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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.


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TL;DR: In this article, the authors revisited the promulgation of the Scheduled Caste Order 1950, appended to Article 341 of the Indian Constitution, which provides the list of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and sets the prer...
Abstract: This article revisits the promulgation of the Scheduled Caste Order 1950, appended to Article 341 of the Indian Constitution. The Order provides the list of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and sets the prer...

22 citations

01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined variation in social capital in India across caste, tribe, and religion using a positional generator of social networks, counting how many ties the household has to persons in medical, educational, and governmental institutions.
Abstract: Using original data from a newly collected nationwide survey for 40,000 households in India, we examine variation in social capital in India across caste, tribe, and religion. Our primary measure uses a positional generator of social networks, counting how many ties the household has to persons in medical, educational, and governmental institutions. We find the expected hierarchy of Brahmins, high caste Hindus, other backward castes (OBCs), dalits, and tribals (adivasis) in access to these networks. Muslims score relatively low while other minority religions appear similar to high caste Hindus. We also assess the degree to which these group differences are explained by their socio-economic positions. After controls for wealth, education, and other household characteristics, the advantages of Brahmins and the disadvantages of adivasis and Muslims remain substantial. However, the weak networks of OBCs and dalits are a consequence of their relative poverty and low education; compared to equivalent high caste Hindus, OBCs and dalits have nearly as good network access to these important institutions. In urban areas, dalits and adivasis do especially well, an effect we attribute to India’s strong affirmative action policies. Social Networks in India 2 INTRODUCTION In recent years, social capital has received growing interest as both a social outcome and a social predictor, operating at the micro level as a property of individuals as well as functioning at the macro level as a feature of communities. While the recent interest has been impressive, the ideas derive from the theories of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber (Portes 1998). Durkheim’s focus on solidarity and Marx’s attention to class consciousness both rest on the notion that social participation can provide individuals and communities with benefits otherwise more difficult to achieve. Weber’s analysis of status groups (19xx) also recognizes the importance of people’s interactions with others. Who one knows and associates with is a primary source of social status (Milner 1994). While recent work emphasizes the instrumental value of social networks, those networks are also a primary expression of one’s position in society. Conversely, one’s networks are constrained by the social closure that status groups can impose on a lower status groups. This paper investigates the importance of status groups for social networks in India, one of the world’s most stratified societies. We find that status groups as defined by caste and religion have the expected hierarchical relationship to contacts with three crucial institutions: education, medicine, and the state. Brahmins have the most contacts followed by other high caste Hindus, then other backward castes (OBCs), scheduled castes (dalits), and, at the lowest levels, tribals (adivasis). Smaller non-Hindu groups such as Christians and Sikhs fare quite well, being about as well connected as other high caste Hindus but with fewer contacts than Brahmins. Muslims, on the other hand, are among the most excluded groups; their contacts are no more extensive than those of Social Networks in India 3 dalits. Urban India shows a somewhat different ordering however. There, OBCs, dalits, and adivasis are not so disadvantaged, a result that probably reflects independent India’s sustained programs of affirmative action. Muslims, who have not benefited from these programs, are consequently the most excluded group in urban areas. The Setting. India is an enormously diverse country with broad language, religious, geographic, and political variations across its territory. Politically, it is organized as a federal system with powers delegated by the constitution to over two dozen states; administration of basic government services within the country are often state level responsibilities, usually organized at the level of India’s 500-plus districts. The constitution recognizes 14 official languages; northern, southern, and northeastern languages are not even part of the same language families. While constitutionally secular, India is predominantly Hindu, but with substantial religious diversity. Muslims form about 12 percent of the population with other religious minorities such as Christians, Sikhs and Jains forming another 3 percent. However, the remaining population is also highly differentiated. About 8 percent of the population identifies itself as being adivasi (the original inhabitants of the land) or tribal, located outside the Hindu caste system. Another 15 percent of the population is considered dalit, belonging to the lowest castes that were considered impure by high caste Hindus. Dalits 1 These religious and ethnic differences are to some extent geographically organized (e.g., the state of Jammu and Kashmir has a Muslim majority; Meghalaya has a tribal majority), but there are often substantial religious, ethnic, and caste diversity within a local community as well. Social Networks in India 4 and adivasis are officially listed in a schedule appended to the Indian constitution and called scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST). By tradition, the Indian caste system divides people into four main castes or varnas with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes falling outside of this structure. But many small subcastes, known as jatis, govern social life (Bayly 1999; Beteille 1969). Although there are some suggestions that caste differences have been eclipsed by class differences in modern India (Beteille 1992b), most scholars continue to find caste or jati to be a significant factor in the Indian social stratification system (Srinivas 1996; Gupta 1991). These jatis are endogamous with clear boundaries and permeate Indian social life in many ways. Caste associations are set up as mutual aid societies and carry out activities such as poor relief, festival celebrations and group weddings. Some caste associations even run co-operative banks. Many castes still retain the traditional judicial system in which a council of elders adjudicates personal disputes. Most importantly, residential clustering in villages is organized around caste with neighborhoods often being known by caste or occupation names to the extent that even a postal address may read “The Barber Street.” Scheduled Caste (SC) households are often located outside the village since ritually they are viewed as being impure and are not allowed to participate fully in the village life, including sharing a well or a water pump (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998). The Scheduled Tribes (ST) live largely on reserved forests and frequently have very little contact with the mainstream Indian life. Even when they migrate into villages, they often live apart from the village (Maharatna 2005) Caste or jati shapes the individuals’ social relations in many ways. Traditionally ritual distance between jatis defined commensality, or who one may or may not eat with. Social Networks in India 5 While this stylized distance is declining in modern India – at least between the upper castes, endogamous marriage and close knit kinship patterns preserve the distance between various jatis. Residential segregation in village life makes inter-group relationships difficult to build. Even in urban areas, many residential co-operative societies are set up by people from the same community resulting in a continuation of traditional distance. A fascinating study in Mumbai slums documents jati and language clustering at the level of the streets (Sharma 2000). For dalits and adivasis, social distance is characterized by a climate of mistrust and fear. The dalits, in particular, are seen as being “impure” because they have engaged in occupations such as scavenging, curing leather, operating crematoriums, etc. Few high caste Hindus feel comfortable inviting dalits into their homes and sharing a meal with them. Stories about atrocities against dalits who dare to encroach on the territory of higher castes appear daily in the news papers (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998). However, for half a century since Independence, India has sponsored an aggressive system of affirmative action for the dalits and adivasis; other backward castes have been added to this system in 1990s. These affirmative action programs target the type of network contacts we analyze in the survey. In colleges, including highly competitive medical and engineering colleges, 15 percent of the seats are reserved for dalits and 7.5 percent of the seats are reserved for adivasis. Since the 1990s this quota has been increased to 50 percent with the rest of the seats going to other backward castes. Similar reservations exists in government and public sector employment which employs most of the teachers and a vast number of health service providers. Thus, we would expect to see a weakening of caste differences in access to these positions, indeed many Social Networks in India 6 social scientists have argued that caste has been overtaken by class as the major axis of social stratification in India (Beteille 1992a). Religion impinges upon Indian social life similar in some ways to caste. After the migration of upper class Muslims to Pakistan following the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 (Engineer 2001), the Muslim community in India consists disproportionately of the urban self employed. Muslims form about 12 percent of the Indian population and occupy a niche in the Indian labor market consisting of skilled craftsmen and small entrepreneurs. The social distance between Hindus and Muslims is vast, exacerbated by political posturing of Hindu fundamentalist political parties. Periodically since Independence, outbursts of communal violence result in widespread killings and reprisals (Varshney 2002, Brass 2003). Apart from some minor exceptions, Muslims do not benefit from government reservation programs. Education and urban residence form another axis of stratification in India. Higher education often leads to salaried employment and participation in the forma

22 citations

Book
01 Jun 2004
TL;DR: The Caste War of Yucatan (1847-1901) is widely regarded as the most successful Indian rebellion in the New World as discussed by the authors, which led to successful agrarian reform and the reassertion of traditional land use by the Maya.
Abstract: The Caste War of Yucatan (1847-1901) is widely regarded as the most successful Indian rebellion in the New World. An attempt by the Maya to rid themselves of foreign domination and revitalise their traditional culture, the conflict led to successful agrarian reform and the reassertion of traditional land use by the Maya. It also generated a new religion with its own priesthood and cultural practices focused on the worship of a prophetic 'talking' cross. This war's economic and cultural transformations provide blueprints for understanding present-day Mexico and the expansion of capitalism to rural areas world-wide. Although important in its consequences, the origins of the war and its interpretations remain controversial. Rani Alexander's interdisciplinary study uses archaeological evidence along with ethnography and history to understand the nature of the region's agrarian system and the processes of resistance. Yaxcaba and its environs, caught in the crossfire of the conflict, were attacked and burned nine times in the course of the war. In view of the enormous loss of life and destruction of property, the post-war agrarian reform seems to be a consequence of economic ruin rather than successful resistance. Only an interdisciplinary approach to these complex events can produce the complete picture that Alexander's work provides.

21 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023585
20221,232
2021241
2020254
2019243
2018247