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Caste in India
Theories
Sanskritization
Dominant Caste
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Is Caste constitute the primaryreality of Indian society
Yes and No
Two contending paradigms:
Culturological and !ar"ist
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Culturological #osition of Dumont
$ouis Dumont relies primarily on ate"tual or %rahmanical tradition toe"plain the caste system&
'e argues that the caste systemconditions material reality in its ownimage and is( therefore an irreduci)le
and immuta)le gi*en&
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The suggestion therefore is that thecaste system is independent ofmaterial conditions and politicalpower&
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!ar"ist #osition
+n the contrary it seeks to unearththe material and historical roots ofthe caste system&
The early !ar"ists in India had placed,uite unam)iguously caste at thele*el of the superstructure and had
not considered it to )e a primordialreality of the Indian society&
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-s an element of superstructure( thecaste system is said to conceal thecontradictions )etween classes insociety and pro*ide a rationale fore"ploitation&
%ut this perspecti*e has of late )een
,uestioned from within the !ar"istsschool&
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!aurice .odelier
'e )elie*es that the caste systeme"ists at the le*el of the )asestructure and not of thesuperstructure&
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Dumonts Theory of Caste
The two central theses of Dumont:
/& Caste system is )ased on the
opposition of the #ure and Impure&The caste hierarchy is defined as thesuperiority of the pure o*er theimpure&
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0& The fundamental characteristic of thecaste system is that the oppositionalprinciple of pure and impure is itselfdepends on the dis1unction )etweenstatus and power&
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Dis1unction )etween Status and#ower
-ccording to Dumont( the opposition)etween pure and impure is sustained )ythe dis1unction )etween ritual status and
the secular power& 2ithin the 'indu society there are two
competing sources of authority3 thereligious authority of %rahmans and thetemporal or political authority of the kings&In the ideology of caste( temporal authorityis su)ordinated or encompassed )yreligious authority&
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!aurice .odelier s Interpretationof Caste system
4or him( the caste is part of )asestructure&
4rom his study of kinship in primiti*esocieties he came to the conclusionthat the kinship relations could ser*eas relations of production& In a similarway( he argued that caste relationscould constitute the productionrelations in India&
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Caste refers to the crucial materialsaspect in defining the processes ofe"ploitation and appropriation ofsurplus la)our&
#roduction relations in India arealways mediated )y the idea of duty3
)ound caste morality
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Sanskritization and Social !o)ilitywithin Caste system
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