Page 288 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 13: Changing Dimensions of Social Stratification

Entrepreneurs are also a significant stratum in the scheme of social stratification. Earlier, Notes
moneylending and trading were taken up even by the landlords and substantial cultivating families.
The castes and communities which were earlier engaged in non-mercantile pursuits have taken
up entrepreneurship. There were peasant entrepreneurs, and there were also upper caste manual
and agricultural workers. Today, entrepreneurship is not confined to agriculture, business and
industry; it has spread to the domains of medicine, science, government service and teaching, etc.
Entrepreneurship has linkages with caste, community, region and religion. For example, in carpet
manufacturing in Uttar Pradesh, Hindus, Muslims, Jains and Sikhs are engaged. Banias, Muslims
and Rajputs dominate the carpet manufacturing. In eastern Uttar Pradesh, R.S. Singh finds a close
tie between landownership, leadership and entrepreneurship, and about three-fourth of the
entrepreneurs belong to three upper castes, namely, Brahmins, Rajputs and Bhumihars. In Rajasthan,
there are tribal entrepreneurs. In Kolkata, Mahisyas, a peasant caste, have dominated the
engineering industry surpassing both Brahmins and Kayasthas. Thus, entrepreneurship has
emerged as an avenue and a new direction of status determination.
Middle Classes and Professional Elites
In the pre-colonial period, the middle classes comprised the merchant, the artisan and the landed
aristocracy. During the British period, the middle classes transformed and included the businessmen
and entrepreneurs, industrialists, landed people, educated groups, professionals, etc. After
independence, the structure of the middle classes has undergone a considerable change in terms
of their size, functions and the role mainly due to the nature and character of the Indian state.
The middle classes are basically trained service groups and, therefore, ideally serve both the
upper and the lower classes, though not making available their services actually in equal measure.
The middle class is a class between labour and capital. The middle classes in India are a product
of both the capitalist development and the state. The lower classes generally aspire for the status
enjoyed by the middle classes by having access to lucrative white-collar jobs.
Elite formation in India is largely determined by the traditional social structure, particularly caste,
religion, language, networks, income, occupational background, education, family background,
etc. Select positions are usually taken by persons from select social strata. This select group controls
the positions of prestige, power and responsibility. Higher education is still under the grip of
upper castes, hence, it is status stabilizer, rather than an invader on status rigidities.
There are some studies of professionals such as lawyers, medical doctors and university teachers,
but not many studies of technocrats, scientists and managers. Because of professionalization,
these groups of people enjoy high social status. Formal criteria of social status are valued in these
professional groups. Besides these groups, there are also intelligentsia, which include white-collar
workers - from managers to clerks, workers in administrative services - from top to bottom,
teachers - from university to school level, doctors and nurses, lawyers and judges, engineers and
architects, writers, journalists, artists and other skilled workers, professionals, politicians, trade
union leaders, etc. One common feature of all the middle classes is that they do not themselves
produce any values in the material product sense of value. The middle classes depend for their
economic gains on the ruling classes as well as the state. Intelligentsia are not homogeneous in
terms of income, wealth and level of living. They are salaried people.
Thus, middle classes are different from industrialists, workers and peasants. There is a marked
homogeneity among them. There are also structural distinctions among different middle classes.
Some are more important for people than others, and they enjoy high prestige based on their
professionalism.

Working Class
For Karl Marx the interests of the owners of the means of production and the wage-earning class
were the central issue. Marx thought of ways and means of organizing the working class into a

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 283