Globalization and the Caste System in India

Mimi Winters

Abstract

India has experienced significant economic growth as a direct result of globalization even during the current global economic crisis. Yet many argue that this success does not reach all levels of Indian society. Indeed, some argue that globalization has actually had a negative impact on the lowest members of Indian society, the Dalits. This paper explores both sides of the argument by briefly explaining India’s 3,000-year-old caste system and its influence or lack of influence on the reduction of poverty among the Dalits.

Globalization and the Caste System in India

India is becoming one of the most significant players in the world economy today. Its rapid economic growth can be contributed to its increasing role in the global community. “Economic liberalization, including industrial deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, began in the early 1990s and has served to accelerate the country's growth, which has averaged more than 7% per year since 1997” (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012, para. 3). India’s GDP was estimated at $4.463 trillion with a real growth rate of 7.8% and $3,700 per capita in 2011 (2012, para. 14). A majority of this success can be directly contributed to globalization. Although growth is expected to slow due to the global economic crisis, India is still experiencing a positive versus a negative growth rate (United Nations Regional Commission, 2009). India has a large English-speaking population and as such has become one of the world’s major countries that exports both information technology services and software workers (2012, para. 14). “In 2010, the Indian economy rebounded robustly from the global financial crisis - in large part because of strong domestic demand” ( 2012, para. 15).
However, what has been the impact of this economic growth on India’s social or caste system, in particular, the Dalits, the poorest of its social class? Why is India continuing to experience such economic growth in the midst of its other pressing problems? This paper will examine the enigma of India by examining the effects of globalization on India’s caste system, in particular, its effects on its lowest members, the Dalits.
The Enigma of India
India is indeed an enigma in that it is experiencing such charismatic economic growth while continuing to struggle with pressing political, social, and environmental problems (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012). Part of the enigma is that India continues to believe in an ancient and unequal caste system which separates its citizens into categories by both employment and social relevance (Teltumbde, 2010). The Central Intelligence Agency recognizes the enigma of India. They discuss this puzzle when they point out the following:
In January 2011, India assumed a nonpermanent seat in the UN Security Council for the 2011-12 term. Despite pressing problems such as significant overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and widespread corruption, rapid economic development is fueling India's rise on the world stage. (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012)

Nevertheless, these pressing problems do not mean that globalization had not brought economic success to India (Wax, 2011). A brief examination of a few of India’s problems will present a better understanding of why India’s global economic success amidst its caste social order is considered such an enigma.
India has the world’s largest democracy (Devraj, 2004). Yet, it is still devastated by overpopulation and poverty. With its recent economic success, it has seen 400 million of its citizen’s move into the middle class, which in actuality is just a small percentage of its population. Nonetheless, as its middle class has increased, so has its poverty statistics, primarily due to one of its major problems, overpopulation. It has experienced a huge population explosion in recent years (2004, para. 1). The 2012 population statistics indicate that India’s population is at 1.2 billion with 617 million males, 572 million females and a youth population under the age of 25 at 64.7%, the youngest of any nation (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012, para. 4). Of the 64.7% of Indians under the age of 25, 10.5% of them are unemployed. Hence, although experiencing increased global economic profit, it has also experienced an increase in population and an increase in unemployment, which has subsequently led to an increase in poverty. In the middle of India’s population, unemployment, and poverty increase, are members of varying social order or caste, which is based on a system of social stratification. Many refer to this social stratification as India’s caste system.

India’s Caste System
What is a caste system in a society? John J. Macinois (1995) in his book entitled Sociology, believes that caste systems are closed with limited movement (p.125). He explains a caste system by defining it as the following: A caste system is social stratification based on ascription. Pure caste systems are "closed" with no social mobility. The Hindu social system of rural India is an example. In such systems, four factors underlie social life: birth determines one's occupation, the hierarchy is kept intact through endogamous marriages, powerful cultural beliefs support the system, and members of different categories are kept apart. Caste systems are typical of agrarian societies. A rigid sense of duty and discipline are critically important in such societies. Industrialization increases personal choice and individual rights, but does not end social stratification. (Macinois, 1995, p. 125)

In India, a system of social stratification still exists (Rothermund, 2008, pp. 162-175). Birth determines how members of the society are classified and that classification, in turn, determines occupation (2008, p. 162). The social practice of marrying only another member of the same caste guarantees the continuation of the system (2008, p. 163). “The higher a person’s caste, the more that person is blessed with the benefits and luxuries life has to offer” (Satterlee, 2009, p. 46).
India’s caste system has four distinct categories. These categories are as follows:
• Brahmins or the priests [also known as the highest or forward community]
• Kshatriyas or the king-warrior class
• Vaishyas or the merchants, farmers, Sutras laborers, craftspeople
• Harijahns or the “untouchables,” [also known as Dalits and are considered to be from the lowest or backward community]. These individuals are believed to be descended from the Harappan aboriginal people. They are extremely poor and discriminated against. (Satterlee, 2009, p. 46)

The Harijahns[also known as the Dalits] or ‘untouchables’ are governed by a system of ‘untouchability’ which governs and limits access to education, employment, and geography (Rothermund, 2008, p. 170). Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same glass, attend the same schools, own land, or even enter the same facilities as those of the Brahmin, Kshatriyas or Vaishyas communities, however, they are allowed to work for landowners within the higher communities (2008, p. 169). Rough estimates indicate that more than 1.3 million Dalits – mostly women – are employed as manual scavengers to clean human waste from dry latrines and their living standard is also very low with a per capita income of Dalit is 39 US dollar as compared to 240 US dollar, national per capita income (Mandal, 2010, p. 157) . According to Rothermund (2008), this created a ‘stigma of untouchability’ among this community (p.170). He describes this stigma when he writes the following:
The social practice of ‘untouchability is certainly the most offensive feature of a caste-based society. The stark reality behind this practice is the permanent relegation of the Untouchables to menial work such as scavenging, the removal of carcasses, etc. Association with this type of work meant that anybody not belonging to this underprivileged community would be defiled by touching them. (Rothermund, 2008, p. 170)

However, this classification also allowed the Dalits to earn the rights of India’s affirmative action laws, which have been in place in India’s constitution since the early 1950’s (Panagariya, 2008).
This social stratification is also a result of India’s Hindu cultural and religious belief in dharma. “The Hindu faith does embody a definitive view of the right type of social order: dharma. The connotations of the term are manifold. It can mean cosmic law as well as the specific law regulating human conduct” (Rothermund, 2008, p. 165). Although many members of India’s higher caste order argue that it is not based on religion, but on occupations and professions, this practice determines occupation and employment based on its member’s ‘place’ in society (2008, p.163).
Dletmar Rothermund (2008) describes the relevance of Hindu religion and its impact on India’s caste system (p.164-165). He maintains its significance by pointing out the following:
The Hindu scriptures not only emphasized inequality as such but also prescribed the norms, which would help to preserve it. Thus, they contained rules concerning marriage, which would prevent mixed marriages, since these would upset the social order. There is a simple formula in Hindi: Roti aur beti (bread and daughter). It means that caste is defined by the rules, which tell me with whom I am permitted to eat and to whom I should marry my daughter. The rule of commensality is of crucial importance for daily social life…The rule of connubiality determines the life of the future generation. It is crucial for the maintenance of the caste system, because if marriages were no longer arranged by the parents and love marriages prevailed, caste would soon be irrelevant (Rothermund, 2008, p. 163).

Globalization and the Dalits. Within India itself, one of the greatest debates is over globalization and its influence on equality, poverty reduction, and educational access, especially among the Dalits of India’s caste system. Rothermund (2008) argues that India’s Dalits are underprivileged and that even with the increase of global economic growth, this community has remained poverty stricken and undereducated (p. 171). He acknowledge that “the [Dalits] constitute about one sixth of the Indian population” thereby making poverty reduction a greater challenge (2008, p. 171). Rothermund also recognizes that although “the traditon of the subjection of a large part of the population cannot be easily overcome with a few decades, there has been considerable progress in recent time” with the advent of globalization (2008, p. 174).
Arvind Panagariya, on the other hand, feels that “even an accelerated growth improves the status of all, including the Dalits, [even if] it may be accompanied by proportionaltely larger increases in the income of the rich” (Panagariya, 2008, p. 157). He argues that India’s reduction in poverty should not be studied in terms of the social communities or caste in the country, rather it should be studied geographically, urban versus rural. He supports his position when he points out the following:
Growth has pulled up the living standards in both the rural and urban sectors. More important, it is only through rapid increases in urban incomes that the rural population will be absorbed into gainful employment in the urban areas. Rather than slow the reform process [of globalization] for fear that the rural poor [dalits] will be left behind, the experience so far favors accelerating it. As long as rural-urban migration offers an avenue for rural workers to compete for the jobs in the urban sector, there is no reason to suppress growth in the latter to reverse the process (Panagariya, 2008, pp. 166-167).

Using this distinction, Panagariya argues that the dalits who remain in rural areas have the opportunity to take advantage of global economic growth by moving from the rural unskilled laborforce to urban semi-skilled and skilled labor (2008, pp. 160-167). Most Dalits currently live in rural areas of India. Under Panagariya’s argument, increase in the income of Dalits is simply a matter of the Dalits’ willingness to advance themselves by moving from rural communities to the urban sector.
However, Anan Teltumbde (2010) disagrees with Panagariya and feels that globalization, in genral, has caused greater harm to the Dalits. He supports his argument when he points out the following:
There is no doubt that globalization has had adverse impact on dalits. How much of it is due to their being a part of secular poor and how much to their dalithood however is not clear. There is a strong feeling that castes will be weakened with the spread of globalization. Purely, going by the empirical evidence, particularly with regard to caste atrocities, however, there seems to be no weakening at all (Teltumbde, 2010).

Panagariya (2008) disagrees and argues that globalization has caused an increase in both urban and rural wages in India and that [any] “increase in inequality that has taken place in an environment of generally rising incomes” (p. 166) does lend itself to any increase in dalit income since any reduction is poverty is better than no reduction at all. In fact, the mostly rural Dalits inequality of income has remained unchanged or declined while urban inequality [among all caste members] has only increased by 10 to 12 percent (2008, p.166). If they factor in affirmative action programs for Dalits or untouchables, then in fact urban-migrated Dalits may be faring better as a result of globalization than some of their higher community counterparts (Meredith, 2007).
The Case for Education “India has capitalized on its large educated English-speaking population to become a major exporter of information technology services and software workers” (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012, p. para. 14). However, these educated and English-speaking communities are typically those of the Bharmin and Kshatryas communities and include only a limited number of members of the Vaishyas or Dalit communities (Meredith, 2007).
As stated earlier, India’s GDP was estimated at $4.463 trillion with a real growth rate of 7.8% and $3,700 per capita in 2011 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012). However, of the 487.6 million in their labor force, 52% are in agriculture, 14% in industry, and 34% are in service and they continue to have an unemployment rate of 9.8% with 25% of the population below the poverty line(2012, para. 14). Only 3.1% of the GDP is contributed to education which has resulted in a literacy rate of only 61% with 73.4% males (over the age of 15) and 47.8% female and total years of education at only 10 years (2012, para. 14). “Despite the Indian elite’s reputation for educational success, 35 percent of all Inidians are illiterate” (Meredith, 2007, p. 128).
In a 2008 article in the Times of India notes that India's illiterate population equals all the people in USA (Varma, 2008). The writer summarizes India’s educational disparity when he points out the following:
India has one of the biggest education systems in the world. On a typical day, roughly 290 million students are attending classes somewhere. That is more than the total population of any country in the world, except China, India, and the US. However, it still leaves over 380 million people illiterate. That is the largest number of illiterates in any one country. Experts and policy makers cite many reasons to explain why so many have been left behind by the country's education juggernaut. Apart from the pervasive curse of poverty, which forces young people to quit studying and start working as early as possible, there are also issues of social imbalances. There is a disadvantaged section, which finds it difficult to get access to educational opportunities, and thus gets left out. Thus, women, scheduled castes and tribes, agricultural laborers and small farmers, all have lower literacy rates, lower enrollment ratios, and higher dropout rates at various levels (Varma, 2008, p. para. 1 and 5).

Nonetheless, this lack of access to education has not caused India to loose in global business performance. “India’s medium-term growth outlook is positive due to a young population and corresponding low dependency ratio, healthy savings and investment rates, and increasing integration into the global economy” (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012, p. para. 15). Indeed, from a globalization perspective, India continues to capitalize on being major exporters of information technology services and software workers, especially since most of its elite, English-speaking caste system members make up most of that market (2012, para. 15). Emily Wax (2011) writes, “An estimated 86 percent of technology workers at multinationals and large Indian outsourcing firms come from upper castes or wealthy middle castes” (p. 156). For example, the majority of Indians living in America and Britain are from the upper castes communities because they have greater access to education and work visas (2011, p. 156). Yet, lack of education among the Dalits means lack of access to the education necessary to attain globally advanced employment opportunities.

Conclusion
Conclusions then are ambiguous. On the one hand, because India keeps its caste based system, members of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and even some members of the Vaishyas communities should continue to see economic growth from a global perspective. On the other hand, the lack of educational access and inequality of employment, infer that until there is more equal opportunity in both areas, the Dalits will continue to see little if any reduction in poverty. Emily Wax (2012) agrees noting that the advent of globalization has increased the opportunities for the Dalits in the private sector (p.156). She points out the current influence of globalization on the Dalits when she writes the following:
Recruiting drives aimed at hiring members of India’s unprivileged castes, who make up 70 percent of the population, remain rare in the subcontinent’s booming service sector. But as India hurtles into world markets, such hiring has touched off a larger debate over the country’s 3,000-year-old caste system. (Wax, 2011, p. 156)

The debate is over affirmative action programs for Dalits. “India has long had an affirmative action program for federal government jobs, setting aside 23 percent of positions for the most oppressed castes” (Wax, 2011, p. 156). Some Indian nationals argue that these affirmative action programs “call too much attention to caste” (2011, p. 157). They feel that “deeply impoverished public schools that don’t teach English or even have enough funding for up-to-date books” as the primary reason for the continuation of the caste system in India (2011, p. 157). Nonetheless, Wax (2011) notes that globalization and current Indian affirmative action programs have increased access to private and public sector employment opportunities (p. 157). She points to how affirmative action and globalization have helped when she writes the following:
Still, affirmative action has helped pull tens of thousands of people out of abject poverty and into universities and government jobs, while creating a small Dalit middle class that many hope will expand along with India’s economy. [However], it also has given rise to a new kind of struggle, as other low-ranking groups known here as the “backward caste” protest that their government designation isn’t “low-caste enough” to make them eligible for job set-asides (Wax, 2011, p. 157).

Panagariya’s point, then, may very well be a valid one. Globalization is having a positive rather than negative impact on India’s caste system including the Dalits. Along with existing affirmative programs, Dalits are given opportunities greater than they had prior to the increased global economic growth. Even Wax acknowledges that multinational private sector companies hiring in India are being encourage to include Dalits in their hiring opportunities both abroad and at home (Wax, 2011, p. 156). These opportunities, as a direct result of globalization, have opened more doors of opportunity that previously available to the lower caste system members. India’s globalization efforts should be accelerated and not suppressed (Panagariya, 2008). After all, a little bit of success beats no success at all.
This paper concludes then that although the reduction of poverty among the Dalits has been minimal, it has allowed for opportunities that did not exist prior to its inception. Globalization has in fact had a positive impact on India’s caste system, including its lowest caste members, the Dalits.
[see comments after references]

References

Central Intelligence Agency. (2012, June 20). The World Factbook. Retrieved from Central Intelligence Agency: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html
Devraj, R. (2004, December 13). Human rights day: India's 'untouchables' complain of neglect. p. 1. doi:762567311. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=762567311&Fmt=3&clientId=20655&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Macinois, J. (1995). Social Stratification. In J. Macinois, & J. J. Macinois (Ed.), Sociology. Old Tappan, New Jersey, USA: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Mandal, B. C. (2010). Caste discrimination, deprivation, and the socio-economic development of Dalits. Voice of Dalit, 3(2), 149-166. doi:2324864361. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=2324864361&Fmt=6&clientId=20655&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Meredith, R. (2007). The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What it Means for All of Us. New York, New York, USA: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Panagariya, A. (2008). India: The Emerging Giant. New York, New York, USA: Oxford University Press.
Rothermund, D. (2008). Caste in a Changing Society. In D. Rothermund, India: The Rise of An Asian Giant (pp. 162-175). New Haven and London, Conneticut and England, USA/UK: Yale University Press.
Satterlee, B. (2009). Cross Border Commerce. Roanoke, VA, USA: Synergistics Inc.
Teltumbde, A. (2010). Globalization and Caste. Voice of Dalit, 3(2), 101-137. doi:2324864341. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=2324864341&Fmt=6&clientId=20655&RQT=309&VName=PQD
United Nations Regional Commission. (2009). The Economic and Financial Crisis: Regional Impacts, Responses and Solutions. ECA, ECE, ECLAC, ESCAP, and ESCWA, United Nations Regional Commissions . Bangkok: United Nations Regional Commission. Retrieved June 3, 2012, from http://www.un.org/regionalcommissions
Varma, S. (2008, Juy 6). India's illiterate population equals all the people in USA. The Times of India, p. 1. Retrieved June 28, 2012, from http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-07-06/special-report/27899926_1_illiterate-population-countries-education
Wax, E. (2011). Unequal access: India's lower castes are seeking a toehold in the global job market. In F. Maidment, & F. H. Maidment (Ed.), Internation Business: Annual Edition (16th ed., pp. 156-157). New York, New York, USA: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Retrieved June 5, 2012. Hi Nancy:
You did a good job delineating the goals you set at the beginning of the paper. Your writing was satisfactory. This being an international business class, I would have liked to have seen a bit more about the macro-economic effects of the caste system in India. Your APA violations hurt you. The use of an automated reference tool did not always produce correct APA.
Grade = 88% or 220 out of 250.