Caste, Gender, and Feminism

What is sociology?
• Sociology- a science of society and different from

common sense
• What is science?
• cognito certa per causa (knowing with certainty
through causality), de singularibus non est scientia
(in singularity there is no science)
• Common sense- common of the senses. Question
is how much to rely on the senses?
• Science- refined common sense.
Society – structure + processes
Social Structure - inter-individual behavior
regularity
Social structure (a collection of institutions)
Social institutions – a collection of status-roles

(family, economy, polity, religion, education)

Socialization (a process; also works
as social control)

Status-role

• Value- abstract notions of right and wrong – example
honesty
• It is a question of desirability
• Norm- acceptable behavior from a status in particular
situations;
• acceptable collective behavior in particular situations
• Role- expected behavior from a status; a collection of
norms
• Status – social position (height, weight, beautiful are
not social status unless role flows from them)
• Status-Role- ambiguity, distance, overload, strain
(balancing successfully the role of a revolutionary,
father, son)
• Example – seller (status) do not over-
charge (role) to the buyer (status) and
buyer (status) do not give fake currency
(role)
• this social behavior is the norm derived
from the value honesty (applicable to the
economy institution)
• One can also visualize how the value of
honesty can be applied to the institution of
family, education, polity
• Socialization – process by which individuals learn the roles; signifies
that they are members; develop their self-concepts (looking glass self),
• social control acts as self control – outside influences becomes part of
the self
• Primary socialization- development of basic values; diffuse (agencies-
family, peer group); most important roles-sex, age
• Secondary socialization- acquisition of knowledge and skills; role
specific (agencies-occupation
• Compulsory vs voluntary socialization
• Childhood, adolescences are not universal distinct stages. How many
stages of life depends on which society you are in. shakespere- 8;
Hindu-4
• Agents of socialization working at cross purposes- family vs
peers, television
• Negative aspects of socialization- promotion of ideal roles
(indirectly a criticism of norms-values-institutions-society)
• Family- feminism- the bastion of oppression (patriarchy), the
perpetrator of stratification
• School- social reproduction and cultural capital
• Occupation- deskilling
• Religion- the opium of masses, fundamentalism
• TV vs computer- one way vs two way interaction
• Social institutions
• a system of concept, usages, associations and instruments
which arising from the experiences of mankind, order and
regulate the activities of human beings which are
necessary to the satisfaction of basic needs.
• Components of an institution
• Concepts- motherhood (family), nirvana (religion), profit
(economy), democracy (polity)
• Usages and rules- norms, folkways, mores
• Associations- of individuals
• Instruments- utilitarian- ballot (polity), production tools
(economy), books (education), household (family), temple
(religion).
• Symbolic- black flag, currency note, phd., mangal sutra,
sacred thread
•
• Social control
• Agencies of socialization are also of
social control- example- family,
school, peer group
• Individual’s wanting for status acts
as control from within.
• Informal (in primary relation)and
formal control (secondary relation)
• Major institutions
• Family -mostly dealt by sociology and anthropology
Economy- economics
• Religion- theology
• State- political science
• Education – education
• Religion and education- earlier education was
imparted by priest in the east and clergy in the west
• Education and state – state never let go of its control
on education after the historic separation of religion
and education
• Religion and economy – Weber’s protestant ethic
• Economy and polity- Marx-economy is the base on
which stands the polity, education
• Family and education- cultural capital aiding
education
• Family and economy- much of Japan’s
industrialisation has taken place in small shops
where the workforce largely consists of the
owner’s relatives (Wilbert Moore). How do you
complain against your own uncle (David Harvey).
• Religion and state- traditionally hand in glove but
now try to maintain arms length distance. Still we
have states like pakistan where islam is official
religion. We also have Turkey where the army
intervenes if the politicians try to be islamic.
• The Family structural principles
• Marriage arrangement and types- monogamy and
polygamy (change- internet marriage, divorce,
remarriage)
• Household arrangements- monogamous nuclear,
joint, extended (single parent family)
• Residence- patri-, matri- and neo-local (husband and
wife staying at a distance)
• Descent and inheritance- patri/matri-lenial, double
descent
• Authority/power- patriarchal, matriarchal,
equalitarian (influence of ideologies like feminism)
• Incest taboo- endogamy, exogamy
•
• Sexual regulation –Relaxing, viagra (religion may
prohibit this interference of natural order of
things)
• Reproduction -Technology getting into it
• Socialization- The day care centre and the schools
• Affectional -Less on child more on spouse
• Status -Still retaining
• Protective -The courts have taken over (the man,
woman, the child)
• Economic -A more consumerist ethos
• Education- educare- to bring up
• ‘Dialectical process between the learner/s and
predefined subject matter/s mediated by manifest
agent and latent environment’.
• It can be seen as a social ritual (Meyer and
Rowan, 1977), credentialising (Collins, 1979),
cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1997), social
reproduction.
• Cultural capital- (1)embodied (2)objectified
(cultural goods (the brands and imaginary
reference group) and bads (wine), (3) institutional
(the certificate as a cook)
• Economy – the principal debate is how economy is a social
institution- the influence of values and norms
• Economics is about choices, sociology is about how there is
little choice.
• Economics is about rational action- if we assume that the
rational action is also mixed up with traditional action (habit),
affectional (emotional) action or ‘value’ action then economic
action is a broad type of social action. (why warren buffet will
donate 80% of his wealth to Gates foundation? His value of
altruism may be deriving from religion)
• As the economic action is embedded in a broad social action,
economy as an institution is embedded in other social
institutions.
• Whether the wife should do the job or not? This is influenced
by not only economics but family, religion, the state (armed
forces)
• Rational action- means-ends relationtionship- the sour grape story
says that we will not pursue end till death but simply change our
perception of the end.
• How do means and ends originate- while the middle class pursues
the MBA, the business class pursues independent business (agencies
of socialization are also of social control)
• Means have to be socially approved- people are supposed to be self
interested but not supposed to cheat.
• You require a priori categories to decide whether something is
rational or not. (taking TISS quarter or taking HRA).
• Sense data, information, knowledge.
• Experience and action- If I see new food I will judge on the basis of
my knowledge about existing food. (in a movie a foreigner mistakes
pickle for a sweet dish)
• From rational action (absolute calculation of all the means to
achieve ends) to maximisation (absolute calculation of limited
means) to satisficing (enough if it is good enough).
• Creating a demand violates an autonomous individual. It
raises the question how human wants/choice arise? If we
take the premise that self and society are related
(socialization) then want is shaped by society.
• Salma Hayek eats ants, insects. But it is almost impossible
for me to eat.
• If a jungle person will come and see cooking of meat he may
say what are you doing spoiling the taste!
• Once I asked my student how can she eat pani puri which
looks so unhygienic. She said it has to look unhygienic to
taste well.
• Demand- demand for gold (for marriage, for religion), India
is poor country but largest importer of gold.
• Supply- Mcdonald won’t serve beef. There was strong
reaction against vegetable retail chains.
• consumption- religious festivals and rites de passage- less
capital formation
• Savings- in gold and real estate- less capital formation
• Distribution- it is in the distributor’s interest for not allowing
the market to come up (the sethji)
• Investment- assumption of perfect knowledge of everybody
leaves no scope for investment. Everybody will crowd on
the same best opportunity. (the global electronic herde)
• Social Trust in economy - 1000 rupee may be looked upon
with suspicion in a rural area and may not be easily
accepted. During USSR crisis the rouble was meaning less.
Banks survive on trust. Many times people act as if they
can differentiate between a real and a fake 500 rupee note.
• Social trust in contract- without trust the contract is like
a piece of paper. If a low trust dynamic works the
contract may fail. We do not go to the court at the first
instance.
• Emergence of market- states can interfere robustly to
create a free market.
• Market- even within capitalism what will enter market or
not is shaped by prevailing values- surrogate mother
• Property – property relation is social relation because
who says that something is somebody’s property. (Jhum
cultivation). Marx- property relation is the key relation.
Engels- family arose to pass on property to children.
•
• Wage- Marx- what is considered as a fair day work (how
many hours) and fair wage is decided socially.
• Profit – what is considered as legitimate profit is decided
socially. Producers of vital and rare medicines can make
exorbitant profit but are curtailed by social values or
government. Government intervenes if a life saving
medicine rises but not a consumer product.
• Black economy – a social institution/quasi institution –
social order or disorder is not possible without
cooperation of social actors.
• Religion- relegare –that which bids together
• Religion – other worldly explanation for this world, the
world before and the world after
• Magic- other worldly explanation for this world
• Science- this worldly explanation for this world
• Durkheim-sacred and profane - sacred is that which is
kept apart.
• The role of government in desacralising and resacralising
(satipratha- from sacred to criminal, burqa in europe)
• Monotheism- the concept of only one powerful
god even if there are others means other
religions are not true.
• Islam- there is no god except allah
• Budhism- not bothered about gods
• Hinduism- aham tavamasi
• Diffuse vs organised religion- In tribal societies
religion may be diffused. In modern societies it is
segmented.
• While chrstianity, islam and budhist sangha are
more organised, hinduism except temple centred
is not that organised.
• Fundamentalism - de-differentiation, original
solution for modern problems (do not fall in love)
• State- stare- to stand
• Ultimate power over a territory- de jure and de
facto sovereignty
• Ultimately people are sovereign, (we the people
of india give ourselves this constitution) but
government does the ruling.
• People and state- 1)people defend the state. in
extreme situation the state can conscript people
in the army. 2)People pay taxes and maintain the
state 3) people do not rebel against the state.
They obey the law as if it were custom. So the
state can maintain the law and order with
minimal police
• The relation between political power
and social power- The relationship
between the state and social
stratification – caste, class, gender
Karl Marx
• Superstructur
e
Interaction
Means/forces of
Relation of production
production
(physical +
knowledge +
mode of
cooperation)
Class – the relation of immediate transfer of surplus value. This relation
obtains between head laborer and the capitalist, the capitalist and the
landlord. The transfer of surplus from below and the exercise of power
from above .
Class in itself- Marx suggests that the english working class ‘already a class
against capital but not yet for itself’.
Class interest- imputed goal and not what this or that proletariat thinks
Trade unionism-it only increases wages but keep alive labor. The struggle
for economic benefits may change the workers so that they go beyond the
economic struggle and into politics. This is relation between human
agency and circumstances.
Falling rate of profit- as more surplus is gathered it is invested in
constant capital (machinery) that reduces the need for labor (principal
source of profit) making more unemployment, reducing demand. It also
produces only for exchange that is a source of problem.
• Class struggle- as capitalism develops great
masses of workers are herded together in close
proximity and this develops class consciousness.
This means community feeling, political
organization. The workers will first solve the
problem nationally and then internationally
because the zinith of capitalism happens
internationally and communism can happen only
world historically because we have to abolish the
law of supply and demand.
• Dictatorship of the proletraiat –
• Communism-
• Talcott parsons
• Modes of orientation (1) motivational – cognitive (information),
cathectic (emotion), evaluative (aesthetic) (2) value- cognitive,
appreciative, moral
• Types of action- instrumental, expressive, moral
• Interaction amongst oriented actors
• Institutionalization
• Social system of status, roles, norms

• Pattern variables
• Self- collective (economic action vs the action governed
by patriotism, altruism, community feeling )
• Affectivity- affective neutrality – (primary vs
secondary relation)
• Universalism- particularism (action in a bureaucracy
vs the special treatment to a valued customer in a private
sector )
• Diffuse- specificity (primary vs secondary relation)
• Achievement- ascription (newcomers setting foot in
the bollywood the hard way vs the children of the stars
who are allowed many flops, special treatment to women,
children, SC/ST etc)
• (parsons won’t focus on the relation between
Achievement- ascription . It is not necessary because his
orientation is analytical realism)
• Students attending this class
• Self- collective- moved by your self interest

(instrumental)
• Affectivity- affective neutrality (not emotional)
• Universalism- particularism (selected as per general
criteria (health, hospital etc) and not individual
criteria)
• Diffuse- specificity ( we discuss only sociology not
family matters)
• Achievement- ascription (no body is considered
‘briliant’ here)
• Students attending meghmudra (expressive)
• Self- collective
• Affectivity- affective neutrality (emotional)
• Universalism- particularism (interaction as per
individual characteristics)
• Diffuse- specificity (discussion from study to personal
matters)
• Achievement- ascription (interaction influenced by
individual characteristics)
• Functional imperatives (applicable to
subsystem as well as system )
• Adaptation- with the environment to survive-
economic
• Goal attainment- the political system
• Latency (pattern maintainance)- the cultural
system (through the process of socialization)
• Integration- within the subsystems
• Merton
• Definition of function
• Postulates of unity, universality and
indespensibility
• Manifest and latent function
Conflict perspective
• Simmel
• Roussau- man born free, but everywhere he is in chains
• A house cant be built of houses but bricks
• Individual egoism vs self perfection as objective values
• Society creates an ‘average’ of individual
• Society claims the individual for itself
• From concrete man to general man- Society requires the individual to
differentiate himself from the humanly general but forbids him to stand out
from the socially general.
• The antinomy of freedom and equality can be resolved only if both are
dragged down to the negative level of propertylesness and powerlessness.
• Liberty, equality, fraternity
• The very feeling of oppressiveness of authority suggests that the autonomy of
the subordinate party is actually presupposed and never wholly eliminated.
Oppression is a situation where one is not willing to pay the price of freedom.
• Intrinsic relation of Leader and led- do the politicians lead the mass or follow
the mass?
• Ralf dahrendorf
•
• Legal Ownership and factual control of property – the separation in
the present day
• Private property and effective private property (means of production)
• “the fundamental inequality of social structure and the lasting
determinants of social conflict is the inequality of power and
authority which inevitably accompanies social organization”.
• By strict marx standard authority becomes part of superstructure
and not much important
• Property is exclusion of others over the object thus implying
authority
• “ classes are social conflict groups the determinant of which can be
found in the inclusion or exclusion from the exercise of authority in
an imperatively coordinated association”.
• Social roles endowed with expectation of domination and subjection.
Domination in one does not mean domination in all
• Imperatively coordinated association – differential
distribution of authority
• Behind authority interest and therefore maintain existing
authority structure
• When individuals are aware of their interests they are
interest groups and individuals with similar latent interests-
quasi groups
• 3 conditions for quasi groups to become interest groups-
(1)social-close location (2) technical- organization and
leadership (3) political- the system should allow to organize
• Intensity- superimposition (when different spheres-political,
economic, social- superimpose each other) vs pluralism
• Intra-generational mobility reduces intensity
• Very sudden structural change vs less sudden (how much
personnel in authority are changed)
• Lewis coser
• Cause
• Subordinates question the legitimacy. This depends on
segmentation of peoples’ emotional energies, grievance
redressal mechanisms, mobility avenue
• Relative deprivation creates more conflict than absolute
deprivation. It depends on how much external constraint is
imposed.
• Violence
• Realistic issues – less violent
• core values- more violent
• if the non-realistic just goes on it will become realistic
• functional interdependence is a function of power
differential and isolation of population
• Duration
• magnitude of goals
• clarity about goal
• clarity about symbolic victory and defeat
• interpretation about the cost of conflict – power differential, clear
index of victory/defeat
• leaders’ capacity to persuade followers – centralization, internal
cleavage
• Functions for the respective parties
• demarcation of boundaries
• centralization of authority
• ideological solidarity
• suppression of dissent
• Functions for the whole
• more functional interdependence- more number of less violent
conflicts- more contributes to innovation and flexibility of the
system
• historically unless the conflict is violent nobody bothers
• Randal Collins
• Organizational control can happen in three ways- material,
coercive, symbolic
• The powerful define the norm to suit their interest and
that’s why that will be source of conflict
• Organizational control can happen in three ways- material
(reward), coercive (violence), symbolic (normative)
• Only people in leadership position can be driven by
normative control. Rest have to be by coercion and material
reward.
• Higher ups give subordinate ‘a piece of action’
Sociology as a form of
Consciousness
Society: a large complex of
human relationships...a
system of interaction
Social: a quality of
interaction, interrelatedness,
mutuality
Society is a complex of social
events, “Social Situations”
Sociology as a form of
Suspicion
• About: the ways in which human
events are officially interpreted by
the authorities
• Also, a form of questioning self-
conceptions
• Thus, it is: seeing through, looking
behind the apparent , and above all ,
an art of MISTRUST
Social Problem
• Public: when something does not work
the way it is supposed to according to
official interpretations: crime, divorce,
workers efficiency
• Sociology: How the whole system works;
by what it means it is held together? So,
social problem is: not crime, but LAW; not
divorce, but MARRIAGE; not racial/caste
discrimination but RACIALLY DEFINED
STRATIFICATION SYSTEM
Sociological Perspectives:
Man/woman in Society
• Is Society a prison?
• What is to be LOCATED IN SOCIETY?
• Social location of self: what an individual
may or may not do; What he/she expect
from life; in other words, taken for granted
meanings, (and its politics)
• Mechanisms of Social Control: Violence,
Economic pressure, mental pressures,
morality, customs and manners; formal
and informal “code of Conduct”, family
and friends, (celebrating family)
To be located in society
• Social stratification: Class, Caste, Gender
• objective criteria and forms of
consciousness
• Definition of the situation: Reality is a
matter of definition; but, how do we define
things? Past experiences?
• Institutions: (structured ‘dos’ ) relates
to individuals as A REGULATORY
AGENCY
Sociological Perspectives:
Society in Man/woman
• Society provides us our identities:
Social location of our being, our
conduct and our expectations
• Role theory: identity is socially
bestowed , sustained and
transformed ( process of
Socialization) is this a political
process?
Sociological Perspectives
• Now, do we have any choice at all? (from
these social constitutions) Are we just
puppets, directed by others? Or do we
have any freedom from external (imposed)
constitution of our selves?
• Or are we AGENTS IN CONDITIONS?
• Paradox of our social existence: “society
defines us, but is in turn defined by us”
Agency and structures
• Is freedom our necessary condition? (are we
condemed to be free, (Sartre),
• Is the option of freedom in conditions a kind
of AGONY OF CHOICE?
• Bad faith: the wish NOT to FACE Freedom
• Sociological ecstasy: act of stepping outside
caves, alone, to face the darkness
What are social
institutions?
Social Institutions
• Social Institutions
• Social institutions are established or
standardized patterns of rule-
governed behavior. They include the
family, education, religion, and
economic and political institutions.
Major perspectives
Marx
• Social institutions are determined by their society’s mode
of production.
• Social institutions serve to maintain the power of the
dominant class.
Weber
• Social institutions are interdependent but no single
institution determines the rest.
• The causes and consequences of social institutions
cannot be assumed in advance.
Durkheim
• Set the stage for later functionalist analyses of
institutions by concluding that religion promotes social
solidarity and collective conscience.
Theoretical Perspective
• Functionalist theory
• The social institutions listed in this section (along
with other social institutions) fulfill functional
prerequisites and are essential.
• Conflict theory
• Social institutions tend to reinforce inequalities
and uphold the power of dominant groups.
• Emphasizes divisions and conflicts within social
institutions.
• Symbolic interactionism
• Focuses on interactions and other symbolic
communications within social institutions.
Family
Family:
• A socially defined set of relationships between at least
two people related by birth, marriage, adoption, or, in
some definitions, long-standing ties of intimacy.
• Key Questions: How do families vary across different
societies, historical periods, classes, and ethnic groups?
• How are authority, resources, and work distributed
within families?
• How do parents, particularly mothers, balance the
demands of work and family?
• What are the causes and effects of divorce, domestic
violence, and single parenting?
Competing views
• Marx: The family upholds the capitalist
economic order by ensuring the reproduction of
the working class and by maintaining
housewives as a reserve labor force.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of the family
include socializing children, regulating sexual
behavior and reproduction, distributing
resources, providing social support.

Education
• A formal process in which knowledge, skills, and
values are systematically transmitted from one
individual or group to another.
• Key Questions: How do educational practices vary
across different societies and historical periods?
• How does education affect individuals’ subsequent
activities and achievements?
• What are the effects of class, race, and gender on
educational institutions and experiences?
• What are the causes and consequences of various
trends in education, such as grade inflation, violence
in schools, and increasing public funding of religious
instruction?
Marx, Functionalist, Conflict,
SI
• Marx: Education serves the capitalist order by producing
skilled workers with habits such as punctuality and
respect for authority.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of education include
transmitting shared values and beliefs, transmitting
specific knowledge and skills, sorting individuals based
on skill, and establishing social control over youths.
• Conflict theory: Educational tracking systems and other
differential treatment of students reinforce social
inequalities.
• Symbolic interactionism: Face-to-face interactions in
the classroom can have long-range consequences for
students’ educational achievements.
Religion
• Religion:
• A unified system of beliefs and practices pertaining to the
supernatural and to norms about the right way to live that is
shared by a group of believers. Sociologists treat religion as a
social rather than supernatural phenomenon.
• Key Questions: How do the world religions differ? How are
they similar?
• How have religions developed and changed, and why do
people engage with them?
• What is the relationship between religion and other aspects
of social life such as stratification, deviance, and conflict?
• What are the causes and consequences of contemporary
trends such as secularization, the splintering of religious
groups, and shifting church–state relationships?
Opium, spiritualism,
functions…..
• Marx: Religion is the “opium of the people”—it masks domination
and diverts workers from rebelling against exploitation.
• Weber: Classified religions by their approach to salvation:
– Ascetic religions require active self-mastery; mystical religions
require passive contemplation.
– Other-worldly religions require focus on the next life (e.g., heaven);
this-worldly religions require focus on earthly life.
• Durkheim: Religion provides social solidarity and collective
conscience; it expresses and celebrates the force of society over
the individual.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of religion include providing
meaning for life, reinforcing social norms, strengthening social
bonds, and marking status changes (e.g., marriage).Dysfunctions,
according to some, include justifying persecution.
Economic Institutions
• Sociologists understand the economy as the set of
arrangements by which a society produces, distributes, and
consumes goods, services, and other resources.
• Key Questions: What institutions and relations characterize
different economic systems (e.g., capitalism, socialism, and
feudalism)?
• How do consumption and leisure patterns differ among
various cultures, historical periods, and social groups?
• How do the structures of business organizations affect
productivity, job satisfaction, and inequalities?
trends such as economic liberalization, declining unionization,
and increased consumer debt?
Marx/Functionalism
• Marx: Economic organization (the means
and relations of production) determines the
major features of any society.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of
economic institutions include: production
and distribution of goods, assignment of
individuals to different social roles such as
occupations.

Political Institutions
• Political Institutions:
• Institutions that pertain to the
governance of a society, its formal
distribution of authority, its use of
force, and its relationships to other
societies and political units. The state,
an important political institution in
modern societies, is the apparatus of
governance over a particular territory.
Key questions
• Key Questions: How do political institutions differ
across historical periods and societies?
• How do different social groups participate in political
institutions, and with what consequences?
• How and why do individuals participate in political
processes such as voting or joining lobbying groups?
• How are political institutions related to other aspects
of society, such as the economy and the mass
media?
Authority/Functions/Democr
acy
• Weber: Defines the state as an authority that maintains
a monopoly on the use of violence in its territory.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of political institutions
include protection from external enemies, resolving
group conflicts, defining societal goals, and
strengthening group identity and norms. Pluralism, a
particularly functional type of political institution, entails
distribution of power among many groups so no one
group can gain control.
• Conflict theory: Pluralism and democracy are illusions
that invite the powerless to believe that they have a
voice in governance, when in fact their control is quite
limited.
Marriage
• Marriage is a universal feature of human societies
• It confers on men and women or of same sex ‘social
legitimation’ to engage in sexual relations,
reproduction (not necessary) and child rearing
• To a large extent marriage is not a matter of free
choice, it is socially derived and socially sanctioned
(Khap panchayats, kinship pressures, parent’s choice,
social choice etc)
• Every known society places certain limitations on the
range of persons from among whom spouses may be
chosen. Two major rules of marriage present in
almost all societies are: exogamy and endogamy
Exogamy (Exit)
• This is a social prescription that
requires an individual to marry
outside a specific culturally defined
social groups of which he/she is a
member. This practice serves to
enhance and improve sociability
among people by connecting groups
of people.
Endogamy
• This is just the opposite of exogamy. Here the

social rule requires an individual to marry
within a specific culturally defined social
groups, of which he/she is a member
• The function of endogamy is probably to
regulate marriage in a way that preserve the
cultural identity of a group
• Caste endogamy is an excellent example.
Concepts of physical pollution for example are
related to the concept of caste endogamy.
ctd
• A person of higher caste who comes into
physical contact with a person of lower caste
becomes polluted. The severity of this
pollution depends upon the relative rank of
the two castes in the local hierarchy
• When a man of higher caste marries a woman
of lower caste it is an anuloma marriage.
• When a woman of higher caste marries a man
of lower caste it is a pratiloma marriage.
Forms of Marriage
• Polyandry: one wife many husbands, form of
marriage in which one woman marries more
than one man at a given time. It is quite
widespread in Tibet, where conditions are
harsh and perhaps the effort of two men are
needed to support a family. The Marquesans
of Polynesia, Todas of Nilgiri hills have this
practise. Hindu mythology, Draupadi’s
marriage to five brothers is instance of
polyandry
Polygyny
• Polygyny: one husband many wives. In
the system of polygyny, one man has
two or more wife at a given time. It is
found among Eskimos, some African
tribes and Crow of North Americas.
• Hindu Marriage Act 1955, declares
polygyny as an offence
• Monogamy: one man, one wife.
Family
• The most important primary group
• The American Bureau of Census
defines family as ‘ a group of two or
more persons related by blood,
marriage, adoption, and residing
together, all such persons are
considered as members of one family’.
Basic Characteristics
• A mating relationship
• A system of nomenclature – name
and descent- traced by father side is
patrilocal and that from woman’s
side is matrilocal
• Economic provisions
• Common habitation
• Emotional basis
Marxian view
• The Origin of the Family, Private
Property and the State- Engels on the
notes of Marx and Morgan:
• Family is the first form of institution
where instance of private property
can be traced. Women and children
are enslaved by the head of the
family.
On the basis of authority
• Patriachal family: the male head of the
family. He is the owner and administrator
of the family property and rights. Presides
over the religious rites.
• Wife after marriage comes to live in the
home of the husband
• Father is the controller of property, descent
is traced through father, children are
known by the name of the father
• Male heir of the family takes control
Matriarchal
• Authority is the woman head of the family
whereas male are subordinates
• Descent is traced through mother
• Marriage relations may be transient.
Husband is sometimes merely a casual
visitor. For example Nairs of Kerala, the
husband is only allowed to visit wife in the
night
• Children are brought up in home of
mother. Descent – matrilineal and
matrilocal
• Property is transferred through mother
Kinship
• Kinship is social relationship based on
real, putative or fictive consanguinity
(related by blood) : or on the model of
consanguine relations
• Kinship refers solely to relationship
based upon descent and marriage
Kins
• Kins are of two types:
• Consanguinity – thought to be
biologically related by blood
• Affinal kin- related through marriage
Rules of Residence
• It is imperative that the interacting
individuals live together under the same
roof. Murdoch makes two kind of family
that all individual belong to:
• A family or orientation- where one is born
• A family of procreation- family established
by a person after his/her marriage, consists
of his/her spouse and children
Types
• Patrilocal residence- married couple
reside in the parental home of the
bridegroom (groom, man who
participates in marriage). Virilocality
• Matrilocal residence- married couples
residing in the parental home of the
bride (woman). Uxorilocality
• Bilocal residence- residing near the
parents of either spouse
Residence
• Matri- Patrilocal residence- transitory role of
residence
• (even)Avunculocal residence- married
couple goes to live with bridegroom’s
maternal uncle.
• Neolocal residence- independent location
away from either’s spouse. Industralised
countries have neolocal residence
Descent
• Patrilineal
• Matrilineal
• Types of Unilineal Descent Groups
• Lineage
• Clan
• Phratry
• Moeity
Kinship Usages
• Avoidance- putting restriction on intimacy
• Joking relationships- friendliness, a degree
of joking is allowed
• Teknonymy- Sir Edward Taylor coined the
word-to denote a custom prevalent among
some peoples of naming the parent from
the child (Bunnu ke papa, maa etc )
Caste, Gender, and
Feminism
Basic Framework
• The recent scholarship on the complex relationship
between the regulation of caste and gender purity
has led to the argument that women are embraced
by ‘multiple patriarchies’ , distinguished by the
customary practices of caste and religious
communities.
• What is patriarchy? Why is ‘marriage within caste so
critical? What role do women play in continuity of
caste? Why is ‘purity’ , ‘chastity’ so important for
women? Why does shame and honor of the family,
community, clan lie between women’s legs? What
are some of the questions related to caste and
gender?
• Tracing differences within women’s issues.
• Women’s movement
History of Patriarchy
• The origin of patriarchy is traced back to
any biblical characters were regarded as
father of the human race
• In simple terms, in any given family, the
male is the head of family or tribe
• In sociological sense, the definition of
patriarchy is, ‘a form of social organization
in which a male is the family head and
title is traced through the male line’
Leela Dube
• In her essay ‘caste and gender’, Dube
examines the gendered structures that
caste practice rely upon.
• The production of caste and gender
through cultural rules or norms is
significantly enhanced by dowry, and
control of sexuality.
• The pressures of endogamy compel
large number of women to agree for
arranged marriages
Three interrelated concept
of caste
• Overlapping or intersectional themes
that Leela Dube identified
• Occupational continuity and
reproduction of the caste, food and
rituals and finally marriage and
sexuality
Occupational continuity
• Women’s work contributes substantially to the
occupational continuity of a caste group.
• Although, with industralization and new
developments, the growth of new professions
and ‘open recruitment’ have come up as
important aspects of social change
• Nevertheless, there is a link and continuity of
caste and occupation
• Agriculture, although is open to all castes, yet a
large number of traditional cultivating caste can
be identified
Significance of women’s
work
• The cultural recognition of the significance of women's work
in the continuity of caste-linked occupations have been long
established.
• For example, in Chhatisgarh, a Raot, (grazier and water
carrier) woman has an important role to play during feasts
and ceremonies, bringing water, washing utensils, grinding
spices, and cooking.
• In the South, a washer woman’s ritual functions are
indispensable for the washing of soiled clothes
• In every region of India, there are specific untouchable
castes whose women work as midwives.
Women get stuck with
traditional jobs?
• In a study of scavenger women in Delhi, Karlekar (1976)
found that while men were increasingly leaving the
ritually ‘defiling occupations’ of their caste, women
remained in the same traditional field.
• These women had to support the household, which
included jobless young men, who were trying to acquire
skills or exploring job opportunities
• Similarly, the Padyachi and Nadar families have their
women take up work as domestic helps in private
homes.
• Link between caste and ethnicity, occupation, gender
and production of poverty and inequality (Ayyar,
forthcoming work in World Bank Poverty Reduction
Papers)
Food and Rituals
• Food constitutes a critical element in the ritual
idiom of purity and pollution
• In other words, both the exclusiveness of the castes
as bounded entities and inter caste relationships
are articulated by the idiom of castes
• Women, play key role in he process of socialization,
are also principal protagonists in this arena.
• The task of safeguarding food from pollution,
averting danger etc is task of women.
• Home is under custody of women
Food and hierarchy
• Foods are hierarchically classified in terms of
intrinsic purity, impurity, vulnerability and
resistance of pollution and in terms of specific
characteristics they embody- passion, anger,
strength, calm, spiritual etc
• Foods then are substances which carry the
capacity to affect and transform the person
who consumes them
• Food restrictions are seen in two aspects-
prohibition of certain foods for women, and
prohibition of inter dining or acceptance of
food from other ‘lower castes’
Food and Sexuality
• Women are to be prohibited from eating Tamsik
foods, which are considered to raise passion
and desire
• Women’s practices concerning the consumption
of food in terms of intake, quality, quantity,
time are constrained by caste and its rankings
• The control over food is at once the protection
of women from the transgression of sexual
norms and a safeguards against a breach of the
boundaries of caste
Marriage and Sexuality
• Key area of caste axis, which rests on marriage
and sexuality
• The caste system is premised upon the cultural
perception of fundamental difference in male
and female sexuality
• Hierarchy of sexes and the difference in the
levels of purity and pollution
• Low caste women apart from ‘self pollution’
(menses)have to deal with others pollution like
washing soiled clothes, cleaning other people’s
home, midwifery, polluting craftwork etc , so
these women are the most impure
• Menstrual pollution is known to impose disabilities on women in
respect of food, worship of deities and ancestors
• Brahmin and other high caste women do not incur pollution from
others, it is mainly from the bodily process of menstruation and child
birth
• The other source of impurity for women is widowhood. Widows are not
supposed to perform pujas of family deities, and do not cook the pure
food offered to these deities. A man on the other hand is not similarly
affected if he becomes a widower.
Controlled Sexuality
• Sexual involvement is much more serious matter of
concern for women than men
• It is believed that women through inter caste sexual
relations the act affects her ‘internal pollution’ and
affects her permanently and whereas for men, it is a
‘external pollution’
• It is echoed by upper caste feminists that upper caste
women are much more vulnerable than lower caste
women when it comes to permanent pollution.
• Logic is: ‘superior seed can fall on an inferior field but
inferior seed cannot fall on superior field’
Paternity
• In the case of unattached, unmarried
woman, pregnancy is disaster not just
because in patrilineal society
paternity is essential for group
placement but also because the issue
of caste boundaries and her own
purity are involved
• Thus, Marriage and sexuality
constitute a central arena in which
caste impinges on women's lives
Like a Virgin
• The value of virginity is directly linked to the concern of
female purity
• The pre pubertal phase is looked upon as a stage of
intrinsic purity and is celebrated in many ways
• The custom of worshipping and feeding virgin girls on
specific das such as the eight day of Navaratri is
widespread in India
• A pre-pubertal girl is looked as a manifestation of Devi or
Avatar of Goddess.
• The purity and the consequent privileged status of a girl in
the pre-pubertal stage contrasts sharply with, and brings
into impurity, in the next phase of puberty
• Rituals are observed in Orissa, Maharashtra, UP, Cowbelt
Dowry
• Caste both imposes constraints and creates the
dominant ethos which underlies the practice of
dowry within the Hindu society
• Dowry has also become the easiest way of
improving family’s lifestyle and a source of ready
cash
• The pressures of endogamy compel them to stick
to arranged marriages and trap them in
negotiations with a premium on dowry
• Higher demands from the groom’s family in case
if he is better educated, well paid etc
In conclusion
• Birth
• Sex
• Food
• Puberty
• Virginity
• Impurity
• Work
• Sexuality
• Marriage
• Widowhood
• Patriarch's family
• Caste and Gender are intrinsically linked. Caste is not dead.
The principles of caste inform the specific nature of sexual
asymmetry in Hindu society, the boundaries and hierarchies of
caste are articulated by gender relations (Dube, 1990)
Women’s Movement
• It is said that women position in Buddhism
and early Vedic times were enviable one
• She could access education, select her own
mate, and in domestic life could participate
as equal partner to the male
• However, the congruence between the
normative ideal and the empirical reality
did not last long and law givers like Manu
brought down the status of women for
centuries thereafter
19th century Reform
Movements
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy, were concerned
about the specific evils like Sati and child
marriage
• Mostly educated elite of India were
involved in early women’s movement and
hoped that Indian women (per se upper
caste women) could do better through
education and association would be able
to serve their families and communities
in constructive manner
Conceptions
• There were two different conceptions of
improving women position in India
• The first goal was to uplift women in general . The
meaning attached to this upliftment was to
reform some social practices so as to enable
women to play more important and more
constructive role in society
• In the second conception, the goal was equal
rights for men and women. The meaning attached
to ‘equal rights’ was the extension of the rights
enjoyed by men in political, economic and
familial spheres as compared to women
Organization
• In the 1930 women’s organization focused mainly on
women’s upliftment
• All India Women Conference in 1932 emphasized on
equal rights
• The interesting element here is elite women’s
movement and demands for political participation were
readily accepted. The principle of female suffrage was
quickly accepted but the campaign for property rights
provoked much opposition and initial failure as well.
• Post independence, Hindu Code Bill, charter of rights for
women, prepared by Dr Ambedkar was defeated in the
parliament, as it promised property rights, autonomy
and entitlements to women.
Types of women’s
organization
• Post 1970s, different types of organization
and movement have developed in India
• Most of these movements are supported by
academicians and activist
• The new perspective on women’s movement
demand rights, entitlements, autonomy than
reforms and upliftment
• Leadership is concentrated in cities and in
hands of elite, or upper caste women (Hindu,
Muslim, etc)
Groups
• 1) Agitational Propaganda : consciousness
raising groups which may be termed as
autonomous groups
• 2) Grass Roots or Mass Based Organizations:
like the trade unions, agricultural laborers
organizations, democratic rights groups,
tribal organization. Issues like women
empowerement, political participation, sexual
violence, wife beating, harassment,
alcoholism, witchcraft, etc have been taken
up.
types
• 3) Service Providers: women organizations
providing shelter, services to destitute, etc
being taken up
• 4) Professional Women’s Groups: Such as
doctors, lawyers, scientists, researchers,
journalist etc
• 5) Political Wings: Women’s Wings in politics
• 6) Documentation Groups: Women involved in
documenting women’s issues
Mobilization
• Various methods have been used to
mobilize
• Street politics, leaflets, pamphlets,
articles, street corner meetings,
mohalla, nukkad plays etc
• Non profit publications have been
started
Different Frameworks
• Within women's movement there are
different frameworks that are used by
women to articulate oppression and offer
resistance/emancipation
• Liberal Feminist- believe in legal reform for
changing women's status
• Radical Feminist- who hold men
responsible for their miseries
• Socialist Feminist – broader context of
political economy
• Dalit Feminist Standpoint (Babytai Kamble,
Sharmila Rege)
Organizations
• Young Women Christian Asccociation
(YWCA)
• Janvadi Mahila Samiti (CPM)
• National Federation of Indian Women
(CPI)
• Mahila Dakhshita Samiti (Janata Dal)
• Mahila Morcha (BJP)
Movements
• Anti Arrack Movement
• Chipko Movement
• SEWA
Society and Social
Inequalities
• Caste as determinant of life-chances
in post independent india
• Gender and restricted access
• Religion and issues of minority
Statistical Evidence on Caste,
Tribe, Gender and Inequality
• Details of Monthly Per Capita
Consumption Expenditure of NSSO
• Income difference among the SC/ST/OBC
against General
• Gender Index
• Arjun Sengupta Report detailing the real
India post 1990s
Social Justice , Constitutional
Safeguards and Protective
Discrimination
• Justice was used as equivalent to
righteousness in general
• Influenced by Plato, philosophers have
concentrated on the tension between:
• 1) Justice as an impartial application of
established substantive rules and
• 2) Justice as an ideal criteria or reformer
of such rule
Types of Justice
• 1)Procedural Justice: employing correct methods to
develop rules of conduct, to ascertain certain facts of
particular case, or to devise a total appreciation
absorbing rules and facts into final dispositive (creating a
category that needs protection) judgment
• 2)Substantive Justice: this was related more to state
welfare:
• A) Distributive Justice: it applies to allotment of honor,
wealth and social goods and should be proportionate to
civic merit
• B) Corrective Justice: it may apply to private, voluntary,
outside the law courts is confided peculiarly to judiciary
whose duty is to restore a ‘middle point of equality’
Constitutional Provisions
• Article 15 (4) speaks about
educationally and socially backwards
• Article 16(4) uses the term backward
class and speaks of inadequate
representation in services
• Article 17, Prohibition of practices of
untouchability
• Article 23, against forced labour
Ctd
• Article 45 mentions free and compulsory education
• Article 46 mentions the weaker section of the
people include he SC and ST, and state shall take
full responsibility for their social, educational, and
economical empowerment
• Article 340 of Indian constitution empowers the
state to investigate the condition of the backward
classes and to help them by grants
Significance
• Social Justice
• Recognizes elements of backwardness,
discrimination, illiteracy, caste, labour, non
representation of certain social groups, etc
• Article 15 reasserts that ‘ no one can prevent
the state from making any special provision for
the advancement of Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribes
STs
• Article 342 of the constitution provides the
president of India may with respect to any state
or ut, specify the tribes or tribal community
which shall be deemed as ST
• Article 25- Right of freedom of religion
• Article 29- protects cultural, educational rights of
minorities
• Article 46, state shall promote with special care
the educational and economic interest of the
weaker sections of SC.ST and shall protect them
for social justice and all forms of exploitation
General
• Article 164, provides Ministry of Tribal Welfare
• Article 244, provides inclusion of fifth schedule,
provision for the admin of the Scheduled Areas
and Tribes
• Article 275, provides grants for special funds by
the Union Government to State Govts for
promoting welfare of the STs
• Article 330 and 332 reserve the right of seats
for the SC/ST in the House of People and state
legislatures
ctd
• Article 335 assures the SC and ST, will be given
special attention when filling the post in services
• Article 338 provides for a special officer for the
SC/ST, this to be appointed by the President
• Commitment to Social Justice
• Preamble is the soul of our constitution
• Key to understand, the idea of social justice and
protection given to SC/ST/BC/Minorities
Dalit Movement
Movements of lower castes for social justice
Challenges to Caste
Hierarchy
• Buddhism: 6 century BC
• Other movements: Bhakti, Kabir etc.

Colonial Period 18 thto1947
• British did not oppose caste system
• Reinforced it through Manusmriti
• Change in socio-economic formation led to

questioning old system
19 Century
th
• Jyotiba (Mahatma) Phule raised issue of social

equality
• Justice Party in Madras Presidency led by
EVR Naicker challenged caste hierarchy.
• Linked to rationalist (atheist) movement
• Later founded Dravida Kazgham (DK)
• Caste was a North Indian phenomenon
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Foremost in fight for equality
Annihilation of Caste: Questioned basis of
permanent division of labour based on caste
1.There must be laws to dismantle caste system
2.Should be only one standard book for Hindus
that should be accepted by all, including the
untouchable castes
3. Abolish traditional caste-based priesthood.
Suggested examination for priests
4. Priests should be servants of the state
5. Proposed ideal social order based on liberty
(choice of occupation), equality (of
opportunity) and fraternity (no discrimination
based on caste, freedom of association)
Caste and Class
• Related but not identical
• Economic basis versus social basis
• Caste is more important in Indian context
• Stress on class overlooks caste
Ideologies
• Ambedkarism defines ideology of broader
anti-caste movement
• Annihilation of caste and ending
Brahaminical superiority
• Later believed that there was no solution
within Hindu fold. Buddhaism
Questioned Gandhi’s views on
development—rural development and
gram swaraj (self-governing villages)
Challenged communist view of base
and superstructure: said
superstructure should be knocked
down to change base
• Suggested united working class struggle on the
eradication of caste and untouchability
• Linguistic basis of nationalism
• Strong state for transforming society
Descent groups
Types of descent groups
• Family • Property
• Lineage • Work
• Clan • Kinship relations
• Caste • Marriage
• Status
• Gender relations
• Caste
– Kinship linkages provided by marriage give its
strength
– Breach in linkages brings down the status
• Of family
• Clan
• Caste
– Female sexuality
• Caste purity
• Tradition, culture and honour
• Power
– Caste, class, gender or seniority
– Violence
Cultural codes
• Honour –
– Izzat
– At the expense of human sentiments and
values
– Love and kinship bonds sacrificed for morality
and upkeep of honour
– Ideology
– Guides the social behaviour
• Complicity
– Between perpetrators of violence and police
Challenges to cultural codes
Within Without
• Assertion of the • Assertion of lower
younger members caste groups
Linkages between the Honour of the upper
two - caste
denial of honour to the
lower caste
Intra-caste
• month later in April 1991, in village Khedakul of Narela (north Delhi),
Poonam, a jat girl, was shot dead by her uncle in broad day light for having
an 'illicit relationship' with another jat boy of the same village.4 Again,
several villagers were witness to this crime. The father and the uncle
declared it a "heinous crime". and death as its only punishment. "Her action
had soiled our honour, our pride," the father reportedly told the police.In
August 1993, in village Khandravali in Muzzafarnagar district, western UP,
a low caste girl Sarita, having made a runaway match, was axed to death
along with her husband Satish. Satish belonged to her own caste group but
hailed from an adjacent sister village6 and was also very distantly related
to her. The families of both the victims were bricklayers. It was at a brick
kiln in Haryana that they grew intimate and finally eloped. All attempts to
trace them failed. However when they allegedly returned, on their own
volition five months after the elopement, they were beheaded in the village
chaupal by the girl's uncle. Their "'grave social violation" was compounded
by their returning to the village, where according to the local opinion, they
"dared to flaunt" their "disdain for the social norms". The crime was
witnessed by the whole village. This was the third elopement in the village
among its low caste community. Nothing is known of the other couples. The
village elders were concerned about protecting the 'izzat' (honour) of the
village. This brutal hacking was to be a "lesson to others", said Om Pal, the
sarpanch (headman) of the village. In this episode the girl was blamed by
the villagers for "luring" the youth. The grandmother of Sarita openly
declared: "Our name is mud. Can I look anyone in the eye now".
Inter-caste
• “…Perhaps the most shocking of the lot is
the Mehrana murder case of March 1991.
Roshni, a jat girl of village Mehrana in
western UP, ran away with Brijendra, a low
caste jatav boy, assisted by his friend. All
the three were caught. The jat panchayat
sat in judgment on them. Under its decree,
they were tortured the whole night, hanged
in the morning and then set on fire, two of
them still alive. The entire village was
witness to this savage and brutal murder.”
Incest taboos
• Got exogamy
• Village exogamy
• Marriage
– The above rejection
– Related to the importance of establishing
inter-group relationship
• Use of violence
• Social networks
– Structures of support and betrayal
Status concerns
• Relaxation of restrictions in principles
of village exogamy and clan exogamy
• Cases
– 1993 – village Pehtavas, district Bhiwani
– Sangwan and Punia got
– 1995 – village Salani, Rohtak district
– Bairagi and Chahar got
• November 1993, in village Pehtavas, district Bhiwani, confrontation and
violence among jats occurred on account of infringement of certain clan
taboos. The two groups of jats involved in the marriage belonged to the Punia
and the Sangwan got. Bakhtawar Singh Punia got his two sons married into
the Sangwan got of jats. A 'khap' panchayat (multi-clan council) of 40 villages
met on March 14 and held the alliance as incestuous; it decreed the marriage
void. When Bakhtawar Singh Punia refused to accept the verdict a social
boycott of the family was ordered. Normally, the Sangwans and the Punias
can and do inter- marry. But because of a tradition, unique to the village, a
marital alliance between them was considered 'sinful'. In 1850s, the first
important settler of the village, Chaudhary Chet Ram of the Sangwan got had
adopted Dhod Ram Punia as his son. The Punia sub-caste thus merged with
the Sangwans. The two clans from then onwards became adopted brother got.
However the alliance began as an alliance between a bigger, more powerful
and higher status brother and a younger, weaker brother. Over the years
some of the families of Punias migrated to the city, gave up farming, took up
urban professions and became urban based. Bakhtawar Singh Punia was one
such man. He joined government service as a police inspector. His sons
Mahender and Rajesh both grew up to take urban professions. Living in the
urban centres made Bakhtawar's family escape the direct ire of
Inter-caste marriages
• Short-lived and impermanent
• Dissimilarity of culture
• Problems of identity for future
generations
• Purity of blood
Upper caste women and lower
caste men
• Folk songs
– Celebrate liaison between upper caste
women and lower caste men
• Social and economic betterment of the
lower castes
– Jatavs and other lower castes becoming
socially and economically more powerful
– Jats show a new determination who have
become rich through green revolution
Lower caste women
• High caste women
– Considered vulnerable to low caste men
• Lower caste women
– Do not have purity
– “vo to hoven he aise hain, mahare
ladakon ka ke kasur”
– There women are sexually promiscuous.
What is the fault of our boys?
Traditions of inter-caste
marriages
• Jat ek samundar hai aur jo bhi daruya es
samunder mein parti hai who samunder ki
bun jati hai
• Beeran ki kai jaat – women have no caste
• Karewa marriages with inter-caste alliances
• British rule and invocation of Hindu law
Assertion of power
• Caste Panchayats
– “the panchayat walas stepped in….they said to
me that ladkiwalas did not have a say in the
matter and that they alone would decide what
punishment was to be meted out to the girl.
They took her away and hanged her”
• Growing urbanization of Haryana
– But rural urban divide not as tight, massive
overlap
– Daily commuting to Delihi – 1 lakh Haryanvis
– Urban consumerist culture
– Jeep and a gun and a bottle of rum – virile
martial race
Brahmans vs. non-
Brahmans
• Kumbapettai, in Tanjore region of
Tamil Nadu – Kathleen Gough (1956)
• Brahmans
• Shudras
• Adi Dravidas
Brahman vs. non-Brahman
• Occupation
• Moral values
Brahmans
• Households
– 36
• 30 – 3- 30 acres of land
• 6- do not hwon land
• Management of land
– Non-Brahmans
• Cowherds, peasants, potters, fishermen, washermen
– Adi-Dravidas
• Pallans
• Brahman street – agraharam
Subcaste, clan and lineage
• Clan
– Five clans – descended from five sages
– Kuttam
– Patrilineage
– Exogamy, clan deity
– Unity seen in performance of rituals
Dwelling group
• Patrilineal, patrilocal and extended
family with a joint ownership of land
– 36
• 7 – complete joint families
• 8 – incomplete
• 13 – nuclear families with married couples
• 8 – widows, with our without children
Relations in elementary
family
• Parents and sons
– Son treated with indulgence
– Asymmetrical relation between
• Father and son
• Brothers
• In contrast with low caste mutual equality
• Partial repudiation of emotional ties with
women
• Sexual relations – valued only for begetting
a son
• Girl – non-person until married
– Gift of a virgin
Brahman vs. Non-Brahman
• Relationship to land
• Economic independence of low caste
women
• Equality and solidarity of peers
• Religious values
• Economic arrangements
• Sensuality and aggression
• Asymmetry in the kinship system
Transitory residents,
invisible workers
Residence
• Residence after marriage
• Female residence
• household pattern and family
• Work categories
• Division of labour
Aaoni jaoni
• Agriculture work
• Changes in purdah
• Wage work
• Daughter’s work and prestations
• Aoni jaoni and incorporation
Family, Marriage and
Kinship
Basic concepts 2
Theoretical Perspectives
• Functionalism
• Conflict
• Marxism
Definition
• A socially defined set of relationships between at
least two people related by birth, marriage,
adoption, or, in some definitions, long-standing ties
of intimacy is defined as a ‘family’
• Kinship ties are connections between individuals,
established either through marriage or through the
lines of descent that connect blood relatives
• Marriage- socially acknowledged and approved
union between two adult individuals can be defined
as Marriage.
For Family
• Key Questions: How do families vary across
different societies, historical periods, classes,
and ethnic groups?
• How are authority, resources, and work
distributed within families?
• How do parents, particularly mothers,
balance the demands of work and family?
• What are the causes and effects of divorce,
domestic violence, and single parenting?
Family
• The American Bureau of Census defines

family as ‘ a group of two or more persons
related by blood, marriage, adoption, and
residing together, all such persons are
considered as members of one family’
Basic Characterstics
• A system of nomenclature – name and
descent- traced by father side is
patrilocal and that from woman’s side is
matrilocal
• Emotional basis
Marxian View
where instance of private property can
be traced. Women and children are
enslaved by the head of the family.
• Patriarchal family: the male head of the family.
He is the owner and administrator of the family
property and rights. Presides over the religious
rites.
• Wife after marriage comes to live in the home of
the husband
• Father is the controller of property, descent is
traced through father, children are known by the
name of the father
Matriarchal
• Authority is the woman head of the family whereas
male are subordinates
• Marriage relations may be transient. Husband is
sometimes merely a casual visitor. For example
Nairs of Kerala, the husband is only allowed to visit
wife in the night
• Children are brought up in home of mother.
Descent – matrilineal and matrilocal
Marriage
legitimation’ to engage in sexual relations, reproduction
(not necessary) and child rearing
• To a large extent marriage is not a matter of free choice,
it is socially derived and socially sanctioned (Khap
panchayats, kinship pressures, parent’s choice, social
choice etc)
chosen. Two major rules of marriage present in almost
all societies are: exogamy and endogamy
Exogamy (Exit)
of people.
Endogamy
social rule requires an individual to marry within
a specific culturally defined social groups, of
which he/she is a member
• The function of endogamy is probably to regulate
marriage in a way that preserve the cultural
identity of a group
Pollution?
• A person of higher caste who comes into physical contact
with a person of lower caste becomes polluted. The
severity of this pollution depends upon the relative rank
of the two castes in the local hierarchy
• When a man of higher caste marries a woman of lower
caste it is an anuloma marriage.
• When a woman of higher caste marries a man of lower
caste it is a pratiloma marriage.
Theoretical Perspectives
• Functionalism
• Conflict
• Marxism
Functionalism
• Functional analysis is not new. Among the modern
sociological theory it became enormously popular and
profoundly influential in understanding sociology
• It is heavily borrowed from biological sciences,
especially the extension of the many analogies between
society and organism.
• Two most crucial elements in understanding
functionalism have been: structure and
interrelatedness
Tenants
• Functionalism is simply a view of society as
‘self-regulating’ system of interrelated elements
with structured social relationships and
observed regularities.
• It is a sociological perspective which seeks to
explain a social elements or cultural pattern in
terms of its consequences for different
elements as well as for the system as a whole
• Basic premise- social system as a whole, inter
relatedness and structural, they all operate for
equilibrium and functionality
Roots of functionalism :
intellectual background
• The history of Functional analysis may be traced to Comte’s Consensus
Universalsis , Spencer’s Organic Analogy, Pareto’s conception of society
as equilibrium and Durkheim’s – causal –functional analysis
• Comte- he viewed society as a functionally organized system, and its
components in harmony
• Malinowski functionalism is often termed as individual functionalism
because of its treatment of social and cultural systems as collective
responses to biological needs of individuals modified by cultural values
In nutshell
• The functional approach in sociology consists basically of an attempt to
understand social phenomena in terms of their relationship to some
system. At least two distinct kind of procedures are traced- observed and
maintained pattern of behavior and second persistence of observed and
maintained pattern of behaviour through norms, values, institutions etc
• To the functionalist, a system is more than the sum of its parts , it is also
the relationships among its parts, their primary interest is in the
contribution of the elements to the maintenance of the system
Talcott Parsons: revival of
functionalism
• Parsonian Functionalism views that ‘ social system
depends on consensus of its members on common goals
and values related to the basic needs of society
• Entire social system as resting heavily upon ‘shared
values’
• Order, stability, and maintenance of a structure are basic
factors of functionalism
• Balance, equilibrium, maintenance of society as a whole,
interrelatedness, dependency, functions are important
Merton : modified and critiqued
traditional view
• He contributed to codification and
systematization of functional analysis
• 1) Postulate of functional unity of
society
• 2) Postulate of universal
functionalism
• 3) Postulate of indispensability
Functional unity
Formerly, it was based on biological analogy, that
society as well as integrated and constituents
contribute to the functioning and maintenance of
society as a whole
Previously, the assumption was social institutions
operate on commonly shared beliefs and practices are
functional for every member of society
Merton questions that assumption and contends that
cultural items do not function uniformly for the society
and its members
Anthropologist have exaggerated unity, homogeneity,
solidarity and integration, and investigations need to be
conducted on social integration. So he suggests, that
we need to bring both positive and negative
consequences of functionalism and specify which
elements contribute and how
Postulate of Universal
Functionalism
It assumes that all ‘standardized social and cultural
forms have positive and only positive functions’
Every type of civilization, artifact, custom, idea, belief,
myths have certain functions and they are good for the
society.
Merton contended that not necessary that what is good
for individuals is good for society
A social custom for elites may have positive
consequences than a non-elite for whom social customs
may serve to have negative consequences
For example, universities and educational systems
catering to the rich and elite in form of excellence
institutions will churn out inequalities for non elite
students
Postulate of indispensability
The assumption is that if a social pattern is well
established, it must be meeting some basic needs of the
system and hence it must be indispensable.
Merton rejects this position, he says that same cultural
item may perform multiple functions and alternative
items may fulfill the same functions
For instance, if salvation is the function served by
religion, a simple system of faith will do, why have a
complex system of religion
Need of government is required- it can be fulfilled
through democracy, dictatorship or traditional monarch.
The purpose is achieved.
In essence what he says is ‘functional alternatives’
‘functional substitutes have become important but what
remains instrumental is social structure,
interdependency as a whole
Conflict Perspective
• Two distinct traditions can be traced of
conflict theorist in classical works:
• 1) the power relations tradition of
political philosophy
• 2) the tradition of competitive struggle
in classical economics
Marx, Coser, Dahrendorf set the tradition

of conflict perspective
Recognize the conflict
• Conflict exist
• Historical notings
• Recognizes the problems
• Yes, conflict are good, they push
change
• However, this approach promotes
institutionalisation of conflict
Functionalism
Views of Gandhi on caste

system
Divisions for survival of
whole
• Essential divisions to maintain hierarchy
• Strongly believed in chaturvarna – four divisions of
society, brahmins, kshatriya, vaishyas and shudras
• Advocated that smaller caste should merge with
bigger castes
• He argued that inter dining and inter marriage
should not be made compulsion
• Compared village system to being that of a republic
• Was against industrialization and modernization
because they would destruct caste
Mr Gandhi belief? Reminder of
Functionalism
• “ I believe that if Hindu Society has been able to stand it is because it
is founded on the caste system.
• " The seeds of Swaraj are to be found in the caste system. Different
castes are like different sections of military division. Each division is
working for the good of the whole.
• " A community which can create the caste system must be said to
possess unique power of organisation.
• " Caste has a ready made means for spreading primary education.
Every caste can take the responsibility for the education of the
children of the Caste. Caste has a political basis. It can work as an
electorate for a representative body. Caste can perform judicial
functions by electing persons to act as judges to decide disputes
among members of the same caste. With castes it is easy to raise a
defence force by requiring each caste to raise a brigade.
Occupational Division- soul of
caste system
Caste is another name for control. Caste puts a limit on enjoyment.
• " To destroy caste system and adopt Western European social system
means that Hindus must give up the principle of hereditary
occupation which is the soul of the caste system.
• Hereditary principle is an eternal principle. To change it is to create
disorder. I have no use for a Brahmin if I cannot call him a Brahmin for
my life. It will be a chaos if every day a Brahmin is to be changed into a
Shudra and a Shudra is to be changed into a Brahmin.
• " The caste system is & natural order of society. In India it has been
given a religious coating. Other countries not having understood the
utility of the Caste System it existed only in a loose condition and
consequently those countries have not derived from Caste system the
same degree of advantage which India has derived.
Maha- Atma
• I am opposed to all those who are out to destroy the Caste System-
Gandhi (1922)
• The varna system is connected with the way of earning a living.
There is no harm if a person belonging to one varna acquires the
knowledge or science and art specialised by persons belonging to
other varnas. But as far as the way of earning his living is concerned
he must follow the occupation of the varna to which he belongs
which means he must follow the hereditary profession of his
forefathers.
• " The object of the varna system is to prevent competition and class
struggle and class war. I believe in the varna system because it
fixes the duties and occupations of persons,
• "Varna means the determination of a man's occupation before he is
born.
• " In the Varna system no man has any liberty to choose his
occupation. His occupation is determined for him by heredity."
Mr. M.K.Gandhi
• Mr. Gandhi : As a President of a Conference of the
Untouchables, "I do not want to attain Moksha. I do not
want to be reborn. But if I have to be reborn, I should be
born an untouchable, so that I may share their sorrows,
sufferings and the affronts levelled at them, in order that I
may Endeavour to free myself and them from that
miserable condition. I, therefore prayed that if I should be
born again, I should do so not as a Brahmin, Kshatriya,
Vaishya, or Shudra, but as an Atishudra.” (Babasaheb
Ambedkar Writing and Speeches: What Congress and
Gandhi have done to the untouchables: chapter XI:
Gandhism: The Doom of the untouchables)
Ctd…
• "l love scavenging. In my Ashram, an eighteen
years old Brahmin lad is doing the scavenger's
work in order to teach the Ashram scavengers
cleanliness. The lad is no reformer. He was born
and bred in orthodoxy. But he felt that his
accomplishments were incomplete until he had
become also a perfect sweeper, and that if he
wanted the Ashram sweeper to do his work
well, he must do it himself and set an example.
You should realise that you are cleaning Hindu
Society.”
Crushing Gandhi and ism
• lt may be your interest to be our masters, but how can it be ours to be
"
your slaves ? "
• —THUCYDIDES.
• Can there be a worse example of false propaganda than this attempt of
Gandhism to perpetuate evils which have been deliberately imposed by
one class over another ? If Gandhism preached the rule of poverty for all
and not merely for the Shudra the worst that could be said about it is
that it is a mistaken idea. But why preach it as good for one class only ?
Why appeal to the worst of human failings, namely, pride and vanity in
order to make him voluntarily accept what on a rational basis he would
resent as a cruel discrimination against him ? What is the use of telling
scavenger that even a Brahmin is prepared to do scavenging when It is
clear that according to Hindu Shastras and Hindu notions even if a
Brahmin did scavenging he would never be subject to the disabilities of
one who is a born scavenger ? For in India a man is not a scavenger
because of his work. He is a scavenger because of his birth irrespective
of the question whether he does scavenging or not.
Criticism rooted in a
Perspective
• To preach that poverty is good for the Shudra and
for none else, to preach that scavenging is good
for the Untouchables and for none else and to
make them accept these onerous impositions as
voluntary purposes of life, by appeal to their
failings is an outrage and a cruel joke on the
helpless classes which none but Mr. Gandhi can
perpetuate with equanimity and impunity. ( BAWS)
Conflict
• Conflict is a theory or perspective which
emphasize the role of Conflict especially
between groups and classes in human
society
• The main features of conflict theories was
that:
• They accused the functionalist theorist of
disregarding conflicts of values and
interest in human societies, or at best
regarding these as secondary
phenomenon
Roots
• Origins can be located in works of
Max Weber
• Stressed on role of interests over
norms and values
• Pursuit of interest generates conflict
as normal aspects of social life
Marxian Thread
• Conflict theory was drawn from Marx’s work
• Stressed on conflict as basis of social change
• It is conflict and not solidarity that is symbol of
dynamic society
• Differences with Marx- there are different sources of
conflict- ideas, intellectuals, can cause conflict not
only classes
• Focus on institutionalisation of conflict
• Ralph Dahrendorf and Rex for further reading
Alternative
• As a alternative to functionalist,
conflict theorist offered an account of
both integration of society and social
change, which emphasized the role of
power, coercion, thus indicating role
of conflict as the most important
• They proposed that conflict has a role,
and that is to bring social change
Powerful arguments
• Although some scholars such as Gouldner
were influenced by Marxist or Marxism, one
important work of Lewis Coser’s argument
was based on Simmel. He cited social
functions and disruptive effects of conflict
• In essence, conflict theorist although
brought conflict to the forefront, they
suggested that there were more conflicts
than functional unity however, underscored
importance of institutionalization of conflicts
for continuity of soicety
Karl Marx
• 1818-1883
• German social theorist
• Dialectical materialism
• Historical Materialism
Historical Materialism
• General term for Marx and Engels
conception of historical, social, and
economic change, and the method of
analysis associated with this
• Marx’s conceptualisation of Historical
Materialism is expressed in his work
(1859) a contribution to the critique
of political economy’.
• Human beings are socially producing. This
distinguishes them from other animals/living
beings (German Ideology)
• The identity of humans lies in collective rather
than individual.
• The essence of man is not an abstraction inherent
in each particular individual. The real nature of
man is the totality of social relations” (Theses on
Feuerbach)
Change
• Drawn from dialectics (dialogue)
• Change represents opposing forces
• Positive (thesis) and negative (antithesis)
• Together (synthesis) they determine nature of
change
Materialism Vs Idealism
For Marx, matter is supreme
Ideas originate for material existence and not
vice-versa
‘It is not consciousness that determines human
existence, rather human existence determines
consciousness’
Modes of Production
• Based on two aspects:
• a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise,
meaning 'the way of producing') is a specific
combination of:
• Productive forces : these include human labour
power and the means of production (eg. tools,
equipment, physical infrastructure)
• social and technical relations of production : these
include the property, power and control relations
governing society's productive assets, often codified in
law, cooperative work relations and forms of association,
relations between people and the objects of their work,
and the relations between social classes.
Ctd
• Contradiction between humans and nature
• People must consume to survive, but to consume they must
produce, and in producing they necessarily enter into
relations which exist independently of their will. These
again are shaped by contradictions
• Between humans-those with property those without
• Private property is the basis of division of labour
• First forms of property seen in family
• the whole ‘mystery' of why/how a social order exists and
the causes of social change must be discovered in the
specific mode of production that a society has
Outline
• Primitive Communism (shared production,
consumption, no surplus)
• Asiatic mode of production (pre slavery, pre-feudal,
exploited bands, villages, hamlets, communities by
the ruling class, generally authority on the basis on
semi-theocratic- messengers of gods, incarnations of
god itself, control by use of violence)
• Antique mode of production (property possession in
form of individuals- claims that ruling class is
descendants of gods rather than gods
• Feudalism (he primary form of property is the
possession of land in reciprocal contract relations: the
possession of human beings as peasants or serfs is
dependent upon their being entailed upon the land)
Ctd
• Early Capitalism (period from Mercantilism to Imperialism
and is usually associated with the emergence of modern
industrial society. The primary form of property is the
possession of objects and services through state guaranteed
contract. The primary form of exploitation is wage labour .
The ruling class is the bourgeoisie which exploits the
proletariat. Capitalism may produce one class (bourgeoisie)
who possess the means of production for the whole of society
and another class who possess only their own labour power,
which they must sell in order to survive. The key forces of
production include the overall system of modern production
with its supporting structures of bureaucracy and the modern
state, and finance capital.
Late Capitalism and
Communism
• Late Capitalism (state capitalism, mixed
economy, emergence of corporations etc,
distinctive characteristics is ‘financialization’
making money becomes a dominant industry-
stocks, investment bankers, etc
• Communism (classless society, management of
things, management of people will be central
concern)
CLASS
• So far as millions of families live under
economic conditions of existence that separate
their mode: of life, their interests and their
culture from those of the other classes, and put
them in hostile opposition to the latter, they
form a class”
How is the class formed?
• Base: Mode of production
• Superstructure: Political, religious, ideological
etc.
• Superstructure is determined by base
Engel’s clarification
• According to the materialistic concept of
history the ultimately determining factor in
history is the production and reproduction of
real life. Neither Marx nor I have ever
asserted more than this. Hence if somebody
twists this into saying that the economic
factor is the only determining factor, he
transforms this proposition into a
meaningless, abstract phrase.
Finally…
• The economic situation is the basis,
but the various elements of the
super-structure ...also exercise their
influence upon the course of
historical struggles and in many
cases determine their form in
particular"
From being ‘Children of
God to Children of
Ambedkar’
Examine the Rise of
Ambedkar in Indian Polity and
his movements for Social
Justice
Timeline, Aspects to be
covered
• Dalit world pre- independence
• Rise of shudras
• Rise of Dalits, socio-cultural aspects
• Role of British in empowerment of Dalits
• Deplorable practices against Dalits and Shudras
• Resistance offered by Shudras, through education, organizations
• Communal Awards and Brahmindom
• Efficiency over fair and goodness for masses
• Gandhi Vs Ambedkar- Poona Pact, ‘ Gandhiji, I have no homeland’- Ambedkar
• Post Ambedkar
• Dalit Panthers- Impact of Black Panthers Movement on young Dalit poets
• Fragmentation, disillusion, and coopted leadership
• Bahujan Samaj Party- rise of a staunch Ambedkarite, Kanshiram. His ideas- political
power – BAMCEF, Electoral Politics,
• Yet Conditions of Dalits in India- Atrocities, Khairlanje, Justice denied is justice delayed.
Poverty and inequality and oppression.
Omprakash Valmiki
• You said The Shudra is born from the feet of Brahma,
And the Brahmin from his head, And they did not ask
you, Where was Brahma born from? You said Service
is the duty of the Shudra, They did not ask What will
you give for it? You were happy, You now had
slaves , They were happy too- Happy for you , They
had put all their power In your hands. The body
unclothed, The stomach unfed, Hurt, and yet, They
smiled, For they saw you smiled., They did not know
how to loot, The weak and the innocent! Did not know,
That murder, Is the badge of courage, That robbery is
not a crime, It is but culture. How innocent they were,
My ancestors, Humane, Yet untouchable.
Background Historical Past:
how important is it?
• It might be argued that the inequality prescribed
by Manu in his Smriti is after all of historical
importance. It is past history and cannot be
supposed to have any bearing on the present
conduct of the Hindu. I am sure nothing can
be greater error than this. Manu is not a matter
of the past. It is even more than a past of the
present. It is a ‘living past’ and therefore as
really present as any present can be (Untitled
Works of Ambedkar, in chapter 57, Manu and
Shudras)
Heinous Practices against
untouchables
• The inequality laid down by Manu was the law of the land
under the pre-British days may not be known to many
foreigners.
• Under the rule of the Marathas and the Peshwas the
Untouchables were not allowed within the gates
of Poona city, the capital of the Peshwas, between 3
p. m. and 9 a. m. because, before nine and after three,
their bodies cast too long a shadow; and whenever their
shadow fell upon a Brahmin it polluted him, so that he
dare not taste food or water until he had bathed and
washed the impurity away. So also no Untouchable was
allowed to live in a walled town ; cattle and dogs could
freely enter but not the Untouchables (Dr Ambedkar cites
work of Dr. John Murray Mitchell- ‘Great Religions of
India’, p. 63)
Ctd….
• Under the rule of the Marathas and the
Peshwas the Untouchables might not spit on
the ground lest a Hindu should be polluted
by touching it with his foot, but had to hang
an earthen pot round his neck to hold his
spittle. He was made to drag a thorny branch
of a tree with him to brush out his footsteps
and when a Brahman came by, had to lie at
a distance on his face lest his shadow might
fall on the Brahman (cited Bombay
Gazetteer. Vol. XII. p. 175.)
Pan India Practices
• In Maharashtra an Untouchable was required to wear a
black thread either in his neck or on his wrist for the
purpose of ready identification.
• In Gujarat the Untouchables were compelled to wear a
horn as their distinguishing mark[Ency R.&. E. Vol. IX
p. 636 (b)
• In the Punjab a sweeper was required while walking
through streets in towns to carry a broom in his hand
or under his armpit as a mark of his being a scavenger
(Punjab Census Report 1911 p. 413)
• In Bombay the Untouchables were not permitted to
wear clean or untorn clothes. In fact the shopkeepers
took the precaution to see that before cloth was sold
to the Untouchable it was torn & soiled.
Pan India
• In Malabar the Untouchables were not allowed
to build houses above one storey in height and
not allowed to cremate their dead
• In Malabar the Untouchables were not
permitted to carry umbrellas, to wear shoes or
golden ornaments, to milk cows or even to use
the ordinary language of the country
• In South India Untouchables were expressly
forbidden to cover the upper part of their body
above the waist and in the case of women of
the Untouchables they were compelled to go
with the upper part of their bodies quite bare
Letter Send to Damulsett Trimbucksett
by Head of the caste Sonar
(Goldsmith) Date: 9th August 1779
• Under the Maratha rule any one other than a Brahmin uttering a
Veda Mantra was liable to have his tongue cut off and as a matter of fact the
tongues of several Sonars (goldsmiths) were actually cut off by the order of
the Peshwa for their daring to utter the Vedas contrary to law.
• All over India Brahmin was exempt from capital punishment. He could not be
hanged even if he committed murder.
• Under the Peshwas distinction was observed in the punishment of the
criminals according to the caste. Hard labour and death were punishments
mostly visited on the Untouchables[
• Under the Peshwas Brahmin clerks had the privilege of their goods being
exempted from certain duties and their imported corn being carried to them
without any ferry charges; and Brahmin landlords had their lands assessed at
distinctly lower rates than those levied from other classes. In Bengal the
amount of rent for land varied with the caste of the occupant and if the
tenant was an Untouchable he had to pay the highest rent.
Continuity of Manu
• These facts will show
that Manu though born centuries ago
is not dead and while the Hindu Kings
reigned, justice between Hindu and
Hindu, touchable and untouchable
was rendered according to the Law of
Manu and that law was professed
based on inequality.
Rise of Shudras
In September, 1873, Jotirao, along with his followers, formed the
Satya Shodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) with the
main objective of the organisation as to liberate the Shudras and
Ati-Shudras and to prevent them from exploitations and
atrocities done by the Brahmins.
For his fight to attain equal rights for peasants and the lower
caste and his contribution to the field of education, he is
regarded as one of the most important figures in Social Reform
Movement in Maharashtra. Dhananjay Keer, his biographer,
rightly notes him as "the father of Indian social revolution’
Without education knowledge is lost, without knowledge

development is lost, without development wealth is lost, without
wealth shudras are ruined – (Jotirao Fule, 1890)
Rationalist
• Jotiba subjected religious texts and religious behavior to
the tests of rationalism. He characterized this faith as
outwardly religious but in essence politically motivated
movements. He accused them of upholding the teachings
of religion and refusing to rationally analyse religious
teachings.
• Fule wanted to abolish this blind faith in the first
instance. All established religious and priestly classes
find this blind faith useful for their purposes and they try
their best to defend it. He questions " if there is only one
God, who created the whole mankind, why did he write
the Vedas only in Sanskrit language despite his anxiety
for the welfare of the whole mankind? What about the
welfare of those who do not understand this language?"
Role of British
• Education has the social privilege of upper caste, until

British arrived. It was not only influenced by them but
controlled by them. Fule, made the first effort in history of
India, when he opened schools for the education of non-
Brahmins including untouchables and women in poona.
• The establishment of British rule in India introduced a
western system of education, which was based on
principle of open access and universalistic criteria of
education.
• The Woods Despatch of 1854, perhaps could be
considered the first of its kinds in process of British efforts
to impart education among the socially discriminated
sections. The court of directors, gave a judgement, ‘ all
schools maintained at the sole of cost of government shall
be open to all classes of its subjects without distinction’
(Sinha: 1986: 42)
Some interesting developments: Non
Brahmin parties in Bombay and
Madras Presidency
• The Brahmins have a more or less complete monopoly
in the State services in all provinces in India and in all
departments of State.
• The Non-Brahmin parties had therefore laid down the
principle, known as the principle of communal ratio,
that given minimum qualifications candidates
belonging to non-Brahmin communities should be
given preference over Brahmin candidates when
making appointments in the public services. In my
view there was nothing wrong in this principle. It was
undoubtedly wrong that the administration of the
country should be in the hands of a single community
however clever such a community might be.
Governance and caste
• “The Non-Brahmin Party held the view that good Government was
better than efficient Government was not a principle to be
confined only to the composition of the Legislature & the
Executive. But that it must also be made applicable to the field of
administration. It was through administration that the State came
directly in contact with the masses. No administration could do
any good unless it was sympathetic. No administration could be
sympathetic if it was manned by the Brahmins alone. How can the
Brahmin who holds himself superior to the masses, despises the
rest as low caste and Shudras, be a good administrator ? He is as
much an alien to the Indian masses as any foreigner can be. As
against this the Brahmins have been taking their stand on
efficiency pure & simple. They know that this is the only card they
can play successfully by reason of their advanced position in
education. But they forget that if efficiency was the only criterion
then in all probability there would be very little chance for them to
monopolise State service in the way and to the extent they have
done. Ctd…..
Why only Brahmins?
• For if efficiency was made the only criterion there would be
nothing wrong in employing Englishmen, Frenchmen,
Germans & Turks instead of the Brahmins of India.
• the Non-Brahmin Parties refused to make a fetish to efficiency
and insisted that there must be introduced the principle of
communal ratio in the public services in order to introduce
into the administration an admixture of all castes & creeds
and thereby make it a good administration. In carrying out
this principle the, Non-Brahmin Parties in their eagerness to
cleanse the administration of Brahmindom while they were in
power, did often forget the principle that in redressing the
balance between the Brahmins and non-Brahminsim the
public services they were limited by the rule of minimum
efficiency. But that does not mean that the principle they
adopted for their guidance was not commendable in the
interests of the masses.
The rise of Ambedkar
• Born on 14th April 1891 in Mhow, a small
town in central India, to an untouchable
(Mahar) family. His father worked in
military service. Dalits in Maharashtra also
had a military tradition dating to the 16th
and 17th century. Mahars and Mangs were
among the martial races of India, serving
as paiks, or soldiers or occasionally as
squadron leader. British, recruited
untouchable communities extensively,
which gave them access to resources and
association with new standards of life.
Brief Bio Sketch
• Master of Arts and Doctorate in Economics, M.A. &
PhD (Columbia University) , M.Sc and D.Sc at
(London School of Economics and Political Science),
barrister- at- law , Grey’s Inn, London. Shortly
studied Sanskrit at Heidelberg, Germany, was deeply
interested in Pali, Philosophy, and world religions.
• Dr Bheemrao Ramji Ambedkar , fondly known by his
people and followers as ‘Baba Saheb’, was not
simply a Dalit leader, not even a leader only of all
caste-oppressed. He was a national leader- in a
different sense from the well-known elite nationalists
who led the struggle for freedom from British colonial
rule.
Ambedkar as a Nationalist
• Ambedkar’s nationalism was expressed in all
his life’s work, in the programs of various
political parties, (ILP and RPI), in his political
decisions, his many books and essays, he
wrote on caste, women, of Muslims and
minorities, of Pakistan. He played major role
in the construction of Indian planning, in the
formation of irrigation and energy policies and
his work in chairing the committee to draft
the Indian constitution, he became law
minister in the first cabinet after
independence whose most famous activity
was guiding the Hindu Code Bill, as a charter
of women’s right in free India.
The journey
• Mahar- Martial Race- the major breakthrough
was through British. Ambedkar’s grandfather
Maloji was in the army, and his father Ramji,
became a Subedar-major in charge of a military
school in Mhow.
• Recruitment in the army for untouchables was
stopped in 1893. But by that time, the seeds of
change were sown.
Religious Cultural Traditions
• Mahars, although were ostracized, were
warded off as untouchables, have had a
strong, religious –cultural traditions.
• Some of them were varkaris, followers of the
cult of vithoba, some were Mahanubhavas, a
much older equalitarian movement, and there
were who were influenced by non-Brahmanic
and Muslim traditions
• Ramji, was a follower of Kabir and observed
the prayers and rituals of Kabeerpanthi sect.
Childhood Experiences
• Baba Saheb, never experienced caste
discrimination until he left his military
home
• In Satara, young Ambedkar and other
untouchable students were forced to sit
separately in schools, no barber could be
found to cut their hair, and when he
wanted to study Sanskrit, he was not
allowed as he was untouchable, so he
could learn English or Persian.
Bombay
• The family moved to Bombay. Baba Saheb’s elder
brother, Balram took up a job in factory, to fund family
and education of Baba Saheb, who studied at the best
college of Mumbai then, Elphinstone College. Teachers
ignored him and student friends did not wanted to be
with him. Baba Saheb took recluse in books. He would
read his books at a Wilson College garden. A
distinguished reformist scholar, Krishna Arjunrao
Keluskar, noticed Babasaheb for his long studious
readings and recommended his name for scholarship.
Progressive Maratha, Sayajirao Gaikwad of Baroda
supported Ambedkar’s education. Sayajirao also
funded for his higher studies in USA.
America and Dewey
• In July 1913, Bhimrao, departed for his major
experience with higher education in world centre.
New York life exposed him to openness and liberty.
He was at Columbia University under the guidance
of Professor Edward Seligman, an economist and the
most famous philosopher of USA, Prof John Dewey.
He did his M.A. in 1915 and submitted PhD 1916 in
Economics.
• Ambedkar was contacted by nationalist leaders like
Lala Lajpat Rai, who was touring the US on behalf of
Indian Home Rule League of America, to recruit
support for Anti-British struggles
Nationalism of upper caste
questioned?
• Ambedkar attended several meetings with Lala’s
organization, becoming friendly with its members, but also
debated with the problems of caste. Lalaji’s position was
once freedom was achieved, timely interventions will be
done for addressing caste problems. Ambedkar quit them.
• He got back to his books, papers, publications and
involved himself in students union. Ambedkar’s essay on
‘responsibilities of a representative government in India’
sparked a heated controversy. Well known political
scientist, Professor Harold Laski, ended the debate by
concluding, that ideology reflected in the essay were too
much revolutionary politics to be appropriate for a student
group. He was branded as revolutionary, everyone stayed
away from him.
The dangerous years- 1920s
• Departure of Tilak
• Arrival of South African returned lawyer, Mohandas
Gandhi
• Dr Ambedkar writes to Southborough Committee on
demanding ‘separate representations’ of
untouchables, depressed classes in the political
sphere, in Legislative Council
• First effort at Southborough Committee 1919:
Intervened in the formulation of British policies
regarding to Depressed Classes. The committee was
looking at communal representation in politics.
Summary of his arguments
• Challenge was to establish that untouchables are different from caste-
Hindus
• What was the need for their equal rights?
• What would be appropriate method to ensure equal rights?
• Arguments put forward by Ambedkar:
• 1) As religions divides, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, similarly
caste divides Hindus, as lower and higher castes. The matter does not
end with that division, further there are touchable Hindus and
untouchables
• 2) to become a community, there have to have common beliefs,
customs, etc among members of its community. And this was missing
among the untouchables and the caste-Hindus
• 3) Shudras may also be facing the intellectual superiority of Brahmins
but it differs in terms of rights with untouchables. Untouchables need
protection not for their property but from the consifistication of their
personality itself
• 4) The theological bias among the non Brahmins, i.e. of shudras against
untouchables is so high that they rejected to work under Mahar officers.
Denial of Marathas to work under Mahar officers , case cited…. (Thorat
and Narendra Kumar : 2008)
Efforts at Simon
Commission
• ‘Injustice had been done to the DC b 1909 by
completely ignoring their representationas compared
to their population in Legislative Council, which was
endorsed by Chelmsford Report and Muddimam
Commission. Moreover, their representation was
based on nomination in 1919, that was emphatically
opposed. The standing of the community in terms of
economic and educational status instead of
numerical strength should be taken into account in
determining its quota of representation. Thus, the
lower the standing of a community, the greater the
electoral advantage to its over the rest – Ambedkar,
(BAWS, 1982, Vol 2: 437)”
Two major shifts in Ambedkar’s
assertion
• DC should get political representation
• DC should have educational and economic standing.
• DC and their representation in governance. Ambedkar
argued that untouchables were excluded completely in
employment, and for them appointment should be made on
the basis of selection and not open competition. Brahmins
vehemently opposed to this. Yet Gokhale and Ambedkar,
pursued the matters and suggested that , in democracy,
not only efficient government is required but also a good
government, which includes fair representation of all
communities in government and its various appartus.
The Round Table
Conferences
• Indian Nationalist movements and their failure to stop
the rising power of Ambedkar in policy matters
• Ambedkar, with exposure to west and sharper minds,
could argue for DC
• The elitist, Nehru and the leftist had two focus,
development and economic issues, and caste was
completely neglected
• Gandhi, on the other hand, was hope initially, as thought
by Ambedkar because, he combined social issues and
political concerns. But, Gandhi had bigger plan. He
wanted to take issues of untouchables, under the fold
and framework of ‘Brahamanic Hindu’ and this led to
major clash with Ambedkar.
Mahatma and his doings
• Gandhi opposed separate electorates for
untouchables, which would have ensured an
independent, political space for DC, with
entitelements
• He went on fast to oppose Ramsey
MacDonald Award- communal awards, which
would have brought benefits to DC
• He set up organization, Harijan Sevak Sangh,
congress sponsored organization, through
which he later argued he was representing
untouchables
Departure for London
• Before going to London, Ambedkar purchased
a printing press. The British secret police
visited his office. Indian police reported that
Ambedkar was on the black list of both Indian
and English communist (Omvedt: 2004:42)
• Ambedkar launched his paper Janata
• Gandhi appeared at second round table
conference with all the prestige of being a
national hero behind him.
• Here, Gandhi claimed he is representative of
untouchables, so who was Ambedkar?
Radical Ambedkar
• I will not die a Hindu- Ambedkar
• Confrontation with Gandhi
• Public Space- Mahad Satyagraha and Kalaram Mandir
Pravesh ‘Temple entry’
• Class Radicalism – Against Brahamnism and Capitalism
• Shaping Independent India- Law of Manu was replaced by
Law of Mahar
• The post independence years- ‘Building a palace on dung
heap’
• The final years- Buddham, Sharanam, Gacchami, towards
Buddhism
• Dr Ambedkar and the freedom struggle of Dalits
• What Ambedkar means to Dalits?
• God? Statues? Or the inability of caste Hindus to
understand what Ambedkar is for untouchables
FC1: Understanding Society
SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL

INSTITUTIONS
241
Social Structure (SS)
Herbert Spencer used it first. Important concept in
sociology.
• Emphasized its need looking at society like a biological
entity (organic structure).
Approaches to understanding it:
(1) Radcliffe-Brown considered all social relations of
person to person to be a part of SS.
Also the distinction between the system of ‘ideal relations’
and the system of ‘actual relations’ between persons as
SS.
(2) SS is a complex of the principal groups and institutions

which constitute societies – M. Ginsberg.
• Thus, the study of SS to be undertaken in terms of:
institutional arrangements, or of relationships between
social groups, or of both together.
• To R. Firth, the systematic ordering of social relations
(Social Organisation) by acts of choice and decision
constitutes the SS.
242
Social institutions constituting
social Structure
• (3) S. F. Nadel emphasizes the importance of
‘roles’ individuals play and their linkages to SS.
• Just as “role” is the unit with which we build
our conception of ‘institution’, so institution is
the unit with which we build the conception of
‘social structure’
• Role to build institution, and Institution to build
structure.
• “Social structure is the complex of the major
institutions and groups in society” seems to be
a better definition .
243
Social institutions (SI)
•
• “A system of norms and values that has a specific and defined purpose and
a set of rules related to its particular function.
• Social institutions meet basic human needs in regard to family life,
education, the production and distribution of goods, the allocation of
political power, and the implementation of religious beliefs.
• Social institutions are essential to maintain the ordered arrangement of
social structure. Institutions are collective mode of behaviour. They
prescribe a way of doing things. They bind the members of the group
together.
• The existence of human society requires certain arrangements or
processes, i.e., ‘functional pre-requisites of society.’ SI is a system of
norms organized to deal with a basic human need.” The minimum
requirements seem to be made available through SI such as:
– Family: for its own continuation (procreation);

– Education system: for the care and training of the young;
– State: for distribution of economic and political resources;
– Religion: for the explanation of events that seem incomprehensible, a system of
ritual, serving to maintain or increase social cohesion, and to give social
recognition to significant personal events: birth, death, marriage etc.
244
Primary Institutions Secondary Institutions
1) the family 1) marriage, 2) divorce, monogamy, polygamy.
2) economics, property, trading, credit, banking etc.
3) religion 1) church, 2) temple, 3) mosque, totem, taboo

etc.
4) education 1) school, 2) college, 3) university etc.
5) state 1) interest groups, party system, democracy.
245
Institutions Manifest/intended functions Latent/unintended functions
Family Procreation and rearing children Support in old age and sense of pride
over children
Education Development of literacy, training forKeeping the youth off the labour market,
occupational roles, inculcation ofweakening the control of parents or
basic values development of friendship.
Religion Worship of god & instructions inDeveloping attachment to one’s religious

religious ideology community, to alter family life and to
create religious hatred.
Economic system To produce and distribute goods To promote urbanization, labour unions
and redirect education.
246
Family
• Basic unit in all societies;
• Quintessential Primary group;
• Main conduit of norms and values;
• The chief agency of socialization;
• The source of solace;
• Family is “a group defined by a sex relationship

sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for
procreation and upbringing of children” – MacIver
• Family is “the biological social unit composed of husband,
wife and children” – Eliott and Merrill
• “Family is a group of persons united by the ties of
marriage, blood or adoption; constituting a single
household, interacting and inter-communicating with
each other in their respective social roles o husband and
wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and
sister creating a common culture” – Burges and Locke.
247
Family
Family has its origin in certain needs of man:
• The need for procreation;
• To satisfy sexual urge;
• Economic needs.
Characteristics:
• Mating relationship;
• Family through Marriage;
• A system of nomenclature: family name; its own system of tracing
descent;
• An economic provision to satisfy the economic needs of the family;
• Common habitation: home for its living;
• Bond among members;
248
Types of family
On the basis of authority: Patriarchal & Matriarchal
Patriarchal family: 1. wife moves to husband’s house; 2. father
as supreme lord of family; 3. Descent is reckoned through the
father; 4. children are known by the name of the family of their
father; 5. children can inherit the property of their father; is
lives with senior male member holds power;
Matriarchal: 1. Authority in the family is with the wife or her
relatives; 2. Descent is reckoned through the mother; 2.
Marriage relations are transient. The husband is sometimes
merely a casual visitor; 3. children brought up in the home of
wife’s relatives; property is transferred through the mother
and only females succeed to it.
249
Types of family
On the basis of structure:
• Nuclear
• Extended family;
On the basis of residence:
• Matrilocal (husband moves wife’s home),
• Patrilocal (Wife moves to husband’s home) -
On the basis of marriage:
• Monogamous (one man marries one woman )
• Polygamous (one man marries many women),
• Polyandrous (one woman marries many men and lives with all of
them or with each of them alternatively);
ISSUES:
250
Types of family
On the basis of ancestry:
• Matrilineal (mother the basis of ancestry),
• Patrilineal (ancestry through father).
On the basis of In-group & out-group affiliation:
• Endogamous (marriage within group),
• Exogamous (marriage with members outside the
group);
On the basis of blood relationship:
• Conjugal family (spouses, their offspring and
relatives through marriage),
• Consanguinous family (blood relatives together
with their mates and children)
251
RELIGION
• It is said that all laws, customs and norms are based on what
religion advocates as right or wrong.
• It is the most influential force of social control.
• “Religion is attitude towards superhuman powers” – Ogburn.
• Religion is a belief in “powers superior to man which are
believed to direct and control the course of nature and of
human life” – James G Frazer.
• “Religion…implies a relationship not merely between man and
man but also between man and some higher power” – MacIver.
• “Whenever and wherever man has a sense of dependence on
external powers which are conceived as mysterious and higher
than man’s own, there is religion, and the feelings of awe and
self-abasement with which man is filled in the presence of such
powers is essentially a religious emotion, the root of worship
and prayer” –Christopher Dawson.
252
Religion
• Religion is a “unified system of beliefs and practices
relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart
and forbidden” – Durkheim.
• Sumner and Keller asserted that “Religion in history from
the earliest to very recent days has not been a matter of
morality at all but of rites, ritual, observance and
ceremony.”
• According to Anderson and Parker, each religion consists

of four primary components. These are:
i) Belief in supernatural forces, ii) Man to adjustment to
supernatural powers, iii) Certain acts defined as sinful, iv)
Method salvation.
• But there are godless religion like Bhuddhism that does
not believe in supernatural power from heaven.
253
Origin of religion
• No definite answer to its origin.
• David Hume, Max Muller and Giddings claimed that religion as
creation of man was based on an illusion and that fear
accounted for its origin.
• Spencer and Tyler contented that religion originated primarily in
ghost-fear and that animism lies at the very basis of all
religions.
• Galloway observes, “The fact that men everywhere and always
have developed religion—for there is no evidence that any tribe
or race has existed without it points to the truth that religion
must have its roots in human nature. No accident or
environment or tenacity of tradition can account for what is
constant and persistent; that which is universal in experience
must be a genuine expression of man’s life.
• Like other social institutions, religion also arose from the
intellectual power of man in response to certain felt needs of
man, or because of conditions accompanying his life on earth.
254
Role of Religion
• Rationalizes and makes bearable individual suffering in the
known world;
• Enhances self-importance;
• Helps to knit the social values of society into cohesive
whole.
• Social welfare;
• Agency of social control;
• Religion controls and affects economic life. Materialism did
not grow (till recently) because Hinduism stresses on
spiritual progress than the material progress.
• Promotion of literature, art and music;
• Friendship function: opportunity for establishing friendship;
ISSUES:
255
What are social
institutions?
Social Institutions
• Social Institutions
• Social institutions are established or
standardized patterns of rule-
governed behavior. They include the
family, education, religion, and
economic and political institutions.
Major perspectives
Marx
• Social institutions are determined by their society’s mode
of production.
• Social institutions serve to maintain the power of the
dominant class.
Weber
• Social institutions are interdependent but no single
institution determines the rest.
• The causes and consequences of social institutions
cannot be assumed in advance.
Durkheim
• Set the stage for later functionalist analyses of
institutions by concluding that religion promotes social
solidarity and collective conscience.
Theoretical Perspective
• Functionalist theory
• The social institutions listed in this section (along
with other social institutions) fulfill functional
prerequisites and are essential.
• Conflict theory
• Social institutions tend to reinforce inequalities
and uphold the power of dominant groups.
• Emphasizes divisions and conflicts within social
institutions.
• Symbolic interactionism
• Focuses on interactions and other symbolic
communications within social institutions.
Family
Family:
• A socially defined set of relationships between at least
two people related by birth, marriage, adoption, or, in
some definitions, long-standing ties of intimacy.
• Key Questions: How do families vary across different
societies, historical periods, classes, and ethnic groups?
• How are authority, resources, and work distributed
within families?
• How do parents, particularly mothers, balance the
demands of work and family?
• What are the causes and effects of divorce, domestic
violence, and single parenting?
Competing views
• Marx: The family upholds the capitalist
economic order by ensuring the reproduction of
the working class and by maintaining
housewives as a reserve labor force.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of the family
include socializing children, regulating sexual
behavior and reproduction, distributing
resources, providing social support.

Education
• A formal process in which knowledge, skills, and
values are systematically transmitted from one
individual or group to another.
• Key Questions: How do educational practices vary
across different societies and historical periods?
• How does education affect individuals’ subsequent
activities and achievements?
• What are the effects of class, race, and gender on
educational institutions and experiences?
• What are the causes and consequences of various
trends in education, such as grade inflation, violence
in schools, and increasing public funding of religious
instruction?
Marx, Functionalist, Conflict,
SI
• Marx: Education serves the capitalist order by producing
skilled workers with habits such as punctuality and
respect for authority.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of education include
transmitting shared values and beliefs, transmitting
specific knowledge and skills, sorting individuals based
on skill, and establishing social control over youths.
• Conflict theory: Educational tracking systems and other
differential treatment of students reinforce social
inequalities.
• Symbolic interactionism: Face-to-face interactions in
the classroom can have long-range consequences for
students’ educational achievements.
Religion
• Religion:
• A unified system of beliefs and practices pertaining to the
supernatural and to norms about the right way to live that is
shared by a group of believers. Sociologists treat religion as a
social rather than supernatural phenomenon.
• Key Questions: How do the world religions differ? How are
they similar?
• How have religions developed and changed, and why do
people engage with them?
• What is the relationship between religion and other aspects
of social life such as stratification, deviance, and conflict?
trends such as secularization, the splintering of religious
groups, and shifting church–state relationships?
Opium, spiritualism,
functions…..
• Marx: Religion is the “opium of the people”—it masks domination
and diverts workers from rebelling against exploitation.
• Weber: Classified religions by their approach to salvation:
– Ascetic religions require active self-mastery; mystical religions
require passive contemplation.
– Other-worldly religions require focus on the next life (e.g., heaven);
this-worldly religions require focus on earthly life.
• Durkheim: Religion provides social solidarity and collective
conscience; it expresses and celebrates the force of society over
the individual.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of religion include providing
meaning for life, reinforcing social norms, strengthening social
bonds, and marking status changes (e.g., marriage).Dysfunctions,
according to some, include justifying persecution.
Economic Institutions
• Sociologists understand the economy as the set of
arrangements by which a society produces, distributes, and
consumes goods, services, and other resources.
• Key Questions: What institutions and relations characterize
different economic systems (e.g., capitalism, socialism, and
feudalism)?
• How do consumption and leisure patterns differ among
various cultures, historical periods, and social groups?
• How do the structures of business organizations affect
productivity, job satisfaction, and inequalities?
trends such as economic liberalization, declining unionization,
and increased consumer debt?
Marx/Functionalism
• Marx: Economic organization (the means
and relations of production) determines the
major features of any society.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of
economic institutions include: production
and distribution of goods, assignment of
individuals to different social roles such as
occupations.

Political Institutions
• Political Institutions:
• Institutions that pertain to the
governance of a society, its formal
distribution of authority, its use of
force, and its relationships to other
societies and political units. The state,
an important political institution in
modern societies, is the apparatus of
governance over a particular territory.
Key questions
• Key Questions: How do political institutions differ
across historical periods and societies?
• How do different social groups participate in political
institutions, and with what consequences?
• How and why do individuals participate in political
processes such as voting or joining lobbying groups?
• How are political institutions related to other aspects
of society, such as the economy and the mass
media?
Authority/Functions/Democr
acy
• Weber: Defines the state as an authority that maintains
a monopoly on the use of violence in its territory.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of political institutions
include protection from external enemies, resolving
group conflicts, defining societal goals, and
strengthening group identity and norms. Pluralism, a
particularly functional type of political institution, entails
distribution of power among many groups so no one
group can gain control.
• Conflict theory: Pluralism and democracy are illusions
that invite the powerless to believe that they have a
voice in governance, when in fact their control is quite
limited.
Marriage
legitimation’ to engage in sexual relations,
reproduction (not necessary) and child rearing
• To a large extent marriage is not a matter of free
choice, it is socially derived and socially sanctioned
(Khap panchayats, kinship pressures, parent’s choice,
social choice etc)
chosen. Two major rules of marriage present in
almost all societies are: exogamy and endogamy
Exogamy (Exit)
of people.
Endogamy

social rule requires an individual to marry
within a specific culturally defined social
groups, of which he/she is a member
• The function of endogamy is probably to
regulate marriage in a way that preserve the
cultural identity of a group
ctd
• A person of higher caste who comes into
physical contact with a person of lower caste
becomes polluted. The severity of this
pollution depends upon the relative rank of
the two castes in the local hierarchy
• When a man of higher caste marries a woman
of lower caste it is an anuloma marriage.
• When a woman of higher caste marries a man
of lower caste it is a pratiloma marriage.
Forms of Marriage
• Polyandry: one wife many husbands, form of
marriage in which one woman marries more
than one man at a given time. It is quite
widespread in Tibet, where conditions are
harsh and perhaps the effort of two men are
needed to support a family. The Marquesans
of Polynesia, Todas of Nilgiri hills have this
practise. Hindu mythology, Draupadi’s
marriage to five brothers is instance of
polyandry
Polygyny
• Polygyny: one husband many wives. In
the system of polygyny, one man has
two or more wife at a given time. It is
found among Eskimos, some African
tribes and Crow of North Americas.
• Hindu Marriage Act 1955, declares
polygyny as an offence
• Monogamy: one man, one wife.
Family
• The American Bureau of Census
defines family as ‘ a group of two or
more persons related by blood,
marriage, adoption, and residing
together, all such persons are
considered as members of one family’.
Basic Characteristics
• A system of nomenclature – name
and descent- traced by father side is
patrilocal and that from woman’s
side is matrilocal
• Emotional basis
Marxian view
where instance of private property
can be traced. Women and children
are enslaved by the head of the
family.
• Patriachal family: the male head of the
family. He is the owner and administrator
of the family property and rights. Presides
over the religious rites.
• Wife after marriage comes to live in the
home of the husband
• Father is the controller of property, descent
is traced through father, children are
known by the name of the father
Matriarchal
• Authority is the woman head of the family
whereas male are subordinates
• Marriage relations may be transient.
Husband is sometimes merely a casual
visitor. For example Nairs of Kerala, the
husband is only allowed to visit wife in the
night
• Children are brought up in home of
mother. Descent – matrilineal and
matrilocal
Kinship
• Kinship is social relationship based on
real, putative or fictive consanguinity
(related by blood) : or on the model of
consanguine relations
• Kinship refers solely to relationship
based upon descent and marriage
Kins
• Kins are of two types:
• Consanguinity – thought to be
biologically related by blood
• Affinal kin- related through marriage
Rules of Residence
• It is imperative that the interacting
individuals live together under the same
roof. Murdoch makes two kind of family
that all individual belong to:
• A family or orientation- where one is born
• A family of procreation- family established
by a person after his/her marriage, consists
of his/her spouse and children
Types
• Patrilocal residence- married couple
reside in the parental home of the
bridegroom (groom, man who
participates in marriage). Virilocality
• Matrilocal residence- married couples
residing in the parental home of the
bride (woman). Uxorilocality
• Bilocal residence- residing near the
parents of either spouse
Residence
• Matri- Patrilocal residence- transitory role of
residence
• (even)Avunculocal residence- married
couple goes to live with bridegroom’s
maternal uncle.
• Neolocal residence- independent location
away from either’s spouse. Industralised
countries have neolocal residence
Descent
• Patrilineal
• Matrilineal
• Types of Unilineal Descent Groups
• Lineage
• Clan
• Phratry
• Moeity
Kinship Usages
• Avoidance- putting restriction on intimacy
• Joking relationships- friendliness, a degree
of joking is allowed
• Teknonymy- Sir Edward Taylor coined the
word-to denote a custom prevalent among
some peoples of naming the parent from
the child (Bunnu ke papa, maa etc )
Social Movements
Theory
Dalit Movement
Definition
• Social movement is one of the major
forms of collective behavior
• It is defined as ‘collectivity acting with
some continuity to promote or resist
change in the society or a group of
which it is a part’
• Stated less formally, a social
movement is a collective effort to
promote or resist change
origin
• Unplanned, unorganized, and undirected
groupings of people who are dissatisfied with
things.
• People talk, share ideas, and grumble,
intellectuals publish articles, citizens write
letters to editor, and thus people use various
forms to express
• Leadership and organization develops
• After active life, the movement phases out,
sometimes leaving permanent organizations
theories
• There are two types of theories of
social movements
• Psychological
• Sociological
Psychological
• Discontent theory: this theory believes that social
movement is rooted in discontent. People may
endure great discontent without joining the
movement itself. Oppression, inequality, brutality,
corruption etc have been some of the conditions
leading to discontent. Movement may emerge out
of the discontent. However, discontent may be
necessary but not a sufficient cause for social
movement
Personality Maladjustment
• According to this theory, root of
movement lies in personal failure. The
proponents of this theory argue that many
of the social movements find their
supporters among the unhappy,
frustrated, persons whose lives lack
meaning and fulfillment. Example, Hitler’s
frustration of being rejected as a serious
artist.
Sociological Theory
• Relative Deprivation Theory: It is a term
coined by Stouffer
• According to him, relative deprivation
arises as a result of gap between
expectation and realization.
• More prominent in underdeveloped
world, because there is an increasing
desire for material possession
• Feelings of deprivation are easy to infer
but difficult to measure
Resource Mobilization
Theory
• This theory attributes importance to the effective
use of resources in promoting social movements,
since a successful social movement demands an
effective leadership, organization, tactics.
• The resources to be mobilized include supporting
beliefs, laws that can leverage the cause,
organizations and officials that can be helpful,
potential benefits to be promoted, target groups
whom these benefits might attract, and any other
possible aids.
• The theory is mostly based on description and
seriously challenged by scholars
Types of Social Movements
• Migratory Movement- discontent people may
wish to move. When many move in volume at
the same time, it is called migratory
movement. Common focus of discontent, a
shared purpose of hope, and widely shared
decision to move to a new location. For
example, Zionist movements, the movement
of Jews back to Israel, The Rastafari
movement
Expressive Movement
• When people cannot move and cannot easily
change things, they choose to do something
else.
• They try to change themselves, change their
reactions to reality instead of trying to change
reality itself.
• Jamaica, where poverty and inequality are
extreme and economic distress has been
growing, a music of social protest called Reggae
has seized the popular imagination
• Graffiti is another example
• Black Rose is another example
Movements
• Utopian: These are attempts to create a perfect society in
miniature. Then this model could be copied and perhaps
the entire could be transformed. Kibbutz of Israel is
considered as an example
• Reform movement: in such movements, there are
attempts to improve the society without greatly changing
its basic social structure.
Movements
• Revolutionary Movement: A social revolution is
sudden, sweeping and usually violent
• Revolutionaries oppose reforms, because they
believe that significant reform is impossible under
the existing social system
• They see basic change is possible only after the
existing order is overthrown and the elite are
deposed, often through execution or exile
• Resistance Movement: it expresses opposition to
recent change as people consider social change too
fast. Example: the resistance offered against Mandal
Commission Recommendations
Dalit Movement
• Dalit Movement has been suggested to
have two characteristics in terms of
protest ideology
• One which emphasizes withdrawal, self
organization, and establishes a parallel
legitimacy, and the other which
abandons Brahminical Hinduism.
• Embraces Buddhism or another
egalitarian religion to raise their self
respect and worth
Ideological Base and
Leaders
• Mahar Movement, which was led by Dr Bheemroa
Ambedkar
• His movement represented an ideology of protest
in the form of abandoning Hinduism and embracing
Buddhism which is considered more egalitarian
• Mahars were numerically significant caste who fell
under untouchable category
• They were made to do menial and worthless jobs,
sweeping, digging graves etc
• Access to well, public tanks schools were denied
ctd
• Mahars organized themselves to improve
their status and fight against several
injustice done against them
• In 1902, they were already fighting for their
inclusion in military service
• The entry of Dr Ambedkar in 1920s, made
the Mahar movement more radical than
reformatory
• Ambedkar opposed to the patronizing
attitude of upper caste leaders
Use of Political Machinery
• Ambedkar, adopted the ideology of anti-caste
Hinduism and relied more on political machinery to
achieve the basic rights
• Thus, Ambedkar was able to win political
representation for the untouchables
• This intellectual giant single handedly drafted the
constitution of India, which introduced many
safeguards in favor of the SCs
• 14 October 1956, he and his followers became
Buddhist. At Yeola in 1930s, he had announced that ‘ I
may be born as a Hindu but will not die as a Hindu’
Dalit Panthers Movement
• While I write this at night
it’s three o’ clock
Though I want to have a drink
I don’t feel like drinking.
Only I want to sleep peacefully
And tomorrow morning see no varnas
• - Namdeo Dhasal
Namdeo Dhasal’s Literary
Work
• The times were just ripe for the protest movement of
dalits to germinate…. The most notable example of
this protest came in light in the form of Golpitha- a
collection of poems by Namdeo Dhasal. Golpitha –
name of a red-light district in Mumbai, depicted the
tough life of a dalit there and is considered as
Dhasal’s most stellar work. People were shocked by
the raw energy exuded by each of its word entirely
unfamiliar to the established literary circles. They
had never seen quite like it before. Its proletarian
lingo, iconoclastic imagery, defiant idiom and terrible
anger shook the establishment to its very
foundation. A spate of poetry followed' - Anand
Teltumbde
Ram Puniyani
• Dalit panthers came up as the most promising
organisation for dalit rights and their path was
that of alliance with the other oppressed sections
of society. They broadened the definition of
dalits to include workers, minorities, adivasis and
women. This indicated the line of alliance to be
followed. This last concerted effort fell to pieces
with different leaders of dalit movement getting
co-opted by one or the other political power or
personality
Formation
• In April 1972, the Dalit Panther Party was
formed in slums and Dalit colonies of Bombay,
India. This organization takes its pride and
inspiration directly from the Black Panther
Party of the United States.
• This is a highly important development due to
the fact that the Untouchables have historically
been so systematically terrorized that many of
them, even today, live in a perpetual state of
extreme fear of their upper caste oppressors.
This is especially evident in the villages.
• The formation of the Dalit Panthers and the
corresponding philosophy that accompanies it signals
a fundamental change in the annals of resistance,
and Dalit Panther organizations have subsequently
spread to other parts of India.
• In August 1972, the Dalit Panthers announced that
the 25th anniversary of Indian independence would
be celebrated as a day of mourning.
• Appropriation and Containing Dalit Rage: short lived
movement which stirred the 1970s, Dalit Panthers
came to be militant organization
Black Panthers of USA
• A man who stands for nothing will fall for
anything. Malcolm X
• I am for violence if non-violence means we
continue postponing a solution to the
American black man's problem just to
avoid violence. M
• Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can
give you equality or justice or anything. If
you're a man, you take it.
Malcolm X- Black Panthers
Party
Black Panthers Party
Patterns of Dalit Panthers
• Literature
• Mobilization
• Graffiti, Folk Music
• Self Military Model
• Self Defense
• Demanded Arms and Licensed Guns
for Dalits in Villages
BSP: Identity of Political
Revolution
• Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or Majority People's Party
is one of the only five prominent national political
parties of India, which is the largest democracy of
the world.
The ideology of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is

"Social Transformation and Economic Emancipation"
of the "Bahujan Samaj ", which comprises of the
Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs),
the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Religious
Minorities such as Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Parsis
and Buddhists and account for over 85 per cent of
the country's total population.
Manuwadi System
• The people belonging to all these classes
have been the victims of the "Manuwadi"
system in the country for thousands of
years, under which they have been
vanquished, trampled upon and forced to
languish in all spheres of life. In other words,
these people were deprived even of all those
human rights, which had been secured for
the upper caste Hindus under the age-old
"Manuwadi Social System".
Ideological Base
• Though the contributions of leaders of the
downtrodden communities like Mahatma
Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj,
Narayana Guru and Periyar E. V. Ramaswami
have been immense in the fight against the
obnoxious Manuwadi system, but the
struggle of Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao
Ambedkar, who was born in Scheduled Caste
community, and that of Manyawar Kanshi
Ram Ji later proved to be greatly effective
• Besides waging a spirited campaign against the
Manuwadi Social System, Dr. Ambedkar instilled
consciousness among not only the Dalits, but also
among those belonging to other backward groups,
which continue to be victimised and trampled under
this oppressive and unjust Manuvadi Social System.
• By virtue of his pivotal role in the framing of the
Indian Constitution, these groups were given a
number of rights in the Constitution on a legal basis to
lead a life of dignity and self-respect. But he was fully
conscious of the fact that these exploited sections of
the society would not be able to get the full legal
rights as long as the governments would remain
dominated by the Manuwadi persons and parties.
Master Key for Emancipation-
Political Power?
• Dr. Ambedkar, during his lifetime, had counseled the
"Bahujan Samaj" that if they wanted to fully enjoy the
benefits of their legal rights, as enshrined in the
Constitution, they would have to bond together all the
Bahujan groups on the basis of unity and fraternity, bring
them on a strong political platform and capture the
"Master Key" of political power.
• This was to be the modus operandi for the formation of
Bahujan Governments at the Centre and in States. Only
such governments could enforce all the constitutional and
legal rights of the "Bahujan Samaj" and provide
opportunities to its People to move forward in all spheres
of life besides enabling them to lead a life of "self-respect".
Birth of BSP
• Keeping in view this observation and advice of Dr.
Ambedkar, respected Kanshi Ram founded the
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), with the help of his
associates, on April 14, 1984.
• For many years while he enjoyed good health, he
prepared the "Bahujan Samaj" to secure the "master
key" of political power, which opens all the avenues
for social and economic development
• Kanshiram as a strategist
• Criticism against BSP- the bigger point- It has seized
political power and it is a party led by untouchable
castes with alliance of upper castes, Muslims, OBCs
NCHRW
• 27 atrocities against Dalits every day
· 13 Dalits murdered every week
· 5 Dalits' homes or possessions burnt every
week
· 6 Dalits kidnapped or abducted every week
· 3 Dalit women raped every day
· 11 Dalits beaten every day
· A crime committed against a Dalit every 18
minutes·
Socio-cultural processes
Social process
• Social process is the manner in which
relations of the members of a groups
once brought together, acquire
certain distinctive character
• The essential elements of social
process are: sequence of events,
repetition of events, relationship
between events, continuity of events,
and results
Assimilation
• Assimilation is a process of mutual cultural diffusion
through which persons and groups come to share a
common culture, this is known as assimilation
• Cultural fusion in which two groups blend their cultures
so that they become one. There is usually an exchange
of cultural traits, although this may be primarily a case
of one group absorbing the others culture.
• Acculturation : Is the name given to the stage when one
cultural group which is in contact with another,
appropriates or borrows from it certain cultural elements
and incorporates them into own ( Americanization,
McDonald culture)
Accommodation and
Integration
• The process whereby individuals adapt to
situations of conflict resolving the basic
conflict or changing the system of inequality
is Accommodation (example tribal and dalit
students who enter mainstream and choose
not to talk about caste and tribal inequalities)
• Integration: is harmonizing or unifying
process whereby the various structural
components of society are properly
organized.
Relative Deprivation
• Deprivation is relative. People experience
resentment or discontent about their condition not
necessarily when they are deprived in an absolute
sense, but when they feel deprived relative to some
standard of comparison.
• Relative deprivation refers to negative emotion,
variously expressed as anger, resentment, or
dissatisfaction which individuals experience when
they compare their situation with some standard or
reference. The standard might include other persons,
other groups or comparison with oneself in the pasts.

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What is sociology?

• Sociology- a science of society and different from

Social institutions – a collection of status-roles

• Types of action- instrumental, expressive, moral

• Interaction amongst oriented actors

• Social system of status, roles, norms

• Self- collective- moved by your self interest

• This is just the opposite of exogamy. Here the

• Other movements: Bhakti, Kabir etc.

• British did not oppose caste system

• Reinforced it through Manusmriti

• Change in socio-economic formation led to

• Jyotiba (Mahatma) Phule raised issue of social

• The American Bureau of Census defines

Marx, Coser, Dahrendorf set the tradition

Views of Gandhi on caste

Without education knowledge is lost, without knowledge

• Education has the social privilege of upper caste, until

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL

(2) SS is a complex of the principal groups and institutions

– Family: for its own continuation (procreation);

1) the family 1) marriage, 2) divorce, monogamy, polygamy.

2) economics, property, trading, credit, banking etc.

3) religion 1) church, 2) temple, 3) mosque, totem, taboo

5) state 1) interest groups, party system, democracy.

Religion Worship of god & instructions inDeveloping attachment to one’s religious

• Family is “a group defined by a sex relationship

• According to Anderson and Parker, each religion consists

• This is just the opposite of exogamy. Here the

The ideology of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is

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