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Showing papers on "Caste published in 2006"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the role of the caste system in shaping career choices by gender in Bombay using new survey data on school enrollment and income over the past 20 years and found that male working-class-lower-caste networks continue to channel boys into local language schools that lead to the traditional occupation, despite the fact that returns to nontraditional white-collar occupations rose substantially in the 1990s, suggesting the possibility of a dynamic inefficiency.
Abstract: This paper addresses the question of how traditional institutions interact with the forces of globalization to shape the economic mobility and welfare of particular groups of individuals in the new economy. We explore the role of one such traditional institution-the caste system-in shaping career choices by gender in Bombay using new survey data on school enrollment and income over the past 20 years. We find that male working-class-lower-caste-networks continue to channel boys into local language schools that lead to the traditional occupation, despite the fact that returns to nontraditional white-collar occupations rose substantially in the 1990s, suggesting the possibility of a dynamic inefficiency. In contrast, lower-caste girls, who historically had low labor market participation rates and so did not benefit from the network, are taking full advantage of the opportunities that became available in the new economy by switching rapidly to English schools.

530 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Karla Hoff1, Priyanka Pandey1
TL;DR: Cadinu et al. as discussed by the authors investigated whether the public revelation of social identity (caste) affects cognitive task performance and responses to economic opportunities by young boys in village India and found that individuals' performance is more in accordance with the stereotype of the group when group membership is made salient in some way.
Abstract: What are the mechanisms by which societal discrimination affects individual achievement, and why do the effects of past discrimination endure once legal barriers are removed? We report the findings of two experiments in village India that suggest that the mechanisms of discrimination operate, in part, within the individuals who are members of the groups who have been discriminated against. We demonstrate that publicly revealing an individual’s membership in such a group alters his behavior in ways that make the effects of past discrimination persist over time. A growing literature in social psychology on stereotype threat finds that stereotyped-based expectations affect individual performance in the domain of the stereotype. A study by Jeff Stone et al. (1999) is illustrative. When college students were asked to perform a task described as diagnostic of “natural athletic ability,” blacks—stereotyped as better athletes, but worse students than whites—performed better than whites. When the same test was presented as diagnostic of “sports intelligence,” the performance of blacks declined, that of whites improved, and the racial gap was reversed. Evidence suggests that a mediating factor in stereotype threat is a change in self confidence (Mara Cadinu et al., 2005) In our studies, we investigated whether the public revelation of social identity (caste) affects cognitive task performance and responses to economic opportunities by young boys in village India. Subjects were sixth and seventh graders drawn from the two ends of the caste hierarchy. We asked subjects to learn and then perform a task under incentives, and we manipulated whether their peers in the experimental session knew their caste. Caste is well-suited to this manipulation because, unlike race, gender, and ethnicity, there are no unambiguous outward markers of caste among young boys. Six subjects, generally from six different villages, participated in each experimental session. In the control condition, the subjects were anonymous within the six-person group. In the experimental conditions, the experimenter publicly revealed subjects’ names and caste. In the task—solving mazes—in which performance was studied here, the low-caste subjects in the anonymous condition did not perform significantly differently from high-caste subjects; but when caste identity was publicly revealed in a mixed caste group, a significant caste gap emerged. The caste gap was due to a 20 percent decline in the average number of mazes solved by the low caste. The study shows that publicly revealing the social identity of an individual can change his behavior even when that information is irrelevant to payoffs. Our results are a generalization of the literature on stereotype threat. Like that literature, we find that individuals’ performance is more in accordance with the stereotype of the group when group membership is made salient in some way. Unlike that literature, salience in our experiments depends on the public revelation of social identity and more importantly, we do not argue that the domain of the tasks undertaken by † Discussants: Rachel Croson, University of Pennsylvania; Iris Bohnet, Harvard University; Stefano DellaVigna, University of California-Berkeley.

344 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used an analysis of the rise of India's New Middle Class (NMC) to develop a class analytics of democratic politics in India and found that the dominant fraction of the middle class plays a central role in the politics of hegemony.
Abstract: This article uses an analysis of the rise of India's New Middle Class (NMC) to develop a class analytics of democratic politics in India. The article locates the politics of India's democracy within the framework of comparative class analytics and integrates class analysis with the politics of caste, religion, and language. The article develops two central arguments. The first is that the dominant fraction of the middle class plays a central role in the politics of hegemony. These hegemonic politics are played out both as attempts to coordinate the interests of the dominant classes and to forge internal unity within the highly diverse fragments of the middle class. But rather than producing the classical pattern of liberal hegemony (in which the ruling bloc actively elicits the consent of subordinate classes) in India these projects have been marked by middle-class illiberalism, and most notably a distancing from lower classes. Second, we argue that the contours of the NMC can be grasped as a cla...

223 citations


Book
04 Aug 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, Babu Mathew and Harsh Mander discuss the practice of untouchability and violence against Dalits in rural India and their role in demanding rights, equality, and dignity.
Abstract: Foreword Babu Mathew Preface Harsh Mander Introduction: Caste, Untouchability and Dalits in Rural India 'Unclean Occupations': Savaged by Tradition Dalit Women and the Practice of Untouchability Violence against Dalits Demanding Rights, Equality and Dignity Conclusion Appendices Glossary References Index

170 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Y-chromosomal data consistently suggest a largely South Asian origin for Indian caste communities and therefore argue against any major influx, from regions north and west of India, of people associated either with the development of agriculture or the spread of the Indo-Aryan language family.
Abstract: Understanding the genetic origins and demographic history of Indian populations is important both for questions concerning the early settlement of Eurasia and more recent events, including the appearance of Indo-Aryan languages and settled agriculture in the subcontinent. Although there is general agreement that Indian caste and tribal populations share a common late Pleistocene maternal ancestry in India, some studies of the Y-chromosome markers have suggested a recent, substantial incursion from Central or West Eurasia. To investigate the origin of paternal lineages of Indian populations, 936 Y chromosomes, representing 32 tribal and 45 caste groups from all four major linguistic groups of India, were analyzed for 38 single-nucleotide polymorphic markers. Phylogeography of the major Y-chromosomal haplogroups in India, genetic distance, and admixture analyses all indicate that the recent external contribution to Dravidian- and Hindi-speaking caste groups has been low. The sharing of some Y-chromosomal haplogroups between Indian and Central Asian populations is most parsimoniously explained by a deep, common ancestry between the two regions, with diffusion of some Indian-specific lineages northward. The Y-chromosomal data consistently suggest a largely South Asian origin for Indian caste communities and therefore argue against any major influx, from regions north and west of India, of people associated either with the development of agriculture or the spread of the Indo-Aryan language family. The dyadic Y-chromosome composition of Tibeto-Burman speakers of India, however, can be attributed to a recent demographic process, which appears to have absorbed and overlain populations who previously spoke Austro-Asiatic languages.

155 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The present study suggests that the vast majority (>98%) of the Indian maternal gene pool, consisting of Indio-European and Dravidian speakers, is genetically more or less uniform.
Abstract: India is a country with enormous social and cultural diversity due to its positioning on the crossroads of many historic and pre-historic human migrations. The hierarchical caste system in the Hindu society dominates the social structure of the Indian populations. The origin of the caste system in India is a matter of debate with many linguists and anthropologists suggesting that it began with the arrival of Indo-European speakers from Central Asia about 3500 years ago. Previous genetic studies based on Indian populations failed to achieve a consensus in this regard. We analysed the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA of three tribal populations of southern India, compared the results with available data from the Indian subcontinent and tried to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Indian caste and tribal populations. No significant difference was observed in the mitochondrial DNA between Indian tribal and caste populations, except for the presence of a higher frequency of west Eurasian-specific haplogroups in the higher castes, mostly in the north western part of India. On the other hand, the study of the Indian Y lineages revealed distinct distribution patterns among caste and tribal populations. The paternal lineages of Indian lower castes showed significantly closer affinity to the tribal populations than to the upper castes. The frequencies of deep-rooted Y haplogroups such as M89, M52, and M95 were higher in the lower castes and tribes, compared to the upper castes. The present study suggests that the vast majority (>98%) of the Indian maternal gene pool, consisting of Indio-European and Dravidian speakers, is genetically more or less uniform. Invasions after the late Pleistocene settlement might have been mostly male-mediated. However, Y-SNP data provides compelling genetic evidence for a tribal origin of the lower caste populations in the subcontinent. Lower caste groups might have originated with the hierarchical divisions that arose within the tribal groups with the spread of Neolithic agriculturalists, much earlier than the arrival of Aryan speakers. The Indo-Europeans established themselves as upper castes among this already developed caste-like class structure within the tribes.

104 citations


Posted Content
Clifford Bob1
TL;DR: The authors analyzes recent efforts by India's Dalits (Untouchables) to transform centuries-old caste-based discrimination into an international human rights issue and demonstrates that the Dalits have achieved limited but important advances among transnational NGOs, international organizations and foreign governments since the late 1990s.
Abstract: This article analyzes recent efforts by India's Dalits (Untouchables) to transform centuries-old caste-based discrimination into an international human rights issue Comparing early failures and later successes in international activism, the article demonstrates that the Dalits have achieved limited but important advances among transnational NGOs, international organizations, and foreign governments since the late 1990s What explains these successes - and what lessons does the Dalit experience hold for other groups seeking to transform domestic grievances into internationally recognized human rights issues? The article makes two primary arguments First, organizational changes among Dalit activists played a major role in these successes, most importantly the formation of a unified Dalit network within India and the subsequent creation of a transnational solidarity network Second, rhetorical changes played a key role, as Dalits moved from their long-standing focus on caste-based discrimination to a broader framing within the more internationally acceptable terminology of discrimination based on work and descent The article concludes by discussing broader implications for international human rights activism by other aggrieved groups

78 citations


Book
01 Sep 2006
TL;DR: The authors presents a powerful critique of the simplified representations that portray workers' politics in this informal sector as marked by low levels of class consciousness, limited abilities for resistance, and ruled by 'primordial' relations of caste, kinship and patronage.
Abstract: Following increased integration in global economic networks, some of India's informal sectors have expanded drastically in recent decades and are employing an increasing number of the country's working population. This book presents a powerful critique of the simplified representations that portray workers' politics in this informal sector as marked by low levels of class consciousness, limited abilities for resistance, and ruled by 'primordial' relations of caste, kinship and patronage. This study will be of interest to students of economy, politics, sociology and social anthropology as well as scholars of development studies.

75 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the social patterning of women's self-reported health status in India and the validity of the two hypotheses: (1) low-caste and lower socioeconomic position is associated with worse reported health status, and (2) associations between socioeconomic position and reported health statuses vary across castes.
Abstract: Objectives: To examine the social patterning of women’s self-reported health status in India and the validity of the two hypotheses: (1) low caste and lower socioeconomic position is associated with worse reported health status, and (2) associations between socioeconomic position and reported health status vary across castes. Design: Cross-sectional household survey, age-adjusted percentages and odds ratios, and multilevel multinomial logistic regression models were used for analysis. Setting: A panchayat (territorial decentralised unit) in Kerala, India, in 2003. Participants: 4196 non-elderly women. Outcome measures: Self-perceived health status and reported limitations in activities in daily living. Results: Women from lower castes (scheduled castes/scheduled tribes (SC/ST) and other backward castes (OBC) reported a higher prevalence of poor health than women from forward castes. Socioeconomic inequalities were observed in health regardless of the indicators, education, women’s employment status or household landholdings. The multilevel multinomial models indicate that the associations between socioeconomic indicators and health vary across caste. Among SC/ST and OBC women, the influence of socioeconomic variables led to a “magnifying” effect, whereas among forward caste women, a “buffering” effect was found. Among lower caste women, the associations between socioeconomic factors and self-assessed health are graded; the associations are strongest when comparing the lowest and highest ratings of health. Conclusions: Even in a relatively egalitarian state in India, there are caste and socioeconomic inequalities in women’s health. Implementing interventions that concomitantly deal with caste and socioeconomic disparities will likely produce more equitable results than targeting either type of inequality in isolation.

74 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the determinants of school enrollment among children in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two large north Indian states, and found that enrollment is increasing in parental education as well as wealth and that village caste composition and aggregate deprivation also influence individual enrollment decisions.
Abstract: Attaining universal basic education remains an elusive goal in many developing countries. This article examines the determinants of school enrollment among children in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two large north Indian states. In addition to individual‐ and household‐level influences, we consider the role of village‐level contextual effects on the school enrollment decision. Our results suggest that enrollment is increasing in parental education as well as wealth and that village caste composition and aggregate deprivation also influence individual enrollment decisions.

74 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In 1992, India's Parliament enacted two constitutional amendments that sought to democratize local governance and engender it through quota-based reservations for women as discussed by the authors, which enabled women to articulate and advance their interests.
Abstract: In 1992, India's Parliament enacted two constitutional amendments that sought to democratize local governance and engender it through quota-based reservations for women. This article asks whether participation in these institutions has enabled women to articulate and advance their interests. To evaluate this, the article deploys the distinction in feminist literature between strategic and practical gender interests. Through a survey of a wide range of studies conducted in different parts of India it points to the constraints, both of institutional design as well as of social inequalities of gender and caste, that inhibit a fuller and more effective participation by women. There is nevertheless evidence to suggest that the quotas have enabled women to address their practical gender needs and interests, even if the articulation and realization of strategic interests is moving at a somewhat slower pace.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine why some self-help groups fail by using the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) experience in India and argue that whilst the "group" has inherent benefits, it must never be allowed to become the paradigm in developmental policies for women.
Abstract: The success of the group approach in rural micro-finance among women has inspired the tendency to look at all networking as essentially good and desirable in rural community development, without acknowledging the entrenched caste, class, ethnic and religious hierarchies that lead to diversities among women. Government schemes designed for poverty alleviation among rural women tend to be influenced by concepts and models that have been successful elsewhere, but do not take into account the diversities of situations at the local level. Internationally popular catchwords are used indiscriminately without questioning how these concepts can work effectively in the specific local context. This paper examines why some ‘self-help groups’ fail by using the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) experience in India. The empirical survey was done over a period of two years in Burdwan, a relatively rich agricultural tract located in eastern India. We argue that whilst the ‘group’ has inherent benefits, it must never be allowed to become the paradigm in developmental policies for women.

Journal ArticleDOI
M.K. Bhasin1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors have investigated the variation in the people of India in regional (Natural Regions of India, Climatic Regions Of India, Political Divisions of India), ethnic (castes, scheduled castes, community, scheduled tribes, communities), traditional occupational and linguistic groups and families with the help of somatometry measurement and indices.
Abstract: ABSTACT The discipline of human population biology incorporates study of biology and environmental factors, as well as the forces of micro-evolution leading to macro-evolution which ultimately influence the biological structure of human populations. The unit of study in understanding variations in man is a ‘breeding population’ some times also referred to as ‘Mendelian population’. India is inhabited by people of great diversity, different creeds and customs forming what may be designated as multiple (or plural) society. There are about 3000 castes in India, some have genesis in tribal stock while others are occupational, linguistic, religious and territorial entities. Each caste is a social unit or what may be called ‘monopolistic guild’ in itself. All these groups are not entirely independent; usually people belong to two or more of such groups at the same time. India is a country with distinct geographical entity and is marked off from rest of Asia by both mountains and sea. Indian sub-continent may be divided into four natural regions: (1) The Himalayan Mountain Complex, (2) The Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra Plains, (3) The Peninsular Plateau and (4) The Islands. The climate of India has many regional variations determined by locations, altitude, distance from the sea or the mountains and the general relief. India is divided into eight climatic regions based on the monthly value of temperature and precipitation. India is a Union comprising 25 States and 7 Union Territories and these may be categorised into six zones (North, West, East, Central, South India and Islands). Himalayan region may be divided into three divisions (Western, Central and Eastern Himalayan Regions). The present paper aims at investigating first the variation in the people of India in regional (Natural Regions of India, Climatic Regions of India, Political Divisions of India), ethnic (castes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, communities), traditional occupational and linguistic groups and families with the help somatometry measurement and indices. Second, to study the variation with the help of biostatistics methods in the region, ethnic groups and linguistic groups. The basic data were collected from the literature and it was categorized in regional, ethnic, occupational and linguistic groups and coded accordingly for the analysis on computer.

Posted Content
Maitreyi Bordia Das1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a conceptual and analytical framework which adds to the existing body of labor market analysis on gender and caste in India and assesses the changes that have taken place over almost two decades.
Abstract: In India, caste and gender have historically been the two axes of stratification responsible for the major inequalities in access - in as diverse areas as education, health, technology, and jobs. Both axes of stratification are supported by a ritual ideology and a complex set of social norms. The aim of this chapter is to understand to what extent these axes have a bearing on employment. It is divided into two parts: Part I addresses why women's labor force participation rates have been falling in an era of rapid economic and educational growth. Part II addresses the issue of exclusion in the labor market based on traditional caste and tribal status and assesses the changes that have taken place over almost two decades. The two papers draw on the sociological literature on caste and the demographic, economic and feminist literature on women's employment. Data for the empirical analysis comes from four rounds of the employment modules of the National Sample Surveys from 1983 to 1999-2000. Using varied sociometric methods, the papers attempt to build a conceptual and analytical framework which adds to the existing body of labor market analysis on gender and caste in India. Results from the analysis in Part I indicate that for women, low opportunity structures are responsible for low labor force participations rates -- consistently under 40 percent. Analysis in Part II suggests that the effects of caste alone, controlling for a number of household, individual and regional characteristics, really plays out in the form of an increased likelihood of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes being in casual labor and their reduced chances of being in off-farm self-employment.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative analysis of crimes of "honour" in India and Pakistan and an examination of appellate judgments from the two countries is carried out to explore the complex nature of the interaction between modernity and tradition.
Abstract: Through a comparative analysis of crimes of ‘honour’ in India and Pakistan and an examination of appellate judgments from the two countries, we reflect upon how a rights-based discourse of modern nation-states forms a complex terrain where citizenship of the state and membership of communities are negotiated and contested through the unfolding of complex legal rituals in both sites. We identify two axes to explore the complex nature of the interaction between modernity and tradition. The first is that of governance of polities (state statutory governance bodies) and the second is the governance of communities (caste panchayats and jirgahs). We conclude that the diverse legacies of common law in India and Pakistan frame an anxious relationship with the categories of tradition and modernity, which inhabit spaces in between the governance of polities and the governance of communities, and constantly reconstitute the relationship between the local, national and the global.

Journal Article
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors presented a comprehensive monograph on China's Hukou system, which traces the history of the system from the beginnings of Chinese history and follows its development to the present day.
Abstract: Organizing Through Division and Exclusion: China's Hukou System, by Fei-ling Wang. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2005. xvi + 304 pp. US$60.00 (hardcover). China's household registration (or hukou) system has attracted considerable research interest, but until recently there was no comprehensive monograph dealing with the topic. Fei-Ling Wang's impressive and interesting work fills this gap. While it is too early to say if this will be the definitive treatment ofhukou, it is certainly a book which those interested in issues of social stratification, migration, urbanization, state control and development policy cannot afford to miss. After setting out a theoretical framework, the book traces the history of the hukou system from the beginnings of Chinese history and follows its development to the present day. Next, Wang gives a detailed description of its basic regulations, administration and operation in practice. Here, he brings together an impressive range of materials in an almost exhaustive treatment. While much of the scholarly attention has focused on the role of hukou in migration control and in structuring entitlement to state resources, an important contribution of this book is the discussion of the central importance of population policing in shaping the system. Wang shows that surveillance and control of suspect groups played an important role in the early development of hukou in the PRC, and extends this to a detailed operational discussion of current police monitoring of the "targeted population" (zhongdian renkou). Chapter 5 then analyzes the broad impact of the hukou system, including, inter alia, supporting political stability and CCP rule, facilitating industrialization in a country with a huge rural population, and slowing down urbanization. I find the analysis of the bias in the college admission system particularly interesting, while the discussion of regionally uneven development and horizontal stratification is somewhat less convincing in pinpointing the role of hukou. Chapter 6 compares the Chinese case with India and Brazil, and the final chapter provides new and key insights into the most recent reforms and suggests likely future developments. The book clearly embodies an attempt to examine the system in a balanced way and argues that it has contributed significantly to rapid economic and technological growth in China, while at the same time bringing out the large human cost. However, a short postscript to the preface shows that hukou is still a sensitive topic in China and that research on it can entail bitter consequences: in 2004, after a journal article on hukou, Wang was detained and held in jail for two weeks in Shanghai before being deported back to the US. Organizing Through Division and Exclusion is a long-overdue work that will provide an excellent source of information on the ins and outs of China's registration system. It also offers stimulating discussion in a number of areas where different interpretations are possible. Wang's theoretical framework is built around a typology of institutional exclusion. It distinguishes four types of exclusion, based on (1) who you are, (for example, the South Asian caste system); (2) what you have (skills, property); (3) where you are (for example, hukou); and (4) what you do/did (for example, criminals). He asserts that "in any given nation, institutional exclusion is primarily based on one leading fault line, usually assisted by other types of less important ... differentiations and separations" (p. 7). This typology as such has little explanatory power, but is placed in the context of the Lewis Transition, which deals with economic development in terms of the (difficulty of) absorption of labor from the agricultural sector into the modern, industrial, urban sector. The Lewis Transition argument is broadly similar to the earlier interpretations of the hukou system offered by Richard Kirkby, Kam Wing Chan and others, usually more from an urbanization perspective than from one concerned with labor absorption. …

Book
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: This chapter discusses the Dalit Movement and Emergence of the Mahila Samakhya Karnataka (MSK) Program, and the state and the Women's Movement in India.
Abstract: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Strategies for Empowerment: The State and the Women's Movement in India Chapter 3 The Dalit Movement and Emergence of the Mahila Samakhya Karnataka (MSK) Program Chapter 4 Sanghas of the Mahila Samakhya Karnataka (MSK) Program Chapter 5 Conclusion: Theoretical and Research Implications

01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this article, Maitreyi Bordia Das et al. investigated the effect of traditional axes of exclusion on labor market outcomes in India and found that women labor force participation and the effects of gender on Indian labor market performance.
Abstract: THE WORLD BANK Paper No. 97/ June 2006 Do Traditional Axes of Exclusion Affect Labor Market Outcomes in India? Part I: Female Labor Force Participation And the Effects of Gender Part II: Caste, Ethnicity and the Indian Labor Market Maitreyi Bordia Das Originally written as a background paper for the India Labor and Employment Study. The author is grateful to Sergiy Biletsky for superb research assistance and to early comments from Ahmad Ahsan and Carmen Pages and to members of the authors group who attended the videoconference on September 19, 2005. SOUTH ASIA SERIES 36963

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the achievements and contradictions of such Maoist-inspired agency and ideology via the life story of a Naxalite from the Dalit community.
Abstract: Ever since its inception during the 1960s, the Naxalite movement in India has been the focus of scholarly interest and political analysis. In spite of internal splits and external repression by the state, this agrarian mobilization continues to gain ground in Bihar and elsewhere. Both achievements and contradictions of such Maoist-inspired agency and ideology are examined via the life story of a Naxalite – an organic intellectual – from the Dalit community. Of particular interest are the difficulties of having to protect family members, as well as positive developments, such as shifts in the language of struggle (from caste to class), and negative ones at the level of political consciousness (the persistence of traditional beliefs, receipt of pro-poor funding from the state).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that disability is gendered, culturally constituted and socially negotiated, and they explore the nature and form of disability afflicting the individual and social life of women in rural Haryana, in terms of both physical and mental parameters.
Abstract: This paper argues that disability is gendered, culturally constituted and socially negotiated. It explores the nature and form of disability afflicting the individual and social life of women in rural Haryana, in terms of both physical and mental parameters. It describes the community and the family strategies for supporting disabled women in negotiating family, work, economy and society. It also highlights the social effects of physical disability on various stages of their life cycle. Disability remains an obstruction in attaining the full potential of an individual. Each community has its characteristic way of understanding disability and coping with its disabled population. Disability locates the individual in a compromised position not only for biological reasons, but also as a consequence of a complex combination of such non-biological factors as gender, caste, class, neighbourhood relations, and the nature of kinship and family structure. This paper explores the conceptual and empirical implications of the proposition that ‘disability is culturally constructed and socially negotiated’. If disability creates obstacles for individuals in discharging their social responsibilities, th ere are inbuilt cultural mechanisms and social networks available to them as coping strategies within the family, kinship, caste and community. Voluntary agencies and the state machinery, through various empowerment initiatives, are making consistent efforts to minimi se, if not eliminate, the social hindrances and constraints that result from physical disability. 1 Since a large number of the disabled lives in rural areas, the absence of accurate information on the magnitude of the problem has hampered planning of realistic policies and services for them. In urban areas, the disabled are recognised as a social category for their special needs. There are attempts to integrate them into the social mainstream through institutions like special schools and training centres. The situation is different in rural areas. Here the disabled do not constitute a socially recognised group; they often continue to function as normal members of society. In order to understand disability in a rural area, it is necessary to re cognise its social organisation of production, cultural values and the structure of gender relations.

01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this article, the authors formalized a model of the caste system to better understand the institution and the reasons for its persistence, and argued that the system provided a tool for contract enforcement and facilitated trade in services.
Abstract: The caste system in India has been dated to approximately 1000 B.C. and still aff ects the lives of a billion people in South Asia. The persistence of this system of social stratification for 3000 years of changing economic and social environments is puzzling. This paper formalizes a model of the caste system to better understand the institution and the reasons for its persistence. It argues that the caste system provided a tool for contract enforcement and facilitated trade in services, giving an economic reason for its persistence. A caste is modeled as an information-sharing institution, which enforces collective action. Trade is modeled as a version of the one-sided prisoner’s dilemma game, where the consumer has an opportunity to default. Consumers who default on a member of a caste are punished by denying them services produced in the caste. Various features of the caste system like occupational specialization by caste, a purity scale, and a hierarchy of castes are shown to be equilibrium outcomes that improve the efficiency of contract enforcement. The implications of the model are tested empirically using unique census data from Cochin (1875), Tirunelveli (1823) and Mysore (1941).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored trajectories of social change within small South Indian eating places, popularly known as Udupi hotels, during the second half of the 20th century such enterprises absorbed a large number of unskilled migrants, mainly from Karnataka's coastal belt.
Abstract: In India, there are strong and intimate links between traditional notions of caste, purity and pollution and the preparation and consumption of food. This article studies trajectories of social change within small South Indian eating places, popularly known as Udupi hotels. During the second half of the 20th century such enterprises absorbed a large number of unskilled migrants, mainly from Karnataka's coastal belt. We explore the relationship between caste and employability within the industry and the impact of caste on individual career progress. Combining case studies of enterprises from villages, small towns and cities with data from in-depth interviews with a sample of hotel workers, we argue that small South Indian eating places are elusive social arenas that can shed new light on the nature, persistence and change in caste-based exclusion in important markets for unskilled labour in modern India.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between internalized idealized cultural beliefs (machismo, chastity, and caste identity) and psychological well-being (life satisfaction and anxiety) in a male surplus population was examined.
Abstract: This study was designed to examine the relationship between internalized idealized cultural beliefs (machismo, chastity, and caste identity) and psychological well-being (life satisfaction and anxiety) in a male surplus population. The study was conducted using questionnaires in a community sample of Jat caste persons in Punjab, India (N = 398). Overall, the correlation between machismo, chastity, and caste beliefs were significant. Men scored significantly higher than women on beliefs about machismo, chastity, and caste identity. For men, divine beliefs about chastity predicted higher life satisfaction, and prescriptive beliefs about chastity practices predicted lower life satisfaction. For women, machismo predicted lower anxiety. The importance of cultural ecological context in the production of masculinity was highlighted.

Book
06 Jan 2006
TL;DR: The authors provides an ethnographic account of the shifts in political preferences of upper caste Hindus in a North Indian city, exploring how a community consisting predominantly of Hindu nationalists relates to the Muslim and Dalit communities and seeks to explain their ever shifting social and political perceptions.
Abstract: This book provides an ethnographic account of the shifts in political preferences of upper caste Hindus in a North Indian city, exploring how a community consisting predominantly of Hindu nationalists relates to the Muslim and Dalit communities and seeks to explain their ever shifting social and political perceptions.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the use of economic criteria for assessing the backwardness of different social groups and assess the fairness of access to higher education of an identified backward social group.
Abstract: Against the backdrop of policy of reservation of seats in Higher Education for the Other Backward Castes in India, this paper examines two inter-related yet distinct issues: (i) the use of economic criteria for assessing the backwardness of different social groups and (ii) assessment of fairness of access to higher education of an identified “backward†social group. On an analysis of the NSS 55th Round Surveys for 1999-2000 we show that on a range of economic criteria there is a clear hierarchy across (essentially) caste-based social groups with the Scheduled Castes (in Urban India) and the Scheduled Tribes (in Rural India) at the bottom, the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in the middle and the non-SC/ST Others at the top. However, for the poor among them, there is more of a continuum across caste-groups with surprisingly small differences between the OBCs and the non-SC/ST Others. [Working Paper No. 151]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The formation of modern gender identities in early-twentieth-century Kerala was deeply implicated in the project of shaping governable subjects who were, at one and the same time 'free' and already inserted into modern institutions.
Abstract: The paper argues that the formation of modern gender identities in early‐twentieth‐century Kerala was deeply implicated in the project of shaping governable subjects who were, at one and the same time ‘free’ and already inserted into modern institutions. Because gender appeared both natural and social, both individualising and general, it seemed to be a superior form of social ordering compared to the pre‐existing order of caste. The actualisation of a superior society ordered by gender was seen to be dependent upon the shaping of the fully‐fledged individuals with strong internalities and well‐developed gendered capacities that would place them in distinct social domains of the public and domestic, as ‘free’ individuals, who, however, were bound together in a complementary relationship. While this model still remains dominant in Kerala, by the 1930s, the public/domestic divide came to be blurred with the rapid spread of disciplinary institutions. Womanhood came to be associated not with a certai...


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify factors that determined school attendance among Nepali women in the Kathmandu Valley a generation ago, finding that gender, caste, poverty, cultural prejudice and rural residence prevented a majority from going to school.
Abstract: Ethnographic research was carried out in 1997-98 to identify factors that determined school attendance among Nepali women in the Kathmandu Valley a generation ago. Findings indicate that gender, caste, poverty, cultural prejudice, and rural residence prevented a majority from going to school. Of those who went, most, regardless of academic talent, were pulled out in order to work at home, as wage laborers and domestic servants, or to enter arranged marriages. Only a small minority made the decision to leave school themselves. The article contributes to the study of schooling and gender in South Asia.

Book
01 Oct 2006
TL;DR: A generation ago Americans undertook a revolutionary experiment to redefine marriage and the results of this experiment separating marriage from childrearing are in, and they are bad news for children and for the country as a whole as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A generation ago Americans undertook a revolutionary experiment to redefine marriage. The results of this experiment separating marriage from childrearing are in, and they are bad news for children and for the country as a whole. The family upheaval has hit African-Americans especially hard. We forgot what American marriage was designed to do: it ordered lives by giving the young a meaningful life script. It supported middle-class foresight, planning, and self-sufficiency. And it organized men and women around The Mission-nurturing their children's cognitive, emotional, and physical development. It is The Mission that separates middle-class kids from their less-parented and lower-achieving peers. In fact our great family experiment threatens to turn what the founders imagined as an opportunity-rich republic of equal citizens into a hereditary caste society.

Book
22 Nov 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the political economy of rule and rebellion in Kerala and India is discussed. But the authors focus on the political practices and left ascendancy in Kerala, 1920-1947.
Abstract: 1. Old Legacies, New Protests 2. The Political-Economy of Rule and Rebellion 3. State Formation and Social Movements 4. Political Practices and Left Ascendancy in Kerala, 1920-1947 5. Structure, Practices and Weak Left Hegemony in Bengal, 1925-1947 6. Insurgent and Electoral Logics in Policy Regimes, Kerala and Bengal Compared, 1947-1991. Afterword