Caste and race in India, 1932. G.S.

GHURYE, father of Indian sociology and he

introduced modern Indology.
Features of caste system : Ghurye
Segmental division:
 Membership-birth, not selection
 Status- caste, not weath
 Job- military. Public status, private status.
 Council to regulate conduct, not in class.
 Panchayat.
 Offences: eating, concubine, adultery, job, feast, promise of marriage, debt, assault,
trade
 Justice – community.
 Community as a whole, caste to its members.
Hierarchy:
 Restrictions on feeding and social intercourse:
 What and whom?
 Food and social intercourse: two broad belts-
 Hindustan proper: twice born caste, those caste from whose hand twice born can take
pakka food, no food but water, not untouchable, but no water, touch deflies every
Hindu.
 Food: kaccha (water) and pakka (ghee, without water).
 Kaccha food only from own casteman or Brahmin guru. Brahmin to all. Brahmin by
none.
 Pakka food, brahmin by some of the caste only.
 No relation between caste status and restrictions on food taboo.
 Pollution by touch-more in south india, than north.
 Bengal: two groups- the brahmins and the shudras.
 Shudras: based on food and water 4 sub-classes. – sat shudra group- kayastha and
nabasakh, jalacharaniya shudra- brahmins and members of higher caste can take
water, jalabyabaharya shudra- no water by brahmin, asprishya shudra- so impure that
touch pollute ganga water.
 In terms of food, same, just some people wont accept kaccha food even from a
brahmin.
 Pakka food: own or higher caste and halwai.
 Untouchable: water – well. Vessel. Masonry well not polluted much as a clay pipe
well. 3 and half cubits in width
 Outskirts of city, no permission inside temple.
 South India: from brahmin all will take. No strictness in terms of water.
Civil and religious disabilities and privileges of the different sections:
Maratha, mahar, eathen pot on neck and thorny branch.

Gujarat, has to wear a horn and alert people

 Kerala: nayar approach B, but not touch.
Tiyan, 36 steps
Pulayan, 96 steps.
Tiyan from nayar 12 steps.

Lack of unrestricted source of occupation:

Trading, agriculture, labouring in the field, military service

Restrictions on marriage

Malabar, youngere son of nambudhri snd others consort with kshatriya and
nayar

With education and urbanisation things will change, but with the growing social
and political organisations based on caste, it will take time.

Critique:

 Rely too much on text

 Hindu centric view of society

M. N. Srinivas

Caste and Varna

 Varna: Hindu society into four orders. Three twice born caste (upanayana ceremony)
Untouchables outside.
 Features:
- Varna: (Pan-Indian model, reference point), broad categories of society,
not to the real or effective units, untouchables left out. Caste – in
practice, jati – functional unit, local term.
- “varna scheme is a ‘hierarchy’ in the literal sense of the term because the
criteria of ritual purity and pollution are at the basis of differentiation” –
closed, no social mobility.
- Shudra (non-brahmanical)– vast difference between the caste groups.
- Caste- not a closed group. Sanskritisation.
- Varna model – distorted, as caste in local hierarchy is mostly unclear
(Brahmins- untouchables fixed). Who is what- identification?
Lingayats/Marka Brahmins (food).
- Lack of clarity in hierarchy – contestation over superiority by
arguments-food,habits. Eg: Smiths of South India- Viswakarma
Brahmins.
-
-
- Caste hierarchy is indeed local, in contrast to varna scheme.
- Ignores concept of Dominant caste
 - Individual position determined by context – priest/dominant caste.

Merits:

- Easily comprehended by people over India. A sense of unity- common social

language.
- Caste mobility (sanskritisation) takes place in varna terms and not local caste terms:
Bedas of Mysore to Valmiki Brahmins, and not Okkaligas.

Caste “is a hereditary, endogamous, usually localised group, having a traditional association
with an occupation and a particular position in the local hierarchy of caste”.

Sanskritisation:

 Coorgs of South India (Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India)
 “A low caste was able, in a generation or two, to rise to a higher position in the
hierarchy by adopting vegetarianism and teetotalism, and by Sanskritizing its ritual
and pantheon. In short, it took over, as far as possible, the customs, rites, and beliefs
of the Brahmins, and the adoption of the Brahminic way of life by a low caste seems
to have been frequent, though theoretically forbidden. This process has been called
"Sanskritization", in preference to "Brahminization," as certain Vedic rites are
confined to the Brahmins and the two other "twice-born" castes.”
 Caste more sanskritised among the higher caste.
 Sanskritised (Brahmanical customs and rites).
 Long run – Brahmanical way of life, short run- locally dominant caste ways – de
sanskritisation.
 Chain reaction.
 Sanskritisation, adverse effects on women – shave head, widow remarriage, pre-
puberty marriage, sex life denied. Husband as diety, vratas for husband.
 Sanskritisation does not lead to structural change as it changes one’s position only in
the local caste hierarchy.
Dominant caste- 1953- Rampura (a multi caste village)- Okkaligas (peasants)

Dominant caste and its power/dominance

 Understanding of rural social life – i) Hierarchy ii) settlement of dispute iii) pattern of
sanskritisation
 Dominant caste: “A caste may be said to be ‘dominant’ when it preponderates
numerically over the other castes, and when it also wields preponderant economic
and political power. A large and powerful caste group can be more easily dominant
if its position in the local caste hierarchy is not too low.”
 Fourth element, education and occupation – western and non-traditional education.
 Dominant caste must possess a few of the elements of dominance, if not all
 Rampura – D.C = largest in number, holds the maximum plot of land, more literates
- Ritual position low, varna- Shudras.
 Why not the Brahmins?
 Non-Brahmin movement.
 Ritual dominance exist by itself – Brahmins and Lingayats.
 One element, others follow. So over time a wealthy and numerically strong caste can
move in the ritual ladder if it sanskritises its ritual and way of life, and proclaims what
it wants to be.
 Social mobility is there just for the caste Hindus and not untouchables.