Page 139 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes Social Implications of the Caste System in Modern India: How Perceptions
have Changed

What does it mean in India today for a person to be a part of a caste or subcaste?

In order to get a good idea of the changes in the perceptions about caste, we have to go back to the
period right before independence. Immediately preceding independence caste became a subject of
debate and more than one view emerged about its importance in society. There were many, however
here I will discuss the main two. The first was the view of the colonial administrator that stated that
caste was thriving institution in India and it permeated almost every part of Indian life: thus making
it indispensable. The opposing view, held by many Indian intellectuals, was that that caste was largely
exaggerated by the colonial administration and that it was most certainly on its way out of the system.
They argued that the decline would be greatly expedited by India’s independence. These arguments
were greatly influenced by the nationalist and colonialist attitudes that were prevalent at this stage in
Indian history. For the Indian intellectual it had become a matter of pride to dispute the colonial view
that caste was a distinct downfall of Indian culture. Thus began the “modern era.”
Today if you asked a person who lives in the city what caste means to them, you would get a very
different response than that of a person who lives in a village. It can be argued that in India’s emerging
middle class, consisting of about 50-75 million people, many would say that there is no longer such a
thing as caste. However, it soon becomes evident that though in many respects caste is diminishing,
in many others it is still an important part of Indian society. In the villages especially, caste dictates
marriage, rituals concerning birth and death as well as occupation which all in turn have a large role
in economic status. In this way the impact is tremendous although subtle and varied.

Role of Caste in Marriage
In 1963 C.T Kannan did a full length study on intercaste marriage. He states:
“Just 25 years ago the instances of intercaste marriage were very few; and those individuals who
dared to marry outside the caste had to undergo truly great hardships. Today the situation is altogether
different. Not only has the prevalence of intercaste marriage become considerable, but even the
difficulties the intercaste couples have to face have become comparatively quite mild” (Kannan, 1963).
Kannan did a study of 200 intercaste marriages (and 50 inter-community marriages), therefore, his
study cannot provide us with any real statistical data. There are also other drawbacks to his
examination. He does not necessarily examine the tremendous amount of variation that can make
one intercaste marriage very different from another. For example, a marriage between two different
Brahman subcastes is very different than one between someone from a Brahman background and
someone who has a Shudra background.
Nevertheless, Kannan’s overall assessment does in many respects capture the trend in India to remove
the once extraordinarily stringent rules of marriage. Though by no means has the concept of caste
marriage been eradicated, its force is often times much less prevalent than it once was.
6.3 Structural and Cultural Concepts of Caste

Caste can be viewed both as a unit and as a system. It can also be looked upon as a structural
phenomenon as well as a cultural phenomenon. As a unit, caste can be defined as a ‘closed rank
status group’, that is, a group in which the status of the members, their occupation, the field of mate-
selection, and interaction with others is fixed. As a system, it refers to interrelated statuses and
patterned in-teraction among castes in terms of collectivity of restrictions, namely, restrictions on
change of membership, occupation, marriage, and commensal relations. In viewing caste as a system,
there is a presupposition that no caste can exist in isolation and that each caste is closely involved
with other castes in the network of economic, political, and ritual relationships. The ‘closed-rank

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