Caste System in Contemporary India

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

It is a matter of great honour for me for having invited by Father Dr. G. Lazar, SVD, for writing the Foreword for this volume, Caste-system in Contemporary India: Issues and Implications. The chapters incorporated in this volume are those presented and discussed in the Fourth National Seminar organized by Sanskruti, the Institute of Dravidian Culture and Research, on 27 and 28 January 2017 in Hyderabad. I take this opportunity of congratulating Fr. Lazar and his dedicated team of volunteers for arranging such National Seminars year after year on contemporary issues, which are not only academically relevant, but also have a bearing on societal development. I remember of attending a couple of such Seminars in the past, which were academically instructive, providing foods for thought.

This year's theme of the National Seminar on Caste or jati in Contemporary India is highly topical and has a strong social bearing. It would be an exaggeration to explain the significance of jattor an Indian reader, as Indians acquirejatistatus as soon as they are born. It is, therefore, a-scriptive. I use the word "Indian" here in a generic sense, as people belonging to religious faiths other than Hinduism in India have different types of jati-like social systems. For a Westerner, the idea of social hierarchy might sound archaic, but the stark reality is that a majority of Indians breathe through jati and its hierarchical social order, however modem they might sound to being their appearance or behavior.Although the Indian. Constitution has outlawed jatidiscrimination since 1950s, especially any form of untouchability inherent in the jatisystem, each morning local newspapers flash horrifying stories aboutjati discrimination and atrocities on the members of the jatis at the lower rung of the order, namely the Dalits. Despite a slew of measures of protective discrimination in the Indian Constitution in the form of reservations and traditional inter-jati exchange relations, commonly known asjajimani, the jati system still remains hierarchical. In still recent timesjati solidanty is gaining momentum and is active in the political formations of today's India creating insurmountable pressure groups.

It gives me immense satisfaction to know that all possible dimensions of the jati system in contemporary India have been discussed and debated during this two days National Seminar These crucial dimensions include rethinking social justice in a jati ridden Indian society, challenges of being marginalized, distortion of jati realism, deconstructing stereotypical jati identities in modern times, the question of Dalit Christians and Dalit Hindus, etc. Many chapters in this volume are replete with highly insightful and provocative analyses on these dimensions and their bearing on the relevance of jati in contemporary Indian social order and pan-Indian psyche on jati discrimination.

I am hopeful that the essays included in this volume would be academically enriching for the sociologists, anthropologists, specialists in social work, NGOs, policy makers, and development administrators. I congratulate all the contributors to this wonderful volume and the editors for putting these pieces together for wider circulation.

**Contents and Sample Pages**