concept of ‘foreigner’. The lowest groups, on the other hand, often do not think of themselves as Hindus, for they use the word in terms of a very different set of conceptual oppositions. For them, ‘Hindus’ are people of high caste. Anderson's (1983) characterization of the nation as an ‘imagined community’ does not adequately explain why Hindu nationalists are now pressing minority ‘untouchables’ to define themselves as Hindus. Western reification of the concept of ‘Hindu’ has implications for political struggles in the sub‐continent.

Connecting Families and Schools through Mediating Structures.

Abstract: Despite increasing evidence that parental involvement improves children’s performance in schools and improves schools (Henderson, 1980, 1987, Henderson & Berla 1994), there are continuing problems of involving low-income parents and other low-status parents in the schools their children attend. Studies have shown that the problem of involving these so-called “hard to reach” parents in their children’s schooling exists in several countries (Davies, et al., 1987). Ogbu (1978, 1983) has examined the relationship between the poor school performance of lowstatus children in a society and discontinuities between the cultural backgrounds of those children and the culture of the schools they attend. His research suggests that while discontinuities exist between home and school for all children, the discontinuities are greatest and the school performance is poorest for caste-like minorities in societies. For these caste-like groups, their lower caste position of inferiority in the society surpasses any class stratication that exists so the groups may not view the schools as a means of upward mobility, because change upward in class status does not result in change in caste status. The problem of caste status is therefore a major social problem especially for racial minorities in some societies. The existence of the larger societal issue of the caste-like status of some groups in societies has sometimes led educators to assert that schools are unable to counteract major societal problems of poverty and discrimination. Therefore until society changes, schools are unlikely to change. However, evidence of successful schools within communities of caste-like minorities challenges the assertion that schools must follow, rather than lead, positive social change (Comer, 1980, 1990, Slavin & Madden 2000).

Social change and fertility transition in Sri Lanka

Abstract: The study investigates and interprets the factors that contributed to the recent decline in fertility in Sri Lanka, despite its low economic standing. It seeks to elucidate the social transformation that has taken place and looks at the socio-cultural determinants that have brought about the process of fertility transition. In this regard, the significant effects of the welfare measures in force in the country in respect of health, education, nutrition and housing have been brought to light. Hence the study tends to fall outside the scope of the conventional wisdom laid down in the demographic transition theory outlined by Notestein, which emphasised the contribution that economic development plays in lowering fertility. The approach to the study hinges on selected variables like education, age at marriage, gender roles per se and female employment. The cardinal role played by free education in contributing to the transition is given particular coverage. Education is treated more as a cultural asset which determines and shapes values, preferences and aspirations in respect of marriage, fertility, family formation and other aspects such as career development which enables women to play roles away from home. Unfortunately, inferences about women's position do not always gain statistical support, as they are intricately woven into the fabric of societal gender settings and traditions. In respect of age at marriage, the socio-cultural factors of society like the caste system, a dowry and horoscope matching with details of Karmic determinants have been examined in some detail. The study also uncovers the social deprivation aspects which for long led women in the plantation sector to experience fertility performance lower than the national level. Going by normal demographic rationale, their high degree of labour force participation should account for it. But it was social deprivation and the resultant low nutritional levels that reduced their reproductive ability to low levels. With a better life ushered in by a programme of social uplift during the early 'eighties, this ethnic group showed signs of first a rise in fertility, and on having reached the threshold it has now begun showing signs of a decline attributable to healthier lives. Similarly, a relatively invisible agent, the prevalent “urban outlook," is shown to contribute to the transition process, and has recently become even more significant due to the intensive rural amelioration efforts of the government. This outlook is all pervasive and permeates the society in general in effecting the transition under review.

Violating the Hindu Norm of Husband-Wife Avoidance

Abstract: Until recently, anthropologists focused so much on uncovering cultural patterns that they de-emphasized the anomalies and irregularities that they found (Freilich, Raybeck and Savishinsky, 1991: 1). Fortunately, it is now increasingly recognized that cultural rules are not fully shared but are often contested by individuals and social groups (Clifford, 1986; Derne, 1992a; Freilich,1991; Mines, 1988; Stromberg, 1986). Morris Freilich (1991) argues that the recognition that individuals often break social roles should lead anthropologists to study deviance as a specialized field. Studying deviance involves changing our orienting questions. Instead of trying to understand what generates social norms and why people conform to them (Homans, 1964: 810, 814), the study of deviance focuses on understanding why people violate social norms. This article brings this focus on deviance into family studies by considering why some Hindu men violate the norm of husband-wife avoidance.Scholars who emphasize cultural conflict usually emphasize how subordinated groups contest the rules that constrain them. In Hindu India, social norms demand that interactions between husband and wife be limited to prevent the blossoming of close ties which might threaten the harmony of the joint family as a whole (Carstairs, 1957; Das, 1976; Luschinsky, 1962: 65, 342; Sharma, 1978, 1980a: 3-4, 1980b: 219; Papanek, 1973; Kakar, 1981; Mandelbaum, 1988: 5). Recognizing that this norm subordinates women by forcing them to be passive and silent in the presence of a husband who might be able to advance their interests, feminist scholars have argued that Hindu women often reject the norm of husband-wife avoidance in order to cultivate a loving ally in their families (Bennett, 1983; Das, 1976; Luschinsky, 1962; Raheja and Gold, forthcoming). Instead of focusing on women who buck the norms that subordinate them, this article emphasizes that some dominant upper-caste Hindu men sometimes rebel against norms that demand that they have only limited contact with their wives.Interviews I conducted with upper-caste Hindu men reveal that a substantial minority of men violate the norm of husband-wife avoidance. But why do some men rebel while others conform? I argue that older men are more likely than younger men to be close to their wives, that younger sons who have had experiences interacting with their elder brothers' wives are more likely than their elder brothers to violate norms limiting husband-wife interactions, and that mobile men and college-educated men are more likely to break social norms than less mobile, less educated men. These findings suggest that a greater range of social experience empowers men to reject social rules.Experience liberates by acting as both a cognitive and a social resource. Those with little experience follow social roles because they have nothing but their culture to guide them, while for other men experience provides a sense that they have options. In India, moreover, experience is a powerful social resource that empowers: Those with experience can point to the wisdom of accumulated years to justify deviating from social norms.QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS WITH URBAN HINDU MENIn 1986 and 1987, I did fieldwork and conducted intensive interviews with 49 upper-caste, upper-middle-class Hindu men in Banaras, an important North Indian city. In open-ended, semi-structured interviews, I asked men about joint-family living, arranged marriages, restrictions on women outside the home, and interactions between husband and wife, focusing on their interactions in their own families.The men I interviewed are caste Hindus from Brahmin (20 men), Kshatriya (8 men), Vaishya 17 men) and Shudra (4 men) castes. They range in age from their twenties to their seventies. Eighty percent of the men live in households with more than one married couple, about half in households with three or more married couples. I interviewed both junior and senior members of joint households(1). …

Mrs Jordan's Profession: The story of a Great actress and a future King

Abstract: This book looks at 19th-century British actresses, from the regency period to the outbreak of World War I. The book's underlying theme is the extraordinary way in which actresses formed a separate social caste, existing alongside, but differing hugely, from the general run of women in their economic independence, geographical and social mobility, professional status and sexual freedom.

From alienation to integration: Changes in the politics of caste in Bengal, 1937-47

Abstract: more significant, after 1937 some other major developments took place, and these completely changed the complexion of the movement. During the last decade of colonial rule, as transfer of power became a distinct possibility and new political alignments were to be effected, the importance of the scheduled castes, representing a sizeable proportion of the non-Muslim population in Bengali with 30 reserved seats in the provincial legislature,