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.

Concept and Types of Women Empowerment

Abstract: [] Global empowerment of women is a new concept. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the issue of women’s empowerment has gained importance among scholars of universities, and in national and international platforms. But the concept was not deeply ingrained into the governments’ policies and programs until the declaration of the ‘Women’s Decade’ in 1975. Though the Indian Government endowed franchise to all its citizens irrespective of caste, creed, sex, and color immediately after Independence, it was confined mainly in papers while the majority of women were essentially powerless until the last decade of previous century. Considering their low socio-economic position, scholars, bureaucrats, and governments have begun to pay considerable attention in empowering women. Because of India’s feudal society, the pace of advancement of women remains tardy. This article addresses the challenges and realities of this situation. It calls for government, political decision makers, NGOs, and other actors to come forward to ensure women’s all round development for making India a developed country.

Transformations of gender and caste divisions of labor in rural Nepal : land, hierarchy, and the case of untouchable women

Abstract: The article demonstrates how gender and caste divisions of labor in rural western Nepal have been historically linked with practices of social hierarchy and land distribution. Because of their low status in two hierarchies--caste and gender--untouchable women serve as handmaidens to the community's changing economic needs. Over the past century, their primarily artisan-related production has been replaced with a variety of paid agricultural and nonagricultural work in the increasingly capitalized agricultural economy. The consequent breakdown of secure intercaste patron-client relationships and increasing poverty are countered by women's increasing economic power.

The myths of origin of the Indian Untouchables

Abstract: The world-view of today's untouchables has undoubtedly been influenced by the democratic changes in Indian society. What is less clear, however, is whether untouchables were closer to Hindu orthodoxy and referred to religious concepts to legitimize their inferior position in the past, as Weber has argued. Untouchable myths of origin, the antiquity of which is well established, can be taken as a good illustration of the way untouchables view - and viewed - themselves and their place in society. The myth of origin widely held by untouchables throughout India claims that untouchables were originally respectable people whose present condition is the result of a misunderstanding, rather than of some inherent defect. The myth thus contests the position of untouchables within the caste system, though not the system itself, whose ideological foundations it continues to uphold. This ambiguity is typical of the position of untouchables within Indian society more generally.