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Unit 6: Caste System in India

6. In the caste system, upper castes compete with each other for the services of the lower-castes but Notes
in the class system, lower- classes compete with each other for the favour of the upper classes.
Referring to this, Leach (Ibid: 5-6) has said: “It is the characteristic of the class-organized societies
that rights of ownership are the prerogative of minority groups which form privileged elites. The
capacity of the upper-class minority to exploit the services of the lower-class majority is critically
dependent upon the fact that members of the under-privileged groups must compete among
themselves for the favours of the elites. In a caste society, however, the position is reversed”.
7. In the caste system, status of a caste is determined not by the economic and the political privileges
but by the ritualistic legitimation of authority, that is, in the caste-based system, ritual norms
encompass the norms of power and wealth (Dumont). For example, even though Brahmins have
no economic and political power yet they are placed at the top of the caste hierarchy. In the class
system, ritual norms have no importance at all but power and wealth alone determine one’s status.
According to Dumont, in the class-based system, economic and political ideologies encompass
the ritual order. Bailey, however, does not accept Dumont’s state-ment that religious ideas rather
than the economic values establish the rank of each caste. He says that if we accept this statement,
it would mean that changes in control over economic resources can take place without causing
changes in rank. This is only partially true. It may be true for Brahmins and untouchables but not
for the intermediate castes. In his own study in Bisipara, Bailey (1957: 264-65) found that change
in wealth is followed by change in rank. Further, in the caste system, social mobility is not possible
but in the class system, change in status is possible. D.N. Majumdar (1958) in this context has even
explained caste as a closed class. This view is not accepted by M.N. Srinivas (1962-42) who thinks
that movement is always possible through the processes of sanskritization and westernization.
Andre Betaille (1965) has also said that no social system is absolutely closed. There is always some
scope, however limited, for alternative combinations. But the choice allowed for different
combinations varies from community to community.
6.4 Characteristics of Caste

The structure of caste could be discussed by analyzing its important features. When Bougle (1958)
has postulated three elements of caste, namely, hereditary specialization, hierarchy and repulsion or
opposition, Hocart (1950) has emphasized on ritual purity and impurity, while Risley (1915) has
referred to endogamy and hereditary occupation. Ghurye, Hutton, Ketkar, Dutt, etc. have also pointed
out all these features. In giving these features, the scholars have not made distinction between caste
as a unit and caste as a system. Keeping this difference in view, it may be maintained that the important
features of caste as a unit are hereditary membership, endogamy, fixed occupation, and caste councils;
while the features of caste as a system are hierarchy, commensal restrictions, and restrictions with
regard to physical and social distance. We will analyze these features of caste as a system and caste as
a unit separately.
6.4.1 Characteristics (of Caste) as a System
1. Hierarchy Based on Birth
No two castes have an equal status. One caste has either a low or a high status in relation to other
castes. It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the exact or even the approximate place of each
caste in the hierarchical system. Two methods have mainly been used in assessing the hierarchy:
observational method and opinion-assessing method. In the former, either the attributional method
or the interactional method has been used for ranking the castes. The attributional method determines
the rank of a caste by its behaviour, for example, its customs, practice of degrading occupation,
vegetarianism, habits of liquor-drinking, etc. ; the interactional method evaluates ranks of two given
castes in relationship to each other by observing the commensal interaction and marital relations,
etc. between the two castes. If a caste ‘A’ accepts a girl in marriage from a caste ‘B’ but does not give
a girl in that caste, ‘A’ will have higher status than ‘B’. This is because of the hypergamy rule according
to which a girl of a lower caste can marry in a higher caste but not viceversa. Similarly, if the members
of a caste ‘A’ do not accept food from the members of a caste ‘B’ but members of caste ‘B’ accept it, it
will indicate the higher status of ‘A’ over ‘B’.

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