Showing papers on "Caste published in 2020"
Abstract: This paper focuses on the processes of migrant labour exploitation which are crucial for capitalist growth and the inequalities they generate. Ethnographic research conducted in different sites across India shows how patterns of seasonal labour migration are driven by class relations marked by hierarchies of identity (caste and tribe) and the spatial geopolitics of internal colonialism (region) – differences that are mobilised for accumulation. Labour migration scholarship has mainly explored sites of production. We extend recent social reproduction theory (SRT) and an older literature on labour migration and reproduction to argue that the intimate relationship between production and social reproduction is crucial to the exploitation of migrant labour and that this means we have to place centre-stage the analysis of invisible economies of care which take place across spatiotemporally divided households, both in the place of migration and in the home regions of migrants. Furthermore, we develop recent work on SRT and migration to argue that an analysis of kinship (gender over generations, not just gender) is crucial to these invisible economies of care. This analysis is important in showing the machinations of capitalist growth and for political alternatives.
83 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the impacts of lockdown-induced school and rural child-care center closures on education and health outcomes for the urban and rural poor are likely to be much more severe for girls as well as for children from already disadvantaged ethnic and caste groups.
Abstract: A vast majority of the relief and rehabilitation packages announced in the months following the nationwide lockdown in India have focused on economic rehabilitation. However, the education sector has remained absent from this effort, including in India's central government's 250 billion dollar stimulus package. In this paper, we discuss the implications of lockdown-induced school and rural child-care center closures on education and health outcomes for the urban and rural poor. We especially focus on food and nutritional security of children who depend on school feeding and supplementary nutrition programs. We argue that the impacts are likely to be much more severe for girls as well as for children from already disadvantaged ethnic and caste groups. We also discuss ways in which existing social security programs can be leveraged and strengthened to ameliorate these impacts.
72 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use insights from the caste system to elaborate on three elements of economic inequality: uneven dispersions in resource endowments, uneven access to productive resources and opportunities, and uneven rewards to resource contributions.
Abstract: Research on economic inequality has largely focused on understanding the relationship between organizations and inequality but has paid limited attention to the role of institutions in the creation and maintenance of inequality. In this article, we use insights from the caste system—an institution that perpetuates socio-economic inequalities and limits human functions—to elaborate on three elements of economic inequality: uneven dispersions in resource endowments, uneven access to productive resources and opportunities, and uneven rewards to resource contributions. We argue that economic inequalities persist because these three different elements of inequality feed from and reinforce each other. Our study underscores the potential of the caste lens to inform research on economic inequality as well as organizational theory and practice.
64 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a large scale national quantitate dataset to provide a fresh perspective on linkages between the digital divide and social inequalities in India and employed MANCOVA analysis on data of more than forty thousand households.
47 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that the scholarly framing of caste mirrors a public policy "enclosure" of caste in the non-modern realm of religion and "caste politics" while aligning modernity to the caste-erasing market economy.
Abstract: What place does the caste system have in modern India with its globally-integrating market economy? The most influential anthropological approaches to caste have tended to emphasize caste as India’s traditional religious and ritual order, or (treating such order as a product of the colonial encounter) as shaped politically, especially today by the dynamics of caste-based electoral politics. Less attention has been paid to caste effects in the economy. This article argues that the scholarly framing of caste mirrors a public policy ‘enclosure’ of caste in the non-modern realm of religion and ‘caste politics’, while aligning modernity to the caste-erasing market economy. Village-level fieldwork in south India finds a parallel public narrative of caste either as ritual rank eroded by market relations, or as identity politics deflected from everyday economic life. But locally and nationally the effects of caste are found to be pervasive in labour markets and the business economy. In the age of the market, caste is a resource, sometimes in the form of a network, its opportunity-hoarding advantages discriminating against others. Dalits are not discriminated by caste as a set of relations separate from economy, but by the very economic and market processes through which they often seek liberation. The caste processes, enclosures and evasions in post-liberalization India, suggest the need to rethink the modernity of caste beyond orientalist and postcolonial frameworks, and consider the presuppositions that shape understanding of an institution, the nature and experience of which are determined by the inequalities and subject positions it produces.
32 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an integrated framework (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) was used to evaluate access to energy through the lens of caste, class and gender in India.
Abstract: Complex interrelationships between caste, class and gender in India define opportunities and access to energy for certain social groups differently than others. An understanding of access to energy through these lenses allows us to design energy policies differently, accounting for the socio-economic inequality in pricing, subsidies and implementation of policies. This paper attempts to evaluate access to energy through the lens of caste, class and gender. We use an integrated framework (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) ) to analyse Government of India's most recent and possibly the largest initiative for the provision of clean cooking energy - Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), and assess the extent to which PMUY is able to enhance use of LPG by overcoming the existing caste, class and gender-based exclusion. The analysis of PMUY has been supported through theoretical insights from the literature and empirical evidence from India's largest multidimensional energy access database – ACCESS 2018. Though the scheme recognises the pre-existing inequities, our analysis suggests a focus on caste, class and gender in the implementation procedures would be imperative for the scheme along with others focused on LPG access to achieve its objective.
31 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that land dispossession for new economy projects may be a form of "land war" in contemporary India and rekindled older debates over the implications of capitalism for caste.
Abstract: Widespread “land wars” in contemporary India have rekindled older debates over the implications of capitalism for caste, with some arguing that land dispossession for new economy projects may be li...
28 citations
TL;DR: In this article, two macro-social stratification schemas are proposed for Indian religious and its envisaged structures, which have both macro-and micro-level implications for business.
Abstract: Religion and its envisaged structures have both macro- and micro-level implications for business. Of the many stratification schemas prevalent in India, two macro-social stratification schemas are ...
26 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored mobilization to reduce the deepest inequalities in two largest democracies, those along caste lines in India and racial lines in the United States, and compared their experiences in two regions of historically high inequality (the Kaveri and Mississippi Deltas) are compared in their national contexts.
Abstract: The paper explores mobilization to reduce the deepest inequalities in the two largest democracies, those along caste lines in India and racial lines in the United States. I compare how the groups at the bottom of these ethnic hierarchies—India's former untouchable castes (Dalits) and African Americans—mobilized from the 1940s to the 1970s in pursuit of full citizenship: the franchise, representation, civil rights, and social rights. Experiences in two regions of historically high inequality (the Kaveri and Mississippi Deltas) are compared in their national contexts. Similarities in demographic patterns, group boundaries, socioeconomic relations, regimes, and enfranchisement timing facilitate comparison. Important differences in nationalist and civic discourse, official and popular social classification, and stratification patterns influenced the two groups’ mobilizations, enfranchisement, representation, alliances, and relationships with political parties. The nation was imagined to clearly include Dalits earlier in India than to encompass African Americans in the United States. Race was the primary and bipolar official and popular identity axis in the United States, unlike caste in India. African Americans responded by emphasizing racial discourses while Dalit mobilizations foregrounded more porously bordered community visions. These different circumstances enabled more widespread African American mobilization, but offered Dalits more favorable interethnic alliances, party incorporation, and policy accommodation, particularly in historically highly unequal regions. Therefore, group representation and policy benefits increased sooner and more in India than in the United States, especially in regions of historically high group inequality such as the Kaveri and other major river Deltas relative to the Deep South, including Mississippi.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the key socioeconomic and cultural-demographic factors that determine rural women's labour contributions in agriculture in India, both on family farms (either as cultivators or as family labour) and as agricultural wage labourer.
TL;DR: The recent surge of online mobilization among Dalits, who belong to India's most oppressed caste groups, signals a remarkable trend in Internet activism and political engagement as mentioned in this paper, which is a remarkable phenomenon in India.
Abstract: The recent surge of online mobilization among Dalits, who belong to India’s most oppressed caste groups, signals a remarkable trend in Internet activism and political engagement. Analyzing Dalit mo...
TL;DR: The authors examines the political narratives around a two-decade -old process of land acquisition and development in the "global city" Rajarhat, a former rural settlement in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Abstract: This article examines the political narratives around a two-decade -old process of land acquisition and development in the “global city” Rajarhat, a former rural settlement in the Indian state of W...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the special issue through framing the debate on the role of caste in India's current land wars and draw attention to how caste consistently mediates land transfers in p...
Abstract: In this article we introduce the special issue through framing the debate on the role of caste in India’s current land wars. We draw attention to how caste consistently mediates land transfers in p...
TL;DR: The adivasi or tribal communities have most often been depicted as homogeneous and egalitarian, at least compared to the entrenched social hierarchies that characterise rural caste society as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: India's adivasi, or tribal, communities have most often been depicted as homogeneous and egalitarian, at least compared to the entrenched social hierarchies that characterise rural caste society. T...
TL;DR: For example, this paper found that conferences are exclusionary on the basis of gender and other axes of social disambiguation in academic careers, and that they are key sites for the development of academic careers.
Abstract: Conferences are key sites for the development of academic careers; however multiple studies have shown that conferences are exclusionary on the basis of gender and other axes of social disa...
TL;DR: The adivasi population represents a special case in India's new land wars as mentioned in this paper, and strong individual and community rights to agricultural and forest lands have been enacted for this group based on notions of notions of empowerment.
Abstract: The adivasi population represents a special case in India’s new land wars. Strong individual and community rights to agricultural and forest lands have been enacted for this group based on notions ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore emic perspectives of how social differentiation shapes participation in community-based forest management and argue that a focus on gender is necessary but not sufficient to understand social exclusions in JFM, and that gender must be understood in relation to other factors of social differentiation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore whether education has any relationship with this age-old practice of marrying within one's own caste using a nationally representative data set, the Indian Human Development Survey, and find that education levels of the spouses themselves do not have any association with the likelihood of their own marriage being an inter-caste one.
Abstract: Endogamy or intra-caste marriage is one of the most resilient of all the caste based practices in India. Even in 2011, the rate of inter caste marriages in India was as low as 5.82%. In this paper we explore whether education has any relationship with this age-old practice of marrying within one’s own caste. Using a nationally representative data set, the Indian Human Development Survey, we find that, in sharp contrast with the findings in the existing literature on out-marriages in the Western countries, education levels of the spouses themselves do not have any association with the likelihood of their own marriage being an inter caste one. However, couples with a more educated mother of the husband have a significantly higher probability of being in an inter caste marriage. One standard deviation increase in the years of education of the husband’s mother is associated with a 10.16% increase in the probability of inter caste marriage over the sample mean. Our analysis highlights the importance of recognizing the institution of arranged marriages in any analysis of Indian marriage markets.
Book•
01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: The Modern World of Brahmins: A Schematic History as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays about the history of the modern world of Brahminism, with a focus on the self-identity of the contemporary Brahmin.
Abstract: Preface and Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Seeking a Foothold 2. Question of Method: Caste in/and/as Identity 3. The Modern World of Brahmins: A Schematic History 4. Intersecting Voices, Shifting Identifications: Complicating the Contours of the Non-Brahminical Othering of the Brahmin 5. The Bounds of Agency: Engaging the Space of Brahmin Associations 6. Identities and Displacements: On the Selfhood of the Contemporary Brahmin 7. Agency and Identity in the World of Brahmins Bibliography Index
TL;DR: Caste is a primary basis for oppression in many parts of South Asia with individuals from low-caste backgrounds commonly experiencing the degradation of untouchability and daily discrimination at b...
Abstract: Caste is a primary basis for oppression in many parts of South Asia with individuals from low caste backgrounds commonly experiencing the degradation of untouchability and daily discrimination at b...
TL;DR: The Dangawas massacre in Rajasthan's Nagaur district, one of the most brutal caste atrocities in recent Indian history, which resulted in the death of five Dalits of the Meghwal community as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: May 2015 witnessed the Dangawas massacre in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, one of the most brutal caste atrocities in recent Indian history, which resulted in the death of five Dalits of the Meghwal ...
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This article investigated whether the Covid-19 pandemic was indeed a Great Leveller in the sense that it imposed similar and equivalent labour market shocks on different caste groups and found that while all caste groups lost jobs in the first month of lockdown, the job losses for lowest ranked castes are greater by a factor of three.
Abstract: Using nationally representative panel data for 21,799 individuals between May 2018 and April 2020, this paper investigates whether the Covid-19 pandemic was indeed a Great Leveller in the sense that it imposed similar and equivalent labour market shocks on different caste groups. We find that while all caste groups lost jobs in the first month of the lockdown, the job losses for lowest-ranked castes are greater by a factor of three. The data shows that the disproportionate effects stem from lower levels of human capital and over-representation in vulnerable jobs for the lowest-ranked caste groups in the country.
TL;DR: The policy changes of 2004 and 2009 ended the age-old practice and paved the way for Gurkha soldiers to retire in their own country as mentioned in this paper. But the policy changes did not address the issue of Gurkhas' physical fitness.
Abstract: The 200-year history of Gurkha service notwithstanding, Gurkha soldiers were forced to retire in their own country. The policy changes of 2004 and 2009 ended the age-old practice and paved the way ...
TL;DR: The authors examined the rhetoric found in Indian Buddhist literature regarding caṇḍālas and found that they contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination.
Abstract: Indian Buddhist literary sources contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination However, they also provide ample evidence for, possibly subconscious, discriminatory attitudes toward outcastes, prototypically caṇḍālas The rhetoric found in Indian Buddhist literature regarding caṇḍālas is examined in this paper
TL;DR: It is suggested that programmes that target the families of children who are least likely to be fully immunised, specifically those who are not only poor but also in financial crises and ‘underprivileged’ caste families, might be an effective strategy to improve Nepal’s childhood immunisation rates.
Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of different aspects of inequality on childhood immunisation rates in Nepal. The study hypothesised that social inequality factors (eg, gender of a child, age of mother, caste/ethnic affiliation, mother’s socioeconomic status, place of residence and other structural barrier factors such as living in extreme poverty and distance to health facility) affect the likelihood of children being immunised. Design Using gender of a child, age of mother, caste/ethnic affiliation, mother’s socioeconomic status, place of residence and other structural barrier factors such as living in extreme poverty and distance to health facility as independent variables, we performed bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Setting This study used data from the most recent nationally representative cross-sectional Nepal Demographic and Health Survey in 2016. Participants The analysis reviewed data from 1025 children aged 12–23 months old. Outcome measures The main outcome variable was childhood immunisation. Results Only 79.2% of children were fully immunised. The complete vaccination rate of ethnic/caste subpopulations ranged from 66.4% to 85.2%. Similarly, multivariate analysis revealed that children from the previously untouchable caste (OR 0.58; CI 0.33 to 0.99) and the Terai caste (OR 0.54; CI 0.29 to 0.99) were less likely to be fully immunised than children from the high Hindu caste. Conclusion Given Nepal’s limited resources, we suggest that programmes that target the families of children who are least likely to be fully immunised, specifically those who are not only poor but also in financial crises and ‘underprivileged’ caste families, might be an effective strategy to improve Nepal’s childhood immunisation rates.
TL;DR: The anti-special economic zone (SEZ) mobilisation in Haryana failed to generate a mass movement despite the political strength of farmers and their deep resentment of the government's policy as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Anti-Special Economic Zone (SEZ) mobilisation in Haryana failed to generate a mass movement. This is despite the political strength of farmers and their deep resentment of the government’s policy t...