Page 98 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 5: Forms of Social Stratification

• The socio-psychological makeup of most rural and many urban women has been shaped and Notes
moulded by more than a century of patriarchal beliefs and a family system where the man
(in form of father or husband) is the equivalent of God. The feeling of inferiority has been
embedded in their psyche so much so that far from condemning acts of violence against
them they are more likely to throttle the voices in favour of them. This is part of the cliched
vicious circle of illiteracy and social backwardness that accounts for all the resultant
backwardness of the gender.
• Measures of gender equality therefore require an assessment of the degree to which resources
have been redistributed; whether state policy has facilitated women’s autonomy’ and the
extent to which unequal gender relations have been transformed. Contemporary Indian's
political landscape is characterized by a great deal of social upheaval. This is the result of
growing democratic consciousness which is increasingly conflicting with the forces of
domination, authoritarianism and hegemony.
• The control of women’s physical mobility, a crucial aspect of status, is also influenced by
caste, class, religious, and community structures. While women’s physical mobility my
increase with their entry into the labour force, it also makes them vulnerable to assault,
molestation, and rape.
• India’s sex ratio, defined here as the number of women per 1000 men, has fallen steadily
since the beginning of the 20th century. Date 1 asks the question that has mystified
demographers for many a decade : why has the sex ratio fallen by nearly 1% at each decennial
enumeration ?
• It becomes difficult to draw a strict line of demarcation between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’, and
‘individual’ and ‘corporate’ rankings. The rich and the poor are the same to a large extent in
both the settings; the difference is mainly a contextual one. An individual is a part of his
family, and a family is linked with a group, hence individual exists as a corporate entity to
a considerable extent.
• The main difference is in terms of the extent of operation of a particular principle or a set of
criteria/attributes. Caste, class and power are common to both the settings, but they differ in
social life operationally because of the structural differences between the village and the
town.
• Theoretically, an industrial society is characterized by a very open view of status, role and
power allocation. Open relationship, competition, radicalism, innovation and utilitarianism-
rationalism are the main features of an industrial society.
• ‘Rural’ and ‘urban’ are certainly two distinct patterns of life because of the distinction between
population living in these two settings, but these do not imply two different principles of
social stratification.
• The process of urbanization and industrialization though not necessarily unrelated are also
not essentially concomitant in entirety. In the pre-industrial period, urbanization existed not
only as an exclusive phenomenon, it was quite pronounced and was an ideal reference for a
desired living.
• The administrative hierarchy was constituted independent of varna caste ranking. Non-
agricultural occupations, formal groups and impersonal relationship were the main features
of urban social life. Varna Ratnakara provides, however, a vivid account of the lower castes,
“market activities, and artistic endeavours, ascetics along with a description of predominance
of non-agricultural occupations, complexity and heterogeneity of population and preference
for personalized relationship. These two valuable classical sources speak not only of the
dynamics of urbanization, but also explain structural and cultural indices of urban life.

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