Social Stratification | ISC Class 12 Sociology Notes

This note covers social stratification: its elements and definition; the class system, its growth and the types of classes; the caste system, including the theory of divine origin, features, merits and demerits; the comparison between caste and class; social mobility through brahminisation, sanskritisation and westernisation; the difference between sex and gender; patriarchal ideology and the status of women in independent India; gender bias and its consequences for men, women and others at the workplace, in property rights and in family status; and gender issues such as female infanticide, female foeticide, dowry, sati, child marriage, domestic violence, rape, widowhood, sexual harassment and women as perpetrators of violence.

What is social stratification?

Social stratification refers to the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards.

It is not the same as mere difference between people (such as differences of taste or habit) nor the same as random inequality between individuals.

Inequality becomes stratification only when it is systematically linked to membership of social groups, so that members of one group share common disadvantages or advantages that tend to be passed on to their children.

Sociologists identify three basic forms of advantage that privileged groups enjoy unequally:

• Life chances — material advantages that improve quality of life, including wealth, income, health, job security and recreation.
• Social status — prestige or high standing in the eyes of other members of society.
• Political influence — the ability of one group to dominate others or to have greater influence over decision-making.

Definition: Social stratification. The concept of stratification refers to the idea that society is divided into a patterned structure of unequal groups, and this structure tends to persist across generations.

The three features that mark stratification out from ordinary difference or individual inequality are that it is a characteristic of society as a whole and not simply a result of individual differences in ability or effort; that it persists over generations because social position is largely ascribed through birth and inheritance within the family; and that it is supported by an ideology or system of belief, since no system of inequality survives for long unless it is widely accepted as fair or inevitable.

What is the class system and how did classes develop?

A class is a large group of people who share a broadly similar economic position in terms of their relationship to property, income and occupation.

Unlike caste, class membership is not fixed by birth in a strict ritual sense; it is based mainly on economic criteria such as wealth, income, ownership of property and occupation, and in principle a person can move between classes through education, marriage or a change of occupation.

Growth of the class system

The class system is closely tied to the growth of industrial and capitalist society. In hunting and gathering societies little was produced, so only a rudimentary form of stratification could exist.

In more technologically advanced societies people produce a surplus over and above their basic needs, and this surplus is distributed unequally among social categories regardless of people's innate individual abilities.

Classical sociological thinkers such as Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx noted the growth of individualism and of competition respectively in modern societies, and both developments are intrinsic to the way modern capitalist society functions.

Capitalism rests on the expansion of trade, division of labour, specialisation and hence rising productivity, and these processes of self-sustaining growth are fuelled by the central theme of capitalism: rational individuals in free competition in the marketplace, each striving to maximise profits.

Competition as a desirable value flourished with the onset of capitalism, and the ideology of competition is the dominant ideology in capitalism; the logic of this ideology is that the market operates in a manner that ensures the greatest efficiency, so that the most efficient firm survives.

This ideology assumes that individuals compete on an equal basis, that all individuals are positioned equally in the competition for education, jobs or resources. But individuals are placed differentially in society, so those who remain outside schooling or drop out early remain out of the competition entirely.

Types of classes

Class societies are usually described as having three broad layers.

In modern industrial and capitalist societies, wide differences of wealth and power between these classes are a prominent form of stratification, though other bases such as caste, race, region, community, tribe and gender continue to operate alongside class and often reinforce it.

What is the caste system and how did it originate?

The caste system is a distinct social institution, historically rooted in India, that classifies people into hereditary groups and legitimises practices of discrimination against people born into particular castes.

Traditionally, Indian society was understood as divided into four broad varnas: the Brahmin (priests and scholars), the Kshatriya (rulers and warriors), the Vaishya (traders and cultivators) and the Shudra (those who served the other three varnas).

Below and outside this fourfold scheme stood the groups later known as "untouchables", now generally called Dalits.

Definition: Theory of Divine Origin (the Traditional Theory). According to this traditional explanation, the caste order was created by divine will at the beginning of creation: the four varnas are said to have emerged from different parts of the body of the creator, each fitted by birth for a particular duty, so that caste status and occupation are fixed by sacred decree rather than by human choice.

Each caste was historically associated with a specific occupation, so that a person born into a caste was also born into its occupation, with no individual choice involved.

Each caste also occupied a fixed place in a hierarchy of ritual status, so that, roughly speaking, castes were ranked by social status quite apart from their actual economic position; in strict scriptural terms the ritually highest caste, the Brahmins, were not supposed to amass wealth and were subordinate to the secular power of kings from the Kshatriya castes, while kings in turn were subordinate to Brahmins in religious matters.

In historical practice, however, economic and ritual status tended to coincide, so that "high" castes were generally of high economic status and "low" castes of low economic status, and this broad correlation, though weaker than before, is still visible at the macro level of Indian society today.

What are the features, merits and demerits of the caste system?

The caste system shows several recurring features, some of which mark the group's fixed position in the hierarchy and others which show how a caste group might still seek to change its relative standing.

Features of caste

Membership is hereditary and fixed by birth, with no choice of caste.

Marriage is restricted by endogamy, that is, marriage within one's own caste, which reinforces the ascribed and permanent character of caste status by ruling out the blurring of caste lines through inter-caste marriage.

There is a fixed hierarchy of status, generally expressed through notions of ritual purity and pollution, with Brahmins placed at the top and "untouchable" castes placed outside the caste hierarchy altogether because they were considered too impure for the mere touch, presence or even shadow of such a person to be acceptable to others; this extreme exclusion, called untouchability, combined three features together: exclusion from common facilities such as drinking-water sources and religious worship, humiliation and subordination, and economic exploitation through forced or underpaid labour.

Mobility within the hierarchy

1. A lower caste group begins by closely observing the customs, rituals and dietary practices of a caste ranked above it in the local hierarchy.
2. Over time the group gives up practices regarded as "impure", such as eating meat or drinking liquor, and adopts vegetarianism and other marks of ritual purity associated with the higher caste.
3. The group changes its traditional occupation for one regarded as more respectable or "cleaner".
4. It claims a higher varna origin or title for itself, and over a generation or more seeks commensality or intermarriage with the group it is imitating, so that its claim to a higher position is gradually accepted by others.

This sequence describes the process of upward mobility within the caste order rather than a change in the system itself, and is discussed further below as sanskritisation.

Merits and demerits

Supporters of the caste system have traditionally pointed to certain merits: it provided every member of society with a known occupation and a sense of belonging to a defined community, it offered a form of social security through the obligations of caste fellows towards each other, and it maintained continuity of specialised skills and crafts across generations.

Its serious demerits are equally clear: it denies individuals the freedom to choose their own occupation or marriage partner, it creates rigid and permanent inequality that blocks social mobility for those born into low-ranked castes, and its most extreme form, untouchability, subjects millions of people to exclusion, humiliation and economic exploitation generation after generation.

The Constitution of India abolished untouchability under Article 17, and the Constitution also provided the basis for the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in legislatures, government jobs and educational institutions; alongside this, the colonial legislature passed the Caste Disabilities Removal Act of 1850, which disallowed the curtailment of a citizen's rights solely because of a change of religion or caste and was later used to allow Dalits to enter government schools, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, which strengthened the legal provisions punishing acts of violence or humiliation against Dalits and adivasis.

That legislation on untouchability and caste discrimination has had to be passed repeatedly over more than a century is itself evidence that constitutional and legal provisions alone cannot end an entrenched social practice; this is why sustained social campaigns to change attitudes remain necessary alongside such measures.

How do caste and class compare?

Caste and class are both forms of stratification, but they differ sharply in how membership is decided and how far movement between ranks is possible.

Even so, the link between the two is strong rather than absent: because caste position influences access to education, property and occupation across generations, the privileged and high-economic-status sections of Indian society have tended to be drawn overwhelmingly from the "upper" castes, while disadvantaged and low-economic-status sections have tended to be dominated by the so-called "lower" castes, so caste and class correlate closely even though they are conceptually distinct principles of ranking.

What is social mobility through brahminisation, sanskritisation and westernisation?

Social mobility within the caste order refers to the ways a caste group, rather than any single individual, attempts to raise its position in the local status hierarchy over time.

Definition: Sanskritisation. The process by which a "low" caste or group takes over the customs, ritual practices and way of life of a higher caste, and over a generation or two claims a higher position in the local caste hierarchy than that traditionally conceded to it.

Definition: Brahminisation. A particular and common form of sanskritisation in which a lower caste specifically imitates the customs, rituals and lifestyle of the Brahmin caste, as the most influential and ritually highest reference group, in order to raise its own status.

Definition: Westernisation. The process by which Indian society adopted new customs, values, technology and institutions introduced by, or associated with, Western culture during British rule, bringing changes in dress, education, technology and outlook that operated alongside, and sometimes in tension with, sanskritisation.

Each of these processes describes a route by which groups or society as a whole could change their relative position or style of life without necessarily dismantling the underlying structure of stratification.

What is the difference between sex and gender?

Sex refers to the biological characteristics that distinguish males from females, such as reproductive organs and chromosomal make-up. Gender refers to the socially and culturally constructed roles, behaviours, expectations and identities that a society attaches to being male or female.

Scholars have shown that although there are obvious biological and physical differences between men and women, the inequalities between them are social rather than natural: there is no biological reason why so few women are found in positions of public power, nor can nature explain why women generally receive a smaller or no share in family property in most societies.

Societies that differ from this common pattern provide the strongest evidence for this: in matrilineal societies, such as the Nairs of Kerala historically and the Khasis of Meghalaya, women have for centuries been successful inheritors and heads of families, showing that gender roles are learned and assigned by society rather than fixed by biology.

Gender, understood this way, is therefore a form of social inequality and exclusion, comparable in its systematic and structured character to caste and class, but with its own distinct features, because it cuts across every other social group and operates within the household as well as in public institutions.

What is patriarchal ideology and what is the status of women in independent India?

Patriarchal ideology

Patriarchy is an ideology and social structure in which men hold dominant authority over women in the family, in property and in public life, and in which this dominance is treated as natural, normal or inevitable rather than as a social arrangement that could be otherwise.

Under patriarchal ideology, women are often expected to subscribe to a hierarchy of decision-making in which men's needs and priorities take precedence, and women may actively perpetuate practices that disadvantage them in order to secure their own long-term position within the family, for instance by favouring sons to win them as allies against an uncertain future.

Status of women in independent India

In independent India the state has acted against several forms of gender inequality through law and policy, while patriarchal norms and gender bias continue to shape women's access to the workplace, to property rights and to standing within the family.

Untouchability and caste discrimination were abolished by constitutional provision, and in the same way the Constitution and later legislation have been used to suppress practices that kept women subordinate, such as dowry and the denial of a share in family property.

The main legal landmarks show how far the law has moved. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 made giving and taking dowry an offence; the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 made daughters coparceners with an equal right to ancestral property; the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 gave women civil remedies against abuse at home; the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 banned sex selection; and the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 required every employer to set up a complaints committee.

Political participation widened too. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments (1992) reserved one-third of seats in panchayats and municipalities for women, and in 2023 Parliament passed a law reserving one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies, to take effect after the next census and delimitation. Yet the 2011 Census still recorded only 943 females for every 1,000 males, and a lower ratio among children under seven, a sign that son preference persists.

Yet legislation alone is unable to transform society or produce lasting social change, and a constant social campaign to change awareness and sensitivity is required to break entrenched prejudices.

This is why the position of women in independent India is best understood as a continuing struggle for equality and rights rather than as a settled achievement: legal rights have expanded, but the everyday practices of patriarchy in the family, in property and in public life persist.

What gender bias affects men, women and others at the workplace, in property rights and in family status?

Gender bias refers to the unequal treatment of individuals because of their gender rather than their ability, and it has consequences for men, women and others alike, though its burden usually falls most heavily on women.

Workplace

At the workplace, gender bias can take the form of unequal pay, exclusion from certain occupations or positions of authority, and sexual harassment, which a woman from even a privileged background may face in public or professional spaces.

Property rights

In matters of property, patriarchal custom in most of Indian society has historically given women a smaller or no share of family property compared with their brothers, and many women have been found to accept this arrangement out of fear of souring relations with brothers or of losing their place in their natal home, rather than out of genuine agreement with unequal inheritance.

Family status

In matters of family status, women are often placed in a position of lower authority within household decision-making, expected to defer to the needs and priorities associated with age and gender within a hierarchy that both men and women are socialised to accept, even where this hierarchy works against women's own interests.

Consequences for men and others

Gender bias also has consequences for men and for others who do not fit the expected roles. Men are socialised into the role of dominant provider and decision-maker, and this expectation can pressure them to suppress emotion, to avoid occupations seen as feminine and to carry the burden of family authority even when they would prefer not to.

Men who fail to conform to this role, for example by taking up domestic work or by not being the main earner, may face ridicule or loss of status, just as women who step outside their assigned roles do.

Others, such as transgender and third gender persons, face exclusion from both the male and female categories that institutions such as the family, the workplace and inheritance are built around, and so experience gender bias in an especially severe form.

The consequence for society as a whole is that gender bias restricts the talents and choices available to every group, not only to women, and so maintains an unequal order that disadvantages all who do not conform to it.

What are the major gender issues affecting women in Indian society?

A range of specific practices and forms of violence are recognised as gender issues because they arise directly from patriarchal ideology and from the devaluation of women and girls.

• Female infanticide — the deliberate killing of a female infant soon after birth, arising from a strong cultural preference for sons.
• Female foeticide — the deliberate termination of a pregnancy after prenatal sex determination reveals a female foetus, reflecting the same son preference in a technologically assisted form.
• Dowry — the demand or giving of cash, goods or property by the bride's family to the groom's family at or after marriage, which can lead to harassment, violence or even death of the bride when demands are not met.
• Sati — the now-outlawed practice in which a widow was burned or buried alive on her husband's funeral pyre or immediately after his death; it was the target of the nineteenth-century anti-sati campaign led by Raja Rammohun Roy.
• Child marriage — the marriage of a girl or boy before the legal age of marriage, which curtails education and increases risks to health and autonomy, particularly for girls.
• Domestic violence — physical, emotional or economic abuse inflicted on a woman, most commonly by her husband or his family, within the home.
• Rape — sexual assault committed without consent, recognised as one of the most serious forms of gender-based violence against women.
• Widowhood — the social and economic disadvantage, stigma and restriction imposed on a woman after her husband's death, historically including the denial of remarriage, which the Bombay Presidency's widow remarriage movement sought to reform.
• Sexual harassment — unwelcome sexual conduct or advances, which can occur at the workplace or in public places and affects women across class backgrounds.
• Women as perpetrators of violence — the recognition that women themselves, for instance as mothers-in-law or senior female relatives within the family, may at times enforce patriarchal norms or inflict violence or pressure on other women, such as daughters-in-law, showing that patriarchy is sustained by both men and women within its structures.

Going beyond the syllabus

These ideas extend the unit and are not needed for the questions on it. They are included to show how the state has responded to caste disadvantage.

How has the state addressed caste disadvantage?

Caste-based disadvantage has also been addressed through state measures such as reservation of seats in legislatures, government jobs and educational institutions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and later for Other Backward Classes, alongside laws such as the Caste Disabilities Removal Act of 1850 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.

Reservation for Other Backward Classes was extended to government institutions from the early 1990s, following the First Backward Classes Commission headed by Kaka Kalelkar, appointed in 1953, which submitted its report in 1955, and the Second Backward Classes Commission headed by B.P. Mandal, whose report was finally implemented by the central government only in 1990, a decade after it had been submitted.

Education has also been a recurring focus of caste-related legislation: the Caste Disabilities Removal Act of 1850 was used to allow the entry of Dalits into government schools, while the Constitution (Ninety-Third Amendment) Act of 2005, which became law on 23rd January 2006, introduced reservation for Other Backward Classes in institutions of higher education.

These measures illustrate how the state has tried to modify the consequences of caste stratification discussed above, though repeated legislation on the same subject over more than a century is itself evidence that law alone cannot end entrenched social practice; sustained social campaigns to change attitudes remain necessary alongside legal reform.

What did nineteenth-century reform movements do for women?

The women's question arose as a public issue in modern India as part of nineteenth-century social reform movements led mainly by the newly emerging English-educated middle class.

The reformers drew on both the democratic ideals of the modern West and on their own traditions.

Illustrative examples include the anti-sati campaign led by Raja Rammohun Roy in Bengal, the widow remarriage movement in the Bombay Presidency in which Ranade was a leading reformer, Jyotiba Phule's simultaneous attack on caste and gender oppression, and the social reform movement within Islam led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

Raja Rammohun Roy's attempts to reform society, religion and the status of women can be taken as the starting point of nineteenth-century social reform in Bengal, a decade before he established the Brahmo Samaj in 1828.

These movements show that the subordinate status of women was recognised as unjust and open to reform well before Independence.

Glossary

• Social stratification — the division of society into a patterned structure of unequal groups whose advantages tend to persist across generations.
• Life chances — material advantages, such as wealth, health and job security, that improve the quality of an individual's life.
• Class — a group of people sharing a broadly similar economic position based on wealth, income and occupation, with some scope for individual mobility.
• Caste — a hereditary group fixed by birth, ranked in a hierarchy of ritual status, membership of which is maintained through endogamy.
• Varna — one of the four traditional ritual categories of Hindu society: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
• Endogamy — the practice of marrying only within one's own caste or group, which reinforces caste boundaries.
• Untouchability — an extreme form of caste discrimination combining exclusion, humiliation and economic exploitation against castes placed outside the caste hierarchy.
• Sanskritisation — the process by which a lower caste adopts the customs and rituals of a higher caste to raise its own position in the local hierarchy.
• Brahminisation — sanskritisation specifically modelled on the customs and lifestyle of the Brahmin caste.
• Westernisation — the adoption of customs, values, technology and institutions associated with Western culture during British rule.
• Sex — the biological characteristics that distinguish males from females.
• Gender — the socially constructed roles, behaviours and expectations attached to being male or female.
• Patriarchy — a social structure and ideology in which men hold dominant authority over women in family, property and public life.
• Dowry — cash, goods or property demanded or given by the bride's family to the groom's family at or around marriage.
• Sati — the outlawed practice of burning or burying a widow alive on or after her husband's death.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Social inequality and stratification are the same thing. Correct: Stratification is a specific, systematic and persistent form of inequality tied to group membership, not every random difference between individuals.
• Misconception: Caste and class mean the same type of ranking. Correct: Caste is ascribed by birth and fixed through endogamy, while class is based mainly on economic position and allows more individual mobility, though the two often correlate closely.
• Misconception: Sanskritisation changes an individual's caste status. Correct: Sanskritisation is a group-level process by which a caste as a whole claims a higher position over a generation or more, not an individual changing caste.
• Misconception: Brahminisation and sanskritisation are unrelated processes. Correct: Brahminisation is one particular, common form of sanskritisation, in which the reference group imitated is specifically the Brahmin caste.
• Misconception: Sex and gender are interchangeable terms. Correct: Sex refers to biological characteristics, while gender refers to the socially constructed roles and expectations attached to being male or female.
• Misconception: Gender inequality is natural because of biological differences between men and women. Correct: Evidence from matrilineal societies, such as the Nairs and the Khasis, shows that gender roles are socially assigned rather than biologically fixed.
• Misconception: Gender-based violence against women is always inflicted by men. Correct: Women themselves can act as perpetrators of violence or pressure within the family, sustaining patriarchal norms against other women.
• Misconception: Gender bias harms only women. Correct: It also pressures men into rigid roles and excludes transgender and third gender persons, so its consequences reach every group in society.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. State one merit of caste. [1 mark]

1. It provided every member of society with a known occupation and a sense of belonging to a defined community.

Q2. Given below are two statements marked as Assertion and Reason. Read them carefully and choose the correct option. Assertion: Gender inequality is social rather than natural. Reason: In matrilineal societies such as the Khasis of Meghalaya, women have for centuries been inheritors and heads of families. (a) Both Assertion and Reason are true, and Reason is the correct explanation for Assertion. (b) Both Assertion and Reason are true, but Reason is not the correct explanation for Assertion. (c) Assertion is true and Reason is false. (d) Both Assertion and Reason are false. [1 mark]

1. Option (a).
2. The Assertion is true because the inequalities between men and women are shown to be social rather than biological.
3. The Reason is true because matrilineal societies such as the Khasis have long had women as inheritors and heads of families.
4. The Reason is the correct explanation, since it shows that gender roles are assigned by society and not fixed by biology.

Q3. A woman works long hours on her family farm but owns no land and is not consulted when the family decides how to use the income from the farm. Name the ideology reflected in this situation and state two of its consequences. [2 marks]

1. The ideology reflected is patriarchy, in which men hold dominant authority over women in the family, in property and in public life.
2. One consequence is that women receive a smaller or no share of family property compared with their brothers.
3. Another consequence is that women are placed in a position of lower authority within household decision-making.

Q4. Describe the growth of the class system in modern industrial and capitalist societies. [4 marks]

1. In hunting and gathering societies little was produced, so only a rudimentary form of stratification could exist.
2. In more technologically advanced societies people produce a surplus over and above their basic needs, and this surplus is distributed unequally among social categories.
3. Capitalism rests on the expansion of trade, division of labour, specialisation and rising productivity, fuelled by rational individuals competing freely in the marketplace to maximise profits.
4. Competition became the dominant value and ideology of capitalism, and it assumes that all individuals compete on an equal basis even though they are placed differentially in society.

Q5. Distinguish between sex and gender, and explain how gender bias affects men, women and others at the workplace, in property rights and in family status. [4 marks]

1. Sex refers to biological characteristics that distinguish males from females, while gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours and expectations attached to being male or female.
2. At the workplace, gender bias appears as unequal pay, exclusion from positions of authority and sexual harassment, which even a woman from a privileged background may face.
3. In property rights, women have historically received a smaller or no share of family property, and many accept this out of fear of losing their place in their natal home.
4. In family status, women hold lower authority in household decisions, while men are pressured into the role of dominant provider and others, such as transgender persons, are excluded from both categories.

Q6. Explain the theory of divine origin of caste. [4 marks]

1. According to the traditional theory, the caste order was created by divine will at the beginning of creation.
2. The four varnas are said to have emerged from different parts of the body of the creator, each fitted by birth for a particular duty.
3. Caste status and occupation are therefore fixed by sacred decree rather than by human choice.
4. The theory thus justifies the hereditary and hierarchical character of caste as part of a sacred order.

Q7. Compare caste and class as systems of stratification with reference to membership, marriage, mobility and legitimising belief. [7 marks]

1. Caste membership is ascribed by birth and is hereditary, while class membership is based mainly on economic position such as income, property and occupation.
2. Caste is maintained through endogamy, restricting marriage to within the same caste, whereas class carries no formal restriction on marriage.
3. Mobility within caste is very limited for an individual and usually occurs, if at all, for the group across generations through processes such as sanskritisation; mobility within class is possible for an individual through education, income or occupational change.
4. Caste is legitimised by ritual notions of purity and pollution and by religious sanction, whereas class is legitimised by the belief that effort, talent or merit explains differences in wealth.
5. Occupation was traditionally fixed by caste at birth, whereas occupation in a class system is in principle chosen, though shaped by family resources.
6. Despite these differences, caste and class correlate closely in practice, because caste position has historically shaped access to education, property and occupation across generations in India.
7. Both systems illustrate the three general features of stratification: they are society-wide, they persist across generations, and they are supported by a legitimising ideology.

Q8. Evaluate the view that the position of women in independent India has been fully transformed by law. [7 marks]

1. In independent India the state has acted against several forms of gender inequality through law and policy, and the Constitution abolished untouchability and provided the basis for measures against caste discrimination.
2. Legislation has been used to suppress practices that kept women subordinate, such as dowry and the denial of a share in family property.
3. However, legislation alone is unable to transform society or produce lasting social change, and a constant social campaign to change awareness and sensitivity is required to break entrenched prejudices.
4. Patriarchal norms continue to shape women's access to the workplace, where they face unequal pay, exclusion from authority and sexual harassment.
5. In property rights, women still receive a smaller or no share of family property in most of Indian society, and many accept this out of fear of souring relations with their brothers.
6. In family status, women remain in a position of lower authority within household decision-making, and gender issues such as dowry, domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment persist.
7. The view is therefore only partly correct: legal rights have expanded, but the everyday practices of patriarchy in the family, in property and in public life persist, so the struggle for equality and rights continues.

Key takeaways

• Social stratification is a systematic, group-based and persistent form of inequality, legitimised by an ideology that most members accept as fair or inevitable.
• Class membership rests mainly on economic position and allows some individual mobility, unlike caste membership, which is ascribed at birth.
• The class system grew with industrial and capitalist society, where a surplus is produced and distributed unequally, and competition becomes the dominant ideology.
• The Divine Origin or Traditional Theory explains caste as divinely created, with the four varnas, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, assigned fixed duties.
• Untouchability combines exclusion, humiliation-subordination and economic exploitation, and was formally abolished under Article 17 of the Constitution.
• Caste and class differ in basis and mobility but correlate closely at the macro level of Indian society.
• Sanskritisation is a group-level process of claiming higher status by adopting a higher caste's customs; brahminisation is its most common form, and westernisation is a parallel process of adopting Western customs and technology.
• Sex is biological, while gender is socially constructed; evidence from matrilineal societies shows gender inequality is not natural.
• Patriarchal ideology shapes women's access to the workplace, property and family status, and its consequences reach men and others as well as women.
• Gender issues such as female infanticide, foeticide, dowry, child marriage, domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment all arise from the devaluation of women under patriarchal ideology, which can be perpetuated by women as well as men.

Test yourself

What are the three forms of advantage that define stratification?

Life chances, social status and political influence, which privileged groups enjoy unequally compared with disadvantaged groups.

Why is endogamy important to the caste system?

It restricts marriage to within one's own caste, preventing the blurring of caste lines and reinforcing the ascribed, hereditary nature of caste status.

According to the Traditional Theory, how did the four varnas originate?

They are said to have emerged from the body of the creator by divine will, each fitted by birth to a particular duty.

How does brahminisation differ from sanskritisation in general?

Sanskritisation is imitating any higher caste's customs to raise status; brahminisation is specifically imitating the Brahmin caste's customs and lifestyle.

Give one piece of evidence that gender inequality is social rather than biological.

In matrilineal societies such as the Nairs of Kerala and the Khasis of Meghalaya, women have for centuries been successful inheritors and heads of families.

What did the nineteenth-century reformers campaign against?

Raja Rammohun Roy led the anti-sati campaign in Bengal, and Ranade was a leading reformer in the Bombay Presidency's widow remarriage movement.

What shows that women can themselves perpetuate patriarchal norms?

Senior female relatives within a family, such as a mother-in-law, may enforce patriarchal expectations or pressure on other women, such as a daughter-in-law.

Why did the class system grow with capitalism?

Capitalism rests on expanding trade, division of labour, specialisation and rising productivity, and its surplus is distributed unequally, so classes form around economic position.