Page 293 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes Today, the “dominant castes” are not necessarily the twice-born castes. The dominant caste could
well signify a section of a particular caste group, not necessarily the entire caste group. The caste
system is not uniformly rigid/flexible, hence different patterns of social mobility exist in the caste
system. In a given context, caste might work as a cultural phenomenon or it may denote structural
features resembling with the systems of social stratification in a global context. In a given situation,
caste may exhibit structural and cultural features in varying proportions. Thus, there are studies
of caste relating to its dimensional nature, theoretical and methodological issues, sociology of
knowledge perspective, and on the questions of theory, ideology and method for understanding
of the structure and process of social stratification.
Class
Class and power are economic and political dimensions of social stratification, respectively. Caste
and power have been viewed from a class perspective. However, there are not just two classes —
the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. V.M. Dandekar discerns four broad classes in India as follows :
1. agrarian classes,
2. industrial classes,
3. professional classes, and
4. business and mercantile classes.
Dandekar questions the Marxist approach on the basis of the absence of the fully developed
monopoly of capitalism and emergence of trade unions and their power of collective bargaining,
class harmony, middle class, intra-class differentiation, welfare policies of the state, and an overlap
between caste, class and occupation and mixed classes. Even for the realization of economic or
class interests, the use of caste idiom is found to be a convenient means of articulation. K.L.
Sharma observes the following patterns of social mobility vis-a-vis caste and class :
1. downward mobility and proletarianization,
2. upward mobility and embourgeoisiement,
3. urban migration and income for the rural people and social mobility in the village, and
4. rural non-agricultural income and intra-village social mobility.
Both the reality and perception of class have changed over the years. Class is no more understood
simply as a grouping of people having common economic and political interests. It is not merely
an attributional phenomenon understood in terms of income, occupation, education, etc.
Competition alone cannot be the sole criterion of the emergence of class in a caste society.
In ancient and medieval times, the prevalence of private landholding, interaction between socio-
economic classes, trade and society, and agrarian growth and social conflicts characterized the
class structure of Indian society. The colonial class structure could be seen in terms of the complex
nexus between state, capital and labour. In the thirties of the 20th century, the following classes
were identified :
1. political classes,
2. commercial classes,
3. landlords and agricultural classes, and
4. industrial labour.
During the period after independence, the capitalist class has reinvented itself with increased
control/influence in decision-making. However, the big business may not always occupy a
superordinate position. But, generally, both organized workers and private financial and industrial
capital are politically marginal being constrained by their specific interests. The state is more
influenced by small-scale, self-employed “bullock capitalists”. The bullock capitalists oppose both

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