Indian Social Structure: Unity and Diversity, Family and Kinship, Caste, Tribe and Rural-Urban Linkages
This domain tests Indian social structure with attention to unity, diversity and regional variation. Avoid both 'everything is caste' and 'caste is gone'.
Unity and diversity
India contains linguistic, religious, regional and tribal diversity, held together by constitutional citizenship, markets, media and shared political institutions. Diversity is not simply inequality.
Family, kinship and caste
Indian kinship shows patrilineal and matrilineal systems (for example Nayar and Khasi), village exogamy, and joint family norms that coexist with nuclear households. Caste operates through jati, endogamy, commensality and occupational association; varna is a model, not a census. Caste mobility has been pursued through Sanskritisation, education, reservation and political mobilisation.
Tribe and rural-urban links
Tribal societies are characterised by kinship-based organisation, distinct language and customary law, and often land-based livelihoods; they are not isolated. Rural-urban linkages include migration, remittances, periodic markets, urban employment and the spread of urban norms to villages.
Worked example
A family migrates from a tribal village to a city. They retain kinship obligations and send remittances, but join a caste-like urban network and face new discrimination. This shows rural-urban linkage and the persistence of identity, not a simple rural-to-urban break.
Traps
Do not equate varna with jati. Do not treat tribes as castes. Do not assume urbanisation erases caste or kinship. Do not present diversity as mere conflict; unity and diversity coexist.