2.1 Social stratification and caste notes

1. 2.1.1Social stratification: forms (slavery, estate, caste, class) and theories (Marx, Weber, Davis–Moore, Tumin)

   Social stratification is the ranking of groups into layers with unequal wealth, power and prestige; history shows four main forms (slavery, estate, caste, class), and sociology explains it through conflict (Marx), multi-dimensional (Weber) and functional (Davis–Moore) theories.

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2. 2.1.2Social mobility: types, channels and studies

   Social mobility is the movement of individuals or groups from one social position to another; Sorokin classified it as horizontal or vertical, and in India it runs through both individual channels (education, jobs, migration) and group routes (Sanskritisation, caste politics, reservation).

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3. 2.1.3Varna and jati: textual origins and theories of caste origin (Risley, Hutton, Nesfield, Ambedkar)

   Varna is the four-fold textual scheme of Brahmanical society, while jati is the real, birth-based group that multiplied over time; scholars have explained caste origin through divine, Brahmanical, racial, occupational, ritual and Ambedkar's endogamy theories, none of which is accepted alone.

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4. 2.1.4Features of caste: Ghurye's six features, jajmani system and purity–pollution

   Caste is marked by segmental division, ranked hierarchy, rules on food, contact and marriage, and hereditary occupation; the ideas of purity and pollution justify the order, and the jajmani system tied castes together in the village economy.

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5. 2.1.5Caste in the Census and among Muslims, Sikhs and Christians

   Colonial censuses classified and ranked castes until 1931; after Independence only SCs and STs were counted, until the Census of 2027, which counts all castes. Caste-like ranking also exists among Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, though SC status in law is limited to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.

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6. 2.1.6Changes in the caste system: Sanskritisation, dominant caste, urbanisation and legislation

   Caste has changed through Sanskritisation and the rise of dominant castes, through Westernisation, cities and new jobs, and through laws against untouchability and atrocities; its ritual side has weakened, but endogamy and its political role remain strong.

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7. 2.1.7Caste in politics and caste conflict: caste associations, vote banks, Mandal and Dalit-Bahujan politics

   Democracy did not end caste but politicised it: caste associations, vote banks and backward-class politics after Mandal turned caste into a resource of numbers. Competition over land, dignity and quotas also produced violent caste conflict.

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8. 2.1.8Dalit and anti-caste movements: Ambedkar's legacy, Dalit Panthers, BAMCEF and Telugu Dalit writing

   Anti-caste movements moved from social reform (Phule, Narayana Guru, Ayyankali, Periyar) to Ambedkar's politics of rights, conversion and the Constitution, and then to Dalit Panthers, Bahujan party politics and a strong Dalit literature, including in Telugu.

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