Book Report on "Caste in Contemporary India"

Book Report 6 pages (1668 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Indian Caste

An Ethnography of the Caste System and Modernization in India

Among societies in Central Asia, few has intercoursed so thoroughly and peaceably with the developed and western worlds as India. Following its hard-fought emergence from British occupation in the early 20th century, India would experience both rapid ascension with regard to its philosophical, scientific and economic contributions to the world. Simultaneously, it has struggled mightily to satisfy the resource needs of a widely impoverished nation, it has worked with great difficulty to resolve its role of leadership within its region and it has battled with variant degrees of success to overcome its own internal inequities. These inequities are particularly marked by its notorious Caste system, a mode of explicit hierarchical division between classes which is rationalized by spiritual proclamations and which has significant implications regarding ones occupational opportunities, marital prospects, opportunities for political representation, treatment by the legal system and general standard of living. In many ways, the retention of this system -- always on the decline in the facing or rising modernity -- has appeared to be out of synch with India's development in other areas. Referring to a text by Pauline Kolenda (1985) which reflects on the nature of this Caste system in a gradually modernizing society, we can begin to understand with greater insight the difficulty which this represents to Indian culture as a whole.

Methods:

In order to determine the extent to which the Caste system has changed and to observe the ways in which it has sustained many of its problematic features, Kolenda would propose to immerse herself in the culture and lifestyle of Indians in four different Indian states. Conducting an ethnography on the social interactions of different caste representatives in both urban and rural environments, Kolenda would report to decline in the system's influence in the former context and a steady commitment to the social structure in the latter.

Accordingly, she reports that even in the face of its abolishment, the caste system is sustained by hereditary factors with clear connections to socioeconomic distribution and opportunity. Here, Kolenda reports that "endogamous birth-descent group, the jati -- the basic unit of the caste-system -- is essentially a large-scale kin group. Despite the gradual demise of the occupational aspect of the caste system (a demise now taking place at a more rapid tempo), the solidarity of the jati is intact. Thus India presents the sociological possibility of becoming a modern society yet retains what Ibn Kaldun believed was inevitably lost with the advance of civilization." (Kolenda, i) Here, the author induces a consideration of one of the primary philosophical debates persisting with respect to the caste system. Namely, the author identifies the caste system as having a deep connection to a history of Indian spiritual classification which, when undermined, may yet undermine cherished and valuable aspects of Hindu and Indian heritage. Still, Kolenda identifies the clear conflict that this manifests where the pursuit of humanitarian interests is concerned. The caste system does represent a clearly hierarchical structure for Indian society which, when pursued to its fullest extent, seems inherently to relegate wide cross-sections of Indian status to social and familial immobility. Moreover, there are pointed and intended inequalities in the caste system which, Kolenda indicates, are a direct threat to any realistic pursuit of a modern democratic society.

Content:

Kolenda initiates her ethnography by conferring with the lifestyle of Indians living in largely rural contexts such as the majority of the nation did in 1985. Though less so, evidence would suggest that this yet remains the case today. Kolenda would find that Caste systems had not inherently been entirely designed in order to socially and economically segregate members of the Indian population. Instead, she refers to Castes as Descent Groups, which she distinguishes as means members of regionally specific tribes, observers to a similar sect of Hinduism, members of a kinship group or, as the meaning would largely evolve to, as a group distinguished by its socioeconomic status. This reveals an important condition often overlooked by outsiders who are reflexively critical of the caste system. As Kolenda phrases this, "the most persistent feature of Indian society is its organization into mirco-communities which are large-scale descent groups." (Kolenda, 6)

These groups have developed organically in many ways, with implications to socioeconomic status emerging thereafter. This is to say that many of the conditions of the Caste structure in India were never systematic in the way that they were enforced. Instead, they had been the product of a society naturally splintered into many different cultural subgroups. Thus, half a century since the abolition of the Caste system, the Kolenda text would discuss the relative difficulty of using this legislation to alter cultural practices in the wide expanses of untouched rural life that comprise much of India. To the point, Kolenda reports that "about 45 million people are listed by the Census of India of 1971 as tribals. However, most of India's 580 million people continue to live in rural areas, and most still participate in some way in a traditional local caste system." (Kolenda, 9)

The focus of her text though is on the nature of those forces bringing about change to this system. Kolenda argues that in many ways, the natural forces of modernity are obliterating these group distinctions -- positive or negative where egalitarian interests of concerned. This is a pattern which she indicates is more evidenced in urban settings in particular, where specialized training and the entrance of global interests are bringing individuals to great occupational opportunities. These are in turn diminishing the influence which is possible by such cultural imperatives. As Kolenda phrases it, "increasing numbers of people are involuntarily losing their place in the traditional system. At the same time, a gradually increasing number of people are being integrated occupationally into a large caste-free modern occupational structure involving government, businesses, factories, schools, colleges, and services of various kinds." (Kolenda, 9)

This is an implication to her work which makes the Kolenda text particularly useful in projecting the likely pattern of social organization which will be taken in India in the coming years. Namely, she identifies the connection between the creation of a more egalitarian labor society as a primary engine to promoting lesser sociological division. That said, Kolenda does not aggressively pursue the claim that this is a categorical victory for humanitarian interests. As we see throughout the consideration of her text, there is in fact a sense that these inevitable changes are not achieved without their own repercussions.

To Kolenda, an important and often overlooked consequence is the destruction of kin-groups that have been important in terms of achieving cultural solidarity for individuals in a highly populous society. Therefore, on one hand, Kolenda considers the possibility that such groups could actually be a vehicle to achieving political unification and, therefore, an undermining of the unequal implications of the Caste system. This is to say that her text makes a case that some aspects of the Caste system should be viewed as separate from the humanitarian issues. She points out that "those networks within a caste which are related to the modern sector are a kin-community. The kin-community may or may not be organized as a voluntary association." (Kolenda, 149) This is a point which does call for greater consideration not just of what is gained from eroding the caste system but also of that which must necessarily be lost so that Indian society may move forward.

Discussion:

Today, India is increasingly viewed by developed western states as a natural partner in economic, educational and diplomatic affairs. There is held a perspective amongst American and British leaders, for instance, that India is a relatively egalitarian state as this compares to embattled neighboring states such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma. Its… READ MORE

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