CIAO DATE: 08/2008
January 2008
Center for the Advanced Study of India
In this paper, I study the impact of economic reforms in India, and its impact on the centuries-old caste order. Specifically, I argue that capitalism, like caste, is a social order and therefore uniquely qualified to subvert and destroy the caste system from the inside, as opposed to the State, which is a political order and intervenes in the caste society from the outside. The fourfold caste system in India, as preached by Manu and practised for millennia thereafter, is based on the twin principles of blood purity and occupational purity, whereas Dalits, or the untouchables, are left outside of the caste system. We surveyed the backgrounds of the employees of multinational fast-food outlet in a large mall in eastern Delhi, the capital of India, the housekeeping staff and a few street food joints just outside of the mall. We find that the new capitalist economy, with an emphasis on wealth creation, is disrupting the caste system wherein a large number of the workers at the fast food outlet are upper castes, as in the housekeeping department, effectively destroying occupational purity.
We also surveyed the Dalit section of Barkotha village in Azamgarh district, one of the poorest in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The results show that a number of members of the Dalit community now work in urban centers and that their earnings have considerably lifted the living standards – using traditional markers of economic status – of those in the village. Capitalism, as a social and economic force, has the capacity of finally destroying the caste system in India. I propose more extensive research on this phenomenon.
Chandra Bhan Prasad
Visiting Scholar Fall 2007
Center for the Advanced Study of India
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Resource link: Markets and Manu: Economic Reforms and Its Impact on Caste in India [PDF] - 181K