Book review: K. L. Sharma, Caste, Social Inequality and Mobility in Rural India: Reconceptualising the Indian Village

Social Change ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-266
Author(s):  
Ashok Pankaj
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Rural India ◽  
Indian Village

K. L. Sharma, Caste, Social Inequality and Mobility in Rural India: Reconceptualising the Indian Village. Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2019, 379 pp., ₹1,195, ISBN 978-93-532-8201-1.

scholarly journals Those who can't sort, steal: caste, occupational mobility, and rent-seeking in rural India

2021 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-140
Author(s):  
Nicholas Lawson ◽  
Dean Spears
Keyword(s):  
Labor Markets ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Occupational Mobility ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Static Equilibrium ◽  
Rural India ◽  
Equilibrium Outcome ◽  
Stylized Facts ◽  
Survey Question

AbstractThree important features of Indian labor markets enduringly coexist: rent-seeking, occupational immobility, and caste. These facts are puzzling, given theories that predict static, equilibrium social inequality without conflict. Our model explains these facts as an equilibrium outcome. Some people switch caste-associated occupations for an easier source of rents, rather than for productivity. This undermines trust between castes and shuts down occupational mobility, which further encourages rent-seeking due to an inability of workers to sort into occupations. We motivate our contribution with novel stylized facts exploiting a unique survey question on casteism in India, which we show is associated with rent-seeking.

Deliberative Democracy in India

2018 ◽  
pp. 804-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramya Parthasarathy ◽  
Vijayendra Rao
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Participatory Development ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Indian Village ◽  
Panchayati Raj

This chapter traces the evolution of deliberative institutions in India, as well as the ways in which deliberative bodies influence, and are in influenced by, entrenched social inequality. The paper first unpacks the historical roots of Indian deliberation, emphasizing the ways in which religious traditions fostered a culture of debate and dialogue. The paper then explores the interplay between Western liberal philosophers, most notably Henry Maine, and Indian political thinkers, including Gandhi and Ambedkar, on participatory democracy in India. The discussion then highlights the continued dialogue between Indian and Western ideas in the push for greater participatory development. Finally, the chapter probes the current incarnation of state-sponsored deliberation in India—namely, village assemblies known as gram sabhas under the constitutionally mandated system of Indian village democracy or Panchayati Raj, and reviews the growing empirical scholarship about these village assemblies.

Book Review: Social Inequality

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-250
Author(s):  
Jarron M. Saint Onge
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality

Book review: Supriya Singh, Commercialization of Hinterland and Dynamics of Class, Caste and Gender in Rural India

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-200
Author(s):  
Urmi Bhattacharyya
Keyword(s):  
Rural India ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Supriya Singh, Commercialization of Hinterland and Dynamics of Class, Caste and Gender in Rural India. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, 148 pp., £58.99 (Hardbound). ISBN: 978-1-4438-8647-5.

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