Page 289 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes collective force to transform the capitalist system. Connections between social relations of
production, social organization of the exploited classes and state power formed the main basis of
the Marxian analysis. The organized working class becomes a power to reckon with as it represents
its interests, hence becomes a political class as well.
Studies of Indian working class consider labour as a commodity, and the value of labour power as
the basis of understanding the capitalist appropriation and exploitation of the surplus generated
by the proletariat. Thus, the working class is highly stratified within and in relation to the capitalist
and the middle classes. The working class has inequalities due to caste, ethnicity and gender.
There is labour aristocracy on the one hand and the pauperized labour on the other.
The working class in terms of its socio-cultural position is comprised of the urban poor, living in
slums and hutments. They are found working in industries, textile mills, sugar factories, plantations,
railways, cottage industry and informal sector. Despite these differences, the working class
constituted the urban and the rural poor both in the organized and informal sectors of economy.
Labour market, labour legislation, caste and class background of workers, class consciousness,
working class movements and their leadership are some of the issues taken in the studies of the
working class in India. Role of owners, managers, superiors and leadership of trade unions and
gender has been studied in relation to the working class.

What is the focal points of analysis in social stratification ?

Operationalization of the Weberian Approach

Though Max Weber represents a considerably different perspective while compared to Marxian
thinking, yet Gerth and Mills observe, “Much of Weber’s own work is of course informed by a
skilful application of Marx’s historical method”. Weber criticizes Marx for an untenable monocausal
theory, a segmental perspective and reducing the multiplicity of causal factors to a single-factor
theorem. Weber’s work is commented by Gerth and Mills as an attempt to “round out” Marx’s
economic materialism by political and military materialism. In him famous essay “Class, Status,
Party”, Weber considers “class”, “status groups” and “parties” as phenomena of the distribution
of power within a community. These are also three orders, namely, economic, social and political,
and are not identical to each other, though they are interlinked and influence one another.
Now, the question is : How far the multidimensional studies of social stratification emphasizing
caste, class and power/politics have accounted for Weber’s principles of rationalization, individual
and his action (subjectivity) and interpretative understanding ? The points such as the notion of
rationality; historical specificity, cultural mornings, methodology and levels of application and
analysis are necessary elements in the application of Weber’s approach to the study of social
stratification.
There has been a realization that stratification goes beyond “caste” and the principle and practice
of “pure and impure”. “Caste-free areas” have emerged due to the differentiated structures in
modern India. Cleavages between caste, class and power indicate incompatibility of the pollution-
purity syndrome. For a comprehensive understanding of caste-class nexus, it has been suggested
that dialectics, history, culture and structure should become essential factures for the study of
social stratification. The Weberian approach brings out in focus the multidimensional nature of
social stratification, namely, caste, class and power. In other words, caste alone is insufficient to
gauge the totality of stratification. It cannot encompass entirety of economic and political aspects
of inequality and hierarchization.

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