Page 201 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes appeals are followed by religious appeals. This is vindicated by both Hindu and Muslim political
parties functioning in India. No wonder, caste will continue to be exploited at all political levels.
At the economic level though it is true that role recruitment, reward distribution, and economic
mobility of workers and wage earners are determined on the basis of their performance qualities,
and people of different castes take to modern occupations, but it is equally true that in villages
particularly, their position depends on pervasive caste strictures and on inter-caste relations. In India
today, the economic problem for individuals is scarcity—of wealth, jobs and opportunities—to
participate in the new economic system that is slowly being built and is obviously the prime source of
wealth and power. Thus, the aspects of caste that are most useful to the potential striver for position
and power in the modern occupational order are nepotism and casteism.
At the social level, castes continue to be important in terms of determining the style of living as well
as the rank positions of groups (castes) in which marriages are to be settled. Though the old ritual
and occupational functions of castes are rapidly disappearing, yet caste endogamy is still preserved
and the idea of the structure’s sanctity has been retained and adapted to the needs of modern social
indexing. It is also to be noted that the elites of India are overwhelmingly of high caste origins whereas
the lower and menial classes display a precisely opposite juxtaposition of castes.
It may thus be concluded that the caste system will continue to be a reality in the years and decades
to come.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct option:
(i) In 2001, the proportion of Dalit population was ............... .
(a) 16.2% (b) 15.5% (c) 20% (d) 25%
(ii) In 1995 in all jobs of the central government services, ............... of the jobs were held by Dalits.
(a) 17.2% (b) 18.5% (c) 25% (d) 10%

(iii) In 1997, India democratically elected ..............., a Dalit, as the nation’s President.
(a) Jakir Hussain (b) Abdul Kalam (c) K.R. Narayanan (d) None of these
(iv) The Maurya Period started after the fall of Nanda Dynasty in ............... .
(a) 400 B.C. (b) 322 B.C. (c) 350 B.C. (d) None of these
(v) The Brahmo Samaj movement founded by Raja Ram Mohan Ray in ............... .
(a) 1820 (b) 1825 (c) 1830 (d) None of these

8.8 Summary

• The work on the history and philosophy of caste in the Vedic period is an outcome of an inquiry
into the Vedic literature which mainly includes the Vedas, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads.
Indian history, in a strictly historical sense, begins from the Rig Veda. The Vedic period is
supposed to have started from 400 B.C. and continued up to 1000 B.C.
• The end of the Rigvedic period marks the beginning of the later Vedic age, popularly known as the
Brahmanical age. The literature that represents this age includes the Brahmanas and older Upanishads.
This period approximately covers the span of about four hundred years beginning from 1000 B.C.
• This growth of royal (Kshatriya) power and prerogatives on the one hand and the impossible
demands of the Brahmins on the other was the chief cause of this struggle.
• In the Epic period (600-323 B.C.), therefore, we find that the class differentiation grew. Taking
advantage of the wars among the Kshatriya rulers themselves, the Brahmins succeeded in
organizing themselves as an exclusive class.
• The racial factor, the occupational bias, the philosophy of action, and the religious concept of
purity and pollution–all contributed to the formation of the caste system.

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