Caste, Class and Social Stratification
Stratification is the ranking of people by unequal access to valued resources. In India the exam tests caste and class as distinct but intersecting systems, and asks you to explain hierarchy, mobility and change.
Caste
Caste is a hereditary, endogamous and hierarchically ranked system historically linked to purity and pollution. Varna is a four-fold textual model (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra; Dalits outside the model); jati is the actual local endogamous group. Caste panchayats regulate marriage and conduct. M. N. Srinivas described Sanskritization (lower groups adopting upper-caste practices) and the dominant caste (numerically strong and locally powerful).
Class
Class is based on income, occupation, education and property. It is relatively open and achieved, though birth still matters. Classes can be identified by occupation and consumption, not by ritual rank.
Intersection
Caste and class cross-cut: a poor Brahmin family and a rich Dalit entrepreneur show that ritual status and economic class need not coincide. Affirmative action addresses caste disadvantage, while class-based schemes address poverty.
Worked example
Question: ‘A wealthy Dalit family still faces caste discrimination.’ Explain. Reasoning: separate ritual status from income; show that caste operates through marriage rules, social honour and everyday exclusion, which wealth does not automatically erase; then note that class mobility can coexist with caste prejudice. This avoids the error of reading caste only from occupation.
Traps
- Treating varna as an exact description of local jati.
- Saying caste is merely occupation; endogamy and hierarchy are central.
- Assuming class has replaced caste.
- Defining class only by income and ignoring education and occupation.