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Caste in Contemporary India

Beyond Organic Solidarity

Pauline Kolenda

It is often assumed that the caste system in South Asia has faded away. Yet it is indeed unlikely that a social structure organizing the political, economic, and ritual life of a people for over one thousand years could be totally expunged within a few decades. In this brief, cogent, and clear presentation, caste is first considered as a system of descent-groups. Then the traditional caste system is analyzed, the evidence for its decline discussed, and the characteristics of the emerging new caste system examined.
 

$15.95 list, 181 pages

10-digit ISBN: 0-88133-183-X

13-digit ISBN: 978-0-88133-183-7

© 1978

Table of Contents

1. Castes as Descent-Groups

2. The Origins of Caste

3. The Caste System Analyzed: The Localized Social Structure

4. The Caste System Analyzed: The Ideology of Purity and Pollution

5. Jati Segments—Again Descent-Groups

6. Social and Cultural Mobility within the Caste System

7. Revolts against the Caste System?

8. Hinduism and the Caste System

9. Caste and Politics

10. Untouchability and the Government

11. The Commercialization of Agriculture and the Release of Agrestic Laborers from the Caste System

12. Caste in the City