M.N. Srinivas
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077459
- eISBN:
- 9780199081165
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077459.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter notes that the hierarchical system of caste was compounded by another hierarchical system based on the possession of differential rights in land. There was a two-way relationship between ...
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This chapter notes that the hierarchical system of caste was compounded by another hierarchical system based on the possession of differential rights in land. There was a two-way relationship between landownership and caste rank. Traditionally, ownership of land conferred respectability and prestige, and this was translated into caste rank. In contrast, a high ritual rank unaccompanied by landownership produced anomalous situations. Patron-client relationships stemmed directly from possession of differential rights in land. All those who worked for a landowner, tenants, servants, and labourers on the one hand, and members of the artisan and servicing castes on the other, tended to become his clients. The landownership pattern, and caste and lineage systems provided the basis for factions. The division of a village into two or more mutually opposed factions was a permanent feature of rural social structure.Less
This chapter notes that the hierarchical system of caste was compounded by another hierarchical system based on the possession of differential rights in land. There was a two-way relationship between landownership and caste rank. Traditionally, ownership of land conferred respectability and prestige, and this was translated into caste rank. In contrast, a high ritual rank unaccompanied by landownership produced anomalous situations. Patron-client relationships stemmed directly from possession of differential rights in land. All those who worked for a landowner, tenants, servants, and labourers on the one hand, and members of the artisan and servicing castes on the other, tended to become his clients. The landownership pattern, and caste and lineage systems provided the basis for factions. The division of a village into two or more mutually opposed factions was a permanent feature of rural social structure.
