Write a note on Ghurye’s conception of caste in India. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Sociology, Paper 2)
Ghurye studied caste from a historical, comparative, and integrative perspective. He identified six basic features of caste system:
- Segmental division.
- Lack of choice of occupations in those divisions.
- Purity and pollution based on occupation.
- Hierarchy of those divisions based on purity.
- Commensal and conjugal relations. (Civil/religious disabilities/privileges of groups)
- Restrictions on marriage. (Caste endogamy and Gotra/Pinda exogamy)
Ghurye laid emphasis on endogamy being the critical feature of the caste system. The rules of endogamy and commensality marked off castes from each other. These rules acted as integrative instruments which organised segmented castes into a totality or collectivity. He was interested in the process of integration and the national unity in India. Ghurye held that while groups play an integrational role in society that is true only up to a certain extent. He felt that in modern Indian society there were five sources of danger to national unity due to their excessive attachment to their groups:
- Scheduled castes.
- Scheduled tribes.
- Backward classes.
- Muslims and minority groups.
- Linguistic minorities. (Greatest source of danger)
Ghurye viewed the Brahminical endeavour as the cause of national unity in India and thus what he calls the process of acculturation, is basically a one-way flow in which Brahminical ideas and institutions gained prevalence among non-Brahmins. Ghurye’s concept of cultural unity is not secular in nature. He is concerned with the India of Hindu culture and uses Indian and Hindu culture interchangeably. He viewed regional language as possessing a symbolic integrational value for the region i.e. dysfunctional for the whole.
Criticism
- MN Srinivas called it the Book view of Indian society. Not representative of ground realities.
- Marxists said that Ghurye ignored the inherently exploitative nature of caste and class.
- Andre Beteille said that caste as status group formed the basis of organised social action. Further, he said that stratification was dispersed rather than cumulative.
- Ghgurye is criticised for creating a Hindu sociology rather than providing objective analysis.
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