Download CASTE IN A CLUSTER OF SOUTH INDIAN VILLAGES—A STUDY

CASTE IN A C L U S T E R OF S O U T H
I N D I A N VILLAGES—A S T U D Y I N
SOCIAL R E L A T I O N S H I P
R. SUBRAMANIAN, M. PALANISAMI
and E. DESINGU SETTY*
Caste as an institution, has attracted the
Sociologists' attention the world over. It
has its own constitution in our society
articled by a number of castes and subcastes which pose a problem for classification to many investigators in the field.
Inspite of classified differentiation between
castes and sub-castes, the difficulty of
identifying the relationship between them
cannot be stressed. Sociologists have
endeavoured to study objectively the functional relationship between different castes
in our society. So far as the Varna system
of Hindu social organisation is concerned,
the four varnas — Brahmana, Kshatriya,
Vysya and Sudra have come to be accepted
as social groups occupying positions in the
order they are mentioned. But when we mix
varna and caste the question of assigning or
determining hierarchy becomes complicated.
Viewed from varna (Jati), at one end we
have the 'Brahmins' occupying the highest
position in society and at the other end
the so-called untouchables, who, in the
general order of varna, come under 'Sudras'.
In respect of ranking these two extremes,
one does not meet with so much difficulty
as it is with the innumerable caste groups
occupying intermediary positions in the caste
hierarchy. The social position of these intermediary caste groups is vague and uncertain. Another point comes up while
discussing the question of caste ranking in
that particular castes are regional in their
distribution. The intermediary caste groups
obtaining, for example, in North India or
East India, do not find a place in South
India. Therefore any rank or social position
enjoyed by any caste which comes under
the intermediary groups is regional or local
and it cannot be compared to position or
status, per se, enjoyed by other caste groups
elsewhere. Therefore any attempt to
universalize the caste rankings enjoyed by
certain intermediary castes in a given area
in India becomes difficult. In the present
study we have chosen four caste groups
which occupy only the intermediary positions in between the Brahmins and the socalled untouchables. It may be mentioned
here that these four castes have farming as
their occupation and the dietary habits of
these four groups are similar. Since there
are no occupational and dietary differences
among these four castes, (all are meat eaters)
and since they do not perform any ritual
function in respect of other caste groups,
any social distance that is observed by these
four castes, may be attributed to the
persistence of tradition and the endogamous
nature of each caste. In such cases, ranks
are assumed and not assigned or recognised
by other groups.
OBJECTIVE AND METHOD
The present study attempts to picture the
relationship between the 'intermediary'
castes in a group of villages by applying the
Bogardus Social distance scale, with the
primary object of identifying closeness and
the persisting rigidity and social distance
* R. Subramanian is Head, Department of Research and M.
of Research, Gandhigram Rural Institute; E. Desingu Setty is
Anthropology Ranchi University, Ranchi (Bihar).
The authors are thankful to Dr. (Mrs.) Leela Dube, Reader
Dube. Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology,
for their valuable comments on this paper.
Palnisami, Statistician, Department
Research Scholar, Department of
in Anthropology and Prof. S. C.
University of Saugar, Sagar (M.P.)
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R. SUBRAMANIAN, M. PALANISAMI AND E. DESINGU SETTY
between them, which may throw some light
on the practice of caste system and change,
if any, obtaining in our society today. The
villages, within easy reach of Gandhigram,
Madurai District, namely 1. Pithalaipatti,
2. Theverappanpatti, 3. Thummulapatti,
4. Uthangalputhupatti and 5. Kallupatti in
the Batlagundu Panchayat Union, Madurai
District were selected for the study. The
previous studies conducted by the Research
and Extension Departments of the Gandhigram Rural Institute showed that there were
four major castes in these villages, namely
Gowder, Pillai, Naidu and Thevar. Among
these four castes the Gowder caste predominated; the Thevar caste constituted a
minority. A 25 percent random sample (80
from Gowder caste and 20 from Thevar
caste) was chosen from both the Thevars
and Gowders in order to determine the
'closeness' of each with the other castes by
assessing their reaction to other castes in
terms of choice of relationship ranging
from 'close kinship by marriage' to 'reside
in village as community members', elicited
on the basis of a suitable pretested schedule.
ANALYSIS
Table
caste to
of the
Gowder,
I represents the reaction of Thevar
Gowder, Naidu and Pillai in terms
choices of relationship vis-a-vis
Naidu and Pillai castes.
TABLE 1
PERCENTAGE
OF
TYPES OF
Relationships
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
N A I D U A N D PILLAI
(Attributes)
To close kinship by marriage
To interdine in each others house
To my home as family friend
To participate in family festivals and celebrations
To participate in the religious and community festivals
As visitors to the temple or any other holy shrine you visit
As participants in cultural and recreational programmes
(such as dramas, bhajans, village games, sports, etc.)
To my street as neighbours
To reside in my village as community members
Adopting the Bogardus method of constructing social distance scales, an explicit
assumption that these nine attributes formed
a 'continuum' of social distance (from acceptability 'to close kinship by marriage'
to acceptability 'to reside in the village as
community members') was made with due
limitations. But by itself the above table
of particular aspects of relationship does not
present a clear image of each caste stratum,
and hence there was the need for a single
expression for each stratum which would
subsume its position relative to all the nine
THEVARS
AND
GOWDER,
Gowder
Naidu
Pillai
(in percent)
(in percent)
(in percent)
0
25
40
40
45
65
0
10
20
20
25
40
0
15
15
20
25
45
85
90
90
70
75
80
70
70
75
attributes.
This is achieved by the 'linear' relationship
between the degree or quantum (responses)
and attributes of social distance looked at
from the Thevar side. There are three such
linear expressions for the three major castes
(as seen by the Thevar caste) which are
modelled on the 'Least square principle' of
curve fitting, as follows:
Y t g = - 2 . 5 0 + 11.17g
Ytn = - 22.64 + 12.08n
Ytp = - 12.78 +
l0.00p
(1)
(2)
(3)
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CASTE IN A CLUSTER OF SOUTH INDIAN VILLAGES
where Ytg, Ytn, Ytp are the degrees of
'social distance' maintained by the Gowder,
Naidu and Pillai castes respectively towards
the Thevar caste and g, n, p are the 'social
distance' variables of the Gowder, Naidu,
and Pillai castes respectively. Though they
are attributes, they are assumed to be
variables, taking values from 1 to 9 for the
purpose of statistical manipulation. It is
seen that if the variables g, n and p take
values from 1 to 9, progressively the corresponding values of Ytg, Ytn and Ytp
increase, with the result that the scale of
social distance runs from lesser to greater
social distance. Since the values of
Ytg > Ytn > Ytp at point 9, the social
position held by the Gowder caste over the
Naidu and Pillai castes is comparatively
higher. But the social distance maintaned
by the Gowder and Naidu castes towards
the Thevar caste, is more or less the same
throughout the range from point 1 to point
9.
The same methodology was applied for
establishing a linear relationship i.e. for
constructing a social distance scale between
persons belonging to the majority caste
(Gowder) and the remaining three castes
as highlighted by Table 2.
TABLE 2
THE REACTION OF GOWDER TO NAIDU
PILLAI AND THEVAR WITH RESPECT TO
THE NINE ATTRIBUTES
Relationship
(Attributes)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Naidu
(in %)
0
19
31
39
43
45
48
50
52
Pillai
(in %)
0
27
39
46
47
48
49
50
52
Thevar
(in %)
0
23
35
39
43
45
51
52
55
The degree of social distance maintained
by the major caste, Gowder, towards
Thevars, Pillais and Naidus is expressed in
the form of three linear equations representing respectively the three castes:
Y g t = 9.36 + 5 . 7 5 t
Ygp = 14.88 + 5.00 p
Ygn = 7.83 + 5.70 n
(4)
(5)
(6)
where t, p, n are variables taking values
from 1 to 9. Similar interpretation can be
given to these three equations, as in the
case of the equations (1), (2) and (3) above.
Since the value of Ygt. > Ygp > Ygn at
point 9, the social position held by the
Thevar caste over the Naidu and Pillai castes
is inferred to be higher. Again since the value
of Ygt is less than that of Ygp upto a certain
point and is greater than that of Ygp after
that point in the interval between point 1
and point 9, the Thevar caste, it may be
concluded, has a distinct nexus of relationship with the Pillai caste.
Comparing the set of equations (1), (2)
and (3) which estimate the degree of social
distance maintained by the three castes
towards the minority caste Thevar, with the
set (4), (5) and (6), which estimates the
degree of social distance maintained by the
major caste Gowder towards the other
three castes, it is seen that, if the values of
g, n and p were zero, Naidu and Pillai
castes except the Gowder caste practically
would not have maintained any distance
towards the Thevar caste; on the other hand,
if t, p, n were zero, the Gowder caste would
have still maintained some distance towards
the other three castes. Therefore it can be
said that the majority caste (Gowders)
wanted to stick to social rigidity and tc
restrict their movements with the minority
castes in respect of the social distance
attributes under study, while the minority
caste (Thevars) moved freely and maintained a semblance of relationships with
the majority caste (Gowders).
In order to define the extent of relationship
between the majority and minority castes
296
R. SUBRAMANIAN, M. PALANISAMI AND E. DESINGU SETTY
the scores for each individual caste stratum
were worked out in the following tables.
TABLE 3
WEIGHTED SOCIAL-DISTANCE SCORES
FOR THE CASTES—GOWDER, NAIDU AND
PILLAI (ACCORDING TO THEVAR)
Since all these total scores were arrived at
on the assumption that the distance between
any two consecutive points on the continuum
was constant (which has its own bias) which
assumption seeks to quantify the Bogardus
scale, all that can be conjectured is that
castes 'acceptable' to the minority caste
Thevar were in the order: Gowder, Naidu
and Pillai; and castes 'acceptable' to the
majority caste 'Gowder' were in the order:
Pillai, Thevar and Naidu. It can, therefore
be observed that there was a difference in
the social relationship maintained by the
majority caste with other castes and that
maintained by the minority caste with other
castes.
CONCLUSION
TABLE 4
CALCULATION OF WEIGHTED SOCIAL
DISTANCE SCORES FOR THE CASTES —
NAIDU, PILLAI AND THEVAR (ACCORDING TO GOWDER)
The salient features highlighted by this
study are: (i) the majority caste (Gowder)
keeps a longer distance from the minority
castes and does not show as much reciprocity as the latter do to the former; (ii) the
minority caste (Thevar) wants to move with
the majority caste (Gowder) more closely
than with the other castes while the majority
caste (Gowder) does not, on the strength
of tables 3 and 4. Here we have an interesting feature, that is the minority caste
(numerically) Thevar, tries to emulate the
ways of life of the majority (numerically)
caste Gowder, while there is no such
tendency on the part of the Gowder. But
the same tendency on the part of Thevar
in respect of Gowder may not hold good
in other areas where these two groups live
with other caste groups. Therefore caste
ranking so far as the intermediary caste
groups are concerned gets more localised.
The Indian Journal of Social Work, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4, (January 1973)