essay on caste inequality in india

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Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation

• 4. Attitudes about caste

Table of Contents

• The dimensions of Hindu nationalism in India
• India’s Muslims express pride in being Indian while identifying communal tensions, desiring segregation
• Muslims, Hindus diverge over legacy of Partition
• Religious conversion in India
• Religion very important across India’s religious groups
• Near-universal belief in God, but wide variation in how God is perceived
• Across India’s religious groups, widespread sharing of beliefs, practices, values
• Religious identity in India: Hindus divided on whether belief in God is required to be a Hindu, but most say eating beef is disqualifying
• Sikhs are proud to be Punjabi and Indian
• 1. Religious freedom, discrimination and communal relations
• 2. Diversity and pluralism
• 3. Religious segregation
• 5. Religious identity
• 6. Nationalism and politics
• 7. Religious practices
• 8. Religion, family and children
• 9. Religious clothing and personal appearance
• 10. Religion and food
• 11. Religious beliefs
• 12. Beliefs about God
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Methodology
• Appendix B: Index of religious segregation

The caste system has existed in some form in India for at least 3,000 years . It is a social hierarchy passed down through families, and it can dictate the professions a person can work in as well as aspects of their social lives, including whom they can marry. While the caste system originally was for Hindus, nearly all Indians today identify with a caste, regardless of their religion.

The survey finds that three-in-ten Indians (30%) identify themselves as members of General Category castes, a broad grouping at the top of India’s caste system that includes numerous hierarchies and sub-hierarchies. The highest caste within the General Category is Brahmin, historically the priests and other religious leaders who also served as educators. Just 4% of Indians today identify as Brahmin.

Most Indians say they are outside this General Category group, describing themselves as members of Scheduled Castes (often known as Dalits, or historically by the pejorative term “untouchables”), Scheduled Tribes or Other Backward Classes (including a small percentage who say they are part of Most Backward Classes).

Hindus mirror the general public in their caste composition. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of Buddhists say they are Dalits, while about three-quarters of Jains identify as members of General Category castes. Muslims and Sikhs – like Jains – are more likely than Hindus to belong to General Category castes. And about a quarter of Christians belong to Scheduled Tribes, a far larger share than among any other religious community.

Caste segregation remains prevalent in India. For example, a substantial share of Brahmins say they would not be willing to accept a person who belongs to a Scheduled Caste as a neighbor. But most Indians do not feel there is a lot of caste discrimination in the country, and two-thirds of those who identify with Scheduled Castes or Tribes say there is  not widespread discrimination against their respective groups. This feeling may reflect personal experience: 82% of Indians say they have not personally faced discrimination based on their caste in the year prior to taking the survey.

Still, Indians conduct their social lives largely within caste hierarchies. A majority of Indians say that their close friends are mostly members of their own caste, including roughly one-quarter (24%) who say all their close friends are from their caste. And most people say it is very important to stop both men and women in their community from marrying into other castes, although this view varies widely by region. For example, roughly eight-in-ten Indians in the Central region (82%) say it is very important to stop inter-caste marriages for men, compared with just 35% in the South who feel strongly about stopping such marriages.

India’s religious groups vary in their caste composition

Most Indians (68%) identify themselves as members of lower castes, including 34% who are members of either Scheduled Castes (SCs) or Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 35% who are members of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) or Most Backward Classes. Three-in-ten Indians identify themselves as belonging to General Category castes, including 4% who say they are Brahmin, traditionally the priestly caste. 12

Hindu caste distribution roughly mirrors that of the population overall, but other religions differ considerably. For example, a majority of Jains (76%) are members of General Category castes, while nearly nine-in-ten Buddhists (89%) are Dalits. Muslims disproportionately identify with non-Brahmin General Castes (46%) or Other/Most Backward Classes (43%).

Caste classification is in part based on economic hierarchy, which continues today to some extent. Highly educated Indians are more likely than those with less education to be in the General Category, while those with no education are most likely to identify as OBC.

But financial hardship isn’t strongly correlated with caste identification. Respondents who say they were unable to afford food, housing or medical care at some point in the last year are only slightly more likely than others to say they are Scheduled Caste/Tribe (37% vs. 31%), and slightly less likely to say they are from General Category castes (27% vs. 33%).

The Central region of India stands out from other regions for having significantly more Indians who are members of Other Backward Classes or Most Backward Classes (51%) and the fewest from the General Category (17%). Within the Central region, a majority of the population in the state of Uttar Pradesh (57%) identifies as belonging to Other or Most Backward Classes.

Indians in lower castes largely do not perceive widespread discrimination against their groups

When asked if there is or is not “a lot of discrimination” against Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in India, most people say there isn’t a lot of caste discrimination. Fewer than one-quarter of Indians say they see evidence of widespread discrimination against Scheduled Castes (20%), Scheduled Tribes (19%) or Other Backward Classes (16%).

Generally, people belonging to lower castes share the perception that there isn’t widespread caste discrimination in India. For instance, just 13% of those who identify with OBCs say there is a lot of discrimination against Backward Classes. Members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes are slightly more likely than members of other castes to say there is a lot of caste discrimination against their groups – but, still, only about a quarter take this position.

Christians are more likely than other religious groups to say there is a lot of discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India: About three-in-ten Christians say each group faces widespread discrimination, compared with about one-in-five or fewer among Hindus and other groups.

At least three-in-ten Indians in the Northeast and the South say there is a lot of discrimination against Scheduled Castes, although similar shares in the Northeast decline to answer these questions. Just 13% in the Central region say Scheduled Castes face widespread discrimination, and 7% say the same about OBCs.

Highly religious Indians – that is, those who say religion is very important in their lives – tend to see less evidence of discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Meanwhile, those who have experienced recent financial hardship are more inclined to see widespread caste discrimination.

Most Indians do not have recent experience with caste discrimination

Not only do most Indians say that lower castes do not experience a lot of discrimination, but a strong majority (82%) say they have not personally felt caste discrimination in the past 12 months. While members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes are slightly more likely than members of other castes to say they have personally faced caste-based discrimination, fewer than one-in-five (17%) say they have experienced this in the last 12 months.

But caste-based discrimination is more commonly reported in some parts of the country. In the Northeast, for example, 38% of respondents who belong to Scheduled Castes say they have experienced discrimination because of their caste in the last 12 months, compared with 14% among members of Scheduled Castes in Eastern India.

Jains, the vast majority of whom are members of General Category castes, are less likely than other religious groups to say they have personally faced caste discrimination (3%). Meanwhile, Indians who indicate they have faced recent financial hardship are more likely than those who have not faced such hardship to report caste discrimination in the last year (20% vs. 10%).

Most Indians OK with Scheduled Caste neighbors

The vast majority of Indian adults say they would be willing to accept members of Scheduled Castes as neighbors. (This question was asked only of people who did not identify as members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.)

Among those who received the question, large majorities of Christians (83%) and Sikhs (77%) say they would accept Dalit neighbors. But a substantial portion of Jains, most of whom identify as belonging to General Category castes, feel differently; about four-in-ten Jains (41%) say that they would not be willing to accept Dalits as neighbors. (Because more than nine-in-ten Buddhists say they are members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, not enough Buddhists were asked this question to allow for separate analysis of their answers.)

About three-in-ten Brahmins (29%) say they would not be willing to accept members of Scheduled Castes as neighbors.

In most regions, at least two-thirds of people express willingness to accept Scheduled Caste neighbors. The Northeast, however, stands out, with roughly equal shares saying they would (41%) or would not (39%) be willing to accept Dalits as neighbors, although this region also has the highest share of respondents – 20% – who gave an unclear answer or declined to answer the question.

Indians who live in urban areas (78%) are more likely than rural Indians (69%) to say they would be willing to accept Scheduled Caste neighbors. And Indians with more education also are more likely to accept Dalit neighbors. Fully 77% of those with a college degree say they would be fine with neighbors from Scheduled Castes, while 68% of Indians with no formal education say the same.

Politically, those who have a favorable opinion of the BJP are somewhat less likely than those who have an unfavorable opinion of India’s ruling party to say they would accept Dalits as neighbors, although there is widespread acceptance across both groups (71% vs. 77%).

Indians generally do not have many close friends in different castes

Indians may be comfortable living in the same neighborhoods as people of different castes, but they tend to make close friends within their own caste. About one-quarter (24%) of Indians say all their close friends belong to their caste, and 46% say most of their friends are from their caste.

About three-quarters of Muslims and Sikhs say that all or most of their friends share their caste (76% and 74%, respectively). Christians and Buddhists – who disproportionately belong to lower castes – tend to have somewhat more mixed friend circles. Nearly four-in-ten Buddhists (39%) and a third of Christians (34%) say “some,” “hardly any” or “none” of their close friends share their caste background.

Members of OBCs are also somewhat more likely than other castes to have a mixed friend circle. About one-third of OBCs (32%) say no more than “some” of their friends are members of their caste, compared with roughly one-quarter of all other castes who say this.

Women, Indian adults without a college education and those who say religion is very important in their lives are more likely to say that all their close friends are of the same caste as them. And, regionally, 45% of Indians in the Northeast say all their friends are part of their caste, while in the South, fewer than one-in-five (17%) say the same.

Large shares of Indians say men, women should be stopped from marrying outside of their caste

As another measure of caste segregation, the survey asked respondents whether it is very important, somewhat important, not too important or not at all important to stop men and women in their community from marrying into another caste. Generally, Indians feel it is equally important to stop both men and women from marrying outside of their caste. Strong majorities of Indians say it is at least “somewhat” important to stop men (79%) and women (80%) from marrying into another caste, including at least six-in-ten who say it is “very” important to stop this from happening regardless of gender (62% for men and 64% for women).

Majorities of all the major caste groups say it is very important to prevent inter-caste marriages. Differences by religion are starker. While majorities of Hindus (64%) and Muslims (74%) say it is very important to prevent women from marrying across caste lines, fewer than half of Christians and Buddhists take that position.

Among Indians overall, those who say religion is very important in their lives are significantly more likely to feel it is necessary to stop members of their community from marrying into different castes. Two-thirds of Indian adults who say religion is very important to them (68%) also say it is very important to stop women from marrying into another caste; by contrast, among those who say religion is less important in their lives, 39% express the same view.

Regionally, in the Central part of the country, at least eight-in-ten adults say it is very important to stop both men and women from marrying members of different castes. By contrast, fewer people in the South (just over one-third) say stopping inter-caste marriage is a high priority. And those who live in rural areas of India are significantly more likely than urban dwellers to say it is very important to stop these marriages.

Older Indians and those without a college degree are more likely to oppose inter-caste marriage. And respondents with a favorable view of the BJP also are much more likely than others to oppose such marriages. For example, among Hindus, 69% of those who have a favorable view of BJP say it is very important to stop women in their community from marrying across caste lines, compared with 54% among those who have an unfavorable view of the party.

CORRECTION (August 2021): A previous version of this chapter contained an incorrect figure. The share of Indians who identify themselves as members of lower castes is 68%, not 69%.

• All survey respondents, regardless of religion, were asked, “Are you from a General Category, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class?” By contrast, in the 2011 census of India, only Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists could be enumerated as members of Scheduled Castes, while Scheduled Tribes could include followers of all religions. General Category and Other Backward Classes were not measured in the census. A detailed analysis of differences between 2011 census data on caste and survey data can be found here . ↩

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An Unwritten Grammar

Education and employment gaps, the persistence of caste, the mirage of equality, a march for independence, how india’s caste inequality has persisted—and deepened in the pandemic.

Ashwini Deshpande is a professor of economics and the founding director of the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis at Ashoka University, India. Parts of this essay are adapted from an online piece by the author published in December 2020 by IAI News .

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Ashwini Deshpande; How India’s Caste Inequality Has Persisted—and Deepened in the Pandemic. Current History 1 April 2021; 120 (825): 127–132. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.2021.120.825.127

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The economic impact of COVID-19 has been much harder on those at the bottom of the caste ladder in India, reflecting the persistence of a system of social stigmatization that many Indians believe is a thing of the past. Untouchability has been outlawed since 1947, and an affirmative action program has lowered some barriers for stigmatized caste groups. But during the pandemic, members of lower castes suffered heavier job losses due to their higher representation in precarious daily wage jobs and their lower levels of education. Lower caste families are less able to help their children with remote learning, which threatens to worsen labor market inequality in India. But Dalits, at the bottom of the caste ladder, have recently.

“The economic distress resulting from India’s pandemic response is intensifying preexisting structures of disadvantage based on social identity.”

In his 2017 book The Great Leveler , Austrian economic historian Walter Scheidel argues that throughout human history, four types of catastrophic event have led to greater economic equality: pandemics, wars, revolutions, and state collapses. In Scheidel’s analysis, these upheavals cause a surge in excess mortality that raises the price of labor, leading to declines in inequality. The validity of Scheidel’s argument for the current pandemic can only be assessed after it is over. But some have already described COVID-19 as a leveler in similar, if looser, terms. They argue that the disease can strike anyone, and that the resultant slowdown of economic activity has led to widespread job losses and economic hardships across the range of income and occupational distributions.

However, evidence from several parts of the world indicates that these assumptions are incorrect. The incidence of the disease is not class-neutral: poorer and economically vulnerable populations are more likely to contract the virus, as well as to die from it. Nor are the pandemic’s economic impacts neutral with respect to social identity. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that racial and ethnic minority groups are at greater risk of getting sick, having more severe complications, and dying. The groups that are more vulnerable to the disease are also unequally affected by the unintended economic, social, and secondary health consequences of COVID-19 mitigation strategies, such as lockdowns and social distancing.

This is true globally, and the story in India is no different. Since data on the incidence of the disease in India is not available by social group categories of caste and religion, it is impossible to assess which groups are at greater risk of mortality. But there is evidence that the economic impact of the pandemic has not been uniform across social groups.

A key element of the early pandemic control strategy adopted by most countries was to shut down economic and social activity. India’s nationwide lockdown started in the last week of March 2020, with only a few hours’ warning—resulting in a last-minute scramble to stock up on provisions. Even though the initial announcement was for 21 days, there was massive uncertainty about how long it would actually last. For the first month, the lockdown was among the strictest in the world, with a near-complete suspension of all economic activity.

The lockdown proceeded through four phases over 68 days. On June 1, 2020, the process of “unlocking” the economy started, and restrictions were gradually removed from various economic and social activities, based on the severity of COVID-19 incidence in different areas. In February 2021, at the time of writing, scheduled international flights remain suspended, university teaching is online, and office work is being conducted with a mix of online and on-site methods; but factories and most service establishments are open, apart from gyms, pools, and cinemas in some places.

My ongoing work with fellow economist Rajesh Ramachandran, using national-level large data sets, shows that the lockdown affected the marginalized, stigmatized group of lower-ranked castes much more severely than the higher-ranked castes. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic has not proved to be a great leveler in India; in fact, it has worsened labor market inequality among caste groups.

In India, the finding that the economic impact of the pandemic-induced slowdown has been harsher for those at the bottom of the caste ladder is largely met with incredulity. For international readers who associate India strongly with the caste system, this disbelief might appear surprising. But large segments of the Indian population either are genuinely convinced that caste inequalities are not systemic or structural, or are persuaded by the Hindu right’s denunciations of any discussion of caste inequality as an attempt to break a mythical or presumed Hindu unity. There is widespread support for the idea that contemporary gaps are either sporadic or just a hangover from the past, and certainly should not be discussed and analyzed candidly.

This essay juxtaposes the findings of the caste-differentiated economic impacts of the pandemic with the context of the longer-term trend of caste inequality in India. By summarizing the new reality and the contemporary grammar of the caste system, I hope to show why the pandemic has deepened the preexisting fault lines of the caste system.

Formerly untouchable castes are still among the most marginalized and stigmatized groups.

Some readers might imagine that Indian castes are racial divisions, since American journalist Isabel Wilkerson has described US structural or systemic racism as a caste system in her bestselling 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents . That would be incorrect. This is not a mere semantic quibble; an accurate understanding of caste divisions is essential to working out appropriate policy responses.

Despite the caste system’s appearance of being fixed in a timeless state, there have been important changes over the centuries in the manifestation and grammar of caste. In its contemporary version, India’s caste system consists of several thousand groups, known as jatis . This is not a binary division between “high” and “low” groups, though if one were to take a binary view of the caste system (as important anti-caste thinkers and social reformers such as Jotiba Phule advocated in the nineteenth century for the sake of subaltern unity), the latter groups would collectively form the majority, not a minority of low castes similar to Wilkerson’s characterization of the American situation.

The precise number of jatis is not known with certainty. Although the system is clearly hierarchical, and there is no ambiguity about higher-ranking jatis, the precise contours of the hierarchy vary from state to state: jati is a regional category, not a national one. Typically the two ends of the spectrum are clearly identified; there is a definite local understanding of which jatis are dominant and which are subordinate. But a jati that is dominant in one state or region might not be dominant in another one. For example, Jats are powerful in the northern state of Haryana, but less so in neighboring Rajasthan.

A key element that defines the status hierarchy is the notion of ritual purity. In the scale of ritual purity, Brahmins rank the highest everywhere in the country. Correspondingly, jatis whose traditional occupations are considered ritually impure are the lowest in the hierarchy everywhere.

The latter occupations have included scavenging, dealing with dead animals (butchery) or dead bodies (cremation), leather work, and even midwifery. Before India attained independence in 1947, members of these jatis were considered “untouchable”—touching them, seeing them, or even seeing their shadows was considered polluting for everyone else. Thus, these groups were ostracized and subjected to severe social restrictions. They were forced to live in separate hamlets outside villages, and were barred from upper-caste Hindu homes, temples, and sources of water. They were known as the ati-shudras , the lowest of the low.

Untouchability has been abolished since India won independence from British rule in 1947 and breaches of the ban are punishable by law. The Indian Constitution guarantees equality to all citizens regardless of caste, religion, gender, or any other social identity. Nonetheless, members of the formerly untouchable castes are still among the most marginalized and stigmatized groups in the country, even though they are entitled to preferential affirmative action in the form of quotas in government-funded higher educational institutions and public sector jobs.

The affirmative action program, known as the “reservations” system, has allowed members of the stigmatized caste groups to enter positions to which it would have been difficult for them to gain access otherwise. There are also electoral quotas at all levels of government: the rise of politicians and political parties belonging to the lower-ranked caste groups has been termed “India’s silent revolution.”

Since these castes are listed in a government schedule, they are lumped together in the omnibus administrative category of Scheduled Castes (SCs). Whereas SC is an administrative term for the purpose of affirmative action, members of this group have claimed “Dalit” as a term of identity and pride. (The word comes from Sanskrit and means “the oppressed.”) There is an analogous category of Scheduled Tribes (ST), who are also referred to as Adivasi (original inhabitants).

A third category of castes and communities identified for affirmative action is Other Backward Classes (OBCs), a large and heterogeneous collection of groups that rank low in the socioeconomic hierarchy but were not considered untouchables. Despite the fact that landowning and locally dominant groups have managed to find their way into this legal category (possibly to benefit from reservations or quotas), indicators show that the average standard of living for OBCs is still below that of the Hindu upper castes.

For quantitative assessment of caste inequality, data are available for the broad categories of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, and Others (everyone else). Any three- or four-way comparison understates the actual extent of caste inequality, since we cannot isolate, in the data, outcomes of jatis at the top end of the “Others” spectrum. But when we focus only on Hindus, “Others” makes a good proxy for the upper (ranked) castes. The broad hierarchy of the caste system thus consists of Hindu upper castes at the top, OBCs in the middle, and Scheduled Castes, or Dalits (along with STs or Adivasis), at the bottom.

A disclaimer before proceeding further: the use of the terms “lower (ranked)” and “upper (ranked)” is intended to reflect the hierarchy found in the reality on the ground. It is not, and should not be read as, an endorsement of caste hierarchy.

In research examining the evolution of caste inequality in India, Rajesh Ramachandran and I have found that caste gaps in basic educational attainment (up to the secondary school level) have narrowed over the past few decades. However, in higher education—which is what matters for getting good jobs—the gaps have increased over time. Younger cohorts of OBCs have moved closer to the upper castes, but the gaps between Dalits and Adivasis on the one hand and Hindu upper castes on the other have widened in the pursuit of higher education and white-collar jobs.

Adult life course disparities among caste groups seem to originate in early childhood malnourishment, which perpetuates a vicious cycle of disadvantage for Dalits and Adivasis. Due to caste gaps in nutrition, children from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are 40 percent more likely to be stunted than children belonging to the upper castes. This has long-term implications for educational and cognitive development.

COVID-19 struck in this context, and appears to have deepened the existing caste fault lines. We have found that the labor market or employment effects of the pandemic have been much more severe for the more disadvantaged groups—the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and the OBCs. Their early job losses—during the first month of the strictest lockdown—were three and two times higher, respectively, than Hindu upper castes experienced.

Our results indicate that the heavier job losses among Scheduled Castes are accounted for by two main factors: their higher representation in precarious, vulnerable daily wage jobs, and their lower levels of education. Meanwhile, caste differences are minimal (though not completely eliminated) among the better-off workers—those who have more than 12 years of schooling and are not engaged in daily wage jobs.

The current pandemic is likely to exacerbate educational differences. Data from another nationally representative survey, the India Human Development Survey for 2011–12, show that 51 percent of Scheduled Caste households include adult women who have zero years of education—who are illiterate—and 27 percent include illiterate adult male members. In upper caste households, the corresponding proportions are 24 percent for women and 11 percent for men. Faced with current school closures, Scheduled Caste parents are less equipped than their upper caste counterparts to assist their children with any form of home learning.

There are other crucial differences. Only 49 percent of Scheduled Caste households have savings in a bank account; 62 percent of upper caste households do. Twenty percent of upper caste households have access to the Internet, compared with just 10 percent of Scheduled Caste households. These differences in access to information technology are critical in shaping access to online education during the pandemic: almost a year since the first lockdown, most schools are still closed.

The economic distress resulting from India’s pandemic response is intensifying preexisting structures of disadvantage based on social identity. Investments in education and health that close gaps between social groups will be essential to build resilience in the face of future shocks.

These findings might appear surprising to anyone under the impression that caste has either vanished or declined in importance in a modernizing, urbanizing, and rapidly globalizing India. To understand the persistence of caste, and of such conflicting views about its reality, it will be useful to briefly delve into an important pre-independence debate that continues to shape beliefs about the caste system to this day.

The debate took place in 1936 between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar, two titans of the Indian nationalist movement and leaders of the Congress Party. Gandhi wrote, “The law of varna [caste] teaches us that we have each one of us to earn our bread by following the ancestral calling.” Ambedkar prepared a sharp rejoinder in a speech titled “Annihilation of Caste.” It went undelivered but became a definitive statement (after the text was published that year) on why the caste system could not be reformed but had to be destroyed altogether.

Gaps have widened in the pursuit of higher education and white-collar jobs.

Ambedkar asked, “Must a man follow his ancestral calling even if it does not suit his capacities, even when it has ceased to be profitable? Must a man live by his ancestral calling even if he finds it immoral?” He argued that this was “not only an impossible and impractical ideal, but it is also a morally indefensible ideal.” According to Ambedkar, the reality of the caste system was a “system based on the principle of each according to his birth,” rather than a division of labor based on abilities or merit. Those born into the untouchable castes were condemned to a life of stigma, discrimination, oppression, and humiliation.

The belief that the caste system is a benign division of labor (Gandhi’s view) instead of a malignant division of laborers (Ambedkar’s view) continues to be held widely in India. The Ambedkarite view is just as strongly held.

After Indian independence and the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, a constituent assembly was established to debate the new constitution, which was finally adopted on January 26, 1950. Ambedkar served as the chairman of the drafting committee and went on to become India’s first law minister. It was his understanding of the caste system that shaped the constitutional provisions for reservations, which he argued were necessary to resolve the central contradiction of newly independent India: the ideal of formal equality was enshrined in the constitution but superimposed over substantive inequality on the ground.

Although the practice of untouchability has been illegal in India since 1947, and the Constitution guarantees all citizens equal status regardless of caste or religion, the reality is that caste simply has a new grammar. Since 1991, India has seen a rapid increase in new opportunities thanks to globalization and liberalization, but upper castes have benefited disproportionately. The lower-ranked castes are often deficient in the basic skills needed to take advantage of these new opportunities. Access to higher education has expanded, but labor market discrimination has blocked occupational mobility. Caste continues to mediate economic outcomes and assert its presence in society and politics.

A wealth of evidence shows the long-standing disparities among broad caste groups in material outcomes such as education, occupation, consumption expenditure, wages, and asset ownership. But many Indians assume that these disparities are either largely rural or a mere residue of discrimination in the past. There is a strong and pervasive belief that caste discrimination is absent from the urban formal sector in contemporary India.

The debate over the degree of the caste system’s persistence still centers on the relationship between caste and occupation, since the system traditionally assigned specific occupations to castes. So the debate is really about change: the degree of association, or dissociation, between caste and occupation ought to be a measure of how much the system has changed.

Which castes work in the traditional caste-based occupations now? Are modern occupations (those that do not have a caste counterpart) allocated purely based on ability? In other words, now that the range of occupations in contemporary India far exceeds the occupations assigned by the caste system, how thoroughly has the deck been reshuffled? To what extent does the overlap between caste and status or privilege persist?

The spectrum of modern occupations is not caste-based: caste is not legally recognized, except for the purpose of compensatory affirmative action. All Indians are free to choose their occupation of choice. Yet the higher-ranked castes are concentrated at the top of the occupational spectrum, and the lower-ranked castes are concentrated at the bottom. It turns out that traditional occupations have not broken caste boundaries.

People’s beliefs about how earnings or status correspond to caste are not necessarily informed by evidence. In the 1936 debate, Gandhi said, “I do not find a great disparity between earnings of different tradesmen, including Brahmins.” But the empirical record reveals a significant earnings gap that has widened over time among the top half of wage earners.

Labor markets in the formal sector, which predominantly comprises the modern occupations, display features that are not meritocratic. Firms often have hereditary “reservations”—being born into a business family guarantees access to the top spots. Such hiring practices reveal the pernicious role of networks in informal and personalized recruitment: whom you know is often more important than what you know.

Employers find this convenient and efficient, since it minimizes recruitment outlays, ensures commitment and loyalty, and lowers transaction costs associated with disciplining workers and handling disputes and grievances. But it leads to a narrow distribution of senior positions: top jobs are not representative of the underlying composition of society. (The official affirmative action system of reservations does not extend to the private sector.)

Employers, including multinational corporations, like to use the language of merit. But managers are seemingly blind to the unequal playing field that produces what they take to be meritocratic outcomes. Their commitment to meritocracy tends to be based on the conviction that merit is fairly distributed by caste and region. This results in a process whereby the qualities of individuals are supplanted by stereotypes that make it harder for qualified job applicants to gain recognition for their skills and accomplishments.

Many Indians proclaim that they are casteless—but is it equally easy for different caste groups to shed their caste identities?

The truth is that it is far easier for those born into privilege to shed caste than it is for those who continue to bear the stigma of untouchability. As Ambedkar wrote, “[A]lmost every Brahmin has transgressed the rule of caste. The number of Brahmins who sell shoes is far greater than those who practice priesthood.”

Dalits nonetheless have tried to organize to transcend their low status. Initiatives to promote Dalit entrepreneurship have included the formation of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The objective is to develop entrepreneurial activities as a means of circumventing labor market discrimination. Fostering “Dalit capitalism” will help Dalits be “job givers, not job seekers”—and eventually lift enough Dalits to the top of the social pyramid to end the caste system.

The implicit assumptions in this argument are that self-employment activity would be concentrated at the top end, and that discriminatory tendencies would be absent from other markets critical to the success of entrepreneurship. Both of these assumptions are doubtful. There is now an emerging group of Dalit millionaires who could be “job givers,” but most Dalit businesses occupy a very different place in the production chain: they are bottom-of-the-ladder, low-productivity survival activities, like roadside kiosks or tiny repair units.

After independence, the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, announced that India had a “tryst with destiny” and was poised to become a force to be reckoned with on the world stage. Underlying this optimism was the hope that the nation would unshackle itself from antiquated ideas. As the economy modernized, a casteless society would emerge. Caste-based affirmative action was seen as a temporary step to achieve a level playing field.

Yet caste has turned out to be fiercely tenacious, reinventing itself over time. This has made the extension of remedial policies necessary. Despite affirmative action’s moderately ameliatory effects, the annihilation of caste has come to seem a herculean task, partly because of the widespread belief that the caste system has ended or is merely a benign cultural artefact. In fact, it continues to be hierarchical, oppressive, and discriminatory. It has morphed to suit the contemporary milieu.

Since the landslide election victory of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in 2014, the current political dispensation strongly advocates the unity of all Hindus—against other religions, especially India’s Muslim minority—and actively denies caste divisions. A typical claim is that Dalits, being part of the Hindu majority, are insiders—even though historically they were considered too low for and hence unfit to be assigned a varna (caste), and were the avarnas (with no caste), in contrast to the upper-caste savarnas (those with caste).

Caste-based reservations and other policies regarding Dalits have continued under Modi, though his government started a quota for “economically weaker sections” that was ostensibly not caste-based. But even if official policies have not shifted very drastically, there have been major changes on the ground.

August 15, 2016, marked India’s 70th Independence Day. As Modi unfurled the national flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort and delivered his annual address to the nation, an unprecedented gathering was underway in Una, a city in the western state of Gujarat, about 1,300 kilometers from the capital. Thousands of Dalits, who had set out from Ahmedabad on a Dalit Asmita Yatra (Dalit Pride March) ten days earlier, congregated in Una to declare their own independence—not from the British Empire, but from the stigmatizing and dehumanizing occupations traditionally assigned to them.

Caste has turned out to be fiercely tenacious, reinventing itself over time.

These occupations branded them the lowest of the low within the caste system, stamping them with a stigma that has not weakened with India’s post-independence growth and development. The marchers pledged never again to collect human excrement, dispose of cattle carcasses, or perform other humiliating caste-assigned tasks.

It is noteworthy that this gathering took place in Gujarat, the poster child for the presumed ability of economic growth to lift all groups out of poverty and put everyone on the path of socioeconomic advancement, regardless of social identity. (Modi cultivated this reputation while serving as the state’s chief minister for over a decade.) The Dalit gathering demonstrated that something was amiss with this development-lifts-all rhetoric.

Una had been chosen as the site of this momentous event in response to a grim incident in the city the previous month. A “cow vigilante” ( gau rakshak ) group had chained seven Dalit youths to a van and publicly thrashed them for skinning a dead cow. This atrocity, which was filmed and proudly circulated by the perpetrators, went viral via online sharing on various social media platforms. It led to a wave of anger and protest, finally culminating in the historic march.

In sharp contrast to the official event in New Delhi, this Independence Day celebration was bursting at the seams with the voluntary participation of the marginalized. They, too, saluted the national flag, but it was unfurled by Radhika Vemula—the mother of Rohit Vemula, a Dalit research scholar at the University of Hyderabad who had committed suicide in January that year. He and others had been subjected to harsh disciplinary action for their activities as members of the Ambedkar Students’ Association.

The past few years have seen growing majoritarianism in India, accompanied by a sharpening of caste cleavages. The emboldened cow vigilantes have targeted traditional Dalit livelihoods, particularly the meat and leather industries. There have also been vicious attacks on Dalit–upper caste mixed couples.

Meanwhile, economic gaps and wage and occupational discrimination continue undiminished and appear to be getting worse due to the pandemic, deepening caste inequality. There are anecdotal accounts of a surge in discrimination and the stigmatizing practice of untouchability under the pretext of social distancing.

In a little less than a year, the scientific community moved heaven and earth to develop vaccines to halt the spread of the pandemic. But there are no one-shot cures for inequality and discrimination. Unless a strong anti-caste, egalitarian social movement emerges, caste will continue to embroil individual lives, just as divisions based on differences such as race continue to define the socioeconomic realities of the advanced industrialized nations of the West.

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Caste System in India – Origin, Features, and Problems

Last updated on September 21, 2023 by ClearIAS Team

Table of Contents

Jana → Jati → Caste

The word caste derives from the Spanish and Portuguese “casta”, means “race, lineage, or breed”. Portuguese employed casta in the modern sense when they applied it to hereditary Indian social groups called as ‘jati’ in India.  ‘Jati’ originates from the root word ‘Jana’ which implies taking birth. Thus, caste is concerned with birth.

According to Anderson and Parker, “Caste is that extreme form of social class organization in which the position of individuals in the status hierarchy is determined by descent and birth .”

How did Caste System originate in India: Various Theories

There are many theories like traditional, racial, political, occupational, evolutionary etc which try to explain the caste system in India.

1.Traditional Theory

According to this theory, the caste system is of divine origin. It says the caste system is an extension of the varna system, where the 4 varnas originated from the body of Bramha.

At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and came from Brahma’s head. Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers, came from his arms. Vaishyas, or the traders, were created from his thighs. At the bottom were the Shudras, who came from Brahma’s feet. The mouth signifies its use for preaching, learning etc, the arms – protections, thighs – to cultivate or business, feet – helps the whole body, so the duty of the Shudras is to serve all the others. The sub-castes emerged later due to intermarriages between the 4 varnas.

The proponents of this theory cite Purushasukta of Rigveda, Manusmriti etc to support their stand.

2. Racial Theory

The Sanskrit word for caste is varna which means colour. The caste stratification of the Indian society had its origin in the chaturvarna system – Brahmins, Kashtriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Indian sociologist D.N. Majumdar writes in his book, “ Races and Culture in India ”, the caste system took its birth after the arrival of Aryans in India.

Rig Vedic literature stresses very significantly the differences between the Arya and non-Aryans (Dasa), not only in their complexion but also in their speech, religious practices, and physical features.

The Varna system prevalent during the Vedic period was mainly based on division of labour and occupation. The three classes, Brahma, Kshatra and Vis are frequently mentioned in the Rig Veda. Brahma and Kshatra represented the poet-priest and the warrior-chief. Vis comprised all the common people. The name of the fourth class, the ‘Sudra’, occurs only once in the Rig Veda. The Sudra class represented domestic servants.

3. Political Theory

According to this theory, the caste system is a clever device invented by the Brahmins in order to place themselves on the highest ladder of social hierarchy.

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Dr. Ghurye states, “Caste is a Brahminic child of Indo-Aryan culture cradled in the land of the Ganges and then transferred to other parts of India.”

The Brahmins even added the concept of spiritual merit of the king, through the priest or purohit in order to get the support of the ruler of the land.

4. Occupational Theory

Caste hierarchy is according to the occupation. Those professions which were regarded as better and respectable made the persons who performed them superior to those who were engaged in dirty professions.

According to Newfield, “Function and function alone is responsible for the origin of caste structure in India.” With functional differentiation there came in occupational differentiation and numerous sub-castes such as Lohar(blacksmith), Chamar(tanner), Teli(oil-pressers).

5. Evolution Theory

According to this theory, the caste system did not come into existence all of a sudden or at a particular date. It is the result of a long process of social evolution.

• Hereditary occupations;
• The desire of the Brahmins to keep themselves pure;
• The lack of rigid unitary control of the state;
• The unwillingness of rulers to enforce a uniform standard of law and custom
• The ‘Karma’ and ‘Dharma’ doctrines also explain the origin of caste system. Whereas the Karma doctrine holds the view that a man is born in a particular caste because of the result of his action in the previous incarnation, the doctrine of Dharma explains that a man who accepts the caste system and the principles of the caste to which he belongs, is living according to Dharma. Confirmation to one’s own dharma also remits on one’s birth in the rich high caste and violation gives a birth in a lower and poor caste.
• Ideas of exclusive family, ancestor worship, and the sacramental meal;
• Clash of antagonistic cultures particularly of the patriarchal and the matriarchal systems;
• Clash of races, colour prejudices and conquest;
• Deliberate economic and administrative policies followed by various conquerors
• Geographical isolation of the Indian peninsula;
• Foreign invasions;
• Rural social structure.

Note: It is from the post-Vedic period, the old distinction of Arya and Sudra appears as Dvija and Sudra, The first three classes are called Dvija (twice-born) because they have to go through the initiation ceremony which is symbolic of rebirth. “The Sudra was called “ekajati” (once born).

Note: Caste system developed on rigid lines post Mauryan period , especially after the establishment of Sunga dynasty by Pushyamitra Sunga (184 BC). This dynasty was an ardent patron of ‘Brahminism’. Through Manusmriti, Brahmins once again succeeded in organizing the supremacy and imposed severe restrictions on the Sudras. Manusmriti mentioned that, ‘the Sudra, who insults a twice-born man, shall have his tongue cut out’.

Note: Chinese scholar Hieun Tsang, who visited India in 630 AD , writes that, “Brahminism dominated the country, caste ruled the social structure and the persons following unclean occupations like butchers, scavengers had to live outside the city”.

Principal features of caste system in India

• Segmental Division of Society: The society is divided into various small social groups called castes. Each of these castes is a well developed social group, the membership of which is determined by the consideration of birth.
• Hierarchy: According to Louis Dumont, castes teach us a fundamental social principle of hierarchy. At the top of this hierarchy is the Brahmin caste and at the bottom is the untouchable caste. In between are the intermediate castes, the relative positions of which are not always clear.
• Endogamy: Endogamy is the chief characteristic of caste, i.e. the members of a caste or sub-caste should marry within their own caste or sub-caste. The violation of the rule of endogamy would mean ostracism and loss of caste. However, hypergamy (the practice of women marrying someone who is wealthier or of higher caste or social status.) and hypogamy (marriage with a person of lower social status) were also prevalent. Gotra exogamy is also maintained in each caste. Every caste is subdivided into different small units on the basis of gotra. The members of one gotra are believed to be successors of a common ancestor-hence prohibition of marriage within the same gotra.
• Hereditary status and occupation: Megasthenes, the Greek traveller to India in 300 B. C., mentions hereditary occupation as one of the two features of caste system, the other being endogamy.
• Restriction on Food and Drink: Usually a caste would not accept cooked food from any other caste that stands lower than itself in the social scale, due to the notion of getting polluted. There were also variously associated taboos related to food. The cooking taboo, which defines the persons who may cook the food. The eating taboo which may lay down the ritual to be followed at meals. The commensal taboo which is concerned with the person with whom one may take food. Finally, the taboo which has to do with the nature of the vessel (whether made of earth, copper or brass) that one may use for drinking or cooking. For eg: In North India Brahmin would accept pakka food (cooked in ghee) only from some castes lower than his own. However, no individual would accept kachcha(cooked in water) food prepared by an inferior caste. Food prepared by Brahmin is acceptable to all, the reason for which domination of Brahmins in the hotel industry for a long time. The beef was not allowed by any castes, except harijans.
• A Particular Name: Every caste has a particular name though which we can identify it. Sometimes, an occupation is also associated with a particular caste.
•   The Concept of Purity and Pollution: The higher castes claimed to have ritual, spiritual and racial purity which they maintained by keeping the lower castes away through the notion of pollution. The idea of pollution means a touch of lower caste man would pollute or defile a man of higher caste. Even his shadow is considered enough to pollute a higher caste man.
• Jati Panchayat: The status of each caste is carefully protected, not only by caste laws but also by the conventions. These are openly enforced by the community through a governing body or board called Jati Panchayat. These Panchayats in different regions and castes are named in a particular fashion such as Kuldriya in Madhya Pradesh and Jokhila in South Rajasthan.

Varna vs Caste – The difference

Varna and caste are 2 different concepts, though some people wrongly consider it the same.

Functions of the caste system

• It continued the traditional social organization of India.
• It has accommodated multiple communities by ensuring each of them a monopoly of a specific means of livelihood.
• Provided social security and social recognition to individuals. It is the individual’s caste that canalizes his choice in marriage, plays the roles of the state-club, the orphanage and the benefits society. Besides, it also provides him with health insurance benefits. It even provides for his funeral.
• It has handed over the knowledge and skills of the hereditary occupation of a caste from one generation to another, which has helped the preservation of culture and ensured productivity.
• Caste plays a crucial role in the process of socialization by teaching individuals the culture and traditions, values and norms of their society.
• It has also led to interdependent interaction between different castes, through jajmani relationships. Caste acted as a trade union and protected its members from the exploitation.
• Promoted political stability, as Kshatriyas were generally protected from political competition, conflict and violence by the caste system.
• Maintained racial purity through endogamy.
• Specialization led to quality production of goods and thus promoted economic development. For eg: Many handicraft items of India gained international recognition due to this.

Dysfunctions of the caste system

• The caste system is a check on economic and intellectual advancement and a great stumbling block in the way of social reforms because it keeps economic and intellectual opportunities confined to a certain section of the population only.
• It undermines the efficiency of labour and prevents perfect mobility of labour, capital and productive effort
• It perpetuates the exploitation of the economically weaker and socially inferior castes, especially the untouchables.
• It has inflicted untold hardships on women through its insistence on practices like child-marriage, prohibition of widow-remarriage, seclusion of women etc.
• It opposes real democracy by giving a political monopoly to Kshatriyas in the past and acting as a vote bank in the present political scenario. There are political parties which solely represent a caste. eg: BSP was formed by Kanshi Ram mainly to represent SC, ST and OBC.
• It has stood in the way of national and collective consciousness and proved to be a disintegrating rather than an integrating factor. Caste conflicts are widely prevalent in politics, reservation in jobs and education , inter-caste marriages etc. eg: Demand for Jat reservation, agitation by Patidar community.
• It has given scope for religious conversion. The lower caste people are getting converted into Islam and Christianity due to the tyranny of the upper castes.
• The caste system by compelling an individual to act strictly in accordance with caste norms stands in the way of modernization, by opposing change.

Is the caste system unique to India?

The caste system is found in other countries like Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Caste-like systems are also found in countries like Indonesia, China, Korea, Yemen and certain countries in Africa, Europe as well.

But what distinguishes Indian caste system from the rest is the core theme of purity and pollution, which is either peripheral or negligible in other similar systems of the world. In Yemen, there exists a hereditary caste, Al-Akhdam who are kept as perennial manual workers. Burakumin in Japan, originally members of outcast communities in the Japanese feudal era, includes those with occupations considered impure or tainted by death.

However, India is unique in some aspects.

• India has had a cultural continuity that no other civilization has had. The ancient systems, religions, cultures of other civilizations have been mostly gone. In India, history is present and even the external empires mostly co-opted the system rather than changing them.
• The caste has been merged into a modern religion, making it hard to remove.
• India has integrated multiple systems more easily. What is known as “caste” in Portuguese/English is actually made of 3 distinct components –  jati, jana, varna.  Jati is an occupational identification. Jana is an ethnic identification. Varna is a philosophical identification. These have been more tightly merged over the centuries.
• In the world’s most transformative period – of the past 3 centuries, India spent most of it under European colonialism. Thus, India lost a lot of time changing. Most of the changes to the system came only in 1950 when India became a republic .

To summarize theoretically, caste as a cultural phenomenon (i.e., as a matter of ideology or value system) is found only in India while when it is viewed as a structural phenomenon, it is found in other societies too.

There are four sociological approaches to caste by distin­guishing between the two levels of theoretical formulation, i.e., cultural and structural, and universalistic and particularistic. These four ap­proaches are cultural-universalistic, cultural-particularistic, structural- universalistic and structural-particularistic.

• Structural-particularistic view of caste has maintained that the caste system is restricted to the Indian society
• Structural-universalistic category holds that caste in India is a general phenomenon of a closed form of social stratification found across the world.
• The third position of sociologists like Ghurye who treat caste as a cultural universalistic phenome­non maintains that caste-like cultural bases of stratifica­tion are found in most traditional societies. Caste in India is a special form of status-based social stratification. This viewpoint was early formulated by Max Weber.
• The cultural-particularistic view is held by Louis Dumont who holds that caste is found only in India.

Is the caste system unique to Hinduism?

Caste-based differences are practised in other religions like Nepalese Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. But the main difference is – caste system in Hinduism is mentioned in its scriptures while other religions adopted casteism as a part of socialization or religious conversions. In other words, the caste system in Hinduism is a religious institution while it is social in others.

As a general rule, higher castes converts became higher castes in other religions while lower caste converts acquired lower caste positions.

• Islam – Some upper caste Hindus converted to Islam and became part of the governing group of Sultanates and Mughal Empire, who along with Arabs, Persians and Afghans came to be known as Ashrafs . Below them are the middle caste Muslims called Ajlafs , and the lowest status is those of the
• Christianity – In Goa, Hindu converts became Christian Bamonns while Kshatriya and Vaishya became Christian noblemen called Chardos. Those Vaishya who could not get admitted into the Chardo caste became Gauddos, and Shudras became Sudirs. Dalits who converted to Christianity became Mahars and Chamars
• Buddhism – various forms of the caste system are practised in several Buddhist countries, mainly in Sri Lanka, Tibet, and Japan where butchers, leather and metal workers and janitors are sometimes regarded as being impure.
• Jainism – There are Jain castes wherein all the members of a particular caste are Jains. At the same time, there have been Jain divisions of several Hindu castes.
• Sikhism – Sikh literature mention Varna  as  Varan , and  Jati  as Zat. Eleanor Nesbitt, a professor of Religion, states that the  Varan  is described as a class system, while  Zat  has some caste system features in Sikh literature.  All Gurus of Sikhs married within their  Zat , and they did not condemn or break with the convention of endogamous marriages.

Caste Divisions – The future?

The caste system in India is undergoing changes due to progress in education, technology, modernization and changes in general social outlook. In spite of the general improvement in conditions of the lower castes, India has still a long way to go, to root out the evils of the caste system from the society.

References:

• https://www.sociologyguide.com
• Sociology for Nurses by Shama Lohumi
• Indian Social system by Ram Ahuja

Article contributed by: Rehna R. Rehna is a UPSC Civil Services Exam 2016 Rank Holder.

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Reader Interactions

August 18, 2017 at 3:14 pm

wow…..exclnt…

August 18, 2017 at 7:59 pm

August 18, 2017 at 10:29 pm

i would like to receive the new posts updates to my email. i didnt find the option to join or subscribe….

August 19, 2017 at 8:53 am

Hi, Open clearias.com from a new browser (or clear your cache) and you will see the option for free email subscription.

August 29, 2017 at 4:37 pm

Wonderful explanation in all dimensions.

February 11, 2018 at 11:58 am

April 28, 2018 at 11:03 am

very nice.. matter is exactly what i was searching to teach my students..

August 18, 2018 at 9:14 am

You guys must see this video strong message.

https://youtu.be/AKTdd6GgnQw

November 9, 2021 at 7:45 pm

Good balanced writeup. Would have liked some speculation on the future of Caste in India, the appearance of the ‘fifth’ caste of Untouchables etc. But thanks.

December 24, 2021 at 10:02 pm

“All Gurus of Sikhs married within their Zat, and they did not condemn or break with the convention of endogamous marriages.” I would like to recommend a correction in this sentence given in the article. All of the Sikh Gurus condemned the caste system and the concept of endogamous marriages. The tenth Sikh Guru bestowed the last names of Kaur and Singh so that the concept of caste could be removed. Another reason for this was stop the practice of forcing females to take up the surname of their husband after marriage.

March 19, 2022 at 6:47 pm

A pure propaganda without covering any view from the natives and covers only the colonial views and you wonder why the IAS officers hate this country and dont have speck of nationalism. Next some serious question, if caste existed for thousands of years why it has its origin in spanish or porteguse race system? basically it shows europeans shoved their race system in the existing indian social system. So how does it make it a old system it is just a new system created by colonialist but blamed on indians for it. Next Both Varna and Jati are different from colonial caste. It seems govt needs to change syllabus otherwise our country will never develop.

February 4, 2023 at 10:01 pm

Exactly said. Wonder how aspiring IAS candidates are brainwashed with this false information undermining the original societal demarcation, and creating false propaganda. British have created the caste system to create infighting in India. The syllabus needs to change asap to reflect the truth.

January 7, 2023 at 9:13 pm

informative love it, thankyou <3

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The multiple faces of inequality in India

Post-doctoral research fellow in economics, Centre de Sciences Humaines de New Delhi

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Tista Kundu a reçu des financements de AXA Research Fund.

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Known for its caste system, India is often thought of as one of the world’s most unequal countries. The 2022 World Inequality Report (WIR), headed by leading economist Thomas Piketty and his protégé, Lucas Chancel, did nothing to improve this reputation. Their research showed that the gap between the rich and the poor in India is at a historical high, with the top 10% holding 57% of national income – more than the average of 50% under British colonial rule (1858-1947). In contrast, the bottom half accrued only 13% of national revenue. A February report by Oxfam noted 2021 alone saw 84% of households suffer a loss of income while the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142.

Both reports highlight not only the problem of revenue inequality but also of opportunity. While there may be disagreement between left and right on the ethics of equality, there is a consensus that everyone should be given the chance to succeed and the principle of fairness – and not factors such as birth, region, race, gender, ethnicity or family backgrounds – ought to lay the foundations of a level playing field for all.

Drawing from the latest pre-pandemic database from the Periodic Labour Force Survey of 2018-19, our research confirms this is far from the case in India. On the one hand, the country has had a consistently high GDP growth rate of more than 7% for nearly two decades, the exception being the period around the 2008 financial crisis. On the other hand, this income has failed to trickle down to India’s marginalised communities, with preliminary results pointing to a higher level of inequality of opportunity in the country than in Brazil or Guatemala.

Precarity as well as a large shadow economy also plague the country’s labour market. Even before the pandemic, only 30% to 40% of regular salaried adult Indian earners had job contracts or social securities such as national pension schemes, provident fund or health insurance. For self-employed workers, the situation is even more critical, even though these constituted nearly 60% of the Indian labour force in 2019.

Castes, gender and background still determine life chances

Our research indicated that at least 30% of earning inequality is still determined by caste, gender and family backgrounds. The seriousness of this figure becomes clear when it’s compared with rates of the world’s most egalitarian countries, such as Finland and Norway, where the respective estimates are below 10% for a similar set of social and family attributes.

The caste system is a distinctive feature of Indian inequality. Emerging around 1500 BC, the hereditary social classification draws its origins from occupational hierarchy. Ancient Indian society was thought to be divided in four Varnas or castes: Brahmins (the priests), Khatriyas (the soldiers), Vaishyas (the traders) and Shudras (the servants), in order of hierarchy. Apart from the above four, there were the “untouchables” or Dalits (the oppressed), as they are called now, who were prohibited to come into contact with any of the upper castes. These groups were further subdivided in thousands of sub-castes or Jatis , with complicated internal hierarchy, eventually merged into fewer manageable categories under the British colonisation period.

The Indian constitution secures the rights of the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) through a caste-based reservation quota, by virtue of which a certain portion of higher-education admissions, public sector jobs, political or legislative representations, are reserved for them. Despite this, there is a notable earning inequality between these social categories and the rest of the population, who consists of no more than 30% to 35% of Indian population. Adopting a data-driven approach we find that, on average, SC, ST and OBC still earn less than the rest.

While unique, the caste system is not the only source of unfairness. Indeed, it accounts for less than 7% of inequality of opportunity, something that’s in itself laudable. We will need to add criteria such as gender and family background differences to explain 30% of inequality.

In a country where femicides and rapes regularly make headlines, it comes as no surprise that women from marginalised social groups are often subject to a “double disadvantage”. For some states such as Rajasthan (in the country’s northwest), Andhra Pradesh (south), Maharashtra (centre), we find even upper-caste women enjoy fewer educational opportunities than men from the marginalised SC/ST communities. Even among the graduates, while the national average employment rate for males is 70%, it is below 30% for the females.

A temporary byproduct of rising growth?

Rising inequality could be dismissed as a temporary byproduct of rapid growth on the grounds of Simon Kuznets’ famous hypothesis , according to which inequality rises with rapid growth before eventually subsiding. However, there is no guarantee of this, least of all because widening gap between rich and poor is not only limited to fast-growing countries such as India. Indeed, a 2019 study found that the growth-inequality relationship often reflects inequality of opportunity and prospects of growth are relatively dim for economies with a bumpy distribution of opportunities.

Despite sporadic evidence of converging caste or gender gaps, our research shows an intricate web of social hierarchy has been cast over every aspect of life in India. It is true that some deprived castes may withdraw from school early to explore traditional jobs available to their caste-based networks – thereby limiting their opportunities. However, are they responsible for such choices or it is the precariousness of the Indian economy that pushes them down such routes? There is no straightforward answer to these questions, even if some of the “bad choices” that individuals make can result more from pressure than choice.

Given the complicated intertwining of various forms of hierarchy in India, broad policies targeting inequality may have less success than anticipated. Dozens of factors other than caste, gender or family background feed into inequality, including home sanitation, school facilities, domestic violence, access to basic infrastructure such as electricity, water or healthcare, crime rates, political stability of the locality, environmental risks and many more.

Better data would allow researchers studying India to capture the contours of its society and also help gauge the effectiveness of policies intended to expand opportunities for the neediest.

Created in 2007 to help accelerate and share scientific knowledge on key societal issues, the AXA Research Fund has supported nearly 700 projects around the world conducted by researchers in 38 countries. To learn more, visit the site of the AXA Research Fund or follow on Twitter @AXAResearchFund.

• Caste system
• The Conversation France
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Caste Discrimination Essay

People are categorised according to their place of birth, community, and place of employment under the caste system. The practise of caste discrimination in India has its roots in history but has undergone numerous significant alterations since then and now the practice has been banned and declared illegal by the government. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘Caste Discrimination’.

100 Words Essay On Caste Discrimination

200 words essay on caste discrimination, 500 words essay on caste discrimination.

Indian society has long been heavily dominated by the caste system and became corrupt because of the nation's obsession with it. Originally, the caste system was intended to create distinct groups within our community in order to create social stratification and a separation of occupations. However, over time, this division took the form of a pyramidal structure, with the highest caste being linked to receiving the most respect. The rigid adherence to traditions, customs, and certain beliefs like superstitions or reincarnation and the deeds of previous lives was what made this patriarchal system toxic. All of this led to the treatment of Dalits and other members of the untouchable caste with cruelty and oppression.

In Indian society, the caste system has existed for a very long time and has a strong foundation. The Hindu community was divided into four main castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Shudras. Apart from this, there exists tens of thousands of sub-castes and communities. Instead of fostering a sense of respect for all professions, the caste system ultimately became a tool for discrimination. In the Indian caste system, people began constructing a ladder or pyramid structure to represent the degree of respect that should be accorded to each caste. The group of persons connected to the caste "shudras," subsequently known as the "untouchables," was the most persecuted and disadvantaged caste.

They were later given the name "Harijans" by Mahatma Gandhi. The scenario of the caste system in India has altered due to social reformers such as Dr. Ambedkar and Raja Rammohan Roy, as no caste discrimination is now permitted. They actively fought for the rights of OBCs, STs, and other caste groups. But despite their struggles and development of society, the caste system continues to have a negative impact on people's attitudes. It is essential to raise awareness, particularly in rural areas, to encourage people to get over their fixation on the caste system and to end all forms of caste-based discrimination by speaking out against them.

Indian society has a caste system that has existed for thousands of years. Ancient scriptures also make a categorical mention of castes. Eventually, this sort of segregation gave way to greed, which led to the higher castes oppressing the lower caste. Over time, the caste system changed and produced worse social ills.

However, as of now caste-based unfairness and prejudice are illegal in Independent India according to the law. Additionally, the government established a reservation system or "quota" for those from ST, SC, and OBC families in order to make up for the injustice done to lower castes or scheduled tribes in the past.

Even though the goal of the quota system was to give jobs and education to those who needed them and belonged to the socially backward classes, people soon began to abuse it for unfair means, such as obtaining reservations or opportunities for employment or education when they didn't need them and came from wealthy families.

Our worth should never be determined by our birth. We ought to be judged on how well we behave and how much we contribute to society through our employment.

Ancient Caste System

The ancient caste system divided the Indian society into four main castes and provided an account of their duties and ranks as mentioned below-

Brahmins | The highest position in society was granted to Brahmins. They portrayed well-known characters like the priest and the instructor. They were revered and worshipped by everyone else. Brahmins were regarded as the protectors of the society who set the rules for religion. As outlined in the sacred texts, they had a duty to uphold that order.

Kshatriyas | After the Brahmins, came the Kshatriyas. In ancient times, both of them had a friendly relationship. Kshatriyas played the parts of landlords and warriors. They served in the kings' and princely states' armies of India and were renowned for their bravery and valour.

Vaishyas | The Vaishyas were those who worked in commerce and other occupations. They were small traders, goldsmiths, and merchants. They served as society's primary producers of goods and communities. Following the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas, Vaishyas held a strategically significant position in society.

Shudras | Shudras were people who worked as labourers, artisans, and other menial jobs. They were not allowed to participate in the ‘upnayan sanskar’ or the Vedic studies initiation ceremonies held at that time in order to become full members of the religious society.

While the first four classes were described in ancient literature, a fifth one known as ‘Dalits’ or ‘untouchables’ evolved from the Shudra caste. Other castes regarded Shudras who worked as sweepers, washers, shoemakers, and foragers as untouchables and thought their labour to be unclean. The untouchables experienced severe social, economic and educational discrimination. They were barred from attending religious events and even from sitting in front of ‘upper’ caste individuals.

The purpose of the caste system was to maintain order in the society but unfortunately, it eventually turned into a justification for harassing a certain community, depriving it of its basic rights and honour. As the rightful citizens of the largest democracy in the world, it is our obligation to ensure that all citizens, regardless of caste or other distinctions, enjoy equal freedom and position.

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Caste in 21st Century India: Competing Narratives

Sonalde desai.

University of Maryland

Amaresh Dubey

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Recent debates regarding inclusion of caste in 2011 Census have raised questions about whether caste still matters in modern India. Ethnographic studies of the mid-20th century identified a variety of dimensions along which caste differentiation occurs. At the same time, whether this differentiation translates into hierarchy remains a contentious issue as does the persistence of caste, given the economic changes of the past two decades. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 41,554 households conducted in 2005, this paper examines the relationship between social background and different dimensions of well-being. The results suggest continued persistence of caste disparities in education, income and social networks.

Recent debates surrounding the inclusion of caste in 2011 Census have served to crystallise the competing narratives about social stratification in Indian society. One side holds that historical fault lines along caste, tribe and religious lines persist and may well have been aggravated in modern India; the other side asserts that, while caste remains an important dimension of modern social life, its relevance is mostly limited to selection of marriage partners and has little importance in shaping material inequalities.

This brief description masks considerable complexities within each narrative. The narrative of inequality ranges from a vision of status inequality in which the ideology of purity and pollution is so ingrained that the subordinated groups willingly become part of a status hierarchy and are implicated in their own subjugation ( Gerth and Mills 1946 ; Dumont 1980 ) to the vision in which exploitation of marginalised groups key to the success of the dominant group ( Omvedt 2006 ). Similarly, the narrative which focuses on irrelevance of caste ranges from a historiography focusing on the role of the colonial administration in solidifying caste boundaries that were fluid until the arrival of East India Company ( Dirks 2001 ) to one in which modern economy has served to increasingly blur the boundaries of caste-based occupational segregation, and thereby, narrowing inequalities ( Gupta 2000 ; Kapur et al 2010 ).

Empirical examination of these competing claims forms the core of this paper. Using data from India Human Development Survey of 2004–05 ( ihds ), this paper examines each of these claims. The ihds is a nationally representative survey of 41,554 households organised by researchers from the University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic Research. It is a multitopic multi-purpose survey containing information about a variety of dimensions of social and economic well-being of the households. These data are in public domain, 1 and at an all-India level, poverty, education, household structure and employment levels recorded in this survey are comparable to those recorded by Census and the National Sample Survey albeit with some exceptions associated with survey design ( Desai et al 2010 ).

1 Competing Narratives

While caste affiliations remain ubiquitous in modern India with surnames, marriage arrangements, dress and food habits often characterising caste distinctions, the extent to which caste defines the fundamental structure of social stratification in India has become a subject of contentious debates. Four perspectives deserve particular attention:

1.1 Caste as a Status Hierarchy

One of the reasons caste has excited sociological imagination is because it is seen as a representation of pure status, based on religious and ideological grounds ( Milner 1994 ; Dumont 1980 ; Weber 1958 ) with class inequalities being epiphenomenal to caste. This disjunction between the sacred and the profane gives the Indian caste system a “sociological” character that sets it apart from other forms of social inequality based on material resources. Weber lays out the essential characterisation of the caste system – as opposed to affinity groups – that has undergirded much of the sociological discourse on caste:

A status segregation grown into caste differs in its structure from a mere `ethnic’ segregation; the caste structure transforms the horizontal and unconnected coexistences of ethnically segregated groups into a vertical social system of superordination and subordination …․ethnic coexistences condition a mutual repulsion and disdain but allow each ethnic community to consider its own honor as the highest one; the caste structure brings out a social subordination and an acknowledgement of ‘more honor’ in favour of privileged castes and status groups ( Gerth and Mills 1946 : 189).

While Weber largely relied on writings by colonial bureaucrats in the Indian Civil Services (acting as amateur anthropologists) for data on Indian society, anthropological villages studies of the 20th century by Indian as well as western scholars provided a foundation for Louis Dumont’s work ( Dumont 1980 ). With the publication of Homo Hierarchicus in 1966, Dumont presented a canonical formulation that has framed the conversation about caste over the past four decades and provided a rationale for status hierarchy. In emphasising the ideological over the material his formulation has much in common with his predecessors ( Weber 1958 ) and successors ( Milner 1994 ). This narrative of caste has excited tremendous passions from diverse groups with wide-ranging critiques ( Appadurai 1986 ; Gupta 2000 ; Kolenda 1973 ; Marriott 1969 ; Srinivas 1996 ; Berreman 1991 ).

Status theories of caste hierarchies have a tendency to focus on ageless and timeless India as represented in vedic traditions, partly because they draw upon the religious foundations of caste. This focus often ignores modern India, particularly urban India, in which concepts like purity and pollution are difficult to implement in day-to-day life. As Andre Beteille ( Dumont and Beteille 1987 ) remarks in an acerbic exchange with Dumont, “Dumont’s lack of ease with modern India is writ large in his work, although it does not shine as brightly as his enthusiasm for traditional India, which is partly an India of his own construction. …․ Modern India, in Dumont’s construction, is not made of whole cloth, it is a thing of shreds and patches” (Beteille: 675 in Dumont and Beteille 1987 ). While there seems to be a general agreement regarding social differentiation between castes based on visibly recognisable symbols, including rituals, dress, tonsorial styles and a host of other behavioural markers, whether this differentiation translates into social hierarchies in modern India is far from clear ( Gupta 2000 ) and some intriguing studies have documented declining salience of caste over time even in rituals and food habits ( Mayer 1997 ; Kapur et al 2010 ).

1.2 Caste as a System of Exclusion and Exploitation

Research on caste as a system of exclusion and exploitation stands in sharp contrast to the Weberian focus on status hierarchies, in which the subordinate groups accept their low status. Given the occupational underpinnings of the varna system and the linkages between occupation and income, it is not difficult to see caste as a system of material inequality. Research on caste inequalities and their material basis has a long history ( Gough 1981 ; Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998 ) going back to some of the earliest research on jajmani systems ( Wiser 1979 ).

Even in modern India, scheduled castes (SCs) continue to dominate the ranks of the sweepers ( safai karmacharis ). SCs form nearly 60% of the sweepers in central government compared to only 18% of other Class D workers ( GoI 2006 ). An interesting analysis of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), shows that as late as 1985, about 37% of the IAS officers self-identified as being brahmin ( Goyal 1989 ), a disproportionately large number since brahmins form only about 5% of the population. Moreover, since a substantial proportion of the applicants do not provide caste information, this number is undoubtedly an underestimate. Consequently, it is not surprising that many studies have found a strong link between caste and economic status ( Deshpande 2000 ; Thorat and Newman 2009 ) postulated to be a function of exclusion from access to productive resources such as land and education as well as discrimination in the labour market.

Two aspects of caste inequalities deserve attention: inequality of opportunity and inequality of outcome. Centuries of caste-based social organisation have left a legacy of inequality in access to land, education, business ownership and occupation. These processes lead to unequal access to productive resources and thereby lead to material disadvantages. However, caste-based inequalities are not simply limited to inequality in opportunity. It has also been argued that even highly qualified members of lower caste face social and economic discrimination resulting in inequality of outcomes ( Thorat and Newman 2009 ). The distinction between inequality of opportunity and that of outcome is not straightforward; inequality of outcome in one generation may lead to inequality of opportunity in the next but this distinction remains important from a public policy perspective.

1.3 Caste in Transformation

However, these linkages between caste, occupation and income are not accepted uncritically. It has sometimes been argued, “the relationship between caste and occupation has been much misrepresented…․ It is doubtful that there was at any time a complete correspondence between the two. At any rate, even before independence many castes, and probably most, had more than half their working members in occupations other than those specifically associated with their caste” ( Beteille 1992 : 40).

In an independent India the link between caste and occupation has weakened considerably. The jajmani system has all but vanished, allowing for market-based pricing for services rendered by the workers ( Commander 1983 ). Additionally a variety of forces have disrupted the link between caste and occupation. Land reforms transferred landownership to many former share-croppers, most of whom belong to the middle castes ( Dantwala 1950 ); declining incomes of artisans and influx of mass-produced goods have led to declining caste-based occupations among potters, weavers and other artisans who must now rely on manual labour for subsistence ( Bayly 1999 ); and increased requirements for education among modern professions have led to influx of people from a variety of castes into modern occupations ( Sharma 1999 ). All of these trends would suggest that the link between caste and economic status in modern India is marginal at best. In an analysis of the numerically preponderant dominant castes in south India, noted anthropologist M A Srinivas found that certain peasant castes enjoy numerical superiority as well as political and economic power, although they remain “middle castes” by the varna schema ( Srinivas 1987 ). Politics of affirmative action has further strengthened the power of lower castes with reservations in government jobs and higher education ( Beteille 1992 ). Recent studies further document the dilution of the role of caste in shaping economic well-being and suggest that migration, expansion of dalits in non-traditional occupations and changes in agriculture combine to improve the relative position of dalits in recent years ( Kapur et al 2010 ).

1.4 Caste as a Social Construction

The literature on social and material dimensions of caste stands in marked contrast to the literature that emphasises the role of the colonial power in constructing caste as an “enumerative community” and thereby solidifying hitherto fluid identities ( Das 2003 ; Dirks 2001 ). An interesting aspect of this critique includes debates about whether brahmins are at the pinnacle of the caste system or whether they were placed there by colonial imagination – either because of a fascination with the exotic or as a way of creating a social order that could be exploited in colonial governance ( Dirks 2001 ). This critique suggests that the presumed brahmin superiority is a creation of an orientalist discourse that privileged brahmins over Kshatriyas ( Dirks 2001 ; Raheja 1988 ) and ignored the claims to ideological superiority from lower castes ( Khare 1991 ; Chatterjee 1992 ; Das 1982 ). By focusing on alternate sources of legitimacy and hierarchy, these studies question the notion that the brahminical values are internalised by all subordinate castes and that caste hierarchies are accepted without interrogation. A view that sees caste as a construction of the imagination of the armchair anthropologists of colonial administration has interesting implications for the modern discourse on caste since it suggests that it is the very attention to caste as an organising principle of Indian society that leads to caste mobilisation and polarisation and without this continued attention, caste distinctions would wither away.

2 Debates without Data

This brief discussion of the debates surrounding caste hierarchies in India and the competing theories about the nature and magnitude of upper caste control over ideological and material resources clearly suggests a need for empirical examination. However, many of these debates have been conducted in a sterile environment devoid of empirical substantiation using recent data. While the National Sample Surveys can provide some data on material well-being, they are of limited utility in studying social exclusion or subordination. Even for research on material inequalities, their range is somewhat limited. These paper tries to fill some of these gaps by focusing social and economic behaviours and outcomes of different social groups.

Several caveats about the ihds and the analysis presented in this paper are important to note. The ihds is the only nationally representative survey containing data on income, education and indicators of social interaction. Thus, it provides a unique opportunity to examine some of the debates surrounding caste. However, income is notoriously difficult to measure and in spite of considerable care taken in designing a questionnaire that enumerates over 50 sources of income, measurement errors cannot be ruled out (for potential sources of error see Desai et al 2010 ). Moreover, the analysis presented here is presented at a pan-India level; regional patterns in caste inequalities are likely to be quite distinct given different patterns of caste mobilisation in different areas. Finally, for simplicity of presentation, the analysis is restricted to Hindus and adivasis who are either Hindu or follow a tribal religion. Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs and other religious groups are excluded. 2

The analysis focuses on two types of outcomes. Dichotomous variables such as ability to read or participation in a political meeting are analysed using logistic regression; continuous variables such as household consumption expenditure or years of education are analysed with multiple regression. In case of years of education, social networks and number of organisational memberships, we focus on regressing the mean of the distribution on variables of interest. Where the dependent variables are highly skewed such as the annual incomes of men and consumption expenditure, we use median regression where median rather than the mean of the distribution is regressed on variables of interest. Each regression controls for place of residence and state of residence. As appropriate, controls for own or parents’ education are also included. Tables 1 – 4 report marginal differences between different caste groups by setting values of all other variables at their mean values. The variables included in this analysis are shown in Appendix 1 (p 49); the analytical model, sample and included variables are described in Appendix 2 (p 49).

Predicted Probability of Participation in Formal Organisations and Attendance at a Political Meeting

Predicted values from the regression holding all control variables at their mean value.

Predicted Urban/Rural Differences in Caste Inequalities

NA – Sample size < 50.

The dependent variables of interest are listed below:

2.1 Civic and Political Participation

Number of organisational memberships.

The survey asked respondents whether any household members belonged any of the following organisations – Mahila mandal; youth organisations focusing on sports or reading; unions or business organisations; self-help groups; credit or saving associations; development group or NGO; and, pani panchayat or other cooperatives. A count of the memberships in these organisations is used as dependent variable using in a regression estimated with OLS.

Whether any household members participated in a political meeting called by the panchayat or nagarpalika ward in the year preceding survey: This is a dichotomous variable analysed with logistic regression.

2.2 Inequality of Opportunity

Landownership.

Whether the household owns and cultivates any land. This is a dichotomous variable analysed with logistic regression. Lack of access to land is an important determinant of rural poverty.

Years of Education

Completed years of education for men aged 25–49 analysed using OLS. Education forms one of basic aspect of labour market disadvantage. We focus on education for men aged 25–49 since the subsequent analyses use this as a control variable for income, however, results not reported here show similar patterns of educational inequalities for both men and women.

Household Consumption Expenditure Adjusted for Household Size

Household consumption expenditure determines the access to food, healthcare and education. Since household structure is an important determinant of access to resources, it is necessary to adjust for household size. However, instead of using per capita consumption expenditure, following recent suggestions in the literature on poverty and inequality ( OECD 2008 ; Citro and Michael 1995 ), we take into account the economies of scale and divide total expenditure by the square root of the household size. Given the skewness of the distribution of expenditure and income, all income and expenditure outcomes are examined using median regressions where median of the distribution is regressed on variables of interest rather than the mean ( Koenker and Bassett 1978 ).

Social Networks

Social networks form an important avenue of access to job-related information as well as access to credit. The ihds asked whether household members knew anyone who worked for the government, in schools or in the medical field. These three sets of contacts are summed and regressed on caste and other background variables using OLS.

2.3 Inequality of Outcomes

Annual earnings.

The ihds collected detailed data on over 50 sources of income. It also collected information on work participation for each household member including his or her intensity of work participation. Using these two sources of information, annual earnings for each individual are calculated using their pro-rata share of the income given their intensity of participation. For wage and salary income, each individual’s earnings are attributed to their own share of the household income. For farm or business income, where many household members participate, their share of income is based on their intensity of participation. The annual earnings are regressed on caste, education and other background variables using median regressions. This analysis focuses on males aged 25–49 in order to focus only on prime working ages and exclude biases introduced by differential rates of work participation.

Annual Wage and Salary Income

Market discrimination based on caste is most likely to occur in wage and salary employment where employers directly control the kind of work opportunities available to individuals as well as their remuneration. Thus, this paper regresses the median of wage and salary income on caste, education and other background characteristics.

Ability to Read a Short Paragraph

The ihds administered short reading tests developed by PRATHAM ( Pratham 2005 ) to children aged 8–11. For this analysis, ability to read a short paragraph is used as a dependent variable in a logistic regression. The analysis controls for child’s family background by controlling for highest education attained by any adults in the household, log of per capita household consumption expenditure, whether the household engages in farming, place and state of residence as well as child’s sex.

3 Empirical Results

The following sections present results from multivariate analyses. In each case, the results present marginal differences between various caste groups, holding other control variables at their mean value. The significance tests report whether the differences between the forward castes (the omitted category) and the index caste group are statistically significant.

3.1 Caste, Social Distance and Relations of Subordination

Dumont’s canonical formulation relies on willing acceptance on the part of lower castes to accept their subordinate status. Operationalisation of status is a challenging task, particularly in a society in which external markers of social status are changing rapidly. Much of the earlier literature has relied on manner of clothing, engagement in ritualistic behaviours and food habits. However, as a recent study perceptively points out ( Kapur et al 2010 ), interpreting underlying social relations from observed behaviour is a difficult task. Kapur et al (2010) find declining distance between castes at wedding celebrations, paradoxically coupled with lower participation of lower castes in upper caste weddings. They argue that, “poverty and dependence might explain why more dalits attended non-dalit weddings in 1990, even though separate seating was more a norm then. By 2007, though such humiliation had become rare, fewer dalits were keen on attending non-dalit weddings. It is a mark of dalits’ new-found independence – both from upper castes and the food in their feasts” (ibid 2010: 46).

Departing from a focus on social intercourse, a number of other studies have tended to focus on political sphere to suggest irrelevance on caste in modern India. While few scholars claim a demise of caste, there is an increasing tendency to view caste as a form of ethnicity in which castes compete with each other for power and proudly brandish their own narratives of origin, with even the lowest castes claiming a place in the national history characterised by valour and accomplishment ( Narayan 2004 ). Dissenting from an “orientalist” viewpoint, which saw the subjugated as being acquiescent in their own subjugation, recent research has tended to focus on the agency and power of the oppressed ( Khare 1991 ). This dissent has been bolstered by political developments in modern India. As the era of grand ideology came to an end in India as elsewhere, regional political parties have emerged as power brokers ( Brass 1990 ; Frankel et al 2000 ). Many of these parties rely on numerically large middle and lower castes for support; consequently, there is a perception that the varna structure has transformed itself into an ethnic jati structure, where small endogamous jatis compete with each other for social and political power. The politics of affirmative action sharpened this competition and led to increased attempts to capture the support of the state. Consequently, it is argued that the middle and lower castes have staked out a claim to economic and political power that is on par with, if not greater than, the brahmins and other upper castes ( Gupta 2005 ). The ihds provides direct measures of civic and political participation.

The ihds asked respondents about participation of any household members in a variety of civic organisations. It also asked whether anyone had attended a public meeting called by a panchayat or a ward committee in the preceding year. These two indicators allow us to study the extent of civic and political participation by different households. Results from this analysis are presented in Table 1 . Although more educated and wealthier households are more likely to participate in civic and political activities, controlling for these factors, we see greater participation on the part of adivasis and dalits than other castes. After adjusting for regional, educational and landownership differences by setting these variables at their mean values, average value for number of civic association memberships is 0.36 for forward castes, while it is 0.47 for dalit households, and this difference is significant at 0.01 level. Similarly, holding other factors constant, 26% of the forward caste households attended a political meeting in the preceding 12 months compared to 28% dalit households.

This suggests that dalits in the 21st century are far more politically active than the forward castes. While adivasis are somewhat less active than dalits, they also seem more politically engaged than the forward castes. A variety of factors may underlie this phenomenon. Social groups that feel economically oppressed may have more reasons to become politically active. Government programmes and policies may promote greater incentives for collective action by setting aside funds for dalit and adivasi self-help groups. But regardless of the reason, the results presented above paint a picture of a civic culture in which dalits, and to a lesser extent, adivasis, are taking a lead. Instead of suggesting a sense of ingrained subordination or sense of disenfranchisement, this observation points to active political participation on the part of lower castes that bodes well for long-term future of the Indian civil society.

3.2 Caste and Inequality

Does greater participation by lower castes in political discourse suggest vanishing importance of caste? This would be an attractive argument for many reasons. The narrative of ethnicity instead of hierarchy has gained ground in recent decades, possibly because modern Indian intelligentsia continues to define caste through the eyes of a religious discourse that they find increasingly irrelevant. Moreover, urban India has enthusiastically embraced a global discourse of equality where “anyone who speaks against equality in public is bound to lose his audience” ( Beteille 1991 ). As Chris Fuller (1997 :13) in the introduction to a volume titled Caste Today notes,

The elimination of hierarchical values from legitimate public discourse accounts, for the claim … that ‘there is no caste left’. That caste hierarchy can no longer be legitimately defended in public has itself contributed to the emergence of a more or less acceptable public discourse about status coded as cultural difference. Because people cannot openly speak of castes as unequal, they describe them as different

However, not all outcomes are like food choices, a matter of preference. In this paper we focus on two sets of outcomes, the first set describes the inequality of opportunity, or what is often called “pre-market” inequality ( Table 2 ). The second set describes the inequality of outcome ( Table 3 ).

Inequality of Opportunity Controlling for Residence and Family Background

Inequality of Outcomes Controlling for Education and Family Background

Table 2 shows statistically significant caste disparities in each marker of opportunity structure with dalits and adivasis at the bottom and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the middle. When compared to forward castes, dalits and adivasis are less likely to own land, have fewer years of education, have lower household size adjusted household consumption expenditure and have fewer important social connections. For example, holding place of residence constant, forward caste men aged 25–49 completed 8.18 years of education on average, while OBCs complete only 6.68 years, dalits 5.23 years and adivasis 4.39 years. Similarly, annual household expenditure adjusted for family size by dividing with square root of the household size, is Rs 19,857 for forward castes compared to 17,961 for OBCs and 16,832 for dalits and 16,062 for adivasis. Forward castes also have more social network connections than OBCs, dalits and adivasis. All of these differences are statistically significant at 0.01 level and control for relevant education and other background variables. The included variables are described in Appendix 2 .

Table 3 examines the caste differences in outcomes controlling for education, place of residence and state of residence. Like Table 2 , once again we see statistically significant differences between forward caste and dalits and adivasis in each outcome. The OBCs are also below the forward castes in both measures of income – income from all sources as well as just wage and salary income. However, the difference between forward caste and OBCs is not statistically significant for children’s reading skills. All of the regressions in Table 3 control for pre-market differences between different caste groups. Hence, lower earnings of dalits and adivasis compared to forward castes are not just due to differences in education between the two groups that were recorded in Table 2 and suggest a possibility of market discrimination rather than simple disparities in access to education. Lower skill attainment of children aged 8–11 is particularly worrisome since the regressions control for family’s standard of living as well as education of adults in the household. So these results suggest that even for children from similar socio-economic backgrounds, something about school environment results in lower levels of skill acquisition on the part of dalit and adivasi children, resulting in a long-term cycle of disadvantage.

3.3 Persistence of Caste Inequalities

The initial discussion in this paper noted the widespread belief that caste disparities are characteristics of a bygone era and have no place in modern India. Since the ihds collected data in 2004–05, it is not possible to use this survey to examine changes in caste disparities over time. However, since the sample contains urban as well as rural areas, it is possible to compare changes in caste disparities across different social and economic conditions. Table 4 divides the sample into metropolitan cities, other urban areas, developed villages blessed with higher levels of infrastructure such as roads and access to banks and other facilities and less developed villages. Since the metropolitan sample is relatively small – only 3,337 households out of the sample of 41,554, the results need to be treated with caution. Nonetheless, a comparison of caste differences across these four areas shown paints an interesting picture.

On the whole, this table shows greatest inequality in developed villages and smaller cities, while the least developed villages and metro cities show lower levels of caste inequality. Although the results for the metro cities must be treated cautiously due to small sample sizes, particularly for adivasis, there are greater caste-based disparities in adjusted household expenditure than in other outcomes in metro cities. However, in other urban areas and developed villages, we continue to see substantial caste-based inequalities in all outcomes.

How do we interpret these results? In some ways this pattern reminds us of the Kuznets inverted U-shaped curve which suggests that income inequality increases with development before declining at high levels of development ( Kuznets 1963 ). In the present context, it seems likely that in relatively poor villages all residents suffer from low incomes but once incomes begin to rise as with developed villages or early urbanisation, the benefits accrue to privileged groups. It is only in metropolitan cities that caste-based discrimination is moderated. We present these observations somewhat tentatively since this is one of the first studies to make such observation and our ability to generalise is limited by relatively small sample for metropolitan cities. However, our observations are consistent with some of the recent findings from relatively poor states ( Kapur et al 2010 ) where caste inequalities have emerged as less salient than those in all-India studies based on larger samples and offer an explanation for these findings.

3.4 Caste as a Social Construction

One of the most pernicious critiques of affirmative action rests on the argument that caste identities are socially constructed. When government policies rest on caste to define privilege, this very act creates and solidifies caste identities and has a counterproductive impact with underprivileged groups responding to surveys and censuses so as to highlight their marginalisation in order to garner government benefits. As with most social constructionist arguments, it is virtually impossible to examine the empirical validity of this argument. This paper is no exception. However, we are able to shed some light on at least a small portion of this argument. If caste identities are solidified around reservations or positive discrimination policies, we expect to see differences in reported measures of well-being between forward castes and groups subject to affirmative action – namely, OBCs, dalits and adivasis. However, since forward castes are unaffected by this misreporting, there should be few differences between different jatis within forward castes.

The ihds is the only large national survey to differentiate within the forward caste category by asking respondents whether they are brahmins or belong to other forward castes. Tables 1 – 4 distinguish between these two groups on all outcomes studied. The results show strong and significant differences between brahmins and other forward castes on almost all outcomes. While brahmins form only 6% of the sample, they appear to be uniquely privileged. Brahmins are more likely to have high education, they are more likely to have higher incomes and consumption expenditure and greater social connections than other forward castes. These differences are large and statistically significant in most of the dependent variables studied in Tables 2 and ​ and3. 3 . Even for Table 4 where place of residence is strictly controlled through separate analyses and sample sizes for brahmins in each residential category become extremely small, brahmins continue to exhibit higher incomes and educational levels than other forward castes. .

This suggests that although politics continues to dominate identity formation in modern India, caste is not simply a social construction. Even within groups where caste mobilisation has not been as salient a phenomenon as is the case for the OBCs, we see substantial differences by caste. If this were not the case, we would not see continued dominance of brahmins on a variety of markers of social and economic well-being.

3.5 Caste and Social Stratification

This paper has examined caste disparities in a variety of outcomes using data from a recent survey, the ihds of 2004–05. The results paint an intriguing picture of caste stratification in modern India. On the one hand, there are promising signs of change as observed in high civic and political participation on the part of dalits and adivasis and lower levels of disparities in metro cities, on the other hand, it is impossible to claim that caste has ceased to define either the opportunity structure or outcomes for a vast proportion of Indian population.

Results presented above suggest that caste background continues to define opportunities available to individuals. Landownership patterns remain unequal; lower castes have low educational status; have lower consumption expenditure resulting in lower access to nutrition, healthcare and private education; and have fewer social connections to seek help in emergencies or to provide access to information and connections to important social institutions such as government services, healthcare and medical services. This unequal opportunity and access may well be the root cause of observed inequalities in health outcomes as well as other aspects of well-being ( IIPS and Macro International 2007 ; Desai et al 2010 ; Shariff 1999 ). However, if these material disadvantages are combined with an absence of social discrimination, then it would be easy to argue that caste has been transformed into class in modern India and public policies do not need to focus on caste – policies directed at lower class individuals, regardless of their caste affiliation, should be sufficient.

Have caste inequalities in modern India been transformed into class inequalities? If that were the case, then most of the caste disparities should disappear once controls for education and access to other productive resources are added. Our analysis shows no signs of that. We find that although educational disparities (sometimes called “pre market inequalities”) account for about 50% of the intercaste disparities in earnings ( Figure 1 ), even after controlling for own education, substantial caste disparities remain. Perhaps the most damning are the differences in skill acquisition of children. After controlling for highest level of education attained by any household member, log of per capita expenditure and place of residence, only about 50% dalit and adivasi children can read a simple paragraph compared to 61% forward class children and 69% brahmin children. The differences in reading skills between OBCs and forward castes are relatively small and not statistically significant. It is important to note that we are only focusing on rudimentary skills – ability to read a simple 3–4 sentence paragraph. It would be difficult to justify young children aged 8–11 falling behind their upper caste peers on any other grounds but social forces that exclude some children and not others (for some of the examples of social exclusion see Navsarjan Trust and RFK Centre 2010 ).

Predicted Total Income and Wage Income Before and After Controlling for Education

4 Discussion

4.1 large and small differences: the eye of the beholder.

In this paper we have focused on comparing like with like and consistently controlled for place and state of residence in our analysis. Where appropriate, we have also controlled for education and landownership. This is an appropriate strategy for examining differences associated purely with caste rather than place of residence and individual characteristics. However, these fine controls, a conventional strategy for statistical analysis in search of “pure” relationship between two variables of interest, sometimes get in the way of establishing the magnitude of the problem. When we look at Table 4 , we see only modest differences between forwards castes and lower castes. For example, in least developed villages, after controlling for household education and landownership, the difference in household size adjusted consumption expenditure between forward castes and dalits is barely Rs 2,200, but when we look at raw differences between the two groups in Appendix 1 , it is Rs 9,019. The raw differences show cumulative disparities based on a variety of factors including disproportionate concentration of dalits in the least developed villages (39% for forward castes vs 48% for dalits in Appendix 1 ), low likelihood of landownership (45% vs 34%), greater likelihood of no one the household ever attending school (10% vs 34%), lower social connections to obtain better jobs (1.33 vs .79), and lower wages for adult males when employed for salary or wage work (Rs 30,000 vs Rs 13,800). When regressions control for some of these factors which are themselves either closely associated with caste or are products of caste disadvantages, it is easy to understate caste-based inequalities.

Spatial disparities are particularly interesting in this context. The ihds data document that where one lives is associated with economic opportunities as well as availability of services such as healthcare and education ( Desai et al 2010 ), sometimes these spatial disparities are even larger than caste disparities. However, spatial disparities are not totally orthogonal to caste disparities. As Appendix 1 shows, dalits and adivasis are far more likely to be concentrated in the least developed villages than forward castes, possibly because developmental interventions miss dalit and adivasi dominated areas. Moreover, migration is associated with social position. Most studies of migration in India and elsewhere document that often it is the more privileged groups in any society that migrate, possibly because higher education and social networks make it easier for them to find jobs in cities ( NSSO 2001 ; Massey and Taylor 2004 ; de Haan and Rogly 2002 ). Among the ihds sample, about 10–11% of the forward caste and brahmin households migrated in the 10 years prior to the survey compared to 7% for OBCs and less than 5% for dalits and adivasis.

Moreover, while living in more developed areas offers higher incomes to all residents, caste disparities do not disappear with development. Our results show an inverted u -shaped relationship between spatial development and caste inequalities with least developed villages and metro cities showing lower caste inequalities than somewhat developed villages or smaller urban areas. Since much of the future growth seems likely to concentrate in smaller cities, this is a worrisome development. Due to our reliance on cross-sectional data, we cannot make any conjectures about changes over time but these spatial patterns are suggestive. This suggests that the public discourse must now begin to focus on ways in which economic growth and weakening of traditional occupational structures intersects with historically dominant caste divisions to restrict opportunities to some groups and opens opportunities to others – particularly through access to high quality education.

4.2 Caste in the 21st Century: From Hierarchy to Elite Capture

The results presented above show that if status hierarchies seem to be on the decline with considerable civic and political participation by marginalised groups, economic and educational disparities between large caste groupings continue to flourish. What are the implications of these observations for research on caste in 21st century India, as well as for the public policy? We suggest that for far too long, the discourse on caste in India has been governed by the vision of social hierarchy based on purity and pollution laid down by a colonial imagination. It may be time to look for new models of social stratification in India. One possibility would be to argue that caste relations are superseded by class relations, just as the western sociological literature has argued that industrialisation was associated with a movement from hereditary privilege associated with the concept of “estate” held by nobility to an open society in which the bourgeoisie could gain status through their achievement in the marketplace ( Borocz 1997 ).

However, the results presented above suggest that this would be a premature conclusion. Access to productive resources, particularly education and skills remain closely associated with caste. Children from lower castes continue to be educationally disadvantaged compared to children from the upper caste. Once stripped of its religious and ideological trope, caste in modern India offers one of the most interesting examples of consolidation of material resources in hands of certain groups even as market mechanisms continue to take hold. The continued dominance of brahmins in Indian society and economy is perhaps the clearest example of this consolidation.

Newly emerging research on central and eastern Europe offers interesting comparisons. A number of studies suggest that the transition from socialism to capitalism in eastern and central Europe has led to the capture of economic resources by certain groups ( Eyal et al 1998 ; Rona-Tas 1998 ). Given the explicit attempts by socialist states over a period of five decades to eradicate hereditary transmission of wealth and power, the persistence of privilege remains surprising. In reconciling scholarship on post-socialist transition with broader stratification research, Borocz ( Borocz 1997 ) argues for a middle space between the societies organised around the logic of estate where the individual’s position is determined by ascription based on membership in a group, conferred mainly by birth and logic of status in which the basis of the individual’s position is exclusively achievement portrayed as returns on human capital endowments. His advocacy for a middle ground with a focus on social reproduction where “new logics of distinction are created as enclosures in the social field,” resonates with the observations offered in this paper. Instead of hard distinctions between caste and class (e g, Svalastoga 1965 ) based on varying degrees of closure within each form of stratification, we will gain more analytical power by focusing on ways in which a socially closed system like caste adapts and manipulates emerging class inequalities in a society undergoing economic transformation.

The ihds documents that caste and kin remain at the centre of Indian civic life, with nearly 95% of the female respondents reporting getting married within their own caste. This suggests that caste structure remains largely defined by social closure, while the economic opportunities are increasingly more open, creating new arenas in which castes must operate if they are to maintain their distinction. Seeing Indian caste structure through the lens of Bourdieu’s notions of social reproduction ( Bourdieu 1984 ), we begin to see a variety of ways in which castes manage to shape the access to social, political and cultural capital to their members. Much has been written about the political power of various castes ( Gupta 2005 ) with a particular focus on the middle castes. However, the way in which upper castes manage to establish and exercise their dominance over the opportunities to their members has received little attention.

As education and entrepreneurship emerge as twin pillars of advancement in modern India, historically wealthy castes play an interesting, often unnoticed, role in shaping opportunities. The ihds data collected information on a variety of associations and finds that caste associations dominated organisational memberships with 14% households belonging to caste associations and another 14% belonging to religious or festival societies compared to barely 5% households with any union or trade association membership and 7% participating in self-help groups. Caste associations for wealthy castes organise private schools and colleges as well as charitable trusts through which members obtain scholarships and loans for higher education. While these schools are ostensibly open to all, members of the caste that established the school often receive priority. Scholarships are given based on recommendations from members of the caste-based governing body. For rural students, educational opportunities in cities are governed by their ability to obtain subsidised student accommodations. A search of hostels in Mumbai turns up hostels with such identifiable caste names as “Lad Baniya” and “Modh Baniya”. In addition to caste-based educational opportunities, some caste organisations have also set up cooperative banks, initially set up to serve caste members, and where caste members continue to retain considerable clout. The tiny caste of Saraswat brahmins is associated with a surprisingly large number of banks. This access to capital is reflected in the fact that when ihds enumerated the source of loans obtained in the preceding five years, of the households that took out a loan, 39% of the brahmins borrowed from a bank or credit society, while only 18% of the dalit households did so. The NSS data also report that among dalits, an overwhelming number resort to private moneylenders ( NSSO 2006 ), paying a considerably higher rate of interest than if they had been able to borrow from a bank. These are just a few examples of the way in which castes manage to parlay their historical privileges into opportunities for their members and often use the vehicles – such as tax-deductible status – provided by the Indian state.

While the examples offered above are unique to India, they have much in common with other studies of elite capture of state resources ( Stark and Bruszt 1998 ) and ways in which social and cultural institutions are manipulated to create and sustain inequalities ( Arrow 2000 ; Bowles and Gintis 1976 ; Bourdieu and Passeron 1990 ). With that recognition, it makes sense for us to focus our attention on the way in which elites react to the process of social transformation to retain their economic, social, cultural and symbolic power as well as the way in which marginalised groups contest this hegemony.

Acknowledgments

These results are based on the India Human Development Survey, 2004–05. This survey was jointly organised by researchers at the University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic Research. The data collection was funded by grants R01HD041455 and R01HD046166 from the National Institutes of Health to the University of Maryland. Part of the sample represents a resurvey of households initially interviewed in the course of the Human Development Profile of India 1993–94 conducted by NCAER.

Descriptive Statistics for Variables of Interest

Model and Sample Description For Each Dependent Variable

1 For further information about the survey and data download, see www.ihds.umd.edu .

2 Repeating this analysis on the complete sample including all religious groups did not change our conclusions.

Contributor Information

Sonalde Desai, University of Maryland.

Amaresh Dubey, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

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Disability, religion, and caste: intersecting inequalities in India

Published on 3 December 2020

Research Officer

Research Fellow

Today we celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities , which promotes the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development, and aims to increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. The religious identity of people with disabilities is an underexplored aspect of their intersecting identities which have different effects on their being – sometimes enhancing their lives and sometime exposing them to further discrimination and marginalisation.

We recently carried out research under the Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID) programme which explored the situation of people with disabilities from minority religious backgrounds. More specifically, we used a participatory qualitative methodology to gather case studies describing experiences of Christians and Muslims with disabilities in Chennai, India, the details of which will be shared in our forthcoming CREID Working Paper but here is a snapshot of our findings.

India’s unique religious history

India has a complex religious history, with faith and spirituality playing an important role in everyday life . Hinduism is the majority religion, and there are many minority religions. India also has a complicated class system and entrenched gender structures, with disability being another important identity . Many aspects that make up a person’s identity were found to intersect and interconnect. Religious minority affiliation, caste, disability status and gender were all found to have the potential to add layers of discrimination and marginalisation.

Ineffective legal and human rights frameworks for addressing discrimination

Our research found that despite the existence of various legal and human rights frameworks in India, discrimination based on factors (or a combination of factors) including faith, disability, caste and gender is still happening.

Additionally, no single experience is universal. Discrimination was found to be explicit and implicit. Characteristics that form the basis for discrimination were found to be both visible and invisible. Discrimination based on a single characteristic or multiple intersecting characteristics were found to exist both between and within religious communities, as well as within wider society.

People who belong to minority religions in India (i.e. those who are not Hindu) often face disadvantage and experience exclusion or discrimination , including examples listed below which were experienced by our participants:

• reduced access to job, promotions and services
• negative and abusive treatment

Our findings compliment other research that has found that discriminatory experiences in India were greatly exacerbated by Covid-19 with Muslims being blamed for spreading the virus (and targeted as a result) whilst those working on the frontline, such as   Christian Dalit sanitary workers , were more vulnerable and at higher risk of contracting Covid-19 through lack of Personal Protective Equipment.

We also found that people with disabilities experience marginalisation and discrimination due to both attitudinal and physical barriers, including being excluded from practicing their religion by religious leaders and/or members of the congregation, which violates multiple human rights including Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Some of the participants of our study who had disabilities seemed to have become so used to being marginalised that they came to expect it. This resulted in them excluding themselves from full participation in society due to the prejudices they had experienced and expected to experience again.

Intersecting inequalities and multiple layers of potential discrimination

Religious affiliation and other factors such as gender and social class, intersect with disability to impact on social inclusion. For example, we found that while being a Dalit results in discrimination based on caste, being a Christian Dalit makes life even more difficult , as they do not receive the same access as Hindu Dalits to jobs and services. Disability added an additional level of discrimination.

One research participant shared with us that they had faced discrimination based on three of aspects of their identity: “In my office I have been discriminated basically based on my disability, then on my being a Christian and then for being a Dalit”

The difference made by inclusive practice

Not all of our findings were negative. We found that when people with disabilities are included in society, regardless of other characteristics, for example, the impact on their life and the lives of others can be very positive.

Inclusive practice in society and in their religious communities (for example, being made to feel welcome by religious leaders and provided with reasonable accommodation) was shown to result in a feeling of acceptance, the strengthening community ties, and the creation of new opportunities to contribute in a meaningful way to society.

One research participant noted “I have been given that worthy feeling that I am too a worthy creature of God and I deserve all the dignity to live as a ‘normal’ human person. This did not happen overnight. All the worship methods, providing me with leadership opportunities and a place in the choir and even small positive gestures over a period of time gave me such a hope”.

The global disability rights movement have often drawn inspiration from the Martin Luther King, Jr . quote: “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Our research found that in the context of India and the complex identities of those who live there, this quote has never been more relevant.

Want to know more about CREID?

The creid programme is providing research evidence and delivering practical programmes which aim to redress the impact of discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, tackle poverty and exclusion, and promote people’s wellbeing and empowerment. it is invested in highlighting how these inequalities are largely invisible in development programmes, which are generally “blind” to religious inequalities and what can be done about it..

If you have found this blog interesting, why not sign up to the CREID newsletter and follow @CREID_Dev on Twitter and be the first to know when our paper on freedom of religious belief and people with disabilities in India is published.

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Modi’s Power Keeps Growing, and India Looks Sure to Give Him More

Few doubt the popular prime minister will win a third term in voting that starts Friday. His strong hand is just what many Indians seem to want.

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By Mujib Mashal

Mujib Mashal followed Narendra Modi on the campaign trail in the important Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra while reporting this article.

As he campaigns across India for an election that began on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks of his insatiable ambitions in terms of dinner-table appetite.

Roofs over heads, water connections, cooking gas cylinders — Mr. Modi reads down the menu of what he calls the abundant “development” he has provided to India’s poor. But he’s not stopping there. “What Modi has done so far is just the appetizer,” he said at one stop, referring to himself in the third person, as he often does. “The main course is yet to come.”

To Mr. Modi’s legions of supporters, a third term would bring more of what they find so appealing in him. He is that rare breed of strongman who keeps an ear to the ground. He is a magnetic figure and a powerful orator. He has built an image as a tireless, incorruptible worker for a country on the rise.

But to his critics, Mr. Modi’s talk of a “main course” is an alarm bell for the future of the world’s largest democracy.

Mr. Modi, 73, enters the election a heavy favorite, his party’s grip over India’s more populous northern and central heartlands firmer than ever, the opposition in the same decisive geography even more diminished. Yet even with his place as India’s unrivaled leader seemingly secured, he has carried out a crackdown on dissent that has only intensified.

In the lead-up to the voting, which will run for six weeks before results are announced on June 4, agencies under Mr. Modi’s control have frozen the bank accounts of the largest opposition party. The leaders of two opposition-run states have been thrown in jail, in cases they call politically motivated. (The capital region, New Delhi, is currently governed by a chief minister who sends his directives from behind bars.)

All of this, Mr. Modi’s critics say, shows the penchant for full control that has become evident over his decade as prime minister. Mr. Modi, they contend, will not stop until he has turned India’s democracy into one-party rule. Power is being aggressively consolidated “around the cult of the leader’s personality,” said Yamini Aiyar, a policy analyst in New Delhi.

“The deep centralization of power has significantly undermined institutional checks and balances baked into India’s democratic structure,” Ms. Aiyar said.

Many Indians seem willing to accept this. Mr. Modi has remained deeply popular even as he has become more autocratic. He has paid little price — and even found support — for his effort to remake India into what analysts have called an illiberal democracy.

He exploits contradictions. The right to vote is held as sacred in a country whose democracy has offered protection in a turbulent region. But polling also indicates that large numbers of Indians are willing to cede civil liberties to support a powerful ruler they see as getting things done.

Another seeming incongruity: People who speak of their own economic strife also often express faith in Mr. Modi’s running of the country’s affairs, a testament to the forceful narratives he weaves.

Indians have more tangible reasons to back him, too. Mr. Modi relentlessly tends his broad support base through generous offerings across society: favorable deals for the business elite in a growing economy, robust welfare programs for India’s impoverished majority, and a strong dose of Hindu nationalism for those in between.

A campaign stop this month in his party’s stronghold of Uttar Pradesh illustrated this winning formula.

Mr. Modi stood in the back of a saffron-colored truck as it moved slowly down a shopping street lined with global brands and jewelry shops, a scene that spoke to the new wealth that has lifted millions of Indians into the middle class.

Overhead, billboards with pictures of Mr. Modi — his face is everywhere in India — told of achievements like the installation of more than 100 million toilets for the poor and India’s rising stature.

At the end of the “roadshow,” at the junction where Mr. Modi’s vehicle turned right and headed back to Delhi, was a stage set up with loudspeakers. As Hindu nationalist songs blared, actors dressed up as the deities Ram and Sita posed for selfies with the crowd.

Mr. Modi’s inauguration in January of a huge temple dedicated to Ram, on the disputed site of a mosque razed three decades ago by a Hindu mob, has been a major election-year offering to his Hindu base.

“We are Hindu, we are Hindu, we will only speak of Ram,” went one song’s chant. “Those who brought Ram, we will bring them to power.”

Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., started in 1980 as an urban middle-class organization centered around a Hindu majoritarian core. Under Mr. Modi, it has recast itself as the party of the poor and of the village in northern India, analysts say.

Some in India believe that poorer people have merely fallen under Mr. Modi’s spell. Nalin Mehta, the author of the book “The New B.J.P.,” called that fundamentally wrong.

“The fact that the B.J.P. continues to win these victories reflects how successful it has been in getting newer constituents of voters who never voted B.J.P. before, and who may not even be followers of Hindu nationalism,” he said.

Mr. Mehta attributes much of that success to the party’s expansion and branding of welfare programs and its efforts to promote itself as pan-Hindu, actively reaching out to India’s marginalized castes.

By prioritizing direct digital welfare payments, the B.J.P. has cut out the middleman and made sure the handouts are seen as coming straight from Mr. Modi.

Technology also allows the party to follow up, with B.J.P. workers — armed with data — knocking on the door of anyone who received a water tap, a gas cylinder or a government grant to build a home.

Data creates layers of feedback that help the party pick its candidates, jettisoning large numbers of incumbents before each election. “This B.J.P. is very ruthless on winnability,” Mr. Mehta said.

Bringing it all together are Mr. Modi’s outsize appeal and his political and technological acumen.

He has put his personal story at the center of his narrative of an ascendant India, the main pillar of his campaign. If a lower-caste son of a chai seller can become one of the most powerful men in the world, he says, other ordinary Indians can dream, too.

While inequality has grown and 800 million Indians are at the mercy of monthly rations, many focus instead on their faith that Mr. Modi is not a thief. He casts himself as a bachelor with no descendants who works only for the Indian people, unlike what he calls the corrupt political dynasts in the opposition.

“Modi wasn’t born in some royal family to become prime minister,” he told a crowd of tens of thousands in the state of Maharashtra. “It’s you who have brought him this far.”

The political opposition has been severely weakened by infighting, leadership crises and its struggle to offer an ideological alternative to the B.J.P.

But it also faces a playing field that Mr. Modi has tilted in his own favor.

He has cowed the broadcast media. Independent journalists who do question his policies have been jailed or subjected to legal harassment. India leads the world in internet shutdowns, obscuring unrest that looks bad for the government. And officials under Mr. Modi have forced social media platforms to scrape critical content.

Investigating agencies have been set loose on Mr. Modi’s political opponents — more than 90 percent of cases involving politicians over the past decade have involved the opposition. Many languish in jail or the court system. Those who switch allegiance to the B.J.P. find that their cases vanish.

On the campaign trail in the state of West Bengal, an opposition candidate, Mahua Moitra, spoke of saving democracy from the authoritarianism she said had led to her own expulsion from Parliament — in a messy case involving a former romantic partner, a Rottweiler named Henry and accusations of graft.

Autocracy and Mr. Modi’s perceived coziness with billionaires have been the opposition’s two main attack lines. While campaigning, Ms. Moitra told a group of women that they were still waiting for government money to build homes because Mr. Modi “is busy building palaces for his friends.”

Analysts doubt that either issue will resonate widely. Many Indians, particularly in his stronghold in the north, which has a decisive say in who rules from New Delhi, like exactly what they are getting from Mr. Modi.

“He is the prime minister, and if he is not strong enough, then what good would it be?” Anjali Vishwakarma, 37, an interior designer, said as she walked along the Ganges one recent day with her family in Mr. Modi’s constituency of Varanasi.

Suhasini Raj contributed reporting from Varanasi, Sameer Yasir from Krishnanagar and Hari Kumar from Ghaziabad in India.

Mujib Mashal is the South Asia bureau chief for The Times, helping to lead coverage of India and the diverse region around it, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. More about Mujib Mashal