“Write short note: Relative deprivation.” (2000)
Relative deprivation is the sense of being worse off measured against a standard of comparison, not against an absolute level of need. Grievance depends less on what people have than on whom they compare themselves with.
Origin in The American Soldier
- Samuel A. Stouffer and his colleagues (The American Soldier, 1949) used the idea to explain puzzling Second World War army surveys.
- Military Police had very poor chances of promotion, yet were more satisfied with promotion. The Air Corps had the fastest promotion but the most complaints about it. Where many were promoted, those left behind felt passed over; where few rose, nobody expected to.
- Married draftees felt a greater sacrifice than unmarried soldiers, because they compared themselves with married civilians left at home.
Merton’s reformulation
- Robert K. Merton and Alice S. Kitt (later Rossi), in “Contributions to the Theory of Reference Group Behavior” (1950), argued that Stouffer’s scattered uses of the term all rested on one mechanism: comparison with a reference group.
- The frame could be a membership group (fellow airmen) or a non-membership group (civilians). Choosing a higher non-membership group encourages anticipatory socialisation, but in closed structures it breeds frustration.
Later refinements
| Scholar | Contribution |
|---|---|
| W. G. Runciman, Relative Deprivation and Social Justice (1966) | Deprivation exists when a person lacks X, sees others with X, wants X and thinks it feasible. Egoistic deprivation is felt as an individual against one’s own group; fraternalistic deprivation is felt on behalf of one’s group against other groups. Narrow comparisons muted English workers’ class resentment. |
| James C. Davies (1962) | J-curve: revolt follows a period of rising gains that is suddenly reversed. |
| Ted Robert Gurr, Why Men Rebel (1970) | Political violence follows the gap between value expectations and value capabilities: decremental, aspirational or progressive deprivation. |
Indian relevance
- M. S. A. Rao (Social Movements in India, 1978) used relative deprivation to explain backward-caste and sectarian movements.
- Dominant landowning castes show fraternalistic deprivation. With stagnant farm incomes and scarce salaried jobs, Patidars (Gujarat, 2015), Jats (Haryana, February 2016, when about 30 people died) and Marathas compared themselves with OBC beneficiaries. Maharashtra’s SEBC Act, 2024 granted Marathas 10% reservation. In September 2025, after Manoj Jarange’s fast in Mumbai, the state agreed to issue Kunbi (OBC) certificates on the basis of the Hyderabad Gazette.
Limits
- Resource mobilisation theorists such as John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald (1977) note that grievances are constant; organisation and opportunity decide whether they turn into protest.
- T. K. Oommen and Ghanshyam Shah argue that the approach ignores ideology, consciousness and the sources of deprivation.
- Reference groups are often inferred after the event, which risks circularity.
Conclusion
Relative deprivation shows that discontent is socially constructed through comparison. It explains why prosperous groups mobilise while the poorest stay quiet, but needs structural and organisational analysis to predict when grievance becomes collective action.