Revision summary
Ambedkar stressed graded inequality, endogamy, and division of labourers. Untouchability is structural contempt, not a side custom. Ghurye catalogued traits; Dumont theorised purity. Sanskritization keeps the system; Ambedkar seeks exit. The difference is indictment plus a political programme.
Model answer
Introduction
Ambedkar identified caste as a system of graded inequality, endogamy, and occupational closure that is a social order of contempt, not a harmony of functions. Mainstream catalogues listed traits; he named the mechanism and the wound.
Body
Ambedkar’s features
- Caste is not a division of labour only. It is a division of labourers, ranked and hereditary.
- Endogamy is the key that reproduces the system; sati, child marriage, and bans on widow remarriage police it.
- Graded inequality sets every rung against the one below, which blocks a simple class bloc of the oppressed.
- Untouchability is the extreme of contempt, not a small ritual extra.
Mainstream contrast
- G. S. Ghurye listed segmentation, hierarchy, commensality, disability, and occupation. The list is useful; it can sound like a civilisational inventory.
- Dumont placed purity ideology at the centre and encompassed power. Ambedkar placed humiliation and closed doors at the centre.
- Srinivas’s Sanskritization is mobility inside the ladder. Ambedkar wanted the ladder broken.
Difference that matters
- Mainstream often explains caste. Ambedkar indicts it and designs annihilation through law, conversion, and representation.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD AM[Ambedkar] --> GI[Graded inequality endogamy] GH[Ghurye list] --> FT[Features inventory] DU[Dumont] --> PU[Purity ideology] GI --> AN[Annihilation]
Conclusion
Ambedkar’s caste is graded, endogamous, and anti-democratic. Mainstream feature-lists describe the shell. He described the engine and demanded its destruction.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Discuss Andre Beteille account of the relationship between caste, class and power as a change from symmetrical to asymmetrical one.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q2(b)). View answer →
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Did Ambedkar deny hierarchy as ideology?
He knew the sacred story. He refused to let ideology excuse disability.
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Is reservation a caste feature?
For him it is a democratic counter-feature, not a trait of the old system.
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Q4(c) · UPSC Mains 2024 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What are the different forms of untouchability still practised in India? Discuss with suitable illustrations
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Untouchability is practised exclusion on grounds of hereditary pollution, abolished in Article 17 but not in social geography. Forms include water, food, temple, housing, school and marriage bans. Manual scavenging continues despite the 2013 Act. Urban cups, sewers and housing filters are contemporary illustrations. Guru’s humiliation and Ambedkar’s annihilation agenda still describe the structure.
Q2(c) · UPSC Mains 2024 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What, according to Andre Beteille, are the bases of agrarian class structure in India? Analyse
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Béteille based agrarian class on land property and labour, not on caste rank. Owners, tenants and agricultural labourers are the main classes in his Tanjore study. Caste, class and power are three interacting dimensions. Ownership, control and labour remain the operational bases. Corporate farming, reverse tenancy and public works modify the actors without cancelling the scheme.
Q1(a) · UPSC Mains 2024 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What, according to you, are the factors responsible for the continuance of caste system in India? Explain.
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Caste continues as organisation and ideology, not only as village custom. Ambedkar’s endogamy, Dumont’s hierarchy, and Ghurye’s features still describe marriage, food and stigma. Srinivas showed mobility inside caste; Béteille and Desai linked it to land, class and power. The Constitution and reservations recast caste as a political identity rather than simply erasing it. Markets and cities loosened occupation more than they loosened kinship.
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