Sociology | Class 12 | Patterns of Social Inequality and Exclusion

20 December 2022 · 10 min read

A short watch before you read on.

Introduction

Every society is held together by social institutions such as the family, caste, religion and the market. These institutions do many useful things, but they also shape who gets ahead and who is left behind. In this chapter we look at that harder truth: how societies create and keep alive patterns of inequality and exclusion.

Social inequality and exclusion are found almost everywhere. Because they are so common, they can start to feel natural or even fair, as though some people have simply "earned" their advantages. In reality, not everyone begins with the same opportunities and life chances. For groups that face discrimination, such as oppressed castes, those chances are far fewer. For more standardised notes like these, browse our Class 12 Sociology notes.

What is "social" about social inequality and exclusion?

Sociologists call this kind of inequality social for three reasons.

It is about groups, not individuals. It affects whole communities, not just single people who succeed or fail on their own.
It is not only about money. Social and economic inequality often go together, but social inequality is wider than income alone.
It follows a pattern. These inequalities are systematic and structured, not random accidents.

Social inequality

Social inequality is the term used to describe patterns of unequal access to social resources. Some of it reflects real differences between people, such as their different skills and efforts. But most of it flows from the group a person is born into and the way society is organised, rather than from personal ability alone.

Social resources: the three types of capital

In every society, some people are far more likely to have access to valuable resources such as money, property, education, health and power. Sociologists group these resources into three kinds of capital.

Economic capital: income and material assets such as land and property.
Cultural capital: educational qualifications and social standing.
Social capital: networks of contacts and group memberships.

These three often overlap and can be swapped for one another. Someone with money can buy an expensive education and so build cultural capital. Someone with powerful family and friends (social capital) can use good advice, recommendations and information to land a well paid job.

Social stratification

Sociologists use the word social stratification for a system that ranks whole groups of people in a society in a hierarchy. This ranking shapes people's identities, their experiences, their relationships and the opportunities open to them. Three key ideas help explain it.

It is a feature of society, not just individual choice. Stratification is a way society itself shares out resources, and it does so unequally between groups.
It carries on across generations. Status is often assigned at birth and passed down through the family. Practices such as endogamy, meaning marrying only within one's own caste, keep these boundaries firm, so caste lines are not blurred by intermarriage.
It rests on belief. No system of stratification lasts for generations unless people widely see it as fair or unavoidable. The caste system, for example, was long justified through ideas of purity and pollution, ranking Brahmins highest and Dalits lowest by birth and occupation.

How discrimination works

Discrimination usually grows out of prejudice and stereotypes.

Prejudice

Prejudice means pre-judgement: an opinion formed about a group before you actually know anything about them, and without weighing the evidence.
It can be positive or negative, though the word is usually used for negative views.
Prejudices are often based on hearsay rather than proof, and people cling to them even when the facts say otherwise.

Stereotypes

A stereotype is a fixed, rigid image of what a whole group of people is like.
It treats an entire group as if everyone in it were the same. For example, all members of a community may be imagined to share one personality, or girls are expected to behave one way and boys another.

Discrimination

Discrimination means practices that shut members of one group out of chances that are open to others, such as being refused a job because of gender or religion.
It can be very hard to prove, because it is often hidden rather than open.

Social exclusion

Social exclusion describes situations in which people are prevented from taking a full part in the life of society. It points to the many ways in which certain individuals or groups are kept from the opportunities that most people enjoy.

To live a full and active life, people need to be able to meet basic needs such as housing, food, clothing and transport, and to reach services such as education and health care. Important features of social exclusion are:

It is systematic, produced by the structure of society rather than by chance.
It is involuntary. It happens to people whether they wish it or not.
It is sometimes wrongly excused by claiming the excluded group simply chose not to take part. In fact, after long exposure to insulting or discriminatory treatment, excluded people may stop trying to join in. For instance, "higher" caste groups have often barred "lower" castes, especially Dalits, from entering temples.

The caste system as a system of exclusion

Caste and class are closely linked. People born into so-called upper castes have generally had better access to resources and better chances in life. That link is not total: some people from historically oppressed communities have risen to very high office, such as K. R. Narayanan, who became President of India, and Meira Kumar, who served as Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Yet at the everyday level attitudes have changed slowly, so caste discrimination has not disappeared.

Historically, untouchability worked through four cruel patterns.

Exclusion: those treated as "untouchable" were shut out of shared life. They were often not allowed to draw water from common wells or tanks, or to take part in festivals and ceremonies.
Exploitation: they were forced into the lowest paid and most demeaning work, such as cleaning and disposal tasks that no one else would do, sometimes with little or no pay.
Humiliation: they faced daily indignities, for example rules about what clothes they could wear or which paths they could walk on.
Subordination: they were kept beneath the upper castes and expected to defer to them.

Government provisions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

Reservation

Reservation sets aside a share of seats in legislatures, government jobs and educational institutions for members of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). It is meant for groups that have long been kept out of the opportunities others take for granted, so that they can catch up.

Laws

Unlike social custom, law gives a firm, enforceable footing. Several important measures have targeted caste discrimination:

The Caste Disabilities Removal Act, 1850, an early law that chipped away at legal disabilities tied to caste.
Article 17 of the Constitution, which abolishes untouchability and makes its practice an offence punishable by law.
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which punishes crimes and humiliations committed against SC and ST communities.
The Constitution (Ninety-third Amendment) Act, 2005, which allowed reservation for backward classes in educational institutions, including private ones, so that access to education could widen.

Other Backward Classes (OBCs)

Other Backward Classes are communities that face social and educational disadvantage without suffering untouchability. Because they too have often lacked education and good work, reservation has been extended to them.

Kaka Kalelkar Commission

India's first Backward Classes Commission, set up in the 1950s, studied different regions to work out which castes and sub-castes should count as backward.

Mandal Commission

The Mandal Commission's recommendations became a huge national issue in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The government of V. P. Singh moved to give OBCs reservation in central government jobs, which set off large protests.

OBC politics

Reservation for OBCs has become tied up with vote-bank politics, with parties promising benefits to win support.
OBCs are not all equally placed: some sections do much better than others, while Dalit communities remain at the bottom of the ladder.

The Adivasi (tribal) struggle

India's Adivasis, also called tribal people or Girijans, are among the earliest inhabitants of the land. Many have traditionally lived close to the forest, working as hunters and gatherers, honey collectors and shifting cultivators, and often preferring to keep to themselves.

During colonial rule

Forests were cut down for timber and to make way for roads and railways.
Tribal people who depended on the forest for their livelihood lost their footing. Some turned to taking wood or hunting in ways the new laws called crimes; others moved to nearby towns to work as labourers.
After tribal uprisings and protests, the British set aside certain areas as fully or partly reserved for tribal people, though these rules were poorly enforced.

After independence

As development advanced, with dams, roads, railways and mining, tribal communities were often displaced and lost their sources of livelihood.
Facing discrimination and exploitation, they launched movements, revolts and protests.
The tribal movement contributed to the creation of new states such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Women's movements for rights and equality

Women are often described as physically weaker, but they are not weaker socially or economically by nature. Much of the inequality women face grows out of a patriarchal culture and mindset rather than from anything fixed.

Reformers (men)

In the nineteenth century, several reformers worked to improve the position of women and of oppressed castes.

Raja Rammohun Roy helped persuade Governor General William Bentinck to abolish Sati in 1829. He founded the Brahmo Samaj, supported the education of girls, backed widow remarriage and opposed child marriage.
Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj, encouraged the education of girls, supported widow remarriage and worked to raise women's social and economic standing.
M. G. Ranade was disturbed by the harsh treatment of women. He wrote and campaigned, arguing that the scriptures did not call for women to be treated badly or denied remarriage.
Jyotiba Phule, himself from an oppressed caste, founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth Seekers' Society) to work for Dalits and women. With his wife Savitribai Phule he opened one of India's first schools for girls, in Pune.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan promoted modern education among Muslims.
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar devoted himself to the cause of widow remarriage, and his efforts helped bring about the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856.

Reformers (women)

Tarabai Shinde wrote "Stri Purush Tulana" in 1882, a powerful protest against the double standards that judged women far more harshly than men.
Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain wrote the short story "Sultana's Dream" in 1905, a witty piece of satire in which women run the world and men stay at home, turning everyday gender roles upside down.

The Karachi Session, 1931

At the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress in 1931, a set of proposals was adopted that later shaped ideas written into the Constitution:

Everyone is equal before the law, whatever their caste, language, religion or sex.
Women should be free to hold posts in society and in government, regardless of caste or language.
Voting should be open to all, regardless of caste, religion or other identity.
Women should have the right to vote, to stand for election and to hold any office.

Differently abled people

Older terms such as "handicapped" are insulting and should not be used. People with disabilities face not only physical or mental limitations but also social prejudice, which keeps them from taking a full part in society.

How disability is often, and wrongly, viewed

Disability is sometimes blamed on fate or karma, as if the person were simply unlucky.
People with disabilities are often seen only as objects of pity, and others assume they always need help.
Society tends to define a person by their disability rather than by everything else they are and can do.

Poverty and disability

Disability and poverty feed each other. People with disabilities often miss out on education and jobs, which pushes them into poverty, and poor conditions, such as weak health care, unsafe surroundings and missed immunisation, for example against polio, can in turn cause disability. According to the Census of 2001, about 2.19 crore people in India were living with a disability. In response to organised campaigns by people with disabilities, the government has passed laws to protect their rights.

Why it still matters

The questions in this chapter are not just history. Caste, reservation and exclusion are being argued over in India's highest court and in Parliament right now.

On 1 August 2024, a seven judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled, by a majority of six to one, that states may sub-classify Scheduled Castes, that is, create smaller groups within the SC list, so that reservation reaches the most disadvantaged castes first. The judgment in State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh overruled an earlier 2004 decision that had treated all Scheduled Castes as one uniform group. The Court said any such sub-classification must be backed by real, quantifiable data showing which groups are furthest behind. This is exactly the idea of caste as a pattern of inequality, being tested against the Constitution in our own time.

Then, on 30 April 2025, the Union Cabinet decided that caste would be counted in India's next Census. This matters because a full national count of every caste has not been done since 1931, under British rule. Since 1951 independent India has counted only Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Supporters say better data will show who is really disadvantaged and help target support such as reservation, especially for Other Backward Classes, while critics worry it could harden divisions. Either way, it shows how the ideas of social resources and social stratification you study here still drive real policy. You can explore how societies change and stratify on the Learnacy Hub, and find related study notes in our Resources library.

Sources

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