Showing papers on "Caste published in 2009"

The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies

Abstract: Will the United States have an educational caste system in 2030? Drawing on both extensive demographic data and compelling case studies, this powerful book reveals the depths of the educational crisis looming for Latino students, the nation's largest and most rapidly growing minority group.Richly informative and accessibly written, "The Latino Education Crisis" describes the cumulative disadvantages faced by too many children in the complex American school systems, where one in five students is Latino. Many live in poor and dangerous neighborhoods, attend impoverished and underachieving schools, and are raised by parents who speak little English and are the least educated of any ethnic group.The effects for the families, the community, and the nation are sobering. Latino children are behind on academic measures by the time they enter kindergarten. And while immigrant drive propels some to success, most never catch up. Many drop out of high school and those who do go on to college - often ill prepared and overworked - seldom finish.Revealing and disturbing, "The Latino Education Crisis" is a call to action and will be essential reading for everyone involved in planning the future of American schools.

Why is Mobility in India so Low? Social Insurance, Inequality, and Growth

Abstract: This paper examines the hypothesis that the persistence of low spatial and marital mobility in rural India, despite increased growth rates and rising inequality in recent years, is due to the existence of sub-caste networks that provide mutual insurance to their members. Unique panel data providing information on income, assets, gifts, loans, consumption, marriage, and migration are used to link caste networks to household and aggregate mobility. Our key finding, consistent with the hypothesis that local risk-sharing networks restrict mobility, is that among households with the same (permanent) income, those in higher-income caste networks are more likely to participate in caste-based insurance arrangements and are less likely to both out-marry and out-migrate. At the aggregate level, the networks appear to have coped successfully with the rising inequality within sub-castes that accompanied the Green Revolution. The results suggest that caste networks will continue to smooth consumption in rural India for the foreseeable future, as they have for centuries, unless alternative consumption-smoothing mechanisms of comparable quality become available.

The Hindus: An Alternative History

Abstract: "Don't miss this equivalent of a brilliant graduate course froma feisty and exhilarating teacher." -The Washington Post An engrossing and definitive narrative account of history and myth, The Hindus offers a new way of understanding one of the world's oldest major religions. Hinduism does not lend itself easily to a strictly chronological account. Many of its central texts cannot be reliably dated within a century; its central tenets arise at particular moments in Indian history and often differ according to gender or caste; and the differences between groups of Hindus far outnumber the commonalities. Yet the greatness of Hinduism lies precisely in many of these idiosyncratic qualities that continues to inspire debate today. This groundbreaking work elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds, the inner life and the social history of Hindus.

Caste and Punishment: The Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement *

Abstract: Well-functioning groups enforce social norms that restrain opportunism, but the social structure of a society may encourage or inhibit norm enforcement. This paper studies how the exogenous assignment to different positions in an extreme social hierarchy - the caste system - affects individuals' willingness to punish violations of a cooperation norm. Although the analysis controls for individual wealth, education, and political participation, low-caste individuals exhibit a much lower willingness to punish norm violations that hurt members of their own caste, suggesting a cultural difference across caste status in the concern for members of one’s own community. The lower willingness to punish may inhibit the low caste’s ability to sustain collective action and so may contribute to its economic vulnerability.

The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India

Abstract: List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Author's Note Introduction Part One. Emancipation 1. Caste Radicalism and the Making of a New Political Subject 2. The Problem of Caste Property 3. Dalits as a Political Minority Part Two. The Paradox of Emancipation 4. Legislating Caste Atrocity 5. New Directions in Dalit Politics: Symbologies of Violence, Maharashtra, 1960--1979 6. The Sexual Politics of Caste: Violence and the Ritual-Archaic 7. Death of a Kotwal: The Violence of Recognition Epilogue: Dalit Futures List of Abbreviations Notes Index

Can choice promote Education for All? Evidence from growth in private primary schooling in India

Abstract: This paper examines whether the recent growth in ‘low‐fee private’ (LFP) schools is able to promote Education for All by being accessible to the poor. Based primarily on a 13‐village survey of 250 households and visits to 26 private and government schools in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, this paper explores who ‘chooses’ private schooling, in the light of the well‐documented failure of the government school system. In particular, the paper explores the issue of whether private provision is affordable and accessible to poor rural parents. It finds that LFP school costs are unaffordable for over half of the sampled children, including the majority of low caste and Muslim families. It also finds that while LFPs are greatly preferred under current conditions, what parents actually want is a well‐functioning government school system.

Culture in psychiatric epidemiology: using ethnography and multiple mediator models to assess the relationship of caste with depression and anxiety in Nepal.

Abstract: Background: The causes of ethnic and caste-based disparities in mental health are poorly understood.Aim: The study aimed to identify mediators underlying caste-based disparities in mental health in Nepal.Subjects and methods: A mixed methods ethnographic and epidemiological study of 307 adults (Dalit/Nepali, n=75; high caste Brahman and Chhetri, n=232) was assessed with Nepali versions of Beck Depression (BDI) and Anxiety (BAI) Inventories.Results: One-third (33.7%) of participants were classified as depressed: Dalit/Nepali 50.0%, high caste 28.4%. One quarter (27.7%) of participants were classified as anxious: Dalit/Nepali 50.7%, high caste 20.3%. Ethnographic research identified four potential mediators: Stressful life events, owning few livestock, no household income, and lack of social support. The direct effect of caste was 1.08 (95% CI −1.10–3.27) on depression score and 4.76 (95% CI 2.33–7.19) on anxiety score. All four variables had significant indirect (mediation) effects on anxiety, and all but ...

Determinants of Primary Schooling in British India

Abstract: This paper explores the provision of schooling in colonial India when British administrators dictated education policy. Although public and private funds were used to expand and improve the public education system, there were fewer than 3 primary schools for every 10 villages as late as 1911. To explore the impact of the funding system on the provision of schools, I empirically analyze the links between local factors and schooling using a new historical dataset. I find that districts with higher levels of caste and religious diversity had fewer privately managed primary schools and fewer total primary schools. Heterogeneous preferences across groups, unequal political power in more diverse districts and low demand for education by lower castes are all potential explanations for this pattern. Broadly, the results highlight the challenges involved in the provision of primary education in the presence of numerous and perhaps unequal groups.

The Vernacularisation of Democracy: Politics, Caste and Religion in India

Abstract: The book is an ethnographic exploration of how ‘democracy’ takes social and cultural roots in India and in the process shapes the nature of popular politics. It centres on a historically marginalised caste who in recent years has become one of the most assertive and politically powerful communities in North India: the Yadavs. The Vernacularisation of Democracy is a vivid account of how Indian popular democracy works on the ground. Challenging conventional theories of democratisation the book shows how the political upsurge of 'the lower orders' is situated within a wider process of the vernacularisation of democratic politics, referring to the ways in which values and practices of democracy become embedded in particular cultural and social practices, and in the process become entrenched in the consciousness of ordinary people. During the 1990s, Indian democracy witnessed an upsurge in the political participation of lower castes/communities and the emergence of political leaders from humble social backgrounds who present themselves as promoters of social justice for underprivileged communities. Drawing on a large body of archival and ethnographic material the author shows how the analysis of local idioms of caste, kinship, kingship, popular religion, ‘the past’ and politics (‘the vernacular’) inform popular perceptions of the political world and of how the democratic process shapes in turn ‘the vernacular’. This line of enquiry provides a novel framework to understand the unique experience of Indian democracy as well as democratic politics and its meaning in other contemporary post-colonial states. Using as a case study the political ethnography of a powerful northern Indian caste (the Yadavs) and combining ethnographic material with colonial and post-colonial history the book examines the unique experience of Indian popular democracy and provides a framework to analyse popular politics in other parts of the world. The book fills existing gaps in scholarly analysis of political processes by contributing to the understanding of how democracy has been internalised in the popular consciousness of different societies through various abstract principles of political representation, especially by exploring ‘democracy’ in areas which are not thought of as political per se (for example, family, kinship, kingship, popular religion, and local ideas of personhood).

Shorelines: Space and Rights in South India

Abstract: After a clerical sanction prohibited them from fishing for a week, a group of Catholic fishers from a village on India's southwestern coast took their church to court. They called on the state to recognize them as custodians of the local sea, protect their right to regulate trawling, and reject the church's intermediary role. In Shorelines, Ajantha Subramanian argues that their struggle requires a rethinking of Indian democracy, citizenship, and environmentalism. Rather than see these fishers as non-moderns inhabiting a bounded cultural world, or as moderns wholly captured by the logic of state power, she illustrates how they constitute themselves as political subjects. In particular, she shows how they produced new geographies-of regionalism, common property, alternative technology, and fisher citizenship-that underpinned claims to rights, thus using space as an instrument of justice. Moving beyond the romantic myth of self-contained, natural-resource dependent populations, this work reveals the charged political maneuvers that bound subalterns and sovereigns in South Asia. In rich historical and ethnographic detail, Shorelines illuminates postcolonial rights politics as the product of particular histories of caste, religion, and development, allowing us to see how democracy is always "provincial."

Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India

Abstract: This paper studies the role played by caste, education and other social and economic attributes in arranged marriages among middle-class Indians We use a unique data set on individuals who placed matrimonial advertisements in a major newspaper, the responses they received, how they ranked them, and the eventual matches We estimate the preferences for caste, education, beauty, and other attributes We then compute a set of stable matches, which we compare to the actual matches that we observe in the data We find the stable matches to be quite similar to the actual matches, suggesting a relatively frictionless marriage market One of our key empirical findings is that there is a very strong preference for within-caste marriage However, because both sides of the market share this preference and because the groups are fairly homogeneous in terms of the distribution of other attributes, in equilibrium, the cost of wanting to marry within-caste is low This allows caste to remain a persistent feature of the Indian marriage market

sexuality, caste, governmentality: contests over ‘gender’ in India

Abstract: This article tracks the journeys made by the term ‘gender’ in India. From its beginnings in the 1970s as a feminist contribution to public discourse, destabilizing the biological category of ‘sex’, we find that gender has taken two distinct forms since the 1990s. On the one hand, gender as an analytical category is being used to challenge the notion of ‘woman’ as the subject of feminist politics. This challenge comes from the politics of caste and sexuality. On the other hand, gender is mobilized by the state to perform a role in discourses of development, to achieve exactly the opposite effect; that is, gender becomes a synonym for ‘women’. Thus, the first trend threatens to dissolve, and the second to domesticate, the subject of feminist politics. This article explores the implications of both journeys in terms of a feminist horizon.

From ‘Rural Labour’ to ‘Classes of Labour’: Class Fragmentation, Caste and Class Struggle at the Bottom of the Indian Labour Hierarchy

Abstract: Employment relations in rural India have undergone major changes in recent decades. Agriculture now requires fewer labour inputs; and the growth of the non-agricultural sectors has created alternative employment opportunities. From the 1990s, new rural and urban employment, often linked to migration, has become an increasingly important income source for former agricultural labourers. Close-knit patron-client relations between low-caste agricultural labourers and their landowning caste Hindu employers have loosened. As pointed out by Heyer and a number of other researchers, this has not always led to free labour relations, but it has, by and large, signalled a change from the rural poor mainly being ‘agricultural labour’ to their being ‘rural labour’ (Breman 1996; Byres, Kapadia and Lerche 1999; Heyer 2000).

Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy

Abstract: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES, LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS, MAP 1. Introduction 2. The City of Delhi WASTE AS INFORMAL SECTOR WORK: MEASURING INCOME POVERTY, INEQUALITY, AND DEPRIVATION 4. Interlinked Contracts and Social Power: Patronage and Exploitation in India's Waste Recovery Market 5. Exploitation or Entrepreneurship? Scrap Traders and the Economics of Survival in the Informal Market Economy FROM PIGS AND POLLUTION TO PLASTICS AND PROGRESS: RECASTING LOW CASTE STATUS IN INDIA'S EXPANDING INFORMAL ECONOMY 7. 'Bourgeois Environmentalism', the State, the Judiciary and the Urban Poor: The Political Mobilization of a Scheduled Caste Market 8. Conclusion. METHODOLOGICAL NOTE, PLASTICS APPENDIX, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX.

The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1* substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system.

Abstract: Many major rival models of the origin of the Hindu caste system co-exist despite extensive studies, each with associated genetic evidences. One of the major factors that has still kept the origin of the Indian caste system obscure is the unresolved question of the origin of Y-haplogroup R1a1*, at times associated with a male-mediated major genetic influx from Central Asia or Eurasia, which has contributed to the higher castes in India. Y-haplogroup R1a1* has a widespread distribution and high frequency across Eurasia, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, with scanty reports of its ancestral (R*, R1* and R1a*) and derived lineages (R1a1a, R1a1b and R1a1c). To resolve these issues, we screened 621 Y-chromosomes (of Brahmins occupying the upper-most caste position and schedule castes/tribals occupying the lower-most positions) with 55 Y-chromosomal binary markers and seven Y-microsatellite markers and compiled an extensive dataset of 2809 Y-chromosomes (681 Brahmins, and 2128 tribals and schedule castes) for conclusions. A peculiar observation of the highest frequency (up to 72.22%) of Y-haplogroup R1a1* in Brahmins hinted at its presence as a founder lineage for this caste group. Further, observation of R1a1* in different tribal population groups, existence of Y-haplogroup R1a* in ancestors and extended phylogenetic analyses of the pooled dataset of 530 Indians, 224 Pakistanis and 276 Central Asians and Eurasians bearing the R1a1* haplogroup supported the autochthonous origin of R1a1 lineage in India and a tribal link to Indian Brahmins. However, it is important to discover novel Y-chromosomal binary marker(s) for a higher resolution of R1a1* and confirm the present conclusions.

Democratisation of the Public Sphere: The Beef Stall Case in Hyderabad's Sukoon Festival

Abstract: Equality of treatment for all citizens and their cultures in public places is one of the prominent declarations of the secular Constitution of India. The hegemony of Hindu culture in the public sphere, however, reflects a dichotomy between stated declarations and social reality. Placing Dalits at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, if not outside it, ‘mainstream’ Hindu culture not only marginalised but importantly rejected the Dalits and their culture. This article examines the saga of the demand for a beef stall by the Dalit students in Hyderabad Central University and argues that the rejection of the culture of any community injures the human agency of that community. It is proposed that such injury can be healed only by a dialogical process, involving assertion of positivity and pride in the culture of the injured and positive recognition of such assertion by the injurer. Democratisation of the public sphere can be actualised by according representation to marginalised cultures, but in addition such rep...

The state of bureaucratic representativeness and administrative culture in Nepal

Abstract: The article compares the demographic composition of the Nepalese bureaucracy with the demographics of the general population, and, thereafter, maps the administrative culture in Nepal. With regard to administrative culture, it highlights, more specifically, the values and norms dominant among Nepali bureaucrats. In this regard, three relationships are focused upon: relationships among bureaucrats within the bureaucracy, the interface between the bureaucracy and politics, and the relationship between bureaucrats and citizens. Findings revealed that, in terms of demography, the bureaucracy in Nepal is gender biased, religion biased and caste biased, which means that the bureaucracy favors Hindu males who belong to the upper caste and come from an agricultural background. Therefore elitism, coupled with a rural background, has implications for the kinds of values and norms that evolve among Nepalese bureaucrats. From observations of its decision-making procedures and interpersonal relationships, both within ...

Physiology as a caste-defining feature

Abstract: Division of labour is a key factor in the ecological success of social insects. Groups of individuals specializing on a particular behaviour are known as castes and are usually distinguished by morphology or age. Physiology plays a key role in both these types of caste, in either the developmental physiology which determines morphology, or the temporal changes in physiology over an insect’s life. Physiological correlates of morphological or temporal caste include differences in gland structure, secretory products, leanness, neuroanatomy and neurochemistry. However, purely physiological castes could also occur. Physiological castes are discrete groups of same-age same-size individuals with particular physiological competencies, or groups of individuals with similar physiology crossing age or size groups. A stable physiological caste occurs in the monomorphic Pharaoh’s ant, where some ants can detect old pheromone trails and retain this specialization over time. These ants differ physiologically from other workers, and the differences arise before eclosion. More temporary physiological castes occur in the ant Ectatomma where brood care specialists have more developed ovarioles than other same-aged workers, and in the honeybee where nurses, wax-workers and soldiers all differ physiologically from same-aged nestmates. Physiology is an important aspect of caste, not only in its contribution to age-related and morphological castes, but also in its own right as a caste grouping factor. While age and morphological differences make caste structures accessible for study, more cryptic physiological castes may play just as important a role in division of labour.

Vulnerable social groups in postconflict settings: a mixed methods policy analysis and epidemiology study of caste and psychological morbidity in Nepal

Abstract: Designing and implementing psychosocial intervention programmes in post conflict settings requires a breadth of knowledge of the context, circumstances, and needs of vulnerable social groups. However, mixed methods research focusing on which groups are vulnerable, and their specific psychosocial needs, is rarely conducted. This study uses historical policy discourse analysis to identify the origins of contemporary social categories related to vulnerability in Nepal, specifically caste. The policy analysis is employed to interpret cross-sectional epidemiological findings from a sample of 316 adults. Analyses test the relationship between caste and psychological morbidity, assessed with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), including potential mediators. Low caste (Dalit/Nepali) groups were found to have a 53,3 percent prevalence of psychological morbidity compared with 28,2 percent prevalence among other caste and ethnic groups (odds ratio 2,91, 95% confidence interval 1,71–4,96). Income and stressful life events partially mediate the relationship between caste and psychological morbidity. These findings are interpreted in relation to themes from the policy analysis including restrictions in social interactions, access to resources, social control and punishment, social mobility and gender relations. The study concludes with recommendations for addressing the needs of vulnerable social groups in post conflict settings.

Party System Change in South India: Political Entrepreneurs, Patterns and Processes

Abstract: 1. Political Entrepreneurs and Party System Change 2. Conflict, Cleavages and Political Parties in South India 3. Evolution of a Party System 4. Political Leaders as Political Entrepreneurs 5. The PMK: Re-opening a caste cleavage 6. The DPI and Dalit Mobilization 7. The PT and Caste Politics in Southern Tamil Nadu 8. Hindu Nationalism in South India 9. Using Populism to Build a Broad Coalition: Vijayakanth 10. Conclusions

Measuring Discrimination in Education

Abstract: In this paper, we illustrate a methodology to measure discrimination in educational contexts. In India, we ran an exam competition through which children compete for a large financial prize. We recruited teachers to grade the exams. We then randomly assigned child "characteristics" (age, gender, and caste) to the cover sheets of the exams to ensure that there is no systematic relationship between the characteristics observed by the teachers and the quality of the exams. We find that teachers give exams that are assigned to be lower caste scores that are about 0.03 to 0.09 standard deviations lower than exams that are assigned to be high caste. The effect is small relative to the real differences in scores between the high and lower caste children. Low-performing, low caste children and top-performing females tend to lose out the most due to discrimination. Interestingly, we find that the discrimination against low caste students is driven by low caste teachers, while teachers who belong to higher caste groups do not appear to discriminate at all. This result runs counter to the previous literature, which tends to find that individuals discriminate in favor of members of their own groups.

Casteless or caste-blind? : dynamics of concealed caste discrimination, social exclusion, and protest in Sri Lanka

Abstract: ere is complete silence about and widespread denial of caste in contemporary Sri Lanka. Caste is not recognized for any o cial purpose at least since the abolition of Rajakariya in the 1830s. e issue of caste is not discussed or debated in Sri Lankan mass media in sharp contrast to the situation in India or Nepal. In Northern Sri Lanka there is a ban imposed upon caste by the LTTE, treating it as a potential obstacle to a uni ed Eelam liberation struggle. In spite of these restrictions and denials, caste seems to operate in various private and public domains, including marriage, political and social mobilization as well as in patterns and degree of social mobility among Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka. In the prevailing social and political environment in the country caste is very much an underground and doxic phenomenon. Nevertheless, continuing caste discrimination and related grievances drive part of the social unrest in both Northern and Southern Sri Lanka. is volume brings out changing facets of caste discrimination among Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils in varied social contexts such as rural Sri Lanka, plantations, urban settings, war-a ected regions, IDP camps, religious sphere and local and national politics. Arguing that Sri Lankan society is caste-blind rather than casteless, the book advocates for more explicit and targeted social policies that ensure the human rights and the dignity of underprivileged caste groups and articulate and foster their agency and capacity for bringing about social change and social justice.

Discrimination and Children's Nutritional Status in India

Abstract: This article explores the differing health status of lower caste social groups in India, analyses the reasons for the differences and discusses some of the implications for policy. National Family Planning and Health Survey (NFH‐3) data shows that children belonging to lower castes have worse nutrition, health and mortality indicators and poorer access to health services and nutrition schemes than children from higher castes, even after other socioeconomic factors are considered. The article suggests that this points towards the possible role of discrimination and exclusion associated with caste and ‘untouchability’ and outlines some policy recommendations that are proactively inclusive, specifically in the nutrition domain.

‘First Our Jobs Then Our Girls’: The Dominant Caste Perceptions on the ‘Rising’ Dalits

Abstract: In the post-colonial shifting of material, legal and ideological bases, some of the given patterns of relationships between individuals and caste groups have changed and weakened because of the introduction of new, parallel and alternative structures of relationships. This change has left the dominant caste groups feeling palpably insecure in relation to the dalits. While delineating this relationship, this article seeks to argue that the cases of dalit and dominant/upper caste members' elopement and marriage represent a high point in the ongoing conflictual relationship between them, as these are viewed as forms of dalit assertion. Although many caste groups and communities are involved in inter-caste marriages and associations that defy customary norms and caste practices and have no social acceptance, it is in relation to a dalit and non-dalit association or marriage that certain aspects, which impinge on wider issues, come to the surface more pronouncedly. For the dominant caste groups such associations remain the most viable and potent issues to garner a wider collective support, cutting across class/caste/community and age divides. These cases are selectively made a public spectacle by the dominant caste groups to settle wider issues at stake verging on contemporary political and economic interests.