Topic
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 paper, the authors present a descriptive profile of scheduled castes and tribes women's status in Indian society using Indian Census data, the study documents extreme degrees of gender inequality among the scheduled groups Findings indicate that relative to men, women in these groups have far more limited access to both educational and employment resources.
Abstract: The complex stratification systems in India give rise to a multiplicity of social categories which often obscure the relative status of women and men within the more disadvantaged segments of the population The focus of this study is on the situation of women in scheduled castes and tribes — groups which are referred to as ‘weaker sections of people’ and granted special safeguards and concessions under the Indian constitution Women in these under-privileged groups are doubly disadvantaged: their minority group status interacts with India's patriarchal culture to produce deplorable living conditions Drawing from both ethnographic and statistical sources, the paper presents a descriptive profile of scheduled caste and tribe women's status in Indian society Using Indian Census data, the study documents extreme degrees of gender inequality among the scheduled groups Findings indicate that relative to men, women in these groups have far more limited access to both educational and employment resources This research also suggests that socioeconomic development serves to reduce the disadvantage of scheduled group women relative to men Among the scheduled groups considered to be more developed according to standard indicators, findings indicate less gender inequality in education and employment
48 citations
01 Sep 1982
TL;DR: The question of how caste systems are conceived and understood by the people who live their lives within them, is the focus of as mentioned in this paper, which is a tribute to Louis Dumont, and to his determined advocacy of a Hindu ideology of purity and pollution as the superordinate or "encompassing" criterion of Indian caste society.
Abstract: INTRODUCTION Hence it is true that the ideology in which we see the conscious centre of caste can be lacking here or there within the Indian world, and observation of these cases is of the greatest interest, to show us to what extent and in what conditions institutions of this kind can survive the weakening or disappearance of their ideological aspect. (Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus , 1970: 46) The question of caste ideology, that is, how caste systems are conceived and understood by the people who live their lives within them, is the focus of this essay. It is a tribute to Louis Dumont, and to his determined advocacy of a Hindu ideology of purity and pollution as the superordinate or ‘encompassing’ criterion of Indian caste society, that his work serves today as the standard reference point against which his colleagues in South Asian anthropology feel obliged to measure their own theoretical positions. However, at least one theoretical school now advocates a more radical interpretive framework based upon distinctive South Asian ‘coded bodily substance’ concepts said to be more ideological and culturally authentic than any proposed by Dumont (Marriott and Inden 1974; 1977; Marriott 1976a). While the work of Dumont, on the one hand, and the formulations of Marriott and Inden, on the other, represent the most clearly contrasting interpretations of caste as seen ‘from the inside’, mention will be made of a number of other writers who employ elements of both approaches.
48 citations
TL;DR: The connection between food—nest separation and true worker evolution in termites is explained, providing a general theory on the restricted distribution of the sterile worker caste in the Isoptera.
Abstract: No general theory explains why a sterile worker caste is not found in all species of both Hymenoptera and Isoptera (Insecta). Recent empirical findings show that, in the termites (Isoptera), feeding outside the nest correlates well with the evolution of the sterile (true) worker caste from the non-sterile (false) worker caste. Here we explain the connection between food--nest separation and true worker evolution in termites, providing a general theory on the restricted distribution of the sterile worker caste in the Isoptera. A cost--benefit model suggests that there is a critical level of nest stability above which natural selection favours true workers over false workers, irrespective of genetical relatedness. Because food--nest separation tends to increase nest stability, this theoretical result implies that the less a termite species consumes its nest as food, the more likely is its nest stability to fall above the critical level and a true worker caste will evolve.
48 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: This article examined to what extent some ethnic, religious and caste minorities suffer from chronic impoverishment, especially in rural India, based on the 61st round(2004-05) of the National Sample Survey Organisation's Consumption-Expenditure Survey.
Abstract: In the factors that affect income and poverty outcomes,
there are some features unique to India. Caste, ethnicity,
religion and even regional origins all influence income
outcomes. Therefore while examining individual poverty, the influence of social belongings on the level and the nature of access to economic endowments and the individual’s ability to utilise them freely are of considerable significance. This paper examines to what extent some ethnic,religious and caste minorities suffer from chronic impoverishment, especially in rural India. What economic endowments are owned by whom and by how much? What is the level of education and occupational skill across different
social groups? The analysis is based on the 61st round
(2004-05) of the National Sample Survey Organisation’s
Consumption-Expenditure Survey.
48 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the organization, tactics and appeal of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in northwest India and provided evidence for the Rudolphs' thesis that economic factors are important in explaining levels of active support for the new agrarian politics.
Abstract: The green revolution in India is focusing peasant attention on the prices of farm inputs and outputs. According to the Rudolphs, a class of 'bullock capitalists', newly hegemonic in the Indian countryside, is mobilizing support for a new agrarian politics that pits rural India (Bharat) against an exploitative urban India. These claims are examined with reference to the organization, tactics and appeal of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in northwest India. Evidence is drawn from fieldwork in two villages and from interviews with local political leaders. Support is offered for the Rudolphs' thesis that economic factors are important in explaining levels of active support for the new agrarian politics. But patterns of support for the BKU are also crucially affected by caste and community considerations, and by the construction of the BKU's leader, Mahendra Singh Tikait, as a political leader in the Gandhian tradition. The conclusion considers the dynamics of peasant social movements in south Asia.
48 citations