Interrogating Diversity: A Study of Caste Communities in a Village in India

By:
Madhumita Biswal
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The people in villages in India are not homogenous in nature. Apart from divisions on the basis of religion, within Hinduism also divisions of people on the basis of caste exist. This paper makes an attempt to analyze how the caste differences are maintained and sustained through generations in a village. The paper also scrutinizes how gender plays an important role in sustaining the hierarchical differences between different caste groups, and preserving caste sanctity of the upper caste groups. By way of mapping the caste relations in this line, the paper attempts to understand how power relations operate in a caste based diverse society. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in the western region of Orissa in India the paper tries to address the question of power relations within a internally diversified society. It also examines how the intersection of gender identity with the caste identity helps in constructing the ‘ideal woman’ in a village in India.


Keywords: Caste in India
Stream: First Nations, Indigenous Peoples
Presentation Type: 30 minute Paper Presentation in English
Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Madhumita Biswal

Research scholar, Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA

I am a research scholar in the department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, India. My areas of interest are: gender studies, develompmental sociology and sociology of health. At present I am working on the theme "women and body politics in the discourse of health in India" .

Ref: D07P0444