Caste and economic development in a Haryana village
Date
1971
Authors
Miller, Donald Bruce
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Abstract
The central concern of this thesis is to examine
if and how membership of a particular caste affects
responses to opportunities offered within the context of
planned economic and political change. Through this
examination I have also tested recent theoretical propositions
about the nature of the caste system and its relationship to
social change. I conclude that what restricts some people
from taking advantage of opportunities available within the
framework of planned economic development is not the caste
system, but the traditional organization of caste groups
in economic systems of dominance and subordination, not
necessarily involving all members of castes conventionally
associated with such systems, even at the village level.
Within this economic sub-system, smaller than but influencing
the form of the caste system as a whole, it is the system of
patron-client relations which influences the economic
capabilities of members of the system to respond to
developmental opportunities. I also concluded that the
system of ritual ranking according to relative purity and
pollution cannot account for the relative ranking of all
castes and is co-existent with and supplemented by a system
of ranking associated with the type of economic tasks
traditionally performed.
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Thesis (PhD)
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