Caste and economic development in a Haryana village

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.