Session 6: Gender, Kinship and Community (Summary and Qs)

Partha Chatterjee, Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton University Press, 1993: Chap. 6: The nation and its women.

Prem Chowdhry, ‘First our jobs then our girls’: The dominant caste perceptions on the ‘rising’ Dalits. Modern Asian Studies 43(2): 437-479, 2009.

Lucinda Ramberg and Srimati Basu (Eds), Conjugality Unbound: Sexual Economies, State Regulation and the Marital Form in India. Women Unlimited, 2015:

Lucinda Ramberg, When the Devi is your husband: Sacred marriage and sexual economy in south India, pp. 103-132.

Janaki Abraham, Contingent caste endogamy and patriarchy: Lessons for our understanding of caste, pp.

Rajani Palriwala and Ravinder Kaul, Introduction: Marriage in South Asia: Continuities and transformations. In Ravinder Kaur & Rajni Palriwala.(eds), Marrying in South Asia: Shifting Concepts, Changing Practices in a Globalising World. Orient Blackswan, 2014, 1-28.

This week’s pieces focus on women and their positionality within communities – caste, class, religion - and how their identities are tied to kinship and understood though family and marriage structures.

Partha Chatterjee’s piece provides the background against which we can situate the larger arguments of the other pieces. He addresses the 'women’s question' or rather, the diminishing importance of  it, in the period of nationalism, especially since  it was a central issue during debates on social reform in the early and mid-nineteenth century in Bengal (Rammohan Roy and Vidysagar).

Chatterjee argues that nationalism did in fact address the women’s question/the position of women not in terms of an identity but in terms of a difference between the East and the West. Nationalism situated the women’s question in an ‘inner domain of sovereignty’ and notion of ‘tradition’ that was separate from the political and the state.

He traces it back to when the colonisers identified Indian traditions as barbaric and degenerate, especially on account of how women were subject to oppressive and unfree norms. Tradition came to be seen as requiring reform, in need of 'civilising’ and to be replaced by science, western education and thought.

The response to this, by Nationalists, was to separate the domain of culture into two spheres – the material and the spiritual. The claims of  the west were seen as being most powerful in the material domain with the use of science, technology, norms of economic organisation and statecraft. Nationalists accepted the reforming of this sphere in order to overcome the domination by colonisers, but they felt that a blind appropriation of all things western could erode the self-identity of national culture. They thus sought to confine the  influence of the west on the material sphere, and retain and safeguard the spiritual domain, which was seen as superior to the West. 

This separation was further condensed into the idea of the inner and outer spheres - the material representing the outer and the spiritual the inner. As long as India retained the inner, it could appropriate from the West. Encroachments in the ‘inner’ sanctum would lead to the annihilation of national identity and thus had to be protected. This dichotomy got mapped on to the ‘home’ and the ‘outside’. The outside was seen as being the domain of men and the home or ‘inner’ sphere represented by women. This is the ideological framework within which nationalism sought to answer the women’s question.

This theme was taken up in all forms of communication and structured family life and women’s roles accordingly. But to the extent that family life was entangled with wider relations, the ‘inner’  could not remain isolated from the ‘outside’. This led to the idea that the westernisation of women had to be done differentially, in degree and manner, from the men.

Concrete problems arose in the separation of material/spiritual, inner/outer as a result of the rapidly changing circumstances in which the new middle class found themselves. Various solutions to deal with the changing inner and outer included reconstructing ‘classical’ traditions, modernised folk forms, the utilitarian logic of the bureaucratic and industrial practices, the idea of equality in the democratic state etc.

The new woman was defined as a result of the shifts and changes and subjected to new patriarchal forms. Now Indian women were contrasted with modern western society as well as indigenous traditions (the same traditions the colonisers critiqued). Nationalists still drew cultural markers from this tradition but this was a ‘classical’ tradition that was reformed. The New woman was seen in contrast to the ‘common’ woman’ – who was course, vulgar, loud etc. Nationalist sought to now reform the latter category of woman.

New patriarchy adopted the hegemonic form and combined coercive authority with subtle persuasion. This was expressed in various ays such as through adulation of women as goddesses which served to erase her sexuality as she engaged in the ‘outer world’.

Chatterjee highlights how women became a sign of the nation within a nationalist discourse on women where women do not speak.

His argument is an attempt to critique the idea that nationalism was premised on a  total rejection of the West. Chatterjee’s intent is to show that the nationalist paradigm supplied an ideological principle of ‘selection’  - in other words, it was not a dismissal of modernity, which lead to the absence of the women’s question, but a selective approach to modernity to make it consistent with the nationalist project that positioned women in certain ways. We continue to see women and their relation and roles in communities in this way.

Prem Chowdhury’s piece looks at how the changing political economy in villages in Haryana have led to a restructuring of caste relations, with certain Dalit communities gaining social and occupational mobility and power, and upper castes feeling threatened and undermined.

Chowdhury looks at instances of inter-caste marriages and elopement between Dalit and Jat men and women as a site in which to explore new relationships produced by the restructuring of caste positions and the inter-caste politics that follow.

Inter- caste marriages are on the one hand a resistance to traditional endogamous marriage practices, especially between dalit and non-dalit communities,  but then also become the site in which upper caste-communities seek to maintain social, ritual and cultural hierarchy.

Through inter-caste marriages, she looks at how the concepts of  bhaichara (brotherhood), biradari (community) and izzat (honour) are practised and deployed selectively when dealing individuals who challenge norms, and the communities they belong to.

Both Ramberg and Abraham’s pieces set up arguments against certain dominant discourses. Devadasis, usually women from Dalit caste groups in Karnataka, have been seen in much of state and social-justice visions as “needing reform”. As against this, Ramberg writes of the value that dedication brings in the lives of those dedicated to the goddess Yellamma, refusing to see them only as “oppressed”. Abraham questions one of the basic tenets of how caste has traditionally been defined- endogamy. Through one historical and another contemporary case study, she argues that endogamy as a practice within castes is not as rigid as usually understood.  

Lucinda Ramberg, in seeking to understand the nature of value derived in the dedication of women to the goddess Yellamma in Karnataka, complicates the understanding of Devadasi lives beyond oppression, material hardships and lack of choice.

Devadasis are “married” to the Goddess Yelamma. Such forms of dedication have been opposed by the state as well as social reform activists. However, in the piece Ramberg pays attention to the value families generate by “giving” their daughters to the Goddess. She also argues that in being “given”, the women do not necessarily lose their agency. Drawing from Strathern’s ideas, she lays out the idea of persons as constituted by a set of relations. She pays attention to how most Devadasis, who come from Dalit castes, come to become mediators of the devotion of dominant caste groups towards Yellamma.  “Dedication to Yellamama intiates a network of exchange relations, mutual obligations and forms of care which flow among Dalit dedicated women, dominant caste devotees and the Goddess herself”, she writes.

She devotes a considerable part of the paper to explicating how “being given” does not imply a loss of agency, and material returns for sexual relations does not necessarily constitute oppression( in fact, “material gains” structure legitimated forms of marriage too). She ends the piece by making two suggestions; “marriage is a technology for the transaction of sexuality into different economies of value” and” pursuing the question of value maybe more fruitful than attempting to measure the absence or presence of agency as the property of a person”.

Janaki Abraham questions what has come to be seen as a key feature of caste- endogamy. She argues that endogamy-related practices of castes are dynamic, and argues the need for attention to such dynamism. She argues that the shift in the assertion of endogamy vary according to caste’s consciousness and its aspirations at a particular historical moment. She uses two divergent empirical instances to make her point- the shifts in the enforcement of endogamy among the Thiyyas of North Kerala, and the “endogamy paradox” in Haryana- where on the one hand, honour killings occur and on the other, cross-region marriages.

In the case of Thiyyas, she discusses how cohabiting with Europeans was not taboo in the early 19^th century, and how this gradually transforms. Caste-endogamy is not fixed within the practices of the caste, but a shifting feature. She discusses how in marriages that occur in non-local contexts, such as importing of brides in Haryana, caste remains vague but does not really seem to matter. This is different in local contexts, where marriage-associations particularly with stigmatized caste groups draws greater censure.

Overall, her argument is against seeing caste and its practices as a fixed stable entity. Instead, she calls for how caste dynamics change according to context. “This brings together past memories of stigma and discrimination, relationships of power and domination in the present and aspirations for the future”.

Rajni Palriwala and Ravinder Kaur account for the importance of practices of marriage and weddings in South Asia with an emphasis on the cultural and social politics of marriage and divorce for women. The authors discuss the different types of marital arrangements, social changes and the notion of self- choice marriages. There are several articulations of marriage such as the social and economic security it provides women, the legitimacy it gives their conjugal relationship and raises their status in society. The types of social sanctions against diverse marriages- such as honour killings, violence against women, and divorce are also explained with examples. The authors talk about how the various social markers such as caste, class and economic status intersect with the institution of marriage in the modern age which strengthen community identity and fortify kinship ties. There is a mention of the agency women use in getting out of a bad marriage which is inconsistent and unpredictable which needs further unpacking. The authors attempt to link larger factors such as globalisation and economic progress to have led to changes in spousal selection, and articulations of marriage aspirations etc. Finally, the authors ask if a reconfiguration of marriage can exist without the institution of marriage being subject to the social, economic, sexual, political and cultural hierarchies that have been so closely tied to it so far?

The Institution of Marriage: Shifting Frameworks

There have been several outlines by which anthropologists and sociologists tried to explain their work on kinship, marriage and family. The theoretical shifts in understanding of these topics have varied with time. Changes from the structural functional to structural and then to cultural frameworks have led to several insights. Schenider’s remark (1984) in the area of kinship studies about the ethnocentrism and the implicit ‘orientalism’ was that of a non-existence of a multicultural category called kinship. However, the subsequent study of books in the next two decades where kinship and marriage figured, a pattern of attending to ‘understudied’ groups such as ‘tribes’, ‘remote communities’ and non-Hindus.

Looking at the arguments around the extent of changes in marriage and family relations in South Asia, the author noted few important issues. Their first query was what made marriage a perceived common and necessary social institution across South Asia. What comprised it into a region? They stated several reasons why this could have happened. The geographical features of the land, with the Himalayas; the vast oceans and the modern formation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The economic and trade links between regions in South Asia over time strengthened and colonialism led to the forced control of all these areas by the British, leading to common practices. The various religions and communities in South Asia added to its diversity which interacted, intermingled and on several levels negotiated for dominance and power. Social communities which represented their own cultural practices followed their own rules of marriage, family and rituals.

Renewing Tradition and Diversity

While the marital practices have been understood as a universal structure, anthropological work has problematised the notion and have found diversity in marriage practices. The authors mention several configurations of marriage amongst family members- like cross-cousin, uncle-niece marriages among many communities in the North and South of India and Muslim communities. Also the marital residence rules of matrilineal househols in the Malabar, or Northeast were not in  accordance with patrilocality. There was also a difference noticed in the marriage prestations in terms of dowry and bride price.

As gender gained momentum in the area of social science, it immediately drew the attention of academics and researchers who used the gender to analyse marriage practise which resulted significant studies on womens work patterns, constructs of this diversity and its link to regional demographic patterns in sex ratios, marriageable age and womens empowerment or the lack of it. Domestic violence and widow remarriage were examined. Consanguineous marriage among south Indian muslims were looked at and it was seen that these marriages were conducted to maintain community identity and added to their secular prestige.

Marital Prestations, Weddings and Beyond 

Another topic that has been in academic circulation and discussion has been the marriage payments, bride price and the spread of practices of dowry and its implications for womens status, gender and marital relations. The debate on dowry, as female inheritance, has new interpretations today. It is seen that urban working women choose better marriages for themselves as their have the ability to earn and pay for their own dowry. However, legal rights to parental property is still contested by women across several communities. Along with dowry, lavish marriage ceremonies and several functions has increased the expenditure, mainly amongst the upper and middle classes. Influence of popular media is creating standardised ‘ideal’ notions of a wedding. The commercialisation of weddings has increased especially in a culture which was market-driven in which ‘traditional’ practices has become a source of profit.

On the other hand, the dark side of the fall out of a marriage are crimes such as bride burning, harassment for dowry and even honour killings. In these instances violence is directed towards young women or couples who are seen as violating norms or not fulfilling the traditional demands of the marriage contract for example- dowry.

Economies of Marriage and Work

It is important to understand social class structures, work organisation, systems of production and caste hierarchies to observe the cultural arrangements for social reproduction.

The farmers of smaller holdings of land in plantations have seen the changing configurations of marriage. This is due to changes in the economic conditions and shifts in labour force.

The concept of love or self-choice marriage are not limited to the middle classes but are prevelant everywhere. For example, the garment workers in Chennai enter into ‘love’ marriages by challenging the norms and arrangement of traditional marriage. Some poor parents willing consent to the decision of self-choice marriages as they see it as a relief of not having to find a partner for their child and a way out of having to pay dowry. It’s the middle class women in South Asia who experience a conflict between a need to work to fulfil their sense of independence and the necessity to fulfil marital obligations.

Making A Marriage

What makes a marriage modern? Can we use pre-marital courtship and self-choice be measure? Or are there diverse modernities? One way of gauging this is to see the changes in the trends of matchmaking and how this reflects in the desires and expectations of marriage from families and couples. There have been a variety of factors such as migration, urbanisation, rising educational levels and greater socio-economic differentiation that have changed the trends in matchmaking. Traditional arrangements between communities still are encouraged. There are other resources that are used if traditional modes of matchmaking does not work. Marriage Bureaus, fairs, newspaper matrimonial advertisements or internet websites (Shaadi.com) are available as alternate methods of finding a partner.

Majumdar (2009) indicates how a rise in urbanisation and the fall in the popularity of Bengali ghatak (the matchmaker) resulted in the use of newspapers matrimonials esp. among the colonial and post-colonial urban middle class of Kolkata. the website profiles led to gendered changes with women having to look more physically attractive. This established the normative differences in the roles and characteristics of women and men.

Of course, there was always an emphasis on caste, class , language, region and religious affiliation as one of the criteria of matchmaking but education, occupation and financial status has been added to the criteria too.

Love and Conjugality in and Beyond Marriage

As gender and sexuality have gathered interest in marriage discourse, it is surprising that there such a paucity of attention given to the meanings and contours of intimacy and desire (Trawick, 1990). This is based on the assumption of a ‘normative conjugality’ in a functioning marriage which is a hegemonic, heterosexual model. This model views subjective experiences as emotional and individualistic. The confluence of couples expectations of each other and societies expectations of them come together and differs according to the rules of inheritance. For example, the ‘providing husband’ constitutes the martial character of the matrilineal Thiyya community.

The dominant conjugal models are the ones endorsed by the media and projected by the elite. Therefore, it is possible that the lesser known models may have been erased, as for example the tribes who are the polyandrous groups in the Himalayas and among the Nayars. A combination of Brahmanical values and British morals , male property rights and values of individual was coterminous with an emphasis on co-resident, nuclear, conjugal family unit, male authority, lifelong monogamy and fidelity on part of the women. For the poor the concept of ‘providing husbands’ did not exist either in practice or in articulation.

Notions of love marriage and the individual self are interlinked and have grown in political valency. The concept of love has a connotation of being an individual choice rather than a family expectation. The garment factory women workers want love marriages but are undecided about what is more important love, or marriage. Besides marriage after falling in love may involve lesser costs than a regular arranged marriage. The hegemonic notion that sexual love will only be legitimised within the confines of marriage is a thought process that transcends beyond heteronormative relationships. Many gay rights activists and gay informants found the institution of marriage aspirational.

Activism and Legal Interventions

When the British administration took over India and other parts of the sub-continent, they separated personal from criminal and civil laws. The supposition made was that personal law was derived from community and religious law. At various points of the colonial rule , national leaders and the women’s movements, as well as religious and caste associations have demanded a legal reform of the traditions, esp which had been re-interpreted in the domain of marriage. Issues of legal marriageable age, dowry and domestic violence have been voiced. The Shah Bano case was a very good example of showing the conflict between religious sanctions and caste practices. The point to be noted here is that despite differences in personal law and religious sanctions the experiences of being divorced and widowed for women has been universally miserable.

The author brings in the whole discussion of women’s agency and says that woman’s agency appears to be ambiguous and inconsistent as a husband who has left her for many years would be accepted if he returned. The working-class Dalit women in Delhi are willing to let go of their unfavourable marriages but are restricted by community norms. Therefore, unpacking the concept of agency is crucial. So, choosing may not only be a choice  to get married, but it could also be choosing to reject a proposal. There is significant stigma attached to a woman rejecting a proposal. Therefore , agency and choice can only be understood contextually.

Several feminist organisations have been demanding legal reforms , and also in providing legal aid in fighting court battles for dissolution of marriage. This begs the question as to if social change can be lead by legal reforms (Mazumdar, 2000; Menon,1999). For example, the dissolution triple talaq, will it lead to social change as there has been a legal prohibition of men giving their wives divorce by saying talaq three times. There have been attempts to institute a new model of Nikahnama, which may appear as an eye wash and little effort in the huge battle being waged by women activist groups to ask for equal justice for women in marriage and divorce.

The concluding question is that is it possible to retain marriage as an institution or a relationship without the social, sexual, economic, cultural and political hierarchies that have been integral to it thus far?

Anu, Keya and Savitha

Session 5: Historicising Caste and Community (Summary and Qs)

Summary of Readings:

Guha: Beyond Caste; Identity and Power in South Asia – Past and Present

Guha opens his book with the sociologist’s Surinder Jodhka’s observation that though the Western Orientalist’s classical conception of caste has been criticised it has never been replaced. I.e. ‘the ideological dimension of caste dominates academic and popular understanding’ while its political economy is neglected. Guha suggests that his book is meant to address this gap and it has two goals – present a new historically informed understanding of South Asian state and society. Second, provide a basis for comparative understanding of processes of ethnic politics.Here it is worthwhile to note that for Guha, building on Barth’s model, caste is ‘an ethnic group within a larger society which tends to marry endogamously and be ranked relative to others’. Barth, a political anthropologist was one of the first to suggest that ethnicity develops in mutual contact and not in isolation.Guha considers it futile to find a single unified rationale for caste, as it is a complex process of stratification and not a simple static hierarchy. He convincingly argues this through the course of his book based on the examples he presents, right from the early historic period (i.e. covering about 1000 years of South Asian socio-political history).His main arguments are that caste is not bound to religion (he shows this through examples of Muslim and Christian groups which maintain caste hierarchies, like the Parava community studied by Susan Bayly or the Goan community).Second that caste is ‘politically inflected’ i.e. it’s conceptualisation, possible transformation and sustenance is linked to both political power and economic motives. (He argues this through a number of examples at different scales of ‘political’ power starting with the micro-region or janapada, the village and the household – Chapters 2,3 and 4).Third, that caste is an ongoing process of stratification and not simple bounded hierarchy. He argues that in spite of a range of critiques it is still popularly believed that such an idea of caste came into existence in the colonial period. And that this was due to governmental importance given to enumeration and statistics. Guha disagrees with this formulation and based on examples he shows that enumeration was a feature of pre-colonial / early modern kingships as well and that the colonial period did not bring in a ‘rupture’. Rather the scale and level of enumeration changed in this period. In this context he considers that though Susan Bayly and Dirks played important roles in arguing for a link between colonial power and knowledge transformation of Indian society they failed to take this theorisation further by falling into what he calls the ‘Brahminical trap’. I.e. of attributing power to the Brahmins (or a cultural framing of caste) rather than forms of kingship (or a political framing of caste). Guha attempts to bring this up through the book through use of archival material that has not been looked at or neglected – what he calls non-standard areas and time periods.Chapter 1 notes how caste became key to identity. He argues this was because it has always been an instrument of state power – starting with the origin of the term caste from Portuguese and its link with purity and pollution from Portuguese society.Chapter 2 focuses on the micro-region or janapada (or people with territory) which could be considered the base unit for rule by kingship. He argues that tribes, castes and monarchies all co-existed and one did not lead to the other. I.e. he disagrees with the evolutionary model of social progress (as propounded by DD Kosambi and the American School of Anthropology for example).Chapters 3 similarly looks at the political and administrative lives but of villages. Here he compares the Jajaamani and Baluta systems of organising village life. The former i.e. a system of service and dependence on a patriarch has been considered the typical model pan-India and he convincingly argues otherwise by taking examples from Western India.In chapter 4 on households, Guha highlights the position that the household received in the governance structure both in colonial and precolonial times which continues till date as a means of legitimising their power and also securing financial benefits and thus is more important than the kinship. Through examples of kingly households, he elaborates on the generational aspect of the occupation and securing of loyalty and building alliances between families for political assertion. One of the ways through which household matters became important to the ruling elites was due to collection of taxes from the household dispute cases. This became not only an important revenue collection stream but also a way to secure ruling elites legitimacy in arbitration of family disputes. Thus household became an important cog in the political apparatus. In this chapter, Guha also points to the feature of loyalty and service associated with a particular household and children born to servants of the kingly household became ‘khanazad’, a common term to denote service and devotion. Exploitation of this loyalty became an important political strategy to win against the enemy. Guha also shows how political and matrimonial alliances made membership to a kinship socially constructed and fluid. An interesting aspect that is mentioned in this chapter is the inferior treatment of Euro-Asian Englishmen or British children who were born and brought up in India. This was done to discourage settlement of private Europeans in India which could have eventually undermined East India Company’s hold in the country.In chapter 5, Guha is pointing to some features which differentiated colonial period from before. He argues that although the modern bureaucracy has its roots in early modern era, it is the tenacity, persistence, and success that separates colonial regimes form before and its reach in the remotest possible places. Under colonial rule, practically everyone became their subject. Printing technology also played a huge role in it in disseminating state to the vast landscape. Census also, which has been in practice in precolonial eras, gained much prominence due to this and had a totalising impact on political landscape of the country. Such form of knowledge creation was essential to assert and retain power both in colonial and pre-colonial times, however, the colonial census project became important part of south Asian identity creation. Through various historical cases, Guha showcases the various methods used by precolonial rulers in an attempt to gather as much and as correct information as much possible since this was in integral part of maintaining power and control. Guha also mentions that this crucial information gathering exercise created certain elites who had the skill of collecting this information and thus power which changed land ownership in some places where these record keepers using their exclusive knowledge and skill base would eventually become the owners of the land. Guha also mentioned that these enumerations were mainly done for money and force, both important political tools. It was important for the precolonial rulers to know their sources of income, and also who were part of their military as also others since political alliances could be won or lost based on the social structure of the military. On the caste and ethnicity front, what this enumeration did was create caste specific categories for tax collection where the tax rates depended on affiliation to the ruling ethnicity, own calibre to cultivate, aggression, and violent tactics adopted by tenants; and caste categorisation became the basis for revenue collection which in turn fixed the identities of people. Guha also elaborates on the issues of colonial information gathering enterprise where (wild tribes) which could not be put under the varna system and also needed to be dealt separately, and this information was also contingent on the knowledge and skill of the British officers in charge and the regions surveyed.Chapter 6 takes the discussion further into the colonial period and showcases the influence of market on the social and political landscape. Urban life was beginning to take shape which retained a more corporate life different than the village. Although caste hierarchies were visible and getting reinforced, anti-caste movements also started to take form in this period. Guha also highlights the discord between the East India Company and the British military and strategies adopted by them to remain in power. The company invoked the emotion of serving mother country and was able to influence Englishmen serving under local rulers to avoid the coup, the British military, on the other hand, used local alliances to overthrow the company.Many caste groups came to prominence in the early 20^th century with the changing political scene in the country and to assert themselves. This was the volatile period when electoral politics was taking shape in the country and various caste groups made alliances with each other to gather populous momentum for political gain.

Dirks: The invention of caste: Civil society in colonial India

Dirks challenges the Western Orientalist view of ‘Oriental Despotism’ – that the State (pre-modern and pre-colonial) overwhelmingly intervenes in peoples’ lives such that they are left with little or no choice but to act in a predetermined manner – by reviewing the construction of caste as a category. This is because caste is seen as central or key to understanding South Asian and Indian Society, such that the Western Orientalist definition of the category, as unchanging hereditary tradition that binds one to particular roles based on religious sanction, dominates.In this paper Dirks looks at colonial processes of enumeration, mapping, counting, through the example of Colin McKenzie’s ethnographic and cartographic work in the 1800s. Based on McKenzie’s work he shows that although such processes of enumeration may seem objective and neutral they are anything but. He thus effectively argues that politics as ‘power’ has always been a part of culture and cultural categories like ‘caste’.  And that Indian sociology and anthropology need to let go of the ‘ghost of colonial sociology’ as subscribed to by Dumont and Weber.Dirk’s paper links with Guha’s book in that Guha defends Dirk’s view of power as always part and parcel in the making of culture and tradition. However Guha considers that Dirks over ascribes the power of colonial discourses and practices in such making and rupturing of pre-modern / pre-colonial Indian society.

Fuller: Caste

Fuller begins the chapter by defining caste which he understand as a homogeneous, endogamous unit which falls in a hierarchical order and remains constant for a person and is hereditary and occupation specific. He then emphasis that such form of caste system is changing in modern India where occupations are not rigidly followed on caste lines and due to much political movement to erase the caste based discrimination, the hierarchical system has also broken down, however, caste is increasingly gaining increasing prominence in electoral politics. Fuller then argues that in the first century of British rule caste system was much more fluid, less hierarchical, and less central to society and the rigidity and centrality that we see in caste system today is a product of British Raj. Fuller also questions “village studies” conducted between 1950s and 1970s which instead of seeing villages as a historical product, essentialised them as “traditional” villages with “traditional” caste system, timeless in nature. Fuller then explained Dumont’s structuralist approach while explaining Indian caste system and his concept of purity and pollution to describe the Hindu varna system. Dumont’s Homo Hierarchicus, although highly influential, was also criticised heavily for its excessive focus on “traditional;” hierarchy and Brahminical religious ideology. Although, Fuller also criticised the critiques of Dumont citing that they didn’t fully understand Dumont’s affiliation to Brahminical religious ideology. Fuller takes the discussion further in contemporary India and mentions that where caste has become more rigid today, it is also fading away from many spheres, especially public and urban life. Fuller also analyses caste in non-Hindus and concludes that it cannot be generalised and that internal divisions in non-Hindus depend upon the political factors. Fuller examines the caste coming to the forefront of political claims post-independence in the form of reservations which has made caste and religion central to Indian politics.

Krupa and Priya

Session 4: Identity and Subjectivity (Summary and Qs)

Summary of readings:

1) Sherry Ortner: Identities: The Hidden Life of Class

Ortner’s first chapter on Identities focusses on question of foregrounding and/or backgrounding race/ethnicity and class. She has used class as defined by Marx as a position created by the mode of production, although, she continuously challenged any uniform notion of class in her essay. Her main argument is the essay is that “American class discourse is in certain important respects fused with ethnicity and race” and it is not separate from each other. Her analysis is based on the question of what constitutes American middle class, how it is constituted and where does race/ethnicity fall in this constitution. She argues that race/ethnicity and class do not exist in pure form, separate from each other but as a fusion and it needs to be seen like that, that each is hidden within the other. This essay also attempts to show that race and ethnicity are class-ist in notion and class is also socially constructed.

Ortner argues that although class appears to be an economically generated category, it is racially and ethnically constructed and same can be said for the other way round. She also critically engages with the term ‘middle class’ and what it contains. There is no sanitised form of “class” that exists. It continues to transform, break apart and gets reformed depending on the times we live in. There is no one constant characteristic of any class. Each person has their own way of categorising themselves and also separating themselves with other classes. This self-identification also has to do with the racial and ethnic identity of people which are clearly divided.

Where class has been considered objective category defined through the position in mode of production, race and ethnicity are natural and categories. She also mentions that class is not well understood by people as opposed to race and ethnicity. For race and ethnicity, everyone has some presuppositions about the particularity of behaviours, history, and culture of that group.

Ortner mentions that in the ethnography of Hollywood culture, the ethnic identity is not shared to be a contributing element to the insecurities among the filmmakers but rather a general personal economic insecurity. The author refused to account for the insecurity that comes with being Jewish. In the ethnographic study on Hollywood, an economic class is formed of particular ethnicity which is not given due analysis by the author.

Ortner highlights that some scholars argued that Jewish were not with middle class values but rather their economic success led to them having middle class values and this success was due to certain specific material and historical factors which included federal programs to support middle class, rather than cultural factors. She argues against this notion and attempts to even go the extent of possible calling the middle class to be inherently Jewish implying that all middle class has Jewish like values. This case was made through role of media, especially films, television and journalism which also contributes to the making of what we think as middle class and American culture and also that Jews dictated media and what being "American" means and what are the middle class values.

These questions about which (race/ethnicity and class) influenced what has also given rise to the debate on the genesis of capitalism itself. Where Weber claimed that it was credit to Protestants, Sombart contested that it was Jews after all.

Although Ortner continuously mentions that what constitutes class has forever being under transformation, there is an inherent assumption of what a particular class identity constitutes of. This essay nowhere clearly defines the what middle class identity or what Jewish values she is implying to, though there are certain references to an American dream but it appeared little too vague considering the project she undertook of dismantling the race/ethnicity and class separation in the literature.

The question here also arises on how do we talk about class in India? The middle class is formed of all kind of groups but a certain economic class in a certain domain is also ethnically divided. How to incorporate these in the Indian scenario? What is middle class here? What does media showcases?

2) Sherry Ortner: Subjectivity and Cultural Critique

Chapter 5 is more theoretical with philosophical undertones. Ortner attempts to provide a background on the creation of subjects within the discourses of freedom and constraint. How the subject exists if it does, and if it doesn’t then why? What other scholars have opined about this.

For Durkheim, "subject" was merely a tool through which "social" operated. It lacked "agency", for most part. Levi-strauss took away whatever little agency that Durkheim provided the "subject". Myths operate in men's mind without them being aware of it. “Freedom” here implies contained within the subject and “constraint” implies the social that bounds that subject. Arguments for structuralism were where individual seizes to hold control. Unconscious social takes precedence over conscious subject.

Bourdieu argued that subjects act within the limit of social structure, their habitus while Giddens - emphasised on agency. Ortner, in her essay is calling to focus on the human in the so called human science thus wants to bring back the focus on subjectivity. Also, she further mentions, that it is politically important. Agency is necessary to understand how people act when they are constantly acted upon. In that, she agrees with Giddens that actors are partially knowing. However, Ortner's analysis is in complement to Bourdieu's habitus and not a replacement of it. She uses subjectivity as both an individual's psychological sense (inner feelings, desires, anxieties, intentions etc.) and at larger cultural formation level.

Geertz defined culture as the worldview and ethos of a particular group of people, shared by all members of that group and culture process within philosophical and literary theory which emphasises on the construction of meaning, and of subjectivities though symbolic processes embedded in the social world.

Ortner argues against the first notion of Geertz "culture". Firstly, how can everyone share the same worldview and same orientation towards it, given the various forms of social differences and inequalities? And secondly, by seeing culture to be homogenous for a group, it also essentialises the group. That some single essence can define all of that one group. This essesntialism is catastrophic since one culture can be defined by acts of few and prejudiced accordingly. She agreed more with Raymond William who viewed culture as hegemony. Many studies have portrayed culture as a political critique. Many marginalised communities make meaningful lives for themselves within the groups that they inhabit. Culture is part of a shared history, identity, worldview and ethos. Culture is also, in some sense, resistance to the structures of dominations.

Weber argues that Protestant doctrines shaped the capitalist subjects. The doctrines about loneliness and fate both provided with the problem and the solution- to be involved in intense worldly activities, systematic self-control etc, which served to be a capitalist subject. Thus the argument that Ortner makes here is that cultural and religious subjects are produced by a complex set of subjectivities, feelings, fears etc. Weber discussed the ways in which Protestantism has shaped the consciousness of the early modern subject. The doctrine of predestination has the psychological bearing that one's fate is decided and it cannot be discovered. The agency from the individual is taken away and given to some remote entity.

Ortner uses the study by Jameson and focusses on the example of the hotel which can be seen as a metaphor for the postmodern world that we are living in. It lacks personalisation, is like a maze, over bearing and there is feeling of getting lost in this. There are no road maps here to guide guest. However, the guests seem to have retaliated since the colour coded signs were recently added indicating objection from some people. And this is where the agency of the individual exercised where the world is not taken for granted and questioned.

Ortner is trying to argue that late capitalism has profoundly affected the consciousness- job insecurity, no transparency in working culture, no longer engagement with the company, short term outsourced projects, bias against older workers. While this is the case that in this new regime of capital, confusion, lack of clarity, depression, indifference etc. form the subjectivities of the workers, agency is not absent in this chaos and indifference. Ortner agrees with Sennet that there is a need for coherent personal narrative. Individuals need to make sense of their own experiences and have a coherent narration of that. Ortner is arguing in her essay that focus should be on both, the state of mind of the actor and also cultural formations that shape that mind.

3) Stuart Hall : Who needs identity?

Hall begins by asking question around identity, what it is and 'who needs it'? Borrowing from the Derridian idea of a concept that is operating 'under erasure' looks at questions of agency and politics. Conceptualisation of identity is done using discourses of discursive and pschyoanaltics alongside of fields of semantics. While discursive approach looks at identity as an ongoing process, psychoanalysis along with semantics looks at identity as first form of association with another being.

Contextualisation of identity with the lens of historicity and power structures then becomes a product of 'difference and exclusion' rather than naturalist mode of seemingly 'identical'. Therefore identity is formed in context of the other rather than the similar. Hall also critics the homogeneity assumed in identity as it can never be all encompassing and the margins that lay within any identity formation and what it leaves out in process of identity formation. He recognises the duality of meeting point of 'discourses, practices, tradition' in the 'social' while also looking at individual 'subjectivities'.

In a postmodernist world, hall looks further away from the stabilised, unified and predictable identities to more fragmented identities. Identity as being plural, open ended and perhaps in conflict with one another. The idea of ideology and belief system which is overarching under the modes of socio-economic system that one is part of and the individual psychic lead to these complexities of identity formation.

4) Zygmunt Bauman: From Pilgrim to Tourist or a short history of identity

Bauman in the piece tries to reflect upon the question of identity from a vantage point of modernity and post-modernity. The primary argument is based on "If the modern 'problem of identity' was how to construct an identity and keep it solid and stable, the postmodern 'problem of identity' is primarily how to avoid fixation and keep the options open."

This is done through understanding and meaning making of pilgrim identity. Looking at various identities that one can take and discard in the notion of pilgrim. Understanding the concept of pilgrim is embedded in historic reference from the point of view of Catholic Christian where the pilgrim visit to city is not about the structures of the city but about meaning making with god. However the Protestants morphed the definition to ‘inner worldly pilgrims’ and embarked upon pilgrimage without leaving home. Using the metaphors of desert, journey and meaning making of identity of pilgrim to a vagabond or to stroller and that of tourist ambivalent nature of these identities is pointed out.

5) Chris Weedon: Subjectivity and identity

Weedon understands identity not as an accomplished fact, but a continuous process of reconfigurations and productions. Individuals are situated within specific discourses and they continue to perform modes of subjectivity associated with the same till the point that they are naturalized as a part of their lived subjectivity. The practices and positions that they assume come to define what it means to identify with a particular discourse, rather than the discourse defining the former. Identities may be socially, culturally and institutionally assigned whereby social and cultural practices produce discourses which solicit active identification and compliance on part of the individuals.

Identities are often internalized to the point that they are assumed repeatedly over the course of one's daily life. This is what Judith Butler defines as 'performativity'. Performativity should not be understood as a singular or deliberate act but a reiterative practice, where individuals are situated within specific discourses and they continue to perform modes of subjectivity in their daily lives, to the point that the effects of such performances and the practices are viewed as correlational and interchangeable. Through continued usage and performance of such functions and roles that are associated with certain identities, these subjectivities become internalized. Depending on the position of a particular identity in the broader societal power structure, these practices and themes of identification either seeps into and defines mainstream culture or become the basis of dis-identification and counter-identifications which seek to reject hegemonic identity norms.

Certain identities that are operational in society are not open to appropriation by everyone and are often restricted to specific groups that are segregated on the basis of distinct discourses. Non-identification by an individual leads to a sense of non-subjectivity, lack of association and thereby, agency. Consequently, s/he must fall back on subjectivities to which access is not stringently regulated. Mobility amongst these varying categories of identity is guided by the situational context in which individuals find themselves. Individuals navigate in between these identities, associating with those categories which would secure for them the maximum social advantages in a particular situation. In most instances, such decisions are motivated by an array of considerations ranging from the fear of dissociation from the group with which individuals seek associate, to establishing associative links with a collective for the purpose to attaining certain commonly acknowledged ends with which the individual can identify.

According to Weedon, identity can best be understood as a limited and temporary setting for an individual, situated within a specific type of subjectivity. Association with or identifying with a particular identity limits the possibility of multiple subjectivities and gives the individual a singular sense of self and belonging. The process involved in the formation of identities involves the familiarization of the subjects to the meanings and values that are associated with the discourse within which they engage. This enables them to attain certain subject positions on issues, which are viewed as absolute within the discourses with which they relate, thereby forging a strong sense of identification and association with others subscribing to the same values and positions.

Identifying with a particular discourse is founded on a certain pre-supposed degree of self-recognition and identification which is often defined in relation to what one is not, making the entire manner of identifying, relational. Usually, these are drawn out in the form of binarized understandings of the ‘other’, whereby differences constitute the primary plan along which the self is asserted. These differences are usually linked to language, class, race, ethnicity, gender and other markers of differentiation.

In certain instances, identities operate along multiple planes of differentiation simultaneously, as is visible in the case of national identity. Such identities tend to establish preponderance of the majoritarian discourses surrounding different planes of identification ranging from culture, language, ethnicity and religion through questionable historical corroborations. These constructed histories are subsequently extrapolated onto the larger social order without accounting for the experiential divergences that exist across different communities and spaces, more often than not to perpetuate hegemonic domination by establishing a hierarchical relationship between ‘superior’ and ‘subordinate’ groups. The identity of the majoritarian self is thus founded upon the segregation of the other. However, the effects of globalization and the growing accessibility of spaces across nation states have challenged the notions of identity that are purported by nation states.

Nimisha, Surya and Priya