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Closed Social Stratification in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

F. G. Bailey
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Extract

I can distinguish four separate referents of ‘caste’ in India. I) Caste as varna. There are four (sometimes five) varna (‘colour’) in India, and in order of ranking these are, as everyone knows, Brahmans or priests, Ksattriyas or warriors, Vaisyas or men of commerce, and Sudras who are workmen. These varna are not groups but categories. They are not exhaustive, since some of the population (e.g. such non-Hindus as Muslims or Tribals, and the Untouchables of Hinduism itself) do not fall within the four categories.

Type
In quest of political participation
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , May 1963 , pp. 107 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1963

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References

(1) Srinivas, M. N., Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India (Oxford, 1952), pp. 24 sq. and 219.Google Scholar

(2) Dumont, L. and Pocock, D., apud Contributions to Indian Sociology, II (1958), pp. 49–63.Google Scholar

(3) Southall, A., Alur Society (Cambridge, [c. 1953]).Google Scholar

(4) Miller, E., “Caste and Territory in Malabar”, American Anthropologist, LVI (1954).Google Scholar

(5) Nadel, S. F., Foundations of Social Anthropology (London, 1953), pp. 174–179.Google Scholar

(6) Leach, E., ed., Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon and North West Pakistan (Cambridge, 1960), p. 2.Google Scholar

(7) Barth, F., “The system of social stratification in Swat, North Pakistan”Google Scholar, in Leach, , op. cit.Google Scholar

(8) Gough, E. Kathleen, “Changing kinship usages in the setting of politics and economic change among the Nayars of Malabar”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, LXXXII (1952), Part I, p. 72.Google Scholar

(9) Barth, F., op. cit. p. 132.Google Scholar

(10) Von Fürer-Haimendorf, C., “The inter-relations of castes and ethnic groups in Nepal”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XX (1957), p. 247.Google Scholar

(11) Yalman, N., “The Flexibility of Caste Principles in a Kandyan Community”Google Scholar, in Leach, , op. cit. p. 95.Google Scholar

(12) Ibid. p. 101.

(13) Marriott, McKim, ed., Village India (Chicago, 1955), pp. 190 sq.Google Scholar

(14) Leach, E., op. cit. p. 4.Google Scholar

(15) Dumont, L. and Pocock, D., op. cit. p. 32.Google Scholar

(16) Ibid. p. 47.

(17) Ibid. p. 35.

(18) Ibid. p. 36.

(19) Bailey, F. G., Caste and the Economic Frontier (Manchester, 1957).Google Scholar

(20) Dumont, L. and Pocock, D., op. cit. p. 43.Google Scholar

(21) Barth, F., op. cit.Google Scholar

(22) Bailey, F. G., “For a Sociology of India”, Contributions to Indian Sociology, III (1959).Google Scholar

(33) Figures worked out from Gough, , op. cit.Google Scholar, and Miller, , op. cit.Google Scholar

(24) Bailey, F. G., Caste and the Economic Frontier, op. cit.Google Scholar

(25) Barth, F., op. cit.Google Scholar

(26) Man, LXI (1961), art. 21.Google Scholar

* This paper was given before a meeting of the Association of Social Anthropologists in March 1961. I am grateful for criticisms received then, and later from Prof. C. von Furer-Haimendorf, Dr Mayer, Prof. Aberle, Dr Leach, Prof. Morris-Jones and Dr Yalman.