TY - CHAP

T1 - Caste in and out of place

T2 - State, market, and culture

AU - Madsen, Stig Toft

N1 - "Caste in India, despite its historical resilience, has been undergoing transformation since independence. If caste as a system of rigid stratification has been on the decline, castes as autonomous interest-serving groups have been on ascendance. This book critically engages with the changing notions of caste and its intersection with public policy in India. It discusses key issues such as social security, internal reservation, the idea of Most Backward Classes, caste issues among non-Hindu religious communities, caste in census, caste in market, and service castes and urban planning. Drawing on in-depth case studies from states including Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal, the volume explores the cyclical process of how caste drives policies, and how policies in turn shape the reality of caste in India. It looks at the impact of factors like protective discrimination, adult franchise and democratic decentralization, horizontal and vertical mobilisation, land reforms, and religious conversion on social mobility, and traditional hierarchy in India. Empirically rich and analytically rigorous, this book will be an excellent reference for scholars and researchers of public policy, public administration, sociology, exclusion studies, social work, law, history, economics, political science, development studies, social anthropology, and political sociology. It will also be of interest to public policy and development practitioners"-- Provided by publisher.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Caste permeates the state, the economy, and culture posing administrative, political, and legal conundrums many of which are addressed in a well-ordered manner. Nevertheless, caste is rarely treated as an independent policy issue in India. In a neo-Macaulayan vein, and following the leads of Gurcharan Das and Satish Saberwal, this chapter argues that for the state to remain strong and autonomous, it should not be reduced to caste arithmetic. In order not to underwrite caste in perpetuity, reservation policies should be periodically adjusted with a view to foster the “self-development of individuals as reasonable persons” capable of dealing with the complexities of India’s megasociety. At the same time, public policy must acknowledge that caste is part of the chemistry of society. Castes are vast resilient networks offering economic life chances and cultural life worlds. International advocacy networks, as well as statistically informed sociological analysis, can inform policy to provide more opportunities for social mobility at less costs in the form of resentment and inefficiency. Finally, the chapter discusses what a policy addressing excessive caste pride and prejudice may entail

AB - Caste permeates the state, the economy, and culture posing administrative, political, and legal conundrums many of which are addressed in a well-ordered manner. Nevertheless, caste is rarely treated as an independent policy issue in India. In a neo-Macaulayan vein, and following the leads of Gurcharan Das and Satish Saberwal, this chapter argues that for the state to remain strong and autonomous, it should not be reduced to caste arithmetic. In order not to underwrite caste in perpetuity, reservation policies should be periodically adjusted with a view to foster the “self-development of individuals as reasonable persons” capable of dealing with the complexities of India’s megasociety. At the same time, public policy must acknowledge that caste is part of the chemistry of society. Castes are vast resilient networks offering economic life chances and cultural life worlds. International advocacy networks, as well as statistically informed sociological analysis, can inform policy to provide more opportunities for social mobility at less costs in the form of resentment and inefficiency. Finally, the chapter discusses what a policy addressing excessive caste pride and prejudice may entail

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - area studies

KW - politics and international relations

KW - Social sciences

U2 - 10.4324/9781003104919-3

DO - 10.4324/9781003104919-3

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9780367544522

SN - 9780367612672

SP - 25

EP - 47

BT - Caste matters in public policy

A2 - Choragudi, Rahul

A2 - Pellissery, Sony

A2 - Jayaram, N.

PB - Routledge

CY - London & New York

ER -