When we speak of caste and social mobility, we are basically dealing with the processes of social change in Indian society. Social change is ubiquitous and no society is left untouched by its forces. Sociologists believe that in spite of the relatively closed nature of caste system, there have been changes in caste hierarchy and its norms from time to time. They have effectively challenged the stenotype about the caste system being a closed and rigid system not allowing individuals to give up their hereditary occupation and take up new occupations.
Sociologists, beginning with G.S. Ghurye have highlighted the inherent flexibilities in the system. Ghurye pointed out that certain occupations and tasks such as cultivation (except touching of the plough which was prohibited for the Brahmans), administration and military services were open to all castes. He holds that in certain traditional occupations such as weaving there is evidence of the entry of other castes including some of the ‘untouchable’ castes such as the Chamar. He also points out that such flexibility extends to modern occupations as well. Using a 1954 restudy of a village in Maharashtra after a gap of over twenty years by one of his students, Ghurye shows that modern occupations in the administration and the professions have attracted people belonging to all castes in the village. When we examine historical data, ranging back to the Vedic period, we find that in reality there existed a lot of flexibility. Social mobility with the gain of economic and political power was always present throughout Indian history. Historian K.M. Pannikar believes that in Indian history, the Nandas were the last true Kshatriyas (which was around 5th century B.C). Since then, i.e, the times of the Nandas, all the so-called Kshatriyas have come into being by usurpation of power by the lower castes who acquired the Kshatriya role and social position. Historical records also reveal changes in life style, caste customs and cultural practices. One example we come across in Hindu religious and cultural practices is the consumption of liquor or’ somras which was drunk not only by the lower castes but also by the Brahman elites during the Vedic period. The Vedic rites involved animal sacrifice and Brahmans also ate beef. These practices were prohibited later but they continued amongst the lower castes.
The middle level castes; especially the jatis; were placed in hierarchical order which was not always very clear and varied from region to region. The process of shifting of social status, upward or downward or horizontally is called social mobility. P. Sorokin has identified two kinds of social mobility on the basis of direction of social mobility i.e., vertical mobility and horizontal mobility. Vertical mobility could be both upward or downward. It refers to transition of an individual or social group from one social stratum to another, upward or downward. Horizontal mobility refers to transition of an individual or social group from one type of social status to another within the same or similar hierarchy. For example, an agricultural labour shifting to the city and becoming a labourer in a factory. When we examine the caste system in India, we find that social mobility had always been present, as mentioned earlier. The important channels of social mobility that we find in Indian society are (a) Sanskritisation (b) Westernisation (c) Conversion to other religions like Islam, Christianity or to Buddhism, Jainism or other heterodox sects (d) migration, and (e) renouncing the world and taking to the life of mendicant, i.e., becoming a Sanyasi or a Preacher.
Mobility in Pre-British India
According to Srinivas, while the sources of social mobility lay in the political and economic systems, sanskritisation provided a traditional idiom for the expression of social mobility. He states that in ancient India, the two most potent sources of mobility were the fluidity of the political system, especially at the lower levels, and the availability of marginal land which could be cultivated since demographically it was still possible to get land to do so. He says that in the ancient period it was possible for families and bigger groups, especially the dominant groups, to achieve mobility through resort to warfare. Although, it was
not easy but was possible for an official or soldier, or the head of a locally dominant caste, to acquire political power and become a chief or king. He gives the example of Shivaji, who even during the heyday of the Mughal Empire, was able to found a large and powerful Maratha kingdom. He was the son of a Jagirdar i.e. a fief holder of the Muslim kingdom of Bijapur in South India. The example of Shivaji is an exceptional case- but it goes to show that the fluidity or openness of the pre-British political system was to some extent possible. Only during the establishment of British rule over the Indian subcontinent did this political avenue of social mobility close down. The political fluidity in preBritish India was in the last analysis the product of a pre-modern technology and institutional system. He explains that large kingdoms could not be ruled effectively in the absence of railways, post and telegraph, paper and printing, good roads, and modern arms and techniques of warfare. Thus, delegation of authority to smaller chiefs and feudatories was inevitable. For the common masses, life was regulated and controlled by such institutions as caste and village community. The elders of the locally dominant castes punished the violators of the social and the moral code. This order suited even the Muslim rulers. Warfare was endemic and frontiers as well as loyalties changed frequently. A great ruler brought a brief period of order and stability to the kingdom. The death of a great king was often followed by political chaos. The tribute paying chiefs tended to declare themselves free and stop paying tribute.
Srinivas says that when a leader of a dominant caste or small chieftain – graduated to the position of a raja or king, acquiring, in the process, the symbolic and other paraphernalia of Kshatriya hood, he in turn became a source of mobility for individuals and groups in his domain. An important, though not absolutely necessary, precondition for such graduation was sanskritisation.
The medieval governments attempted to encourage extension of cultivation The Hindu king, by virtue of his position as the head of the social order had the responsibility to settle all disputes with regard to caste and the power to raise or lower the ranks of castes as reward or punishment. Muslim kings, and even the British in the early days of their rule, exercised at least the first function. Most of the Hindu maharajas ruling over the large “native” states during the British period allowed their jurisdiction in caste matters to lapse only at the beginning of the 20th century. The second source of mobility in preBritish India was, what Srinivas and others like Burton Stein refer to as the “open agrarian system” of medieval India. According to Burton Stein, a historian of medieval South India, “marginally settled lands suitable for cultivation” were always available, and this permitted the establishment of new settlements and even new regional societies. According to Srinivas, this situation was not exclusive to South India alone but characterised the country as a whole. Irfan Habib, too, agrees to the same when he writes that “The Ain-i-Akbari” and Rennel’s Atlas show that down to the 18th century large cultivable tracts still lay behind the forest line. and improvement in cropping by grant of revenue concessions and loans to finance (the) purchase of seeds, cattle or excavation of wells by the cultivators themselves”. This kind of situation imposed a check on the authority of chiefs and kings since they were under pressure to treat their subjects, who provided human labour to cultivate land, well in order to keep them. The ability of citizens to flee to frontier areas provided a sanction against excessive oppression by rulers. The Jajmani system i.e. the system of patron and clients, within the caste system, found in the villages proliferated in large parts
of India. Under this system, the landlord belonged to the dominant caste and had under his wings some artisan castes, lower castes who provided essential services, such as, Kumhar (water carriers), Barai (Carpenter), Chamar (Leather workers), Ahir (Cattle Keepers) etc. The patron was under socio-cultural, political and economic obligation to protect his ‘amins’ i.e. the client castes. It was not rare to find a whole caste group, which was the families of a caste, fleeing the village to escape an excessively oppressive feudal landlord, during the pre- British period. Thus, it is seen that social mobility in medieval India involved spatial mobility, and the units of mobility were individual families. The need as well as the facilities for “corporate mobility” did not exist Burton Stein argued that the modem phenomenon of competition among castes for enhanced status within a narrow, localized ranking system is not suitable for the understanding of caste mobility during medieval India. He gives the example of the various sub-divisions of the Tamil peasant caste of Vellalas, which exists now, and is the result of mobility occurring during the medieval period.
Srinivas, however, points out that not all cases of sanskritisation in traditional India were preceded by the possession of political or economic power or even that sanskritisation had a mobility aspect.
Mobility in British India
Social mobility found during the pre-British period was relatively different from the kind found during the colonial rule in India. It offered some new avenues of social mobility to all castes; especially to the low shudra castes and the erstwhile untouchable castes later referred as “the scheduled castes” by the British and now accepted as a category of castes under the modem Indian Constitution. They receive positive discrimination till date. The establishment of British rule has, therefore, brought about deep and far reaching changes in the socio-economic, political, educational and cultural spheres in India. New
economic opportunities, spatial movement of people from villages to cities, new technologies, transport systems, mass media, educational institutions of the modem type, politicisation and Westernisation brought about a rapid change in the rate of social mobility. The traditional system of caste also underwent drastic charges. Process of social mobility through sanskritisation also gained momentum during this period. Srinivas writes that due to the impact of the British rule, on the one hand, some traditional means of social mobility closed down; but on the other, several new means emerged. These changes set forces in motion which fundamentally altered the overall character of society. Indian society ceased to be stationary and became mobile. The quantum of mobility has since then increased year by year. For the first time in Indian history there was a single political power governing the whole sub-continent. This was possible due to the new technologies of mass transport, communications, certain forms of administrative and military organisation which the British had brought with them. The emergence of land as a commodity (detached from caste) in the market, several changes in economic and political order took place. This was due to the introduction of tenurial reforms and application of British concepts of ownership of land, introduction of permanent settlement in some parts of India and so on, land became saleable. New opportunities of occupation and income came about in the port cities and capitals which had far reaching effects on mobility. According to Srinivas, there came into existence a class of men, recruited generally from the upper castes, who resided in urban areas but who had a ‘pied-a-tere’ in villages also refers to this class of absentee landlords in Bengal in his study of elites. Landownership was a symbol of security and high social status for the elites and there also was sentimental attachment to ancestral land and village. However, tide of time took over and urban living became costly, other expenses like weddings, medication etc. forced this class of landlords to sell their land to the peasants and other rural castes. This disturbed the traditional norms of upper caste with the upper-class landlords and the lower caste with the landless labourers. The British brought modem knowledge of science, technology, humanities advertently and inadvertently. This brought about new values of equality, rationalism and humanism. Srinivas says that there was a new humanitarianism or rather the extension of humanitarianism to new areas, resulting in the abolition of suttee, human sacrifice and slavery Western rationalism appealed to the Indian elites since the early period of British rule. By the year 1830 there was a small but articulate body of rationalists in Calcutta.
Another significant factor in the modernization of India was the European missionary effort. The missionaries were full of evangelizing zeal. They highlighted the evils of the indigenous society such as suttee human and animal sacrifice, idolatry rituals, infant marriage and so on which was rampant during that time. It led to bitter hostility and a defensive attitude of the common masses and the traditional elite, alike. This belief could be seen during the Mutiny of 1857 and was strong in the North of India. The new western oriented Indian elite was put on the defensive and many of them, therefore, addressed themselves to the immense task of reforming Indian society, such as, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar. This criticism by” the missionaries also led to reinterpreting the Hindu religion. Missionaries were also actively involved in India in humanitarian work and education. They ran hospitals, orphanages, schools etc. They tried to help the poor and lowly, such as the untouchable castes, other lower castes, tribal folks living in remote areas and women who practiced purdah. The missionaries stimulated the growth of regional literatures by setting up printing presses, cutting types for various Indian scripts, printing books and founding journals, writing dictionaries and grammars and translating classics in the regional languages to English.
The coming of market economy and the emergence of new economic opportunity brought about immense changes in the Indian society. This came into existence as a result of establishment of law and order, removal of internal customs barriers and the extension of communications linking different parts of the country with the outside world. Other developments like building of railways, digging of canals and roads, introduction of plantation crops like tea, coffee, indigo etc changed the economic structure of society. Growth of towns and cities took place. Factories and industries developed providing large scale
employment to people. This led to large scale migration of people from rural to urban areas. Calcutta and Bombay cities were witness to this kind of migration from the earliest. To obtain high paid jobs in the cities and better social status, English education became very important. It is seen that the new opportunities, especially at the higher levels, were usually taken advantage of by the high castes. This resulted in considerable overlap between the traditional upper caste elites and the new elites. Srinivas says that this development had “the twin effect of increasing the cultural and ideological distance between the high and low castes, as well as making the new opportunities doubly desirable. In the first place, they were well paid and prestigious, and in the second, only the high castes had access to them. Eventually, this gave rise to the Backward Classes Movement”. The coming of the market economy also brought changes in the political sphere. The decline of the traditional economic systems, for example, the decline of the Brahmin hegemony in Tanjore village studied by Beteille; the emergence of caste free occupations and mobilisation of caste groups have all resulted in the decline of the traditional political role of castes. However, it still continued to play a significant political role to gain status and power through shifting alliances. This was evident, for example, in the case of the political mobilisation of caste groups in Madhopur, Uttar Pradesh. In this village the rank of noniyas, the salt-makers and Chamars, the leather-makers, joined hands in opposing the locally dominant upper caste Thakurs. Thakurs were the Raj puts belonging to Kshatriya Varna, who held the economic asset of land in their hands i.e. they were the landlords. They were the locally dominant caste, who were the traditional dispensers of justice in that region. Thus, here in this case, we see that caste which a dividing factor was, reshaped itself in the new circumstances to form a unifying factor for political gains; and also, sometimes, for material welfare and social status. The British rule in India released the lower castes, especially the shudras and the erstwhile untouchable castes, not only from the traditional legal barriers of occupation but also from donning the sacred thread and chanting Vedic hymns (mantras) on ritual occasions. The sanskritisation effort, to raise one’s social status in the caste hierarchy, was often opposed by the upper castes. In many cases caste conflicts took place, violence and oppression against these efforts by the lower castes are quite frequent in India, in North, as well as South. Caste riots are still quite a frequent feature of Indian society. During the British rule, it was seen that in some areas, a few low castes had access to new trading or employment opportunities. Bailey mentions how the prohibition policy of the government of Bengal (of which Orissa was then a part) resulted in relative prosperity for the Ganjjam and Boad Distillers. The oilmen (Telis) all over eastern India benefited from the enlarged market for trade in oil and pressed oil seeds brought about by improved communications and population growth. The Noniyas of eastern UP, Kolis of the Surat Coast (Gujarat) and members of several other social groups benefited from the new employment opportunities resulting from improved transport and communications. In all these cases of improved economic status, the attempt to improve one’s socio-cultural and political status became more or less inevitable.
Srinivas says that an ambitious low caste, in the new situation had a new remedy at its disposal i.e. it could appeal to the police and law courts against dominant caste violence. Thus, the Backward Classes Movement, which took place all over India but took a very virulent shape in South of India i.e. the peninsular India; became a potent reality. In south of India it had distinctive ideology and pervaded every aspect of social life. According to Srinivas the importance of the movement is beginning to be appreciated by Indianists, particularly, in the context of the significant changes occurring among the Harijans (the name given to the ex-untouchable castes or “the Scheduled Castes” by Mahatma Gandhi). This movement not only affected the Harijans but also a wide variety of castes and in South India, all castes except the Brahmins.
The census operation m India conducted by the British administrators every ten years. unwittingly came to the aid of the ambitious low castes. Sir Herbert Risley. the commissioner of the 1901 census. decided to make use of the census investigations to obtain and record the exact rank of each caste. This attempt was viewed by most castes as an opportunity to establish themselves as a caste much higher in social status. They were mostly low castes who had gained some economic prosperity. These castes seemed to have felt that by this attempt and success in claiming a higher rank in the caste hierarchy and getting it recorded in the census document, which was the official document of the government, nobody would be able to dispute their rank. Thus, the census became the traditional copper plate grants of Indian kings declaring the rank and privilege of a caste. This attempt once again reveals the political aspect of caste.
The role of political authority in providing avenues for social mobility within the caste system, thus, remained intact throughout history. Srinivas(l968) maintains that the Backward Classes Movement; which had its, inception during the British India but continued its stirrings in post. Independent India; could broadly be divided into two stages. The first stage was the one where the low castes concentrated on acquiring the symbols of high status. In the second stage, however, the emphasis shifted from the symbols to the real sources of high status i.e. the possession of political power education and a share in the new economic opportunities. The “low” castes became aware that in the changed environment in India once one achieved the necessary power, the acquisition of the symbols of high ritual rank would be easy to obtain and become meaningful. Thus, the leaders of the Backward Classes Movement clearly saw the interlinkage between high status and acquisition of political power, education and a share in the new economic opportunities.
When the colonial authorities widened political participation by allowing elections in some provinces, castes organised to make claims for political representation. In some regions, such as the South of India, the non-Brahman castes were even successful in restricting entry of Brahmans in educational institutions and administrative services. In order to pacify the fears of the lower castes and middle caste communities about upper caste Hindu rule in independent India and also to weaken the nationalist movement, the British granted special political representation to some groups such as the untouchables. They had become politically mobilized under the leadership of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and had learned, like other castes and communities, the use of political means to gain higher status and power.
Post-Independence India
In the first phase of the Backward Classes Movement, the traditional aspects of the caste system were still strong. The higher castes resented the effort of the “low” castes to achieve higher status and rank by appropriation of the symbols of higher rank. However, they had to overcome their own resistance to such appropriation. But they continued to enjoy the “moral authority”. if important point one can make out, is that at this level, the caste system as such was not challenged. Social mobility occurred but there was no structural change. The hierarchical order of social stratification remained intact. Caste as an identity has even till date, in spite of all challenges not been able to be denied.
Only its shape and significance seem to have changed. The political power was recognised to be necessary from the second phase onwards to introduce the principle of caste quotas for jobs in the administration and seats in technological, medical, and science courses. Political power was also important in getting licenses and permits necessary for trading in variety of goods and for undertaking other economic enterprises. In this regard, education was considered to be indispensable for obtaining the higher categories of posts in the administration and even for effective exercise of political power. Because of this emphasis on political power that there developed inconsistencies in castes claiming to be “backward” in official and political contexts and of high rank in traditional contexts. Classification as “backward” enabled the members of a caste to get preference as a matter of right, in obtaining seats in educational institutions, scholarships, jobs in the administration and even in job promotions to some extent. However, this “backward” classification was not counted against it in evaluating its rank in the traditional caste hierarchy. To gain political power, higher rank and prestige in society, castes, mostly in urban areas and some had even regional context, began to mobilize themselves into caste sabhas or associations. This was an important factor in the spread as well as the acceleration of mobility. The initial task that the caste associations or paracommunities took up was to bring about reforms in caste customs through the process of sanskritization. They tried to claim higher caste rank and took up welfare activities for caste fellows, such as, building caste hostels, colleges, houses on cooperative basis and even hospitals in some areas.
Caste mobility in contemporary India
Srinivas writes that with the gradual transfer of power from the British to the Indians, caste associations tended to become political pressure groups demanding for their members electoral tickets from the principal political parties, ministerships in state cabinets, licenses for undertaking various economic activities, jobs in the administration and a variety of other benefits. He says that in some cases castes performed these activities even when they were not formally organized into caste sabhas or associations. The Indian political democracy, unlike the European experience did not emerge as part of a sociohistorical movement. It was not a natural evolution of ideas, values and technologies, but was adopted by the national leaders to serve the needs of the people of India in the best way possible. Thus, the values and attitudes which went with the given form of parliamentary democracy had to be inculcated in the people. The notion of “equality” and democracy was something new to the people of India for whom, caste hierarchy and unequal status within it, had always been part of life. The notion of birth and rebirth and “karma” theory was part of the ethos of the Hindus and other heterodox religions like Buddhism and Jainism. Low caste status and poverty were accepted as a result of deeds’ or ‘misdeeds’ done in past life. It is seen that politics had drawn caste into its web for organising support and in articulating the needs of the masses, who largely identified with their caste or jatis. In modem polity, caste and kin groups attest their identity to strive for positions of power. Different political parties and movements mobilise different caste groups as resources for their political objectives. Thus, even till date we often hear of candidates being selected by different political parties on caste lines. The caste provided for organised party politics a readymade system of segments which could be used to marshal support.
After India became independent in 1947, the Indian leaders hoped that legislative and legal measures would reorder an entrenched social structure. A new constitution was drawn which abolished untouchability and prohibited discrimination in public places. To help lower castes and classes to overcome their low miserable social status and poverty, special places were reserved for untouchables in higher educational institutions, government services, and in the lower houses of the central and state legislatures. Inspite of all these legal and political measures to improve the social, political and economic status of the exuntouchables who form 16 percent of the total population, there are instances of atrocities on dalits all over India. Except for “a small minority, referred to by Sachchidanand as “Harijan elites”, the rest of the ex-untouchable castes and their members still find themselves at the lowest rung of the social strata. Census data of 1991 proves that 90 percent of wage-labourers of Uttar Pradesh belong to the scheduled castes.
However, the close association between caste and traditional occupation is breaking down because of the expansion of modem education and the urban industrial sector. In India, an urban middle class has formed whose members are drawn from various caste groups. This has reduced the structural and cultural differences between castes, as divisions based on income, education and occupation become more important than caste cleavages for social and economic purposes. The reduction, however, is most pronounced among the upper socioeconomic strata-the urban, western educated, professional and higher income groups whose members share a common life style.
Therefore, in contemporary India, we find that liberal education, government patronage, and an expanding franchise have been major factors that have penetrated the caste system. Discontent and exploitation which has prevailed within the caste groups provided a basis for organising caste factions and alliances. In other words, modem politics found an ongoing vertical network of caste and made the structure of caste a political vehicle. Burton Stein has characterized mobility in modem India as “Corporate”, in distinction from mobility during medieval India which was familial in nature.
He says that while the existence of modem means of communication facilitates “corporate mobility”, the motive force for corporateness comes from the prospect of obtaining political power and using that power to benetl.t caste fellows. This tendency had become stronger in independent India. Universal adult franchise and government policies aiming to provide special facilities and concessions to backward castes with a view to enable them to catch up with the advanced castes in education and economic, positions had several repercussions.
The numerical strength of social groups, such as, caste groups became important and division which previously seemed important were ignored to facilitate caste alliances for political and economic purposes. Scholars like Leach and Dumont believed that caste system was a cooperative, inclusive arrangement where each caste formed an integral part of the local socioeconomic system and each had special privileges of their own. Some other scholars think that though the caste system did provide security for all. It was essentially exploitative and oppressive especially for the untouchables, who were confined to menial, despaired jobs. working as sweepers. gutter and latrine cleaners. scavengers, farm labourers and curers of hides. They were denied access to Hindu temples and were not allowed to read religious Sanskrit scriptures. There were many other hardships which they had to face in day to day living out of which they had no means to come out traditionally. Even the process of sanskritisation did not affect their low status, both ritual and economic.
Beteille has pointed out that “competition for power and office requires a certain aggregation of segments. The thousands of minimal segments in a given region cannot compete individually in the struggle for power. When they come together they follow alignments interest in the traditional structure of caste. That is why the larger segments which compete for power today regard themselves as castes or jatis and are so regarded by other”.
The political need for aggregation was so great that sometimes distinct caste groups occupying different positions in the regional hierarchy came together. Srinivas gives the example of the Gujarat Kshatriya Sabha, in which Raj puts admitted the low caste status Kolis to the rank of Kshatriyas, in order to capture power in Gujarat State. Rao, M.S.A. states that the Yadavs of North India provide an even more egregious example of a large number of castes from different linguistic areas coming together and trying to form a single castecategory in order to strengthen their political power. Thus, it could be clearly stated that” mobility in medieval India was based on fission, whereas, in modem India mobility was based rather on “caste fusion”. Srinivas says that the “fusion” of castes has had several implications in modem India. It has led to weakening of pollution ideas. The unit of endogamy has begun to widen to include adjacent segments or grades. The process of exploiting the new opportunities has led to significant changes in the caste system.
Rudolph and Rudolph in their analysis of caste, in the context of modernity and tradition, are of the view that in its transformed state, caste has helped India’s peasant society make a success of representative democracy and fostered the growth of equality by making Indians less separate and more alike Indians are becoming less separate in the sense that due to the electoral system, numerical strength which means more numb.er of votes. Thus, it is the interest of the large majority of castes to come together to achieve their political goals. In this process of aggregation, as mentioned earlier, caste associations and caste federations were formed. The relationship that caste bears to politics can be best understood in terms of three types of political mobilisation discussed by Rudolph and Rudolph which explains the different stages of political development in India. These three types of political mobilisation are:
Vertical Mobilisation
This was the early phase of mobilisation where political support was acquired by the traditional notables, like kings, local rajas and other feudatories. This was possible in a society organised and integrated along caste lines. The society was predominantly traditional, caste groups were largely interring dependent. Modem means of communication was generally missing. Legitimacy of traditional authority was still surviving in large parts of the country. Due to their traditional authority, the Raja or Zamindar or dominant caste elite, was able to get support of their dependents or “Praja” who were socially inferior to them in the traditional manner. Rudolph & Rudolph say that vertical mobilisation remains a viable strategy for dominant classes and castes until dependents, tenants and clients become politicized enough to be mobilised by ideological appeals to class or community interests and sentiments.
Horizontal Mobilization
In this process of mobilisation, popular political support is marshalled by class or community leaders and their specialised organisations. It was during this phase that caste federations and solidarity of different caste and class groups took place. A new pattern of cleavage was introduced which challenged the vertical solidarities and structures of traditional societies. In horizontal mobilisation the agent of mobilisation is the political party whereas in the vertical mobilisation it was the notable person i.e. the landlord or the Raja, who was the agent. At this level, the political parties appeal to the voters directly as individuals or indirectly through the organised groups to which they belong. Thus, in direct appeal often emphasis was placed on ideology or issues, on the one hand, and on the other hand, on community identification through caste. This mobilisation is possible only as long as internal differentiation did not develop and caste communities remained diffused and varied.
Differential Mobilisation
In this process of mobilisation, the changes that caste has undergone and is still undergoing, takes it beyond the traditional ascriptive definition. These changes include internal differentiation or fusion and integration of several caste groups in caste federations and associations i.e. fusion which expresses the shared interests, symbols and norms of these castes. In this stage, caste comes out of the village and family domain and becomes to a large extent urban, having a larger area of operation and activities. Rudolph and Rudolph have given the example of differential mobilisation taking place amongst the Rajputs of Rajasthan. The Rajputs were the rulers, feudal lords, court retainers of princely states before independence. At that time, they formed an association called the Kshatriya Mahasabha which initially represented all ranks within the community. A new caste association was formed in 1954 called the Bhooswani Sangh. This new association brought into light the conflict between the “small” Rajputs whose modest land holdings had to be supplemented by income from service under the princes · and jagirdars. These princesses and jagirdars, however, had in most cases dismissed them from service with the advent of the land reforms after independence. Thus, when the rich – and powerful Rajputs declined to assist the “small” Rajputs, they formed the Bhooswani Sangh. This association took up the task of protecting the interests of the “small” Rajputs. This faction amidst the Rajputs was quickly capitalised by the political parties. The class and ideological fusion in the Rajput community shows the process of internal differentiation which has socio-political repercussions.
Caste Associations and their Role in Caste Mobility
In their explanation of political mobilisation and its three stages, Rudolph & Rodolph have explained also the role of caste and caste associations in the modem polity. They explained the changes in the nature and function of caste in India. They define caste association as “para-communities which enable members of castes to pursue social mobility, political power and economic advantage”. Caste associations resemble in many ways the voluntary associations or interest groups found in industrially advanced societies. However, caste associations are distinct in many respects from voluntary associations, as well as, from natural associations like castes out of which they have developed.
They are more like voluntary associations at the organisational level, unlike the traditional caste structures. They have offices, membership, incipient bureaucratisation, legislative process which can be seen through conferences, delegates and resolutions. But unlike the voluntary associations, caste associations are characterised by a shared sense of culture, character and status which gives it a solidarity not found in voluntary associations. The caste associations play multiple roles and serves the Indian society by both levelling the sacred and hierarchical order and also replacing it. It initiates and manages the efforts of the lower castes to become twice born, to dawn the sacred thread which symbolises higher ritual rank and culture. A clear example of this can be seen in Tamil Nadu amongst the Nadars. The Nadars were the low castes of toddy tappers, who through the efforts of their caste association, the Nadar Mahajana Sangam founded in 1910, managed to acquire not only higher status but also a modem organisation to serve their needs. The role of caste associations, found in most parts of India is still significant and till date some of these associations are found to be serving the interests of their caste members, such as, in organising mass marriages or providing a forum for match making etc. Many have opened their portals to other caste members also, as in case of hostels, educational institutions, hospitals and so on.
We find, therefore, that the caste associations contribute to fundamental structural and cultural change in Indian Society by providing an adaptive institution in which both the traditional as well as modern features of society could meet. However, not all aspects of changes in caste system were positive and passive or peaceful. The “Backward Classes Movement”, the clash of interest of several castes in various rural and urban pockets of India were rather violent and aggressive in nature.
For majority of Indians living in the villages (73 percent of Indian population is still rural), caste factors are an integral part of their daily lives. Even in cities, as Gould has pointed out in his study of the Rickshaw pullers of Lucknow, occupationally caste had no role but once the rickshaw puller went home, his personal life style, rituals, marriage ties etc. still remained governed by caste to which he belonged. But changes have crept up even in the rural sector due to modem economic forces. The increase in cash crop production, which has made grain payments in exchange for services unprofitable, the introduction of mechanized farming, which has displaced manual labour, the preference for manufactured goods over handmade ones, and the migration to cities and to prosperous agricultural areas for work and better wages have all weakened the traditional patron-client ties and the security that it had provided.
The scheduled castes and other low castes have been particularly affected as the other sectors of the economy have not grown fast enough to absorb them. Caste has “ceased to be a structural economic signifier” according to a number of studies. The significance of caste, however, still lies in the sphere of identity, that is, it has utility as an ethnic category to which people belong. As such, it is very useful for political mobilisation rather than as a socio-economic segment as it is supposed to have existed in the traditional India.
The rural social structure has been reshaped in yet another way. The dominant castes are no longer from the higher castes but belong to the middle castes and lower peasant castes -the profit-maximizing “bullock capitalists” who were the chief beneficiaries of land reform and state subsidies to the agricultural sector. They have displaced the high caste absentee landlords, who have moved to cities and taken up modem occupations. The traditional leadership and power structure of local communities have also been transformed as a result of modem political institutions. Relations between castes are now governed by rules of competitive politics and leaders are selected for their political skills and not because they are members of a particular caste. In recent times there have been various instances of confrontation between the middle peasant castes and scheduled castes in rural areas. We see that violence and repression against the scheduled castes or dalits has increased as they have begun to assert themselves with the support of Communist and Dalit movements, they are demanding better wages, and the use of village wells. In the urban – industrial milieu, one expects that the significance of caste will be considerably diluted, because achievement rather than ascription is expected to be the dominant criterion governing
organisational performance here. However, available evidence suggests that although urban and industrial occupations and professions have attracted members of diverse castes, here too, certain castes tend to be prominent in particular occupations. Such clustering of castes in occupations colour social perceptions considerably, and these in tum contribute to the perpetuation of caste identities.
In the urban areas, caste conflict has mainly centred around the issue of “reservation”. The other backward castes or OBCs (who belong mainly to the Shudra Caste and form approximately 50 percent of Indian’s population) have demanded from the government benefits similar to those given to the SC’s in government service and educational institutions. Due to the electoral pressures, the state governments have extended these reservation benefits to the OBCs’, leading to discontent among the upper castes. This extension of preferential treatment from the SC’s to the more numerous and in many states better off backward castes has not only created great resentment among the upper castes but also has reduced the public support for the policy of positive discrimination for the Scheduled Castes. The anti- reservation riots witnessed in several cities, including Delhi expressed this resentment of the upper castes. It is not accidental that this kind of agitation is taking place now when the preferential programmes have only started making inroads in improving the educational and economic conditions of the SCs’.
It is but natural that as education would spread and the meaning of the vote and the ideas of equality and justice would seep into the consciousness of people, the rural and the urban areas will witness severe inter caste conflicts. However, these conflicts apparently may be caste conflicts but in reality, would be struggles for control over political and economic resources. The reservation policy adopted by the V.P. Singh’s government in 1988-89 was only a culmination of submerged sparks of anger and suppression in various caste communities in India. The reservation policy suggested by the Mandal Commission in. and its application led to violent riots in most parts of North India, the worst face of it could be seen in Delhi. It led to the fall of V.P. Singh’s government. But the reservation of seats for the “other Backward Classes” which was vaguely charted out by the Mandal Commission Report could not be withdrawn. Finally, Supreme Court once again reiterated the need for reservation of seats for the “Other Backward Classes” which include the middle level castes, like the Yadavs, Kumhars, Dhobis, etc. which do not fall under the Scheduled Castes but are still considered to be the disadvantaged groups in most parts of India. However, many of these caste groups are economically and even politically well off in some regions. For example, the Yadavs who have controlled the political scene in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for several years. Finally, it can be said that caste has come a long way since the Portuguese’s discovery of it when they arrived in India centuries ago. But the tenacity and flexibility of caste has made it a powerful weapon to be used by different people for different reasons all over India to serve their varied interests.
The whole discourse on caste in Uttar Pradesh, as in India everywhere, has changed in the recent times. It is no longer the mute acceptance of upper caste dominance. The dalit movement which has developed, first in the South and then in the North of India rejects caste as a category of identity. This movement resembled the “Black panther” movement of the black people in America. However, in Uttar Pradesh, the emergence of Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) and swearing in of Mayavati, the first dalit chief minister of UP marked a radical change in the values and attitudes of the lower castes in UP. The aggressive anti-upper caste rhetoric of Kanshi Ram, the founder of BSP and close associate of Mayavati, launched a new debate on caste in India. Some reflections of this changing discourse in caste could be understood, when one examines the slogans given by BSP and Dalit Soshit Sanghars Samiti, its earlier avatar. The anti-upper caste slogan, such as -“Tilak, Taraju aur Talwar. Inko Maro Jute chaar (The upper caste symbols like the ritual mark on the fore head of the Brahmin, the weighing balance of the Bania, and the sword of Kshatriya, all these should be beaten four times by the shoe)”. Thus, one sees a sea of change in the caste discourse from what it was during the British period, pre-British period to the modem period including perceptions of the upper caste intellectuals, like Srinivas and others.
Summary
Mobility means movement of caste from one position to another. It can be upward or downward mobilization.
(1) Upward Mobility
- (a) Mobility through Warfare : K.M. Pannikar had said that since 5th century BC every known royal family has come from non-Kshatriya Caste. For e.g. Mourya dynasty belonged to Shudra Caste but they enjoyed status of Kshatriya Caste. M. N. Sriniwas have given the example of Raja Shivaji. He belonged to the non-Kshatriya caste. After overthrowing Mughal power in Maharashtra, he went through religious rite/ritual of transition into Kshatriyahood.
- (b) Mobility through Serving Rulers: Jati whose members served either Hindu or Non-Hindu ruler attained higher Varna Rank for eg. Kayastha, a Caste of Scribe, were a lower caste, who served the Mughal and thereafter the British. By 19th century, they rose up to twice bom category.
- (c) By Population Census: While recording Jati’s identity in census enumeration from 1891 to 1931 many middle and lower castes made efforts to get them registered as members of twice bom Vamas. Evidence was offered from myth & history for every claim. Some of them were sustained but most of them were rejected for eg. Kurmi Cultivators of Bihar wanted to be Kurmi Kshatriya. Teli Caste wanted to be Vaishya.
- (d) Through Sanskritisation : Sanskritisation advocated by M. N. Sriniwas is the process of emulation of life style of higher caste by the lower caste and in the process attaining higher status for eg. Pocock has successfully shown upward mobility in case of ‘Kunvi’ traditional middle run peasant caste of Gujarat to the new honorable status of ‘Pattidar’.
- (e) Westernization : As a result of cultural contact with western society for long period, many individual members of lower caste have been able to change their caste status. It is not group mobility as in the case of sanskritization.
- (f) Politicization : Use of politics for securing government benefits and representation in legislative and political bodies has enabled lower castes to move in upward direction for eg. Mahars of Maharashtra, Nadars of TN, Reddy and Kamma of A. P.
(2) Downward Mobilization
- (a) Desanskritisation : Many castes from higher position change their position to lower one within the caste system for eg. Jat belongs to Kshatriya Varna however in order to reap the benefit of reservation policy, they have gone down to the status of OBC. Recent Maratha agitation in Maharashtra and Patel agitation in Gujrat.
- (b) Tribalisation/ Depeasantisation : It means when a caste through the process of depeasantisation or desanskritisation transforms themselves into a tribe for eg. many castes in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh have become tribes by staying with tribal people and following their life style. Recently Gujjar community which belongs to OBC category has been trying to acquire tribal status.
• Conclusion : Thus Indian Hindu Society is not a closed or static society. Mobility is there since time immemorial. But in ancient and medieval period it was in upward direction but presently it is mainly in the downward direction