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Social Stratification

Notes There are not many studies of technocrats, scientists and managers partly because of their
considerable distance from administrative-political setup and partly because of their style of work
and way of life. Technocrat/engineer today combines management expertise with scientific know-
how. An engineer with a degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) has made a place of
‘high status’ in Indian society. Even an MBA without an engineering degree has much more job
opportunity than those having skills in several other fields. Higher technical education provides
a passport for a high-status lucrative job. The graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology
(IIT) enjoy more prestige, and they are more in demand than the graduates of ordinary engineering
colleges. A large number of graduates of IIT, Bombay have gone abroad for better career prospects
and work conditions (Sukhatme and Mahadevan, 1988).
The industrialists, technocrats and managers have to work in India under the politicians in
particular, and to a considerable extent under the administrators (Bhattacharya, 1984). Managers
and officers are organizing themselves through trade unions and associations (Ramaswamy, 1985).
Hardly any literature is available on Indian scientists. Three articles in Lal et al. (1988), namely, by
Sri Chandra (1988), Ramanama and Bambawale (1978) and Srivastava and Toha (1988) on India’s
scientists as professionals do not list any notable studies of scientists in India. Articles by Sri
Chandra and Srivastava and Toha are in the form of preliminary notes without having any empirical
bearing. However, Ramanama and Bambawale, based on their study of 780 scientists working in
thirteen organisations, including universities, public sector and private sector undertakings in
Bombay and Pune, report ambivalence and role-conflict as the main problems of the scientists
working in all the three sectors.
The initial studies of medical profession have particularly emphasized social-structural and
organizational aspects of the profession. Some of the recent studies too put more emphasis on the
pattern of relationship between different segments of hospital as a social organization. Advani
(1980), Chandani (1985,1988), Mehta (1988) and Nagla (1988) have substantiated the exercise
conducted in the earlier studies.
In the studies of managers, technocrats, scientists and medical doctors, high status of these
professionals is taken for granted, and therefore, instead of knowing the actual social status,
emphasis is put more on the formal criteria of social status.
In evaluation of formal positions like professor, reader and lecturer, non-formal criteria such as
academic achievements, reputation as a teacher and scholar, cultural style of life, family
back-ground, etc. matter a lot. Since academic profession is accredited with a high degree of
autonomy like the legal profession, informal criteria of status evaluation are valued in good
measure along with the formal criteria like rank, income and office. The recent studies by Khanna
(1988) and Bhoite (1987) only casually stress upon the stratificational aspect of academic community.
Rudra (1989) considers the emergence of the intelligentia as a ruling class in India in addition to
the already existing two ruling classes : one with base in agriculture, and the other with base in
large industry. The intelligentia have become a member of the ruling coalition. The two traditional
ruling classes have co-opted the intelligentia as a member of their fraternity. The intelligentia
include the following :
1. All white-collar workers in the organized private sector, from managers and top executives
down up to clerical workers.
2. All office workers in administrative services from top bureaucrats right up to lower division
clerks.
3. Teachers (from the school to the university levels), doctors and nurses, lawyers and judges,
engineers and architects in both private and public sectors.
4. Writers, journalists, artists and other skilled workers.
5. Professionals, politicians, trade union leaders, etc.

88 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY