Are caste and class merely different forms of qualitatively different types of social stratification? Elucidate your point of view. (300 Words )

Social stratification is structures inequalites placed in by ranking different groups says Anthony giddens. Such a phenomena is observed with ordering of caste groups in closed society like India and also ordering of class groups as seen in western countries.

Such systems of stratification are not merely some types of stratification . They reflect the nature of reality and opens up a possibility of interaction with various other social phenomena.

Stratification through Caste system is not unique to India as described by Dumont. Caste like division is found in other south east Asian societies. Such system tells about the occupational structure , scope for mobility and nature of political environment in the society. As MN Srinivas indicated , dominant castes play a major role in local politics.

On the other hand class system of stratification speaks volumes about economic conditions of a society. There is a presumption that class system is mobile for all and sundry. But Andre Beteille counters this fact by saying that class system in India is sowly acquiring the features of caste system. And to prevent mobility , the upper class are devising various ways to keep their dominance intact.

Further ,there is a constant interplay between caste and class groups. In India , with economic growth and reservation policies, Dalits are slowly rising in the class ladder . However , their position in caste hierarchy is still not improved which reminds the fact that Ambedkar had urged dismantling of caste system to achieve an egalitarian order in Indian society

Extra>>>> How marriages organised b/w classes and between classes in a caste. How modern urban society heading from caste to class society

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Caste and class both coexist in contemporary India and interact with each other in a dialectical relationship.

There has also been a correlation between caste hierarchy and class statification. MN Srinivas notes that most of the upper class occupations strongly correlate with upper castes as they were the ones to first exploit the means of class mobility in western education introduced by the British.

The functional aspect of caste has seen a decline, as Fuller argues, due to withdrawal of caste from the public sphere and its movement in the private sphere. Ritual purity has given way to cultural difference as a marker of separation. Instead of Jati, many use samaj to refer to caste differences instead of caste hierarchy.

So, caste strictly as a type of social stratification has undergone a decline. But caste is used as an identity for consolidation and mobility in the class hierarchy by political mobilisations in the form of caste. In the Green Revolution belts and coming of upward class mobility, lower castes like Yadavs and Jats in western UP, Reddys and Khammas in Andhra Pradesh, caste consolidation is used for political mobility and maintaining of closure in the class structure.

Class struggles have taken form of caste struggles. B.T ranadive argues that anti caste struggles have taken the form of reservation of jobs and distribution of surplus for class mobility. There has been an increase in caste conflicts in post independence India than pre independent India, were agrarian conflicts were more prevalent.

Caste as a form of stratification has undergone a change, but it is used as a form of identity and for consolidation for upward mobility in the class and power structure. Thus, there is continuity and change in caste, and a dialectical relationship exists between caste and class in modern day India.