Caste, Stratification and Indian Society

Tribes and tribal integration in India

In Indian sociology, a tribe is usually understood as a community that lives in relative isolation, has its own language or dialect, follows animist or non-Hindu religious practices, and depends on forest or hill land for its livelihood. Colonial census enumerations separated tribal from non-tribal populations mainly by recorded religion, so religious affiliation was the clearest marker of tribal status. G. S. Ghurye, in The Scheduled Tribes, described tribes as backward Hindus, that is, communities at an earlier stage of a Hindu culture that had not yet been fully absorbed into the wider Hindu order. The debate on tribal integration was therefore a debate between absorption into the mainstream and protection of tribal distinctiveness. Verrier Elwin advocated a policy of non-interference, holding that tribal communities should be shielded from outside pressure and allowed to develop along their own lines. He was the principal author of the Philosophy of NEFA, which guided the administration of the North East Frontier Agency on the principle of minimal interference. M. N. Srinivas observed that the Tibeto-Burman hill tribes of north-east India did not describe themselves as Adivasis, because that term grew out of the politics of Chota Nagpur in central India.

• Adivasi — literally 'original inhabitant'; a political self-description of tribal peoples, associated mainly with central India. 예) Tribal leaders in the region adopted the term Adivasi to claim recognition in regional politics.
• non-interference — an administrative policy of limiting outside intervention in tribal life. 예) The colonial officer favoured non-interference, so the village kept its own customary council.
• animism — belief that natural objects and spirits possess agency; a marker used to set tribal religion apart from Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. 예) The census recorded the group under animist religion rather than Hindu.

Sociological concepts of caste

Indian sociologists have offered several concepts to explain caste, and the concept a scholar chooses shapes what he or she sees in society. Célestin Bouglé identified repulsion, the separation between castes that restricts social contact and mixing, as one of the principles of the caste system. Louis Dumont analysed caste through the opposition of purity and pollution, while McKim Marriott and Ronald Inden proposed the dividual-particle theory, which contrasts the divisible, substance-transacting person of South Asia with the indivisible individual of Western thought. M. N. Srinivas introduced Sanskritization, the process by which lower groups adopt the ritual and lifestyle of higher castes. Two broad approaches to caste must also be distinguished. The book view takes textual models as the picture of caste, whereas the field view, grounded in village ethnography, treats caste as a set of practices that vary across regions and change over time. Within the field view, Sanskritization describes group mobility, and the concept of the dominant caste shows that real power in a locality could diverge from the ritual ranking of the varna scheme.

• repulsion — the principle of separation between castes that restricts commensality and intermarriage. 예) Bouglé's repulsion explains why members of different castes avoid sharing food.
• book view vs field view — the textual model of caste versus the regionally varied, changing practice observed in fieldwork. 예) A study of one village's ranking practices reflects the field view.

Dumont's hierarchy and caste theory

Louis Dumont, in Homo Hierarchicus, argued that Indian sociology should be located at the confluence of Indology, the study of texts, and social anthropology, the study of living practice. His central claim is that hierarchy is the general tendency of human societies, so equality, as a value, runs contrary to that tendency. In Indian ideology, the religious order encompasses the political and economic orders, so power is subordinated to purity. For this reason, economic and political power can enter the system only surreptitiously, that is, without openly claiming legitimacy. Dumont kept the ideal ordering of values distinct from the empirical level. Religious primacy over power is an ideological principle, and it is not a description that holds at every empirical level, where power often asserts itself.

• encompassment — the principle by which a higher value subsumes and contains its opposite within a single whole. 예) In Dumont's account, the priest encompasses the king in the ritual order.
• surreptitious entry — the covert, unacknowledged entry of power into an order that officially ranks religion above it. 예) Wealth gained entry into caste ranking surreptitiously rather than through open claims.

Contemporary Indian society research findings

Recent research on the skewed sex ratio at birth in India, which results from sex-selective abortion and the devaluation of daughters, has examined its social consequences. A shortage of women of marriageable age has produced a male marriage squeeze, in which a growing share of men cannot find a bride within their own social group. Studies of bride migration show that men have sought brides from distant regions, and some of these marriages cross caste and community boundaries. The imbalance does not raise the social value of women or improve their life chances. Women's worth remains tied to reproductive, domestic and care roles, and the deficit reflects a culture that devalues daughters.

• skewed sex ratio at birth — a male-biased ratio of births caused by the selective elimination of female foetuses. 예) The skewed sex ratio at birth in several states has changed the marriage market.
• marriage squeeze — the situation in which the number of marriageable men exceeds the number of marriageable women within a group. 예) The marriage squeeze pushed many men in the district to seek brides elsewhere.

Srinivas's dominant caste concept

M. N. Srinivas defined the dominant caste as a caste that, within a village or region, combines numerical strength, control of land and the economic resources that flow from it, and political power in local affairs. Because dominance is measured through local power rather than ritual rank, a caste that is not high in the varna order can be dominant in a particular locality. This is why the concept challenged the assumption that power follows the varna ladder. Membership in militant organisations is not among the criteria Srinivas used. The defining features are numbers, land and political influence.

• numerical strength — a large population share within a locality, one of the bases of dominance. 예) A caste with many households in the village could command local influence.
• land control — ownership of arable land, which gives economic leverage over other castes. 예) The dominant caste's landholdings made it the chief employer in the area.

Jajmani system

The jajmani system describes the hereditary exchange of goods and services between a jajman, or patron household, and kamin or service castes within a village. Artisans, washermen and others supply services in return for payments in grain or other kind. David Pocock interpreted the system as expressing two complementary features. The first is an egalitarian collectivity, in which castes are bound together as parts of a whole through mutual service. The second is a regulated individuality, in which each person's role is fixed by the rules of caste and custom. Pocock's reading therefore excludes both a purely hierarchical collectivity and an anarchic individuality, because exchanges are governed by established rules.