5 Inequality
UNIT 5 INEQUALITY: CASTE AND CLASS
Structure
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9
5.1
Introduction
Notion of Social-Inequality
Nature of Caste-Inequalities in India
Caste as the Invention of Colonial Modernity or a Legacy of Brahmanical Traditions
Nature of Class-Inequality in India
Interrelation of Caste and Class Hierarchies
Social-Inequalities, Development and Participatory Politics
Summary
Exercises
INTRODUCTION
The normative and democratic pillars of institutions and doctrines enshrined in the Constitution of India set the agenda of post-colonial state in India in terms of abolition or at least reduction of social-inequalities. The objective of ‘welfare’ state was to make a modern caste-less society by reducing centuries old disabilities inflicted upon the ‘depressed’ and attempt to improve their lot by providing them ‘reservations’ and ‘quotas’ in education as well as job market especially in state-bureaucracy and over-sized public sector enterprises. The Constitution of India requires the state to treat all citizens equally, without regard to birth, gender or religious belief. However, society does not function merely on the basis of formal principles.
Enforcement of legal doctrines and attempt to remove social discrimination is a process entangled in the complexities of social formation. The pernicious aspects of jati, varna and class, therefore, still permeate our families, localities and political institutions. In this unit, our focus will be on various aspects of social inequality and their impact on democratic polity and political economy of development in the post-colonial state of India.
5.2
NOTION OF SOCIAL-INEQUALITY
Human societies vary in the extent to which social groups as well as individuals have unequal access to advantages. Rousseau had made a distinction between natural and social inequality.
The former emerge from the unequal division of physical and mental abilities among the members of a society. The latter arise from the social
Structure
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9
5.1
Introduction
Notion of Social-Inequality
Nature of Caste-Inequalities in India
Caste as the Invention of Colonial Modernity or a Legacy of Brahmanical Traditions
Nature of Class-Inequality in India
Interrelation of Caste and Class Hierarchies
Social-Inequalities, Development and Participatory Politics
Summary
Exercises
INTRODUCTION
The normative and democratic pillars of institutions and doctrines enshrined in the Constitution of India set the agenda of post-colonial state in India in terms of abolition or at least reduction of social-inequalities. The objective of ‘welfare’ state was to make a modern caste-less society by reducing centuries old disabilities inflicted upon the ‘depressed’ and attempt to improve their lot by providing them ‘reservations’ and ‘quotas’ in education as well as job market especially in state-bureaucracy and over-sized public sector enterprises. The Constitution of India requires the state to treat all citizens equally, without regard to birth, gender or religious belief. However, society does not function merely on the basis of formal principles.
Enforcement of legal doctrines and attempt to remove social discrimination is a process entangled in the complexities of social formation. The pernicious aspects of jati, varna and class, therefore, still permeate our families, localities and political institutions. In this unit, our focus will be on various aspects of social inequality and their impact on democratic polity and political economy of development in the post-colonial state of India.
5.2
NOTION OF SOCIAL-INEQUALITY
Human societies vary in the extent to which social groups as well as individuals have unequal access to advantages. Rousseau had made a distinction between natural and social inequality.
The former emerge from the unequal division of physical and mental abilities among the members of a society. The latter arise from the social