The Caste System
For a large part of premodern and modern India’s history, this system of caste categorization reached into all aspects of socioeconomic life, determining not only social status but also job opportunities, prosperity, education, and economic mobility.
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The British Raj’s governance and economic policies, as well as Indian government and capitalism after India gained colonial independence, contributed significantly to more fully integrating varna and jati caste differentiation into India’s social and economic structure to establish a strict social hierarchy (Mukherjee 1760).
*Image: Smiling dalit and adivasi (scheduled caste) women in a tribal village, Umaria district, Madhya Pradesh, India.
*Image: Rajpoots (modern spelling: Rajputs), from a series in the Illustrated London News celebrating the Royal Visit to India in early 1876.
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VD, ED, CD, and JMP. Victorian engravings can be very difficult to identify the authors of
The Declining Influence of Caste Categorization
Though caste played a vital role in socioeconomic structure in India in the past, the caste system has been consistently decreasing in relevance. Labor market opportunities and participation for members of lower castes, scheduled castes, and scheduled tribes have improved considerably since the beginning of the 21st century due to the Indian government’s actions.
As of 2008, 15% of all government occupations were held for dalits – those in the scheduled castes – and 7.5% were held for the adivasi population – that of the scheduled tribes (Desai 252). In addition, much like government jobs, 15% of all seats in public higher education were held for dalits and 7.5% for adivasis (Desai 252).
Effect on Women
Culture and tradition in rural India has dictated the role of women and often marginalized them as if they were members of lower castes, placing them at a socioeconomic disadvantage from the outset.
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Caste identity, though now decreasing in consequentiality, still has a greater effect on women than on men. Where caste used to be the primary determining factor in socioeconomic mobility, gender is gradually and consistently overtaking that position.
A study found that higher castes ...are associated with lower levels of “female labor force participation and empowerment relative to lower-ranked SC castes” and that “increases in per-capita household expenditure are associated with rather significant declines in female labor force participation for Rajputs (27 percentage points)”, which “are statistically significant at the 5 percent level” (Joshi 16). In contrast, men are now no longer quite as limited by their caste identities.
*Image: Women in a tribal (Gond adivasi) village, Umaria district, Madhya Pradesh, India. Picture taken during a meeting organised by Ekta Parishad about land rights, the main grievance of the Adivasi people.
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© Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA
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An independent Hindu woman in India can be seen as a threat because of the woman’s potential to assert herself or petition for greater equality, to become a “[possessor] of shakti” (Gold 30).
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The Role of Hinduism
Though Hinduism itself does not necessarily directly encourage gender discrimination, people have used concepts in Hinduism to justify discrimination because religion is ingrained so deeply into society. As India is primarily Hindu, religion has historically affected the dynamics of gender inequalities and gender discrimination.
The Hindu concept of female shakti, or strength, as depicted by the many Hindu goddesses that together form the identity of the Mother Goddess, both contradicts and yet accounts for some of the discrimination women face.
*Image: Carving of Shakti, the Hindu goddess of strength and power, and an incarnation of the Mother Goddess.
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© Bikash R Das / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
*Image: A depiction of Mahishasura Mardini, a Hindu mythological tale in which Durga, a version of the Mother Goddess, slays the demon Mahisha, using an assortment of weapons. Mahisha, who had been given a blessing that guaranteed him to be undefeatable by any man, was thus defeated by a woman.
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Attribution: Unknown - Picture of the "Guler School".
"I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved."
-B.R. Ambedkar
social reformer who campaigned for the rights of “untouchables” in India
*Image: Piqsels, CC0 1.0