Anthropology Optional Paper II Section A by Sourabh Mishra

Model Answer

Question #1. Bring out the various features and the importance of the “Dominant Caste”.

The concept of dominant caste was proposed by M N Srinivas in his work ‘Dominant

Caste in Rampura, 1959’ and explanation of the concept was extended in the essay ‘Social

System of Mysore Village, 1959’.

Rampura is composed of 19 caste groups. The Okkalingas  are dominant over all other castes economically, politically, and numerically. However, in religious life rituals they have only a middle rank and Brahmins and Lingayats surpass them in the matter of ritual purity.

According to Louis Dumont, ritual significance has no role to play in deciding what a dominant caste is. M.N Srinivas found that tribes such as Raj Gonds and low caste due to the benefit of welfare state policies have assumed dominance.

He defined dominant caste as the one which possesses all or few of the following characteristics:

• Ownership over a sizeable amount of cultivable land
• Place in the local caste hierarchy (a reasonably high place)
• Numerical strength
• Political clout
• Access to western education
• Jobs in administration

Significance of Dominant Caste (DC)

• DC often acts as reference models for the low caste groups. The low caste imitate their behaviour, ritual pattern, customs etc. to attain a DC status
  • Brahmin model – Lingayats.
  • Kshatriya model – Gulzars, Patidar, Jats.
  • Vaisya model – Telis of Orissa
  • Sudra model – Laundrymen in Western UP.
• DC of a particular region act as watchdogs of pluralistic culture. The high caste panchayats have a wider scope than lower caste panchayats of setting disputes across the castes and pick up the unresolved disputes in other caste councils voluntarily.
• The DC are the main power holders who establish contact with outside government officials, elected representatives and political leaders.
• DC have an opportunity of accelerating the socio-economic development of the region.
• Every state has more than one dominant caste. These castes are always engaged in rivalries and conflicts for securing political power and economic opportunities. For example, between Vokkaligas and Lingayats in Karnataka, Reddys and Kammas in Andhra Pradesh and so on.
• Dominant caste often exhibits greater concern for its social superiority even though it is not so in the caste hierarchy.
  • Ex: Punjab: Jats treat Brahmins as servants.
  • Madhopur: Thakurs do not accept food from Brahmins except from their preceptors and priests.
  • Rampura: Brahmin priests allow the Okkaligas to have Harathi before others have it.
• At village level, the non-Brahmin dominant castes are found to be greater exploiters of Harijan labour than the Brahmins. Sometimes the untouchables decide to give up performing services such as removing the dead animals from the houses of the higher castes. The upper caste people become annoyed and beat up the untouchables and set fire to their huts. The attempt to dominate and resistance to dominance, thus, leads to caste conflicts.
• The lower and the unprivileged castes including the so-called untouchables have now realised that they are getting exploited at the hands of these dominant castes. This awareness has made them organise themselves politically. The “Bahujana Samajvadi Party” headed mostly by lower caste leaders, is becoming popular in states such as U.P. Bihar, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh.
• In the recent past, factors like community development programmes, land reforms, elections and modernizations have had an impact on the power of DC. For M N Srinivas, the high position of DC is still a reality though in terms of volume and quality of power, there is a definite fall giving way to economic and class elements having a say.

Important field studies

• K L Sharma studied Brahmins in the villages near Kanpur and found that economically better castes have a chance of becoming dominant. For him, numerical strength and high ritual status can be occasionally overpowered by economic status.
• Wiser’s study in Karimpur, 1963: He found that Brahmins of Karimpur are considered dominant due to the larger land holdings.
• Study of Oscar Lewis, 1955: Jats of western India controlling other castes including Brahmin as they control means of economic production.

Q2. What do you understand about the dynamics of Caste mobility? How does the concept of Sanskritization contribute to its functionality?

Answer: By social mobility we understand the process by which individuals or groups move from one social status to another in the social hierarchy. Social mobility can be either upward or downward.

• F.G.Bailey: Closed, hierarchical and stratified
• KS Singh- In the rigid framework, some routes are still open.

In recent times, social mobility as a process has become more active. M.N. Srinivas has explained it through the processes of sanskritisation and westernisation.

McKim Marriott, Louis Dumont and Rajni Kothari have also found social mobility prevalent at different levels:

• On the one hand, the members of lower castes attempt to raise their social status in the caste hierarchy,
• on the other hand, caste as group attempts mobility by gaining political power or through the process of politicization of castes.

Srinivas:

• Horizontal Mobility- mobility of minority families with in caste due to acquisition of land and education.
• Corporate group mobility: Sanskritisation
• Mobility of an Individual within family

Types of Caste Mobility:

• Upward
• Downward
• Caste mobility in occupational perspective
• Caste mobility through Democratic process

Modes of upward caste mobility:

• Through warfare- Srinivas, Kaulinda, Pannikar
• Through serving rulers- Kayasthas
• Through census commissioners at different levels- Kurmi and teli
• Through social processes of sanskritisation and westernization- Lingayats, Nuniya
• By use of politics- Nadars, Reddys, Marathas

Mobility through Warfare:

• M.N. Srinivas and Pauline Kolenda have referred to caste mobility through resort to warfare in Mughal period. Kolenda has said that until the British unification in the first half of the nineteenth century, the most effective way to rise in the caste system was by the acquisition of territory either through conquest or by peaceful occupancy of sparsely populated or empty land.
• K. M. Panikkar has said that “since the fifth century B.C., every known royal family has come from a non-Kshatriya caste”.

Mobility through Serving Rulers:

• Jatis whose members served either Hindu or non-Hindu rulers attained higher varna rank. For example, the Patidars of Gujarat, a peasant group of Sudra varna, supported the Maratha descendants of Shivaji, the Gaekwads, who ruled Central Gujarat. Gradually, claiming to be Kshatriyas, they established their own small regimes (Shah, 1964).

Caste Mobility through Social Processes of Sanskritisation and Westernisation:

• Caste system had become so rigid in Brahmancial, Muslim, and the British periods that through several restrictions like hereditary membership, endogamy, denial of occupational mobility, and commensal and social re strictions, etc. members enjoyed a fixed status for all times. However, from the third decade of the twentieth century onwards, caste system could not remain rigid because of the processes of industrialisation, urbanisation, spread of education, enactment of some legislative measures, and social movements of several social reformers.
• M.N. Srinivas explained status mobility in caste in 1952 through the process of sanskritisation and westernisation. He maintained that a low caste was able to rise in a gen eration or two to a higher position in the hierarchy by adopting vegetarianism and teetotalism. It took over rituals, customs, rites and be liefs of the Brahmins and gave up some of their own considered to be impure.

Caste Mobility through Politicization:

• Several castes have used politics in their attempt to better their condition or to achieve their goals. Use of politics, according to Eleanor Zelliot, covers securing governmental benefits and representation on legislative and political bodies.

·       Some examples which may be given in this connection are: Mahars of Maharashtra, Kshatriyas of Gujarat, Nadars of Tamil Nadu, and Reddys and Kammas of Andhra Pradesh.