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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Avenues of caste mobility in traditional Indian society

  • UPSC 1996
  • Caste System

The Dharmashastric model made caste rank unalterable, and Louis Dumont (Homo Hierarchicus, 1966) grounded it in an unchanging opposition of purity and pollution. Village ethnography found the opposite: rank was contested constantly. Traditional society had no channel for an individual to rise, but several through which a group could.

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What the full answer covers

  • Ritual emulation
  • Power, land and arms
  • Space and the frontier
  • Exit through sect and conversion
  • Marriage, fission and record
  • Conclusion

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