CASTE, SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND MOBILITY IN RURAL INDIA: Reconceptualizing the Indian Village

Description

Caste, Social Inequality and Mobility in Rural India: Reconceptualizing the Indian Village investigates and presents a holistic view of today’s rural India by analysing different social aspects such as caste, migration, mobility, education and inequalities. It further studies the village social structure comprising peasants, artisans, weavers and the middle class, and the role of education in reshaping the social life of rural people. It challenges current conceptualization and understanding of caste as a system, caste mobility, caste-class polarity and country-town divide. This book also argues that caste as a system has ceased to exist, but caste persists discretely as a non-systemic means of appropriation for political and social ends. This interdisciplinary dynamic study reconceptualizes the ‘village’ by explaining the emerging social trends and patterns of social stratification in contemporary rural India.

K.L. Sharma is currently Pro-Chancellor of Jaipur National University. Formerly he was Professor of Sociology and Rector at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Vice-Chancellor of University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. He is also editor of Samajik Vimarsh, a journal of Council for Social Development, New Delhi.