Caste

About: Caste is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5681 publications have been published within this topic receiving 91330 citations. The topic is also known as: caste system.

Quality and Inequality in Indian Education Some Critical Policy Concerns

Abstract: The paper locates educational policy in a wider socio-historical and political perspective and aims at an ideological deconstruction of policy change with a specific focus on the equality–quality conundrum in elementary education in India. It attempts to critically decode changes in notions and practices of equality and quality in national and international policy prescription, highlighting aspects of ideological contexts, power asymmetries and state dynamics and examines basic shifts in policy discourse and intent. The paper is organised in four parts. The first two parts take a broad historical overview to examine notions of equality and quality, articulated in texts and discussions pertaining to the two national educational policies and in policy initiatives introduced by the Indian state under neoliberal, global hegemonic influence. The interactive impact of educational restructuring and structures of stratification as reflected in the aggravation of key caste, class, gender and ethnic inequalities is...

Gender and Caste in the Mandara Highlands: Northeastern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon

Abstract: The status of artisans, particularly iron workers, in African societies has long been the subject of ethnological inquiry and dispute (e.g., Cline 1937:114-140; Clement 1948; de Heusch 1956; Dieterlen 1965; Vaughan 1970; de Maret 1980). We will not review here a debate that, in tune with trends in anthropological explanation, has invoked a great variety of factors in order to place smiths in African society at scales ranging from the continental to the local: conquest, societal economic adaptation, the smiths' integration into local economies, their access to wealth and dependence on others for foodstuffs, the nature of indigenous siderological technology and specialization, smiths' symbolic and mythical attributes and structural roles, and so on. Our modest aim is to demonstrate, by reference to the ethnography of small scale Chadic-speaking societies in the northern Mandara highlands of Cameroon (Boutrais 1984) and neighboring Nigeria, that gender, a variable previously ignored, is in this region of fundamental relevance to the question.2 We will focus upon the rural southern Mafa, numbering about 67,000 inhabitants in some twenty settlements, and Sirak, a single settlement of about 1,900 (part of the so-called Bulahay group consisting of four settlements of mefele-speakers [Barreteau 1987]), amongst whom our primarily ethnoarchaeological fieldwork has been concentrated over ten months between 1986 and 1990. Statements made

Violence, religion, and masculinism in contemporary India: an analysis of the writings of Vivekananda, Golwalkar, and Gandhi

Abstract: This thesis enquires into the process of normalisation of violent masculinity and masculinism in India through the use of religion. Masculinism is defined as the presence of excessive masculine values, malecentred view of social relationships and symbolisation of masculine hegemony (Kriesky 2014). This thesis shows the pervasive existence of masculinism across the Indian political spectrum through analysis of the major works of three leaders from different ideological positions – Swami Vivekananda, M. S. Golwalkar, and M. K. Gandhi. These three leaders had very different visions of the future of India; however, this thesis found recurrent connections between masculinity and violence in the works of all three. This link is shown to have been bolstered in the works of all three – even in the ‘non-violent’ teachings of Gandhi – through the use of religion. Religious texts like the Bhagavad Gita, and ideas like karma, dharma, and karma yoga are used to link ideas of masculinity with structural, symbolic violence in the form of caste, class, and racial discrimination. This research found three different forms of religion-influenced masculinity in the works of Vivekananda, Golwalkar, and Gandhi – ascetic masculinity, culinary masculinity and violent masculinity. A feminist rhetorical analysis of the written works of these leaders shows how these religionsanctioned masculinities result in Bourdieusian symbolic violence against women, dalits, and other minority communities in India. All these leaders subscribed to a hegemonic idea of masculinity – virile, upper caste, and heteronormative – with its forms of violence practiced to this day. Vivekananda espoused a spiritual, ascetic form of masculinity, distinctly religious in its aspiration of Hindu conquest. Golwalkar’s political violent masculinity also aimed to re-establish Hindu supremacy in India. The ‘Othering’ of Muslims in Golwalkar’s writings was also a response to Gandhi’s alleged effeminate influence on Hindu masculinity. Ironically, this work shows how despite these allegations, masculinism in Gandhi’s writings resulted in his supporting honour killings and structural forms of violence, like the caste system. The continued relevance of the ideas of these three leaders and the allied prevalence of masculinism is underlined through an analysis of contemporary Indian politics, which shows that all these three forms of masculinities remain relevant. The beef lynchings by Gau Raksha committees, the growing political capital ascribed to celibacy, increasing violence against women and the rising nationalist othering of minority communities are evidence of religiously motivated violent masculinities gaining ground in contemporary India.

Wage Discrimination in India's Informal Labor Markets: Exploring the Impact of Caste and Gender

Abstract: Although there has been considerable interest in wage discrimination in India, available studies have largely dealt with formal rather than informal markets that are of little relevance for the poorest people. Focusing on India's informal labor markets leads to three findings of interest. First, gender wage discrimination is larger in informal than in formal labor markets, resulting in losses that are larger than receipts from one of the country's most important safety-net programs. Second, economic growth will not make gender discrimination in wage labor markets disappear. Finally, contrary to what is found for gender, the hypothesis of no significant wage discrimination based on caste cannot be rejected.