Social Stratification and Inequality
What the exam tests
This domain tests the forms of stratification and the theories used to explain them, with Indian applications. Expect questions on caste, class, gender, race and ethnicity separately and together.
Core rules
- Stratification: ranked, persistent inequality among groups.
- Caste: hereditary, endogamous, hierarchical, linked historically to ritual purity and pollution; ascribed. M.N. Srinivas's dominant caste and sanskritisation describe mobility without dismantling caste.
- Class: economic position (ownership, occupation, income), achieved and relatively open; Marx's two classes vs Weber's class, status and party.
- Gender: socially constructed roles and relations, not biological sex; patriarchy structures power. Race is a socially constructed category, not a valid biological division. Ethnicity is shared culture, language and identity.
- Intersectionality: caste, class and gender interact; a Dalit woman's experience cannot be read from one axis alone.
Worked example
In a Karnataka school, Dalit students are made to sit separately at lunch. Is this only class inequality? Reasoning: no. Class could explain poverty, but separate seating invokes caste stigma, hereditary status and ritual pollution ideas. It is caste inequality intersecting with school authority. If Dalit girls are also burdened with cleaning work, gender intersects. A class-only answer misses ascription and dignity.
Traps
Do not treat caste as merely class. Do not treat race as biology. Do not use gender as a synonym for sex. Do not say stratification is always functional; conflict theorists stress domination. Do not ignore intersectionality or legal change such as the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.