Social Stratification in India


Book Description

This book provides a holistic understanding of the complexities of Indian society by analyzing the historical, cultural and political bases of social stratification. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of sociology, social anthropology, and political sociology, as also to concerned intellectuals and planners.




Tribe and Class in Monrovia


Book Description

Originally published in 1964, this book analyses the unique type of social stratification which is more akin to a social class system in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. Liberia, established in 1847 has no history of rule by a colonial power and is of perculiar sociological interest, having been governed until the first half of the twentieth century by a minority group of immigrants from America and their descendants. The bulk of the population, however, is made up of members of about 20 tribes, between whom and the American descendants a caste-like social system has developed.







Social Stratification


Book Description

This is a collection of sociological essays on four main themes in Indian culture: caste, caste profiles, class and conflict.







Ground Down by Growth


Book Description

Why has India's astonishing economic growth not reached the people at the bottom of its social and economic hierarchy? Traveling the length and breadth of the subcontinent, this book shows how India's "untouchables" and "tribals" fit into the global economy. India's Dalit and Adivasi communities make up a staggering one in twenty-five people across the globe and yet they remain among the most oppressed. Conceived in dialogue with economists, Ground Down by Growth reveals the lived impact of global capitalism on the people of these communities. Through anthropological studies of how the oppressions of caste, tribe, region, and gender impact the working poor and migrant labor in India, this startling new anthology illuminates the relationship between global capital and social inequality in the Indian context. Collectively, the chapters of this volume expose how capitalism entrenches social difference, transforming traditional forms of identity-based discrimination into new mechanisms of exploitation and oppression.




Handbook on Social Stratification in the BRIC Countries


Book Description

Along with the fast growing economy, the term "BRICs" was coined to represent the newly emerging countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China. This book shows readers that it is the profound social structural changes in these countries that determine their future, and to a large extent, will shape the socio-economic landscape of the future world.










Interrogating Caste


Book Description

The caste system has conventionally been perceived by scholars as a hierarchy based on the binary opposition of purity and pollution. Challenging this position, leading sociologist Dipankar Gupta argues that any notion of a fixed hierarchy is arbitrary and valid only from the perspective of the individual castes. The idea of difference, and not hierarchy, determines the tendency of each caste to keep alive its discrete nature and this is also seen to be true of the various castes which occupy the same rank in the hierarchy. It is, in fact, the mechanics of power, both economic and political, that set the ground rules for caste behaviour, which also explains how traditionally opposed caste groups find it possible to align in the contemporary political scenario. With the help of empirical evidence from states like Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, the author illustrates how any presumed correlations between caste loyalties and voting patterns are in reality quite invalid. Provocative and finely argued, Interrogating Caste is a remarkable work that provides fresh insight into caste as a social, political and economic reality.