Culture and Integration of Indian Tribes

Culture and Integration of Indian Tribes
Author: Rann Singh Mann
Publisher: M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd.
Total Pages: 220
Release: 1993
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9788185880037

The book, Culture and Integration of Indian Tribes reveals the contemporary position of Indian tribes in respect of nature, degree of change and development on the one hand and their subsequent state of integration on the other. The processes involved therein are also analysed and interpreted in the book.

Who Were the Shudras

Who Were the Shudras
Author: B. R. Ambedkar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2021-09-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9789354991028

The general proposition that the social organization of the Indo-Aryans was based on the theory of Chaturvarnya and that Chaturvarnya means division of society into four classes-Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (soldiers), Vaishyas (traders) and Shudras (menials) does not convey any idea of the real nature of the problem of the Shudras nor of its magnitude. Chaturvarnya would have been a very innocent principle if it meant no more than mere division of society into four classes. Unfortunately, more than this is involved in the theory of Chaturvarnya. Besides dividing society into four orders, the theory goes further and makes the principle of graded inequality. Under the system of Chaturvarnya, the Shudra is not only placed at the bottom of the gradation but he is subjected to innumerable ignominies and disabilities so as to prevent him from rising above the condition fixed for him by law. Indeed until the fifth Varna of the Untouchables came into being, the Shudras were in the eyes of the Hindus the lowest of the low. This shows the nature of what might be called the problem of the Shudras. If people have no idea of the magnitude of the problem it is because they have not cared to know what the population of the Shudras is.

The Culturalization of Caste in India

The Culturalization of Caste in India
Author: Balmurli Natrajan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2011-07-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1136647570

In India, caste groups ensure their durability in an era of multiculturalism by officially representing caste as cultural difference or ethnicity rather than as unequal descent-based relations. Challenging dominant social theories of caste, this book addresses questions of how caste survives the system that gave rise to it and adapts to new demands of capitalism and democracy. Based on original fieldwork, the book shows how the terrain of culture captured by a new grammar of caste revitalizes castes as cultural communities so that the culture of a caste is produced, organized and naturalized in the process of transforming jati (fetishized blood and kinship) into samaj (fetishized culture). Castes are shown to not be homogenous cultural wholes but sites of hegemony where class, gender and hierarchy over-determine the meanings and materiality of caste. Arguing that there exists a new casteism in India akin to a new racism in the USA, built less on biology and descent and more on purported cultural differences and their rights to exist, the book presents an extended critique and a search for an alternative view of caste and anti-casteist politics. It is of interest to students and scholars of South Asian culture and society.