Caste versus Class

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Recommended: The influence of the caste system of India

Social stratification can be found in every country, and in many different variations. The Indian caste system has often caught critique, despite its deeply embedded beliefs in Hindu culture. “The caste system penetrates the Hindu society to a level unknown elsewhere. It plays some part in other civilizations but in India it has invaded the whole. It is in this sense that we may speak of the caste system as a phenomenon peculiar to India” (Pocock 1974: 228). However, despite the criticism, the American class system has similarly limited its members. The class system found in the United States and the Hindu caste system of India share many common characteristics, but, at the same time, they are different in many ways.
A caste system is a system that restricts its members occupationally and socially, and it is typically unacceptable for members to marry outside of their own caste. This system often devalues its members according to their family history and status, with purity being the foremost concern leading to the creation of separate castes (Singh 2008: 121-122). However,
“The notion of a single hierarchy or multiple hierarchies based on purity and pollution is inadequate to address the reality of caste in India. It fails to recognize the inequality of castes founded on unequal access to land and political power, and the consequent exploitation of the lower castes by the higher castes that was intrinsic to the system. Alternatively, it is argued that the status of a caste in the caste system was determined above all by its access to land, which also carried with it political power and social honour” (Singh 2008: 119).

Keeping this in mind, within the Indian caste system, there are four major traits: caste membership is hered...

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...tin Bouglé.

Review by: Ainslie T. Embree,” Modern Asian Studies 8 (2): 284-288.

Saroja, K. 1999. “Intercaste Marriage and Social Dynamics in India: A critique,” The Indian
Journal of Social Work 60 (2): 183-192.

Singh, Hira. 2008. “The real world of caste in India,” The Journal of Peasant Studies 35 (1):
119-132.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1996. “Population Estimates,” URL: http://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/2000s/vintage_2006/. Accessed April 11th,
2014.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2010. “2010 Census Shows Interracial and Interethnic Married
Couples Grew by 28 Percent over Decade,” URL: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/2010_census/cb12-68.htm. Accessed April 8th, 2014.

Van Kempen, Eva. 1997. “Poverty Pockets and Life Chances: On the Role of Place in Shaping
Social Inequality,” The American Behavioral Scientist 41(3): 430-449.

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