STATUS ALLOCATION IN VILLAGE INDIA

Village India’s status allocation process is largely ascriptive. The most frequently held generalization maintains that India’s system of stratification is unique: “closed” and “non-permeable.” The preferred model of status allocation, therefore, has been that of caste. In this paper, I test the cas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inResearch in social stratification and mobility Vol. 22; pp. 219 - 254
Main Author Dev Sharda, Bam
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ireland Ltd 2004
Subjects
Agrarian society
Caste
Caste Systems
India
Occupational Status
Occupations
Rural society
Social status
Social Stratification
Socioeconomic Factors
Socioeconomic status
Villages
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Summary:Village India’s status allocation process is largely ascriptive. The most frequently held generalization maintains that India’s system of stratification is unique: “closed” and “non-permeable.” The preferred model of status allocation, therefore, has been that of caste. In this paper, I test the caste determination hypothesis for village India, and an alternative socioeconomic ascription hypothesis. There are two forms of the latter hypothesis: (1) an agrarian mode of production hypothesis that maintains that landed wealth and socioeconomic origins (e.g. father’s occupation) determine current occupation; and (2) an agrarian modernization hypothesis that states that in industrializing agrarian economy, landed wealth and education determine a person’s occupational status. My analyses of the data from village India for 1962 and 1977 do not support either the caste determination hypothesis (caste effects on current occupation are insignificant) or the modernization hypothesis (the effects of education remain near zero, even after green revolution and India’s progressive legislation). Consistent support is, however, found for the agrarian mode of production hypothesis.
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ISSN:0276-5624
1878-5654
DOI:10.1016/S0276-5624(04)22008-X