CASTE AND KINSHIP

G. S. Ghurye’s Caste and Race in India (1932), which cognitively combined historical, anthropological and sociological perspectives to understand caste and kinship system in India. He tried to analyse caste system through textual evidence using ancient texts on the one hand and from both structural and cultural perspectives on the other hand. Ghurye studied caste system from a historical, comparative, and integrative perspective. Later, he did comparative study of kinship in Indo-European cultures. In his study of caste and kinship, Ghurye emphasizes two important points:

  1. The kin and caste networks in India had parallels in some other societies also.

  2. The kinship and caste in India served in the past as integrative frameworks. The evolution of society was based on the integration of diverse, racial or ethnic groups through these networks.

It is to be noted that Govind Sadashiv Ghurye demonstrated, through textual evidence, the dynamism of the caste system. The caste system had not remained static. Ghurye showed that in the early centuries of the Christian era, the Vaishyas were reduced to the position of the Sudras and the Sudras were elevated to the Vaishyas. Govind Sadashiv Ghurye examined the caste system from both cultural and structural points of view. The Hindu society was governed by the ideal pattern of caste.

Ghurye highlights six structural features of caste system as follows:

  1. Segmental division

  2. Hierarchy

  3. Restrictions on feeding and social intercourse

  4. Civil and religious disabilities and privileges of different sections

  5. Lack of unrestricted choice of occupation

  6. Restrictions on marriage

Besides the above characteristics, Ghurye laid particular stress on endogamy as the most important feature of the caste system. Any effective unit of the caste hierarchy is marked by endogamy. Every caste had in the past segmented into smaller sub-divisions or sub-castes. Each of these sub-castes practised endogamy. For example, Vaishya (Baniya or Mahajan) castes are divided into various sub-castes such as Agrawal, Maheshwari etc. Caste is also linked with kinship through caste endogamy and also clan (gotra) exogamy. Gotra has been treated as a thoroughly exogamous unit by the Brahmins and later by the non-Brahmins. The basic notion here is that all the members of a gotra are related to one another, through blood, i.e., they have rishi (sage) as their common ancestor. Therefore, marriage between two persons of the same gotra will lead to an incestuous relationship. It will lead the lineage of the gotra to near extinction. He emphasized that, in past, kinship and caste in India played an integrative role to evolve in the Indian society.

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