Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

35

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 Indian Society

H aving studied the structure and dynamics of the population of India in

Chapter 2, we turn now to the study of social institutions. A population is
not just a collection of separate, unrelated individuals, it is a society made up
of distinct but interlinked classes and communities of various kinds. These
communities are sustained and regulated by social institutions and social
relationships. In this chapter we will be looking at three institutions that are
central to Indian society, namely caste, tribe and family.

3.1 Caste and the Caste System

Like any Indian, you already know that ‘caste’ is the name of an ancient social
institution that has been part of Indian history and culture for thousands of
years. But like any Indian living in the twenty-first century, you also know that
something called ‘caste’ is definitely a part of Indian society today. To what
extent are these two ‘castes’ – the one that is supposed to be part of India’s past,
and the one that is part of its present – the same thing? This is the question
that we will try to answer in this section.

Caste in the Past

Caste is an institution uniquely associated with the Indian sub-continent.
While social arrangements producing similar effects have existed in other
parts of the world, the exact form has not been found elsewhere. Although it
is an institution characteristic of Hindu society, caste has spread to the major
non-Hindu communities of the Indian sub-continent. This is specially true of
Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.
As is well-known, the English word ‘caste’ is actually a borrowing from the
Portuguese casta, meaning pure breed. The word refers to a broad institutional
arrangement that in Indian languages (beginning with the ancient Sanskrit)
is referred to by two distinct terms, varna and jati. Varna, literally ‘colour’,
is the name given to a four-fold division of society into brahmana, kshatriya,
vaishya and shudra, though this excludes a significant section of the population
composed of the ‘outcastes’, foreigners, slaves, conquered peoples and others,
sometimes refered to as the panchamas or fifth category. Jati is a generic term
referring to species or kinds of anything, ranging from inanimate objects to
plants, animals and human beings. Jati is the word most commonly used to
refer to the institution of caste in Indian languages, though it is interesting
to note that, increasingly, Indian language speakers are beginning to use the
English word ‘caste’.
The precise relationship between varna and jati has been the subject of much
36 speculation and debate among scholars. The most common interpretation is to
treat varna as a broad all-India aggregative classification, while jati is taken to
be a regional or local sub-classification involving a much more complex system

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 Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

consisting of hundreds or even thousands of castes and

sub-castes. This means that while the four varna classification Ayyankali
is common to all of India, the jati hierarchy has more local (1863 – 1914)
classifications that vary from region to region.
Opinions also differ on the exact age of the caste
system. It is generally agreed, though, that the four varna
classification is roughly three thousand years old. However,
the ‘caste system’ stood for different things in different time
periods, so that it is misleading to think of the same system
continuing for three thousand years. In its earliest phase,
in the late Vedic period roughly between 900 — 500 BC,
the caste system was really a varna system and consisted
of only four major divisions. These divisions were not very
elaborate or very rigid, and they were not determined by
birth. Movement across the categories seems to have been
not only possible but quite common. It is only in the post-
Vedic period that caste became the rigid institution that is
familiar to us from well known definitions.
The most commonly cited defining features of caste are
the following: Ayyankali, born in Kerala,
was a leader of the lower
1. Caste is determined by birth – a child is “born into” the castes and Dalits. With
caste of its parents. Caste is never a matter of choice. his efforts, Dalits got the
One can never change one’s caste, leave it, or choose not freedom to walk on public
to join it, although there are instances where a person roads, and Dalit children
may be expelled from their caste. were allowed to join schools.
2. Membership in a caste involves strict rules about
marriage. Caste groups are “endogamous”, i.e. marriage is restricted to
members of the group.
3. Caste membership also involves rules about food and food-sharing. What
kinds of food may or may not be eaten is prescribed and who one may share
food with is also specified.
4. Caste involves a system consisting of many castes arranged in a hierarchy
of rank and status. In theory, every person has a caste, and every caste
has a specified place in the hierarchy of all castes. While the hierarchical
position of many castes, particularly in the middle ranks, may vary from
region to region, there is always a hierarchy.
5. Castes also involve sub-divisions within themselves, i.e., castes almost
always have sub-castes and sometimes sub-castes may also have
sub-sub-castes. This is referred to as a segmental organisation.
6. Castes were traditionally linked to occupations. A person born into a caste 37
could only practice the occupation associated with that caste, so that
occupations were hereditary, i.e. passed on from generation to generation.

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 Indian Society

On the other hand, a particular occupation could only be

Jotirao Govindrao Phule pursued by the caste associated with it – members of other
(1827 – 1890) castes could not enter the occupation.
These features are the prescribed rules found in
ancient scriptural texts. Since these prescriptions were
not always practiced, we cannot say to what extent these
rules actually determined the empirical reality of caste – its
concrete meaning for the people living at that time. As you
can see, most of the prescriptions involved prohibitions
or restrictions of various sorts. It is also clear from the
historical evidence that caste was a very unequal institution
– some castes benefitted greatly from the system, while
others were condemned to a life of endless labour and
subordination. Most important, once caste became rigidly
determined by birth, it was in principle impossible for a
person to ever change their life circumstances. Whether
they deserved it or not, an upper caste person would always
Jotirao Govindrao Phule
have high status, while a lower caste person would always
denounced the injustice of
be of low status.
the caste system and scorned
its rules of purity and pollution. Theoretically, the caste system can be understood as
In 1873 he founded the the combination of two sets of principles, one based on
Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth difference and separation and the other on wholism and
Seekers Society), which was hierarchy. Each caste is supposed to be different from – and
devoted to securing human is therefore strictly separated from – every other caste. Many
rights and social justice for of the scriptural rules of caste are thus designed to prevent
low-caste people. the mixing of castes – rules ranging from marriage, food
sharing and social interaction to occupation. On the other
hand, these different and separated castes do not have an individual existence –
they can only exist in relation to a larger whole, the totality of society consisting
of all castes. Further, this societal whole or system is a hierarchical rather than
egalitarian system. Each individual caste occupies not just a distinct place,
but also an ordered rank – a particular position in a ladder-like arrangement
going from highest to lowest.
The hierarchical ordering of castes is based on the distinction between
‘purity’ and ‘pollution’. This is a division between something believed to be
closer to the sacred (thus connoting ritual purity), and something believed to be
distant from or opposed to the sacred, therefore considered ritually polluting.
Castes that are considered ritually pure have high status, while those considered
less pure or impure have low status. As in all societies, material power (i.e.,
economic or military power) is closely associated with social status, so that
those in power tend to be of high status, and vice versa. Historians believe that
38 those who were defeated in wars were often assigned low caste status.
Finally, castes are not only unequal to each other in ritual terms, they are
also supposed to be complementary and non-competing groups. In other words,

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 Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

each caste has its own place in the system which cannot
be taken by any other caste. Since caste is also linked with Savitri Bai Phule
occupation, the system functions as the social division of (1831–1897)
labour, except that, in principle, it allows no mobility.

Colonialism and Caste

Compared to the ancient past, we know a lot more about
caste in our recent history. If modern history is taken to
begin with the nineteenth century, then Indian Independence
in 1947 offers a natural dividing line between the colonial
period (roughly 150 years from around 1800 to 1947) and
the post-Independence or post-colonial period (the seven
decades from 1947 to the present day). The present form of
caste as a social institution has been shaped very strongly
by both the colonial period as well as the rapid changes that
have come about in independent India.
Savitri Bai Phule was the first
Scholars have agreed that all major social institutions
headmistress of the country’s
and specially the institution of caste underwent major first school for girls in Pune. She
changes during the colonial period. In fact, some scholars devoted her life to educating
argue that what we know today as caste is more a product Shudras and Ati-Shudras. She
of colonialism than of ancient Indian tradition. Not all of the started a night school for
changes brought about were intended or deliberate. Initially, agriculturists and labourers.
the British administrators began by trying to understand She died while serving plague
the complexities of caste in an effort to learn how to govern patients.
the country efficiently. Some of these efforts took the shape
of very methodical and intensive surveys and reports on the
‘customs and manners’ of various tribes and castes all over
the country. Many British administrative officials were also amateur ethnologists
and took great interest in pursuing such surveys and studies.
But by far the most important official effort to collect information on caste
was through the census. First begun in the 1860s, the census became a
regular ten-yearly exercise conducted by the British Indian government from
1881 onwards. The 1901 Census under the direction of Herbert Risley was
particularly important as it sought to collect information on the social hierarchy
of caste – i.e., the social order of precedence in particular regions, as to the
position of each caste in the rank order. This effort had a huge impact on
social perceptions of caste and hundreds of petitions were addressed to the
Census Commissioner by representatives of different castes claiming a higher
position in the social scale and offering historical and scriptural evidence for
their claims. Overall, scholars feel that this kind of direct attempt to count caste
and to officially record caste status changed the institution itself. Before this 39
kind of intervention, caste identities had been much more fluid and less rigid;
once they began to be counted and recorded, caste began to take on a new life.

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 Indian Society

The administration also took an interest in the welfare

Periyar (E.V. Ramasami of downtrodden castes, referred to as the ‘depressed
Naickar) classes’ at that time. It was as part of these efforts that the
(1879–1973) Government of India Act of 1935 was passed which gave
legal recognition to the lists or ‘schedules’ of castes and
tribes marked out for special treatment by the state. This is
how the terms ‘Scheduled Tribes’ and the ‘Scheduled Castes’
came into being. Castes at the bottom of the hierarchy that
suffered severe discrimination, including all the so-called
‘untouchable’ castes, were included among the Scheduled
Castes. (You will read more on untouchability and the
struggles against it in Chapter 5 on social exclusion.)
Thus colonialism brought about major changes in the
institution of caste. Perhaps it would be more accurate to
say that the institution of caste underwent fundamental
changes during the colonial period. Not just India, but the
whole world was undergoing rapid change during this period
Periyar (E.V. Ramasami Naickar) due to the spread of capitalism and modernity.
is known as a rationalist and
the leader of the lower caste Caste in the Present
movement in South India. He
aroused people to realise that Indian independence in 1947 marked a big, but ultimately
all men are equal, and that it is only partial break with the colonial past. Caste considerations
the birthright of every individual had inevitably played a role in the mass mobilisations of the
to enjoy liberty and equality. nationalist movement. Efforts to organise the “depressed
classes” and particularly the untouchable castes predated
the nationalist movement, having begun in the second half
of the nineteenth century. This was an initiative taken from both ends of the
caste spectrum – by upper caste progressive reformers as well as by members
of the lower castes such as Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar
in western India, Ayyankali, Sri Narayana Guru, Iyotheedass and Periyar (E.V.
Ramaswamy Naickar) in the South. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb
Ambedkar began organising protests against untouchability from the 1920s
onwards. Anti-untouchability programmes became a significant part of the
Congress agenda so that, by the time Independence was on the horizon, there was
a broad agreement across the spectrum of the nationalist movement to abolish
caste distinctions. The dominant view in the nationalist movement was to treat
caste as a social evil and as a colonial ploy to divide Indians. But the nationalist
leaders, above all, Mahatma Gandhi, were able to simultaneously work for the
upliftment of the lower castes, advocate the abolition of untouchability and
other caste restrictions, and, at the same time, reassure the landowning upper
40 castes that their interests, too, would be looked after.
The post-Independence Indian state inherited and reflected these
contradictions. On the one hand, the state was committed to the abolition of

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 Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

caste and explicitly wrote this into the Constitution.

On the other hand, the state was both unable and Sri Narayana Guru
unwilling to push through radical reforms which (1856 – 1928)
would have undermined the economic basis for caste
inequality. At yet another level, the state assumed
that if it operated in a caste-blind manner, this would
automatically lead to the undermining of caste based
privileges and the eventual abolition of the institution.
For example, appointments to government jobs took
no account of caste, thus leaving the well-educated
upper castes and the ill-educated or often illiterate
lower castes to compete on “equal” terms. The only
exception to this was in the form of reservations for
the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The development activity of the state and the
growth of private industry also affected caste indirectly
through the speeding up and intensification of
economic change. Modern industry created all kinds
of new jobs for which there were no caste rules.
Urbanisation and the conditions of collective living
in the cities made it difficult for the caste-segregated
patterns of social interaction to survive. At a different Sri Narayana Guru, born in Kerala,
level, modern educated Indians attracted to the liberal preached brother-hood for all and
ideas of individualism and meritocracy, began to fought against the ill effects of the
abandon the more extreme caste practices. On the caste system. He led a quiet but
significant social revolution and
other hand, it was remarkable how resilient caste
gave the watchwords ‘One Caste,
proved to be. Recruitment to industrial jobs, whether
One Religion, One God for all men’.
in the textile mills of Mumbai (then Bombay), the
jute mills of Kolkata (then Calcutta), or elsewhere,
continued to be organised along caste and kinship-
based lines. The middle men who recruited labour for factories tended to
recruit them from their own caste and region so that particular departments
or shop floors were often dominated by specific castes. Prejudice against the
untouchables remained quite strong and was not absent from the city, though
not as extreme as it could be in the village.
Not surprisingly, it was in the cultural and domestic spheres that caste
has proved strongest. Endogamy, or the practice of marrying within the
caste, remained largely unaffected by modernisation and change. Even today,
most marriages take place within caste boundaries, although there are more
intercaste marriages. While some boundaries may have become more flexible or
porous, the borders between groups of castes of similar socio-economic status
are still heavily patrolled.
41
Perhaps, the most eventful and important sphere of change has been that
of politics. From its very beginnings in independent India, democratic politics

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 Indian Society

has been deeply conditioned by caste. While its functioning

M. N. Srinivas has become more and more complex and hard to predict,
(1916–1999) it cannot be denied that caste remains central to electoral
politics. Since the 1980s we have also seen the emergence
of explicitly caste-based political parties. In the early
general elections, it seemed as though caste solidarities
were decisive in winning elections. But the situation soon
got very complicated as parties competed with each other
in utilising the same kind of caste calculus.
Sociologists and social anthropologists coined many new
concepts to try and understand these processes of change.
Perhaps the most common of these are ‘sanskritisation’
and ‘dominant caste’, both contributed by M.N. Srinivas,
but discussed extensively and criticised by other scholars.
‘Sanskritisation’ refers to a process whereby members of
a (usually middle or lower) caste attempt to raise their own
Mysore Narasimhachar social status by adopting the ritual, domestic and social
Srinivas was one of India’s
practices of a caste (or castes) of higher status.
foremost sociologists and
social anthropologists. He ‘Dominant caste’ is a term used to refer to those castes
was known for his works on which had a large population and were granted landrights
the caste system and terms by the partial land reforms effected after Independence. The
such as ‘sanskritisation’ and land reforms took away rights from the erstwhile claimants,
‘dominant caste’. His book The the upper castes who were ‘absentee landlords’ in the sense
Remembered Village is one of that they played no part in the agricultural economy other
the best known village studies than claiming their rent. They frequently did not live in the
in Social Anthropology. village either, but were based in towns and cities. These
land rights now came to be vested in the next layer of
claimants, those who were involved in the management of agriculture but were
not themselves the cultivators. These intermediate castes in turn depended on
the labour of the lower castes including specially the ‘untouchable’ castes for
tilling and tending the land. However, once they got land rights, they acquired
considerable economic power. Their large numbers also gave them political
power in the era of electoral democracy based on universal adult franchise.
Thus, these intermediate castes became the ‘dominant’ castes in the country
side and played a decisive role in regional politics and the agrarian economy.
Examples of such dominant castes include the Yadavs of Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh, the Vokkaligas of Karnataka, the Reddys and Khammas of Andhra
Pradesh, the Marathas of Maharashtra, the Jats of Punjab, Haryana and
Western Uttar Pradesh and the Patidars of Gujarat.
One of the most significant yet paradoxical changes in the caste system
in the contemporary period is that it has tended to become ‘invisible’ for the
42 upper caste, urban middle and upper classes. For these groups, who have
benefited the most from the developmental policies of the post-colonial era,
caste has appeared to decline in significance precisely because it has done its

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 Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

job so well. Their caste status had been crucial in ensuring that these groups
had the necessary economic and educational resources to take full advantage
of the opportunities offered by rapid development. In particular, the upper
caste elite were able to benefit from subsidised public education, specially
professional education in science, technology, medicine and management.
At the same time, they were also able to take advantage of the expansion of public
sector jobs in the early decades after independence. In this initial period, their lead over
the rest of society (in terms of education) ensured that they did not face any
serious competition. As their privileged status got consolidated in the second
and third generations, these groups began to believe that their advancement
had little to do with caste. Certainly for the third generations from these groups
their economic and educational capital alone is quite sufficient to ensure that
they will continue to get the best in terms of life chances. For this group, it
now seems that caste plays no part in their public lives, being limited to the
personal sphere of religious practice or marriage and kinship. However, a further
complication is introduced by the fact that this is a differentiated group. Although
the privileged as a group are overwhelmingly upper caste, not all upper caste
people are privileged, some being poor.
For the scheduled castes and tribes and the backward castes – the opposite
has happened. For them, caste has become all too visible, indeed their caste has
tended to eclipse the other dimensions of their identities. Because they have
no inherited educational and social capital, and because they must compete
with an already entrenched upper caste group, they cannot afford to abandon
their caste identity for it is one of the few collective assets they have. Moreover,
they continue to suffer from discrimination of various kinds. The policies of
reservation and other forms of protective discrimination instituted by the state
in response to political pressure serve as their lifelines. But using this lifeline
tends to make their caste the all-important and often the only aspect of their
identity that the world recognises.

3.2 Tribal Communities

‘Tribe’ is a modern term for communities that are very old, being among the
oldest inhabitants of the sub-continent. Tribes in India have generally been
defined in terms of what they were not. Tribes were communities that did not
practice a religion with a written text; did not have a state or political form of
the normal kind and did not have sharp class divisions.

Classifications of Tribal Societies

In terms of positive characteristics, tribes have been classified according to their 43
‘permanent’ and ‘acquired’ traits. Permanent traits include region, language,
physical characteristics and ecological habitat.

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 Indian Society

Permanent Traits
The tribal population of India is widely dispersed, but there are also
concentrations in certain regions. About 85% of the tribal population lives in
‘middle India’, a wide band stretching from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west
to West Bengal and Odisha in the east, with Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand,
Chattisgarh and parts of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh forming the heart
of this region. Of the remaining 15%, over 11% is in the North Eastern states,
leaving only a little over 3% living in the rest of India. If we look at the share
of tribals in the state population, then the North Eastern states have the
highest concentrations, with all states, except Assam, having concentrations
of more than 30%, and some, like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram
and Nagaland with more than 60% and upto 95% of tribal population. In the
rest of the country, however, the tribal population is very small, being less than
12% in all states except Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. The ecological habitats
covered includes hills, forests, rural plains and urban industrial areas.
In terms of language, tribes are categorised into four categories. Two of them,
Indo-Aryan and Dravidian, are shared by the rest of the Indian population as
well, and tribes account for only about 1% of the former and about 3% of the
latter. The other two language groups, the Austric and Tibeto-Burman, are
primarily spoken by tribals, who account for all of the first and over 80% of the
second group. In physical-racial terms, tribes are classified under the Negrito,
Australoid, Mongoloid, Dravidian and Aryan categories. The last two are again
shared with the rest of the population of India.
In terms of size, tribes vary a great deal, ranging from about seven million
to some Andamanese islanders who may number less than a hundred persons.
The biggest tribes are the Gonds, Bhils, Santhals, Oraons, Minas, Bodos and
Mundas, all of whom are at least a million strong. The total population of tribes
amounts to about 8.2% of the population of India, or about 84 million persons
according to the 2001 Census. According to Census Report 2011, it is 8.6%
of the population of India, or about 104 million tribal persons in the country.

Acquired Traits
Classifications based on acquired traits use two main criteria – mode of
livelihood, and extent of incorporation into Hindu society – or a combination
of the two.
On the basis of livelihood, tribes can be categorised into fishermen, food
gatherers and hunters, shifting cultivators, peasants and plantation and
industrial workers. However, the dominant classification both in academic
sociology as well as in politics and public affairs is the degree of assimilation
44 into Hindu society. Assimilation can be seen either from the point of view of
the tribes, or (as has been most often the case) from the point of view of the
dominant Hindu mainstream. From the tribes’ point of view, apart from the

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extent of assimilation, attitude towards Hindu society is also a major criterion,

with differentiation between tribes that are positively inclined towards Hinduism
and those who resist or oppose it. From the mainstream point of view, tribes
may be viewed in terms of the status accorded to them in Hindu society, ranging
from the high status given to some, to the generally low status accorded to most.

Tribe – The Career of a Concept

During the 1960s scholars debated
whether tribes should be seen as
one end of a continuum with caste-
based (Hindu) peasant society, or
whether they were an altogether
different kind of community. Those
who argued for the continuum saw
tribes as not being fundamentally
different from caste-peasant
society, but merely less stratified
(fewer levels of hierarchy) and with
a more community-based rather
than individual notion of resource
ownership. However, opponents
argued that tribes were wholly
different from castes because
they had no notion of purity and A tribal village fair
pollution which is central to the
caste system.
In short, the argument for a tribe-caste distinction was founded on an
assumed cultural difference between Hindu castes, with their beliefs in purity
and pollution and hierarchical integration, and ‘animist’ tribals with their more
egalitarian and kinship based modes of social organisation.
By the 1970s all the major definitions of tribe were shown to be faulty.
It was pointed out that the tribe-peasantry distinction did not hold in terms
of any of the commonly advanced criteria: size, isolation, religion, and
means of livelihood. Some Indian “tribes” like Santhal, Gonds, and Bhils are
very large and spread over extensive territory. Certain tribes like Munda, Hos
and others have long since turned to settled agriculture, and even hunting
gathering tribes, like the Birhors of Bihar employ specialised households to
make baskets, press oil etc. It has also been pointed out in a number of cases,
that in the absence of other alternatives, “castes” (or non-tribals) have turned
to hunting and gathering.
The discussion on caste-tribe differences was accompanied by a large body 45
of literature on the mechanisms through which tribes were absorbed into Hindu
society, throughout the ages – through Sanskritisation, acceptance into the

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 Indian Society

Shudra fold following conquest by caste Hindus, through acculturation and so

on. The whole span of Indian history is often seen as an absorption of different
tribal groups into caste Hindu society at varying levels of the hierarchy, as their
lands were colonised and the forests cut down. This is seen as either natural,
parallel to the process by which all groups are assimiliated into Hinduism as
sects; or it is seen as exploitative. The early school of anthropologists tended to
emphasise the cultural aspects of tribal absorption into the mainstream, while
the later writers have concentrated on the exploitative and political nature of
the incorporation.
Some scholars have also argued that there is no coherent basis for treating
tribes as “pristine” – i.e., original or pure – societies uncontaminated by
civilisation. They propose instead that tribes should really be seen as “secondary”
phenomena arising out of the exploitative and colonialist contact between pre-
existing states and non-state groups like the tribals. This contact itself creates
an ideology of “tribalism” – the tribal groups begin to define themselves as
tribals in order to distinguish themselves from the newly encountered others.
Nevertheless, the idea that tribes are like stone age hunting and gathering
societies that have remained untouched by time is still common, even though
this has not been true for a long time. To begin with, adivasis were not always the
oppressed groups they are now – there were several Gond kingdoms in Central
India such as that of Garha Mandla, or Chanda. Many of the so-called Rajput
kingdoms of central and western India actually emerged through a process of
stratification among adivasi communities themselves. Adivasis often exercised
dominance over the plains people through their capacity to raid them, and
through their services as local militias. They also occupied a special trade niche,
trading forest produce, salt and elephants. Moreover, the capitalist economy’s
drive to exploit forest resources and minerals and to recruit cheap labour has
brought tribal societies in contact with mainstream society a long time ago.

National Development versus Tribal Development

The imperatives of ‘development’ have governed attitudes towards tribes and
shaped the policies of the state. National development, particularly in the
Nehruvian era, involved the building of large dams, factories and mines. Because
the tribal areas were located in mineral rich and forest covered parts of the
country, tribals have paid a disproportionate price for the development of the
rest of Indian society. This kind of development has benefited the mainstream
at the expense of the tribes. The process of dispossessing tribals of their land
has occurred as a necessary byproduct of the exploitation of minerals and the
utilisation of favourable sites for setting up hydroelectric power plants, many
of which were in tribal areas.
46 The loss of the forests on which most tribal communities depended has been
a major blow. Forests started to be systematically exploited in British times
and the trend continued after independence. The coming of private property

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in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of

collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage in the new system. The
most recent such example is the series of dams being built on the Narmada,
where most of the costs and benefits seem to flow disproportionately to different
communities and regions.
Many tribal concentration regions and states have also been experiencing
the problem of heavy in-migration of non-tribals in response to the pressures
of development. This threatens to disrupt and overwhelm tribal communities
and cultures, besides accelerating the process of exploitation of tribals. The
industrial areas of Jharkhand for example have suffered a dilution of the tribal
share of population. But the most dramatic cases are probably in the North-
East. A state like Tripura had the tribal share of its population halved within
a single decade, reducing them to a minority. Similar pressure is being felt by
Arunachal Pradesh.

Tribal Identity Today

Forced incorporation of tribal communities into mainstream processes has had
its impact on tribal culture and society as much as its economy. Tribal identities
today are formed by this interactional process rather than any primordial
(orginal, ancient) characteristics peculiar to tribes. Because the interaction
with the mainstream has generally been on terms unfavourable to the tribal
communities, many tribal identities today are centred on ideas of resistance
and opposition to the overwhelming force of the non-tribal world.
The positive impact of
successes – such as the
achievement of statehood for
Jharkhand and Chattisgarh
after a long struggle – is
moderated by continuing
problems. Many of the
states of the North-East, for
example, have been living
for decades under special
laws that limit the civil
liberties of citizens.
A n o t h e r s i g n i fi c a n t
development is the gradual
emergence of an educated
middle class among tribal Agitation by tribal women
communities. Most visible
in the North-eastern states, this is now a segment beginning to be seen in the 47
rest of the country as well, particularly among members of the larger tribal
communities. In conjunction with policies of reservation (about which you

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 Indian Society

will learn more in Chapter 5), education is creating an urbanised professional

class. As tribal societies get more differntiated – i.e., develop class and other
divisions within themselves – different bases are growing for the assertion of
tribal identity.
Two broad sets of issues have been most important in giving rise to tribal
movements. These are issues relating to control over vital economic resources
like land and specially forests, and issues relating to matters of ethnic-cultural
identity. The two can often go together, but with differentiation of tribal society
they may also diverge. The reasons why the middle classes within tribal societies
may assert their tribal identity may be different from the reasons why poor and
uneducated tribals join tribal movements. As with any other community, it is
the relationship between these kinds of internal dynamics and external forces
that will shape the future.

Assertions of tribal identity are on the rise. This can be laid at the Box 3.1
door of the emergence of a middle class within the tribal society.
With the emergence of this class in particular, issues of culture, tradition,
livelihood, even control over land and resources, as well as demands for a
share in the benefits of the projects of modernity, have become an integral
part of the articulation of identity among the tribes. There is, therefore, a
new consciousness among tribes now, coming from its middle classes. The
middle classes themselves are a consequence of modern education and
modern occupations, aided in turn by the reservation policies…

(Source: Virginius Xaxa, ‘Culture, Politics and Identity: The Case of the Tribes
in India’, in John et al 2006)

3.3 Family and Kinship

Each one of us is born into a family, and most of us spend long years within
it. Usually we feel very strongly about our family. Sometimes we feel very good
about our parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins, whereas
at others we don’t. On the one hand, we resent their interference, and yet we
miss their overbearing ways when we are away from them. The family is a space
of great warmth and care. It has also been a site of bitter conflicts, injustice and
violence. Female infanticide, violent conflicts between brothers over property
and ugly legal disputes are as much part of family and kinship as are stories
of compassion, sacrifice and care.
The structure of the family can be studied both as a social institution
48 in itself and also in its relationship to other social institutions of society. In
itself a family can be defined as nuclear or extended. It can be male-headed

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 Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

or female-headed. The line of descent can be matrilineal or patrilineal.

This internal structure of the family is usually related to other structures
of society, namely political, economic, cultural etc. Thus the migration
of men from the villages of the Himalayan region can lead to an unusual
proportion of women-headed families in the village. Or the work schedules
of young parents in the software industry in India may lead to increasing
number of grandparents moving in as care-givers to young grandchildren.
The composition of the family and its structure thereby changes. And these
changes can be understood in relation to other changes in society. The
family (the private sphere) is linked to the economic, political, cultural, and
educational (the public) spheres.
The family is an integral part of our lives. We take it for granted. We
also assume that other people’s families must be like our own. As we saw
however, families have different structures and these structures change.
Sometimes these changes occur accidentally, as when a war takes place or
people migrate in search of work. Sometimes these changes are purposely
brought about, as when young people decide to choose their spouses
instead of letting elders decide. Or when same sex love is expressed openly
in society.
It is evident from the kind of changes that take place that not only
have family structures changed, but cultural ideas, norms and values also
change. These changes are however not so easy to bring about. Both history
and contemporary times suggest that often change in family and marriage
norms are resisted violently. The family has many dimensions to it. In India
however discussions on the family have often revolved around the nuclear
and extended family.

Nuclear and Extended Family

A nuclear family consists of only one set of parents and their children. An
extended family (commonly known as the ‘joint family’) can take different
forms, but has more than one couple, and often more than two generations,
living together. This could be a set of brothers with their individual families,
or an elderly couple with their sons and grandsons and their respective
families. The extended family often is seen as symptomatic of India. Yet
this is by no means the dominant form now or earlier. It was confined to
certain sections and certain regions of the community. Indeed the term
‘joint family’ itself is not a native category. As I.P. Desai observes, “The
expression ‘joint family’ is not the translation of any Indian word like that.
It is interesting to note that the words used for joint family in most of the
Indian languages are the equivalents of translations of the English word 49
‘joint family’.” (Desai 1964:40)

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 Indian Society

The Diverse Forms of the Family

Studies have shown how diverse family forms are found in different societies.
With regard to the rule of residence, some societies are matrilocal in their
marriage and family customs while others are patrilocal. In the first case,
the newly married couple stays with the woman’s parents, whereas in the
second case the couple lives with the man’s parents. With regard to the rules
of inheritance, matrilineal societies pass on property from mother to daughter
while patrilineal societies do so from father to son. A patriarchal family structure
exists where the men exercise authority and dominance, and matriarchy where
the women play a similarly dominant role. However, matriarchy – unlike
patriarchy – has been a theoretical rather than an empirical concept. There is
no historical or anthropological evidence of matriarchy – i.e., societies where
women exercise dominance. However, there do exist matrilineal societies, i.e.,
societies where women inherit property from their mothers but do not exercise
control over it, nor are they the decision makers in public affairs.

1. What is the role of the ideas of separation and hierarchy in the caste system?
Questions

2. What are some of the rules that the caste system imposes?

3. What changes did colonialism bring about in the caste system?

4. In what sense has caste become relatively ‘invisible’ for the urban upper
castes?

5. How have tribes been classified in India?

6. What evidence would you offer against the view that ‘tribes are primitive
communities living isolated lives untouched by civilisation’?

7. What are the factors behind the assertion of tribal identities today?

8. What are some of the different forms that the family can take?

9. In what ways can changes in social structure lead to changes in the family
structure?

10. Explain the difference between matriliny and matriarchy.

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 Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

REFERENCES
Deshpande, Satish. 2003. Contemporary India: A Sociological View. Penguin Books.
New Delhi.
Gupta, Dipankar. 2000. Interrogating Caste. Penguin Books. New Delhi.
Sharma, K.L. ed. 1999. Social Inequality in India: Profites of Caste, Class and Social
Mobility. 2nd edition, Rawat Publications. Jaipur.
Sharma, Ursula. 1999. Caste. Open University Press. Buckingham & Philadelphia.
Beteille, Andre. 1991. ‘The reproduction of inequality: Occupation, caste and family’,
in Contributions to Indian Sociology. N.S., Vol. 25, No.1, pp3-28.
Srinivas, M.N. 1994. The Dominant Caste and Other Essays. Oxford University
Press. New Delhi.
Dumont, Louis. 1981. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications.
2nd editon, University of Chicago Press. Chicago.
Ghurye, G.S. 1969. Caste and Race in India. 5th edition, Popular Prakashan. Mumbai.
John, Mary E., Jha, Pravin Kumar. and Jodhka, Surinder S. ed. 2006. Contested
Transformations: Changing Economies and Identities in Contemporary India. Tulika.
New Delhi.
Dirks, Nicholas. 2001. Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India.
Princeton University Press. Princeton.
Uberoi, Patricia. ed. 1994. Family, Kinship and Marriage in India. Oxford University
Press. Delhi.
Xaxa, Virginius. 2003. ‘Tribes in India’ in Das, Veena. ed. The Oxford India
Companion to Sociology and Social Anthropology. Oxford University Press. Delhi.

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 Indian Society

Notes

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