Resiliency and Change in the Indian Caste System: The Umar of U.P.

1967 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 575-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Fox
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Anthropological Study ◽  
Social Structural

Lack of agreement on basic definitions has often bedeviled the anthropological study of Indian society. A case in point is “caste,” which has enjoyed almost as many definitions as there are students involved in its study. This multiplicity undoubtedly promotes a broadened investigation of caste phenomena, and thus ultimately increases our knowledge. But it also leads to the danger that competing definitions will masquerade as factual explanations, or that theoretically valid distinctions are lost in the rhetoric of definitional arguments. Especially in studies of the breakdown and reconstitution of caste institutions, the absence of a firm, explicit definitional base impedes evaluation of the nature, direction, and novelty of social structural change.

Bhabani Bhattacharya Vs ‘He Who Rides A Tiger’

2021 ◽  
Vol 05 (01) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Ajay Kr. Singh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Freedom Movement

Bhabani Bhattacharya’s ‘He Who Rides a Tiger’ is yet another novel of man’s epic struggle against the unjust social equations which are as old as the ancient vedic civilization. It is the story of a blacksmith, Kalo, living in a small town, Jharana, in Bengal, and his daughter, Chandra Lekha. It is set against the backdrop of a widespread famine of Bengal of 1943. Though ‘He Who Rides a Tiger’ and ‘So Many Hungers’ treat the theme of hunger, exploitation and debasement of man, ‘He Who Rides a Tiger’ is no rehash of the latter novel. It launches a scathing critisism on the evil of caste system which has been the bane of Indian society. Arguably the writer’s best novel, it touches the pulse of the irony of Indian social life. The Indian social realities are presented with increasing bitterness within the perspective of the freedom movement. Its greatness as a piece of literature lies in its assertion of tremendous potentialities of the spiritual growth of man, and a thorough exposure of an imperfect social system.

Relentless Individual and Collective Commitment: An Interview with Jaydeep Sarangi and Manohar Mouli Biswas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surya Simon
Keyword(s):  
Social Worker ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Collective Commitment

Abstract This interview with Indian translator, Professor Jaydeep Sarangi, and Indian writer, Manohar Mouli Biswas, was conducted on 16th April, 2019 in New Alipore College, India; and was part of a series of interviews conducted for a doctoral project that examines caste system and Dalit experiences in the context of India. In this interview, Sarangi sheds light on his experiences as a translator of Indian narratives from Bengali to English. He talks in-depth about his passion for translating Dalit narratives and his relentless commitment towards studies on the Dalit subject. Biswas shares his arduous and inspirational experiences as a Dalit, as a writer, and as a social worker. He also explores the scope and possibilities offered through writing and translation, and what that means to the Dalit collective as well as the Indian society as a whole.

3. Colonial India: religious and caste divides

2017 ◽  
pp. 34-47
Author(s):  
Craig Jeffrey
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Natural Feature ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Imperial Power ◽  
Partition Of India

India is often identified as a Hindu country, but there are many other religions in India including Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. ‘Colonial India: religious and caste divides’ explains India’s religious diversity and the inequalities that are associated with the assumed ‘Hindu-ness’ of India. It also describes the Partition of India into three new nations in 1947 and the accompanying violence. A sharply hierarchical caste system is not necessarily a natural feature of Indian society. Caste is rather a social institution that has changed historically in response to economic and political forces. The imperial power introduced or exacerbated social contradictions that continue to mark the lives of low castes in modern India.

The Politics of Structural Change

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEOFFREY GARRETT
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Labor Movements ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
Social Structural ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Capitalist Democracies

The 1930s and the 1980s were decades of significant political economic change in the capitalist democracies. Depression and the rise of the industrial working class created opportunities for the establishment of social democracy in the 1930s. Stagflation and the decline of the working class made possible waves of radical rightist reform. However, this article suggests that only governments that do not have to concentrate myopically on the exigencies of winning the next election have the political space to undertake structural changes, the benefits of which may only be manifest in the medium term. In turn, successful reforms are likely to entail changes in underlying social structural conditions—such as the strengthening or weakening of organized labor movements—that both expand the electoral constituencies of the government's partisanpreferred policies and improve their macroeconomic efficacy. These propositions are examined with respect to the construction social democracy in Sweden in the 1930s and the construction of neoliberalism in Thatcher's Britain. Although the consequences of these two instances were diametrically opposed, the conditions that created the possibility for radical reform, and the strategies pursued by the governments to precipitate structural change were very similar.

scholarly journals Louis Dumont: Verdensforsagelse, hierarki og renhed

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikael Aktor
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Model ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Caste System ◽  
English Abstract ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Major Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
Creative Role

English Abstract: This brief article reviews two main contributions by the French sociologist Louis Dumont, his essay “World Renunciation in Indian Religions” and his major work on the Indian caste system, Homo Hierarchicus. Some of the critique of Dumont’s ideas about renunciation, hierarchy and purity is discussed with special focus on three points: (1) The creative role of renunciation in the history of Hinduism; (2) the Indian caste system as a hierarchy regulated according to ritual purity and the alternative model by A. M. Hocart of the Indian society as a ritual organization; and (3) theoretical discussions regarding the need to go beyond the purity-impurity dichotomy and integrate another opposition, that between the auspicious and the inauspicious, in order to develop a more precise analytical tool in the research of Hindu culture. Dansk resume: Denne korte artikel diskuterer to vigtige bidrag af den franske sociolog Louis Dumont, hans essay “World Renunciation in Indian Religions” og hans hovedværk om det indiske kastesystem, Homo Hierarchicus. Noget af den kritik, der blev rejst mod Dumonts ideer om verdensforsagelse, hierarki og renhed, diskuteres med særlig fokus på tre punkter: (1) Verdensforsagelsens kreative betydning for hinduismens udvikling; (2) Dumonts model af det indiske kastesystem som et hierarki reguleret i forhold til rituel renhed og A. M. Hocarts alternative model, der ser hindusamfundet som en rituel organisation koncentrisk centreret omkring kongen; (3) de teoretiske diskussioner om nødvendigheden af at supplere rent-urent dikotomien med endnu en dikotomi, nemlig mellem det lykke- og ildevarslende, for at udvikle et mere præcist analyseapparat i udforskningen af hinduismen.

scholarly journals Plasticity and Marginalization in The God of Small Things: A Liquid Modern Reading

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-87
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Liquid Modernity ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Lower Castes ◽  
Small Things

The God of Small Things is set in the post-partition India which deals with the cultural and societal change and fluidity in the Indian society caused under the influence of westernized culture and societal values, while predominantly dealing with the stereotypical, discriminatory and unfair treatment of certain gender and cast. The study is an attempt to look into how people tend to be seduced by some specific cultural values and discard some others even when they are moving towards being modernized, and in this case, under a group of colonizers whose so called agenda was to teach the uncivilized the civilized ways of life. The study is conducted under the idea of Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Bauman from which two postulates are picked. The first one being the tendency of a constant change with in a society and how the idea of modernity was the cause of decline in societal norms while the individuals are seduced by the ways of the west. The second postulate picked from Bauman’s Liquid Modernity is how he terms the society to be plastic, meaning that it is something that can constantly be reshaped regardless of where and in what state it is. Another important objective of the paper is to highlight the ways in which the plastic society challenges the traditional power structures in which women and lower castes are marginalized and suppressed by patriarchal hierarchy and caste system. Thus, the paper highlights the positive as well as negative impact of the liquid modern society and in this way this paper itself becomes a manifestation of liquid modernity in which there is no certainty or fixedness. The findings show that the characters in the selected novel are strongly influenced by the modern western values and their native culture is significantly altered by that of the English, both in positive and negative ways, and there are no fixed cultural values.

scholarly journals Caste Formation in India.

2020 ◽  
pp. 323-326
Author(s):  
Sajitha D V ◽  
Ajith Kumar M P
Keyword(s):  
Structural Feature ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Caste Politics ◽  
Lower Castes ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Social Reformers

The purpose of this study is to look at how caste formation, a structural feature of Indian society and the changes that have taken place in caste formations over time, are used by caste in today’s society. The structure of Indian society is based on the caste system. But the caste system was only a product of the upper caste Brahmins of India. In fact, the upper castes enslaved the lower castes only for economic purposes. For that, they used caste as the first extreme. According to historians, the caste system in India was only part of a division of labor and was never caste-based. Because there is no mention in Manusmriti, Bhagavat Gita, Vedic and Later-Vedic literatues about a caste society that separates man from man on the basis of caste. That is why our social reformers proclaimed that caste evils should be eradicated from the society and they worked hard for it and succeeded to some extent. Thus, Independent India was able to build a casteless society as a result of the work of social reformers. But after independence we were able to see a caste politics. What we see today is that every political party is using caste as a tool for their vote bank during elections to consolidate their power. Therefore, caste politics is one of the major challenges facing India.

scholarly journals A Commentary on Ambedkar's Posthumously Published "Philosophy of Hinduism" - Part II

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-16
Author(s):  
Rajesh Sampath
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
World Religion ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
The Status

This paper continues the commentary on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s posthumously published Philosophy of Hinduism. Utilizing resources from various modern continental European philosophers and social theorists, particularly of religion, we elaborate on several key passages within Ambedkar’s overall framework of analysis. The paper continues to explore how Ambedkar conceives relations between philosophy and religion, and how historical shifts in general human consciousness have occurred whereby altering both fields. At the core of his being, Ambedkar is concerned with a methodological justification that will enable him to venture into a penetrating critique of the immoral and amoral nature of Hinduism’s social system of caste. In Part I of the commentary, we followed Ambedkar until he arrived at the criteria of ‘justice’ and ‘utility’ to judge the status of Hinduism. He wanted to test whether this Eastern world religion, which descends from antiquity, meets those criteria, which shape the modern conception of religion. In Part II of this commentary, we expand further on Ambedkar’s thesis as to why Hinduism fails to meet the modern conception when those twin criteria are not met. This thought presupposes various underlying philosophical transformations of the relations of ‘God to man’, ‘Society to man’, and ‘man to man’ within which the Hindu-dominated Indian society forecloses the possibility of individual equality, freedom, and dignity. In making contributions to Ambedkar studies, the philosophy of religion, and political philosophies of justice, this paper sets up Part III of the commentary, which will examine Ambedkar’s actual engagement with the classics of Hinduism’s philosophy and thought in general. Ultimately, Ambedkar is undeterred in his original critique of the social and moral failures of the caste system, thereby intimating ambitious possibilities for its eventual eradication.

scholarly journals Declining Social Control and the Rising Deviant Behaviour in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Pravin J. Patel
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Informal Social Control ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Social Control Theory ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Deviant Behaviour ◽  
The Social

Crime rates are increasing across the Indian society. Normally, such crimes are attributed to two broad categories of factors: (a) psychological factors like individual or mob fury and (b) administrative factors like the failure of law and order machinery. These explanations, however, do not account for the increasing rates of such demeaning instances. This article, attempting to explain the increasing crime rates, focuses on the social control theory. The main argument of the article is that the rapidly declining informal social control causes the phenomenal rise of decadent behaviour in the contemporary Indian society. Due to modernising forces, traditional social institutions and structures such as family, kinship, caste system and village community have become weak. As a result, the traditional informal social control based on shame has gradually diminished. And the sense of guilt, the functional alternative to shame, as an informal mechanism of social control, has not yet been fully institutionalised. This seems to be the major factor giving rise to widespread deviant behaviour in India. Although formal mechanisms of social control like police and judiciary do exist, they cannot be very effective without being reinforced with the informal social control.

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