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.

The Politics of India Since Independence

Abstract: List of figures and tables Preface List of abbreviations 1. Introduction: continuities and discontinuities between pre- and post-Independence India Part I. Political Change: Introduction 2. Political change, political structure and the functioning of government 3. Parties and politics 4. State and local politics Part II. Pluralism and National Integration: Introduction 5. Language problems 6. Crises of national unity: Punjab, the northeast and Kashmir 7. Communal and caste conflict: secularism, Hindu nationalism and the Indian state Part III. Political Economy: Introduction 8. Politics, economic development and social change 9. Political aspects of agricultural change 10. Conclusion: problems and prospects Bibliography Index.

Footloose Labour: Working in India's Informal Economy

Abstract: In a penetrating anthropological study of the working poor in India, Jan Breman examines the lives of those who, pushed out of the agrarian labour market, depend on casual work. Beginning his local-level research in two villages in south Gujarat, the author discusses the mobilisation of casual labour, which is hired and fired according to the need of the moment, and transferred for the duration of the job to destinations far away from the home area. His case-study reveals that the circulation of labour is indicative of an employment pattern which dominates both the rural and urban economy of large parts of South Asia. Elaborating on the social profile of the work migrants, the author argues that their identity is shaped by both class and caste relations and, despite action by state agencies, nothing of significance has been achieved to improve their quality of life.

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.

History, social divisions, and public goods in rural india

Abstract: We examine the influence of three historically important sources of social divisions on the availability of public goods in rural India: colonial power, landowner-peasant relations as determined by the land tenure system and social fragmentation based on the Hindu caste system and the presence of sizable religious minorities. Using data on public goods from 1991, we find that regions that were under British colonial power in the pre-independence period and those where agrarian power was concentrated in the hands of landlords have lower access to these goods as do areas with high levels of social fragmentation. (JEL: H41, P16)