Page 81 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes Nonetheless, the Hindu stratification system has tended to dominate the Indian society with a
significant percent of Muslims, Christians and Sikhs identifying with caste groups defined by
Hindu traditions.
According to the Hindu religion, as articulated in The Vedas, Hindu society is classified into four
varnas or castes-Brahmin (priest and teacher), Kshatriya (ruler and warrior), Vaishya (trader), and
Shudra (servant). These are further subdivided into many smaller castes or jatis. Historically caste
position defined individuals’ occupation, income and access to land (Beteille 1969). Additionally,
reciprocal rural relations embedded in the jajmani system also defined incomes associated with
various occupations (Wiser 1979). While over time, new occupations have been introduced which
reduce caste barriers and the jajmani system has been slowly losing its grip, caste remains one of
the more enduring Institutions in India (Gupta 1991; Srinivas 1996). In this caste hierarchy, the
two groups that have been most marginalized are the Dalits and the Adivasis. The dalits, originally
called “untouchables” and later renamed ‘Harijan, “children of God’ by Mahatma Gandhi, are
also referred to as the Scheduled Caste, and adivasis or tribals, are also referred to as the Scheduled
Tribe population.
In much of the anthropological discourse of the 20th century, caste is seen as having a religious
rather than economic or political basis. With the publication of Homo Hierarchicus in 1966, Louis
Dumont provided canonical formulation of this view (Dumont 1980). He argued that the political
and social domains of Indian life were overshadowed by the religious domain with an opposition
between purity and pollution with the Brahmin at the religious pinnacle representing the highest
form of purity attainable by Hindus. Whether Brahmins are at the pinnacle of Hindu stratification
system or not remains subject to a lively debate among anthropologists and historians.
A large body of anthropological literature has been devoted to the study of the caste system in
India. Some of the debates within this literature are summarized in (Gupta 1991), however, a
broader discussion of the origins of the caste system is beyond the scope of this chapter.
Though dalits are the lowest in the caste hierarchy, they have been historically excluded from the
caste system, the justification offered being that they are so low that they do not deserve to be
assigned a caste. They were / are therefore known as ‘untouchables’ as distinct from caste Hindus,
the latter being those Hindus who belong to one of the castes. (Appadurai 1986; Raheja 1988;
Gupta 1991), however, there seems to be a general agreement that caste structure in India rests on
social differentiation between castes based on visibly recognizable symbols including rituals,
dress, tonsorial styles, and host of other behavioural markers. There seems to be a general
acknowledgement within society of the social markers that separate the population, and an
awareness also of the crucial criterion (sometimes a set of criteria) on which such forms of
differentiation are based (Beteille 1969; Gupta 1991).
Visible displays of gendered behaviour seem to be such markers—arguably the most important
markers— of Brahminical or Sanskritized status. Noted Indian anthropologist M.N. Srinivas has
described the role of women as custodians of family status and caste purity in great detail (Srinivas
1977). Under the canonical Hinduism, this involves a host of activities. Women are supposed to
engage in rituals and religious rites which require purity and attention to the detail. They are
expected to be chaste and remain virgin until marriage, and after widowhood forsake all worldly
pleasures dressing in white clothes and often shaving their heads, widow remarriage is considered
a marker of low status and women are expected to cleave to the husband’s family and learn the
customs of their husband’s family, abandoning the customs of their natal families. Obedience and
chastity are seen as a woman’s greatest virtue with a woman expected to be obedient to her father
in childhood, husband in adulthood and son in the old age.
Hindu religion is only one among many in circumscribing women’s freedom and making a virtue
of submission to male authority. It is seems unlikely that in itself this code of conduct would bind
women any more than the Hindu code of conduct forces modern Hindu men to engage in asceticism,

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