Caste-class dynamics: The case of a south Indian village.
Item
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Title
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Caste-class dynamics: The case of a south Indian village.
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Identifier
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AAI9130372
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identifier
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9130372
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Creator
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Selvam, Solomon.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michael E. Brown
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Social Structure and Development | Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | Sociology, General
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Abstract
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The dramatic eruption of caste and communal riots by the upper-caste organizations that instantly toppled the government of prime minister Viswanath Pratap Singh in November 1990, signifies among other things that caste is an enduring reality in India. These developments testify that casteism, in its praxis and ideology, is still down to earth in Indian society: from the social life in the huts of the interior villages to the top corridors of power. Casteism is pronounced in work and wage distribution and allocation of resources in countryside as much as in the allocation of portfolios and other official positions in the urban centers. Mate-selection, and conduct of marital and all other cultural and religious ceremonies remain unshakably caste-bound.;Yet individuals, groups and strata based on wealth have clearly and visibly emerged from the ranks of all the castes. The class elements emerge in confrontation and in coalition with caste factors. Caste values largely persist despite the class elements getting institutionalized in Indian development. While the battle of caste and class factors become intense in overtaking one another, these factors together as a single process, greatly determine the social life in Vagaikulam, the field of my ethnographic study, as they do throughout India. This coalition of class-caste factors, at time prevents, and now contributes to the process of polarization of properties in Vagaikulam. This incessant interplay of caste and class factors in every aspect of social life makes possible a "dynamic" rather than parallel development. I call it the "caste-class dynamics", influencing every aspect of social life: economy, polity, culture, religion, education, business, marriage, etc.;The ethnographic study highlights: (1) The ways in which capitalization determines the fluctuating dynamics of the caste-class relations in Indian villages, and limits and opportunities for the socialization. (2) The caste-class dynamics function more often than not as a single process influencing the entire social fabric: economic, political, cultural and religious events in the village. (3) And in a given issue, either the caste or the class factors have an edge over the other, while the class elements are increasingly pronounced.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
