Caste and social stratification

The essentials

Social stratification is the division of society into layers (strata) whose members have unequal access to wealth, power and prestige. It is a feature of society, not of individuals, and is passed across generations. Major systems are slavery, estates, caste and class.

Caste (jati) is a hereditary, endogamous group, usually linked to a traditional occupation and ranked in a hierarchy. The varna model (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra) is a broad textual scheme, while thousands of jatis exist on the ground.

Key points

• G. S. Ghurye listed features of caste: segmental division, hierarchy, restrictions on food and social interaction, civil and religious disabilities, lack of free choice of occupation, and endogamy.
• Louis Dumont stressed the opposition of purity and pollution as the principle behind caste hierarchy.
• Jajmani system: hereditary exchange of services between patron (landowning) families and service castes (barber, potter, washerman), paid largely in kind (grain) at harvest.
• Sanskritisation (M. N. Srinivas): a lower caste adopts the customs, rituals and lifestyle of a higher, often "twice-born", caste (e.g. vegetarianism, giving up liquor) to claim higher status. It brings positional, not structural, change.
• Dominant caste (Srinivas): a caste that is numerically large, owns much land and holds economic and political power locally.
• Class is based mainly on economic position; it is more open, allowing achieved status, whereas caste status is ascribed by birth.
• Social mobility: vertical (up or down) or horizontal; intergenerational or intragenerational.
• The Constitution abolished untouchability (Article 17) and provides reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Exam tips

• Distinguish caste (closed, ascribed) from class (open, achieved).
• Sanskritisation questions usually describe a group changing rituals or diet.

Common mistakes

• Treating varna and jati as the same thing.
• Thinking Sanskritisation changes the caste system itself; it changes only a group's position within it.