scholarly journals Devadasi System and its Caste Dynamics

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Jeevanandam S

Caste is an ‘integral component’ of Indian society.  Almost all the social groups in Indian subcontinent have their specific rites and rituals. It consolidated them within certain compartmentalized caste category. In this context, there was a custom where girl children were used to dedicate to the ‘Hindu’ temples for the religious service to the deity in the name of devadasi. The system became an important cultural element in the medieval Indian society. The system evolved with its unique functionality in the Indian tradition. The dedicated young girls came from different castes and assigned duties accordingly. However, it was not classified as a separate caste. It became an interesting historical question. This particular paper focused on the devadasi custom and its caste dynamics in the historical past.

Author(s):  
N. G. Osipova

The article analyzes the social aspects of Hinduism as a combination of not only religious, but also mythological, legal and ethical concepts. They form, on the basis on which the social life of Indian society is largely organized. The author’s analysis of the historical development of Hinduism shows that, despite the absence of a rigid organizational structure, it has an internal unity at the social, ideological and religious levels. Hinduism is united in a whole by sacred texts and the Pantheon of Gods, recognized by almost all its trends and schools, as well as the faith in karma — the causal relationship between the actions of an individual in past incarnations and his fate, character, position in society in the current incarnation, and reincarnation. The cornerstone of both the faith and the social component of the Hindu doctrine is the concept of classes and castes, which denote separate groups whose members have a common professional occupation, do not marry other groups, and do not even share meals with them. The article considers the hierarchy of classes that originated in India in the Vedic period, as well as the principles, primarily professional and regional, of the formation of modern castes.The author analyzes a set of religious prescriptions and cult practices that regulate the daily life of Hindus, the ritual side of Hinduism associated with the most significant events in human life. Special attention is paid to new practices of “redemptive rites”, including asceticism, fasting, various methods of mortification of the flesh, and redemptive gifts. It is noted that the essence of Hinduism is not limited to its religious and ideological content. An organic integral part of it is a number of social institutions, legal and moral norms, social institutions and cultural phenomena. In this regard, Hinduism is not only and not so much a religion, but a way of life and holistic behavior, which can also have its own spiritual practice.


Author(s):  
Mihwa Choi

This study inquires into the historical question of how the politics surrounding death rituals contributed to the revival of Confucianism. It examines major changes in ritual performance both at the imperial court and in society at large during the reigns from Zhenzong to Shenzong. It investigates how polarizing debates about death rituals introduced new terrain for political power dynamics between monarchy and officialdom, and between groups of politically and intellectually divided court officials. In order to answer why death rituals in particular became focal points of contention, it delineates the social imaginaries implied in the distinct death rituals preferred by three powerful and competing social groups—emperors, scholar-officials, and rich merchants. It also aims to engage the theoretical question of how diverse social groups’ contentions over ritual were enmeshed in the struggle over social imaginaries between groups as they envisioned different construction of social reality.


2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (04) ◽  
pp. 511-520
Author(s):  
MARIAN BRANDAU ◽  
STEFFEN TRIMPER

We present a simple model for growing up and depletion of parties due to the permanent communication between the participants of the events. Because of the rapid exchange of information, everybody is able to evaluate its own and all other parties by means of the list of its friends. Therefore, the number of participants at different parties can be changed incessantly. Depending on the depth of the social contacts, which will be characterized by a parameter α, a stable distribution of party members emerges. At a critical αc an abrupt depletion of almost all parties is observed and as the consequence all the people are assembled at a single party. The model is based on a hierarchical social network. The probability that a certain person is contacted by another one depends on the social distance introduced within the network and homophily parameter α.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-32
Author(s):  
Le Hoang Anh Thu

This paper explores the charitable work of Buddhist women who work as petty traders in Hồ Chí Minh City. By focusing on the social interaction between givers and recipients, it examines the traders’ class identity, their perception of social stratification, and their relationship with the state. Charitable work reveals the petty traders’ negotiations with the state and with other social groups to define their moral and social status in Vietnam’s society. These negotiations contribute to their self-identification as a moral social class and to their perception of trade as ethical labor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 656-676
Author(s):  
Igor V. Omeliyanchuk

The article examines the main forms and methods of agitation and propagandistic activities of monarchic parties in Russia in the beginning of the 20th century. Among them the author singles out such ones as periodical press, publication of books, brochures and flyers, organization of manifestations, religious processions, public prayers and funeral services, sending deputations to the monarch, organization of public lectures and readings for the people, as well as various philanthropic events. Using various forms of propagandistic activities the monarchists aspired to embrace all social groups and classes of the population in order to organize all-class and all-estate political movement in support of the autocracy. While they gained certain success in promoting their ideology, the Rights, nevertheless, lost to their adversaries from the radical opposition camp, as the monarchists constrained by their conservative ideology, could not promise immediate social and political changes to the population, and that fact was excessively used by their opponents. Moreover, the ideological paradigm of the Right camp expressed in the “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” formula no longer agreed with the social and economic realities of Russia due to modernization processes that were underway in the country from the middle of the 19th century.


IJOHMN ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 11-19
Author(s):  
RASHMI Ahlawat

Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize winning debut novel The White Tiger is sharp, fascinating, attacks poverty and injustice. The White Tiger is a ground breaking Indian novel. Aravind Adiga speaks of suppression and exploitation of various sections of Indian society. Mainly a story of Balram, a young boy’s journey from  rags to riches, Darkness to Light transforming from a village teashop boy into a Bangalore entrepreneur. This paper deals with poverty and injustice. The paper analyses Balram’s capability to overcome the adversities and cruel realities. The pathetic condition of poor people try to make both ends meet. The novel mirrors the lives of  poor in a realistic mode. The White Tiger is a story about a man’s journey for freedom. The protagonist   Balram in this novel is a victim of injustice, inequality and poverty. He worked hard inspite   of his low caste and overcame the social hindrance and become a successful entrepreneur. Through this novel Adiga portrays realistic and painful image of modern India. The novel exposes the anxieties of the oppressed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-50
Author(s):  
Dr.S.Theresammal

Woman establishes the strategicpart in the Indian society. Women in ancient India relished high position in society and their situation was worthy.The country is to study the position of its women. In certainty, the position of women represents the customary of values of any period. The social position of the women of a nation represents the social essence of the era. Though to appeal an assumption about the position of women is a problematic and difficult delinquent. It is consequently, essential to touch this situation in the historical perspective.The paper will help us to imagine the position of women in the historical perspective.


1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-317
Author(s):  
Ziaul Haque

Deveiopment planning in India, as in other developing countries, has generally been aimed at fostering an industrially-oriented policy as the engine of economic growth. This one-sided economic development, which results in capital formation, creation of urban elites, and underprivileged social classes of a modern society, has led to distortions in the social structure as a whole. On the contrary, as a result of this uneven economic development, which is narrowly measured in terms of economic growth and capital formation, the fruits of development have gone to the people according to their economic power and position in the social structure: those occupying higher positions benefiting much more than those occupying the lower ones. Thus, development planning has tended to increase inequalities and has sharpened divisive tendencies. Victor S. D'Souza, an eminent Indian sociologist, utilizing the Indian census data of 1961, 1971, and 1981, examines the problem of structural inequality with particular reference to the Indian Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - the two most underprivileged sections of the present Indian society which, according to the census of 1981, comprised 15.75 percent and 7.76 percent of India's population respectively. Theoretically, he takes the concept of development in a broad sense as related to the self-fulfIlment of the individual. The transformation of the unjust social structure, the levelling down of glaring economic and social inequalities, and the concern for the development of the underprivileged are for the author the basic elements of a planned development. This is the theoretical perspective of the first chapter, "Development Planning and Social Transformation".


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (4I) ◽  
pp. 321-331
Author(s):  
Sarfraz Khan Qureshi

It is an honour for me as President of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists to welcome you to the 13th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Society. I consider it a great privilege to do so as this Meeting coincides with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the state of Pakistan, a state which emerged on the map of the postwar world as a result of the Muslim freedom movement in the Indian Subcontinent. Fifty years to the date, we have been jubilant about it, and both as citizens of Pakistan and professionals in the social sciences we have also been thoughtful about it. We are trying to see what development has meant in Pakistan in the past half century. As there are so many dimensions that the subject has now come to have since its rather simplistic beginnings, we thought the Golden Jubilee of Pakistan to be an appropriate occasion for such stock-taking.


Author(s):  
Ruslan Rafisovich Hasanov

On the basis of the archetypic analysis of development trends of a conflictological paradigm the author’s model of minimization of conflict potential in modern society is offered. Institutional construction is the basis for model that is harmonized with a factor of societal identity.It is noted that the problems of social conflicts, according to data from monitor- ing studies of the Ukrainian school of archetype, are increasingly shifted into the sphere of interpersonal relations. It is stimulated by the progression in society of so-called self-sufficient personalities, the “subjectification” of the social space, and at the same time narrowing down to the solution of entirely specific situations in which there is a collision of the interests of two or more parties.Instead, in order to find the optimal solution for resolving the conflict, it is necessary to have interdisciplinary knowledge, in particular understanding of the deep nature of such conflicts. Collision of points of view, thoughts, positions — a very frequent phenomenon of modern social life. In order to develop the correct line of behavior in various conflict situations, it is important to adequately under- stand the nature of the emergence of the modern conflict and the mechanisms for resolving them in substance. Knowledge of conflict nature enriches the culture of communication and makes human life and social groups not only more calm, but also creates conditions for constructive development. It is proved that in modern life one can not but agree with the statement that an individual carries first re- sponsibility for his own life and only then for the life of the social groups to which he belongs. And while making decisions within the framework of modern mecha- nisms (consensus), the properties of human psychology such as extroversion, emo- tionality, irrationality, intuition, externality, and executive ability will not at least contribute to such a task.That is why in the author’s research attracted attention to the archetypal na- ture of the conflict — the primitive images, ideas, feelings inherent in man as a bearer of the collective unconscious.


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