Structure and Change of Caste in India

Abstract

Caste, joint family and village community are three main pillar of traditional India. Especially caste is most important. The structural basis of Hindu society is caste. First of all, we must distinguish between caste and varna. The varna-model has produced a wrong and distorted image of caste. It is necessary for the sociologist to free himself from the hold of the varna-model. There are thought to be some 3, 000 castes in India. There are many definition of caste. Max Weber regards caste as closed status group. Caste is also a system of division of labour. British rule changed India considerably, but it does not mean India become capitalistic state. Trend of disorganization of village community causes new problems. Jajmani system is disappearing and craft caste are becoming tenant or agricultural labourer. In modern India we can see both phenomena, sanskritization and westernization. Sanskritization is found to be a widespread cultural and social process among Hindus in different parts of India. It is the process by which a “low” Hindu caste, or tribal or other group, changes its custom, ritual, ideology and way of life in the direction of a high caste. One of the many interesting contradictions of modern Hindu social life is that while the Brahmins are becoming more and more westernized, the other castes are becoming more and more sanskritized.