Revision summary
Dominant caste and Sanskritization changed local rank without ending caste. Land reform and markets shifted class inside jati. Politics and reservation made caste a public identity and a right. Cities mix work and still police marriage. Atrocity and endogamy show the old structure under a new language.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
- Caste has not vanished in India. It has changed its public face: from a village system of service and pollution toward a language of identity, vote, and opportunity, while endogamy and atrocity still show the old spine.
Body
From ritual rank to local power
- Srinivas’s Rampura showed that dominant caste could outweigh priestly rank when land and numbers sat together.
- Sanskritization changed diet, ritual, and claim to varna without ending the ladder. It is change of position, not exit from caste.
- Land reform and Green Revolution recast which jatis command the agrarian surplus, as Beteille saw when class and caste parted a little in Sripuram.
Politics and law
- Adult franchise turned caste into associations and parties. BAMCEF and later the Bahujan Samaj Party made a Dalit-Bahujan electoral bloc from an Ambedkarite reading of exclusion.
- The Constitution, reservation, and the Prevention of Atrocities law treat caste as a civil disability to be repaired, which is Beteille’s disharmonic order in action.
- Mandal and OBC mobilisation showed caste as a census and quota fact, not only a temple fact.
Work, city, and marriage
- Urban occupations and the informal sector mix jatis at the shop floor, yet housing, food, and marriage often re-segregate.
- Honour control of women, which Leela Dube tied to seed and earth, still polices inter-caste marriage.
- Online matrimonials make caste a filter with a search box, a modern form of the old rule.
Illustrations of persistence
- Manual scavenging and rural labour bondage show untouchability’s material continuation.
- Campus and office networks reproduce caste as social capital even when the ritual idiom is quiet.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD V[Village rank service] --> SK[Sanskritization dominant caste] SK --> P[Vote reservation parties] P --> U[Urban work identity] U --> E[Endogamy atrocity persist]
Conclusion
The caste system has changed from a relatively closed village hierarchy toward a politicised, legal, and partly occupational open field. Endogamy, honour, and graded inequality remain, so the nature is transformed, not abolished.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Explain the different forms of untouchability in India.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q3(c)). View answer →
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Has urbanisation killed caste?
It has weakened some service relations. It has not ended marriage rules or political caste.
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Is reservation freezing caste?
It uses caste to undo caste disability. Ending it without equality would leave the hierarchy in place.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2024 · Q4(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What are the different forms of untouchability still practised in India? Discuss with suitable illustrations -
2025 · Q5(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
'The transfer of land from cultivating to the non-cultivating owners is bringing about transformation in Indian society.' Justify your answer by giving suitable illustrations. -
2024 · Q5(d) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Discuss the changing nature of political elites in India. -
2023 · Q3(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Critically examine the concept of Sanskritization with suitable illustrations -
2022 · Q6(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Discuss the changing nature of structure of political elites.
More from this topic
Q5(d) · UPSC Mains 2026 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks · Solution
How do Louis Dumont and André Beteille differ in their approaches in understanding caste system in India? Explain.
Caste System
Louis Dumont and André Beteille offer contrasting paradigms for studying the Indian caste system. Dumont applies a structuralist-ideological approach, viewing caste as a hierarchical system governed by the religious principle of purity and pollution, derived from classical texts. Conversely, Beteille adopts an empirical-sociological approach, focusing on village-level realities in Tamil Nadu to demonstrate how caste, class, and power often diverge, reflecting secular social stratification. While Dumont sees caste as an integrated whole of structural values, Beteille emphasizes structural pluralism and social mobility. Understanding both theorists is essential for analyzing the continuity and transformation of social inequality in contemporary India.
Q4(c) · UPSC Mains 2024 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks · Solution
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 · Solution
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.