Question

Explain major types and features of indian rural society in terms of caste and class

Answer 1

A caste is a social category whose members are assigned a permanent status within a given social hierarchy and whose contacts are restricted accordingly.

It is the most rigid and clearly graded type of social stratification. It has also often been referred to as the extreme form of closed class system.

Sharply contrasted with the caste system, the open class system ran be placed at the opposite end of a continuum. A social class has been defined as an abstract category of persons arranged in levels according to the social status they possess. There are no firm lines dividing one category from another.

Answer 2

The basis of the understanding tlle caste system as an enlpirical reality is to locate caste

groups such as jatis in a specific rurallurban context. It is a source of placement and of

identity in society. At the latter level, identity is not a function necessarily of idomla1 day

to day relations. Caste, for instance, does not usually become a basis of ~narriage between a

Tamil Brahmin and a Kanyakubja Brahmin of Uttar Pradesh. Yet. they inay have a sense

of belonging to what they perceive as the same stock, and may even co-operate in

situations of crises and challenges. Therefore, one may ask: Is caste an interest group'? Can

common interests bring together more smoothly men of different castes fro111 various

regions than those of the same caste'? Caste in certainly a resource, but the nature of this

resource varies from caste to castedepending upon the status of a given caste in a given

area. Caste identitylmembership has become a liability for thc ineinbers of the upper and

middle castes because a certain percentage ofjobs, seats inparliainent and state

legislatures, as well as admissions into institutions of higher learning have been reserved

for the other backward castes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The view that caste and class are ideological opposites is not correct. Tlie assuil~ption that

class can emerge as a social reality when caste has been destroyed in an erroneous

conception of the relationship between the two. Both have been inseparable parts of

India's social formation, and hence the study of their nexus, continuity and change.

Caste is a very conlplex system, for it is not simply a system of power relations and

economic activities in a nonlinal sense. If it gets weakened in one aspect, it also gets

strengthened in another, no doubt with certain alternations, additions and accretions. We

need to seriously analyse the dynamics of the system. There is after all a class basis to

rituals, pollution -purity and other non-material aspects of social life. For esainple, an

organization like Jat Sabha is not a siinple caste association, but in effect, it is an

organization of peasants. Similarly, the Kisan Sabha is not a siinple organi~ation of

peasants, it is very nluch an association of castes engaged in agriculture. particularly of

Jats in northern Indian, and their counterparts in other states.

Further, to consider caste mainly as a rural phenomenon, and class as a reality belonging

to the towns and cities is a myth. Let us look at look at caste elections in Jaipur city to

substantiate our position.