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Status Seekers in India: A sociological study of the neo-Buddhist movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

A. Bopegamage
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Extract

In every stratified society there are groups of people, mainly from the lower strata, who aspire to rise in social status. In order to realize their aspirations they adopt various means: some change their occupation for one carrying more prestige; some give their children a good education and try to place them in positions superior to their own; some emulate the behaviour and style of life of those whose higher status they aspire to reach; some try to gain admittance to the social circles mostly frequented by high-status people; some change their residence and some surround themselves with status symbols hoping that they will influence the ‘raters’ appraising them. For this process which goes on among various low-caste groups in India, Srinivas, an Indian sociologist, coined a separate term, ‘sanskritization’. With the opening of the doors by many under-developed societies for the introduction of modern technology and industrialization, status seeking has become one of the preoccupations of millions of people.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , May 1979 , pp. 19 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1979

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References

(1) Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of the Leisure Class (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1925)Google Scholar; Packard, Vance, The Status Seekers: An exploration of Class Behaviour in America (London, Longmans, Green, 1960)Google Scholar; Srinivas, M. N., A Note on Sanskritization and Westernization, The Far Eastern Quarterly, XV (1955–1956), 492–496Google Scholar; Bopegamage, A. and Kulahalli, R. N., Sanskritization and Social Change in India, European Journal of Sociology, XII (1971), 123–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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(6) The Census of India, 1971, Religion, Series I, Paper 2 of 1972.

(7) By Brahminism he meant ‘not the power, privileges and interests of the Brahmins as a community, [… but it is] the negation of spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity’. See, Keer, Dhananjay, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and mission (Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1962), p. 302Google Scholar.

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(9) This is one of the twenty-two oaths one has to take during the conversion ceremony. See Dhamma Deeksha, New DelhiBuddhist Society of India, 1959Google Scholar; Ambedkar, B.R., Annihilation of Caste (Bombay, The Bharat Bhushan Press, 1944)Google Scholar; The Untouchables (New Delhi, Amrit Book Co., 1948)Google Scholar; Thus Spoke Ambedkar: Selected speeches, compiled by Das, Bhagawan (Jullunder, Bheem Patrika Publication, Vol. I, 1963 and Vol. II 1969)Google Scholar.

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(14) Census of India, 1931, Vol. XVII, Punjab, Part I, p. 294Google Scholar; Darling, Malcolm Lyall, Wisdom and Waste in the Punjab Villages (London, Oxford University Press, 1934), PP. 258Google Scholar, 266.

(15) The percentage distribution of th e data gathered from 112 informants were as follows: because of Dr. Ambedkar (16.07 per cent); to be with one's own people (9.82 per cent); ill-treatment by the Hindus (33.00 per cent); removal of untouchability (5.33 per cent); liking for Buddhism (19.64 per cent); progress (1.78 per cent); my own wish (0.89 per cent). See Adele M. Fiske, Social Research, op. cit.

(16) Mayer, Adrian C., Caste and Kinship in Central India: A village and its region (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960)Google Scholar; Bopegamage, A., Delhi: A study in urban sociology (Bombay, University of Bombay, 1957), p. 103Google Scholar. We have noted this point in some of our field studies conducted in the western region of India.

(17) The Untouchability [Offences] Act, 1955, was the first direct step taken by the Union Government against untouchability. Under it, enforcement of religious disabilities such as non-access to places of worship or of social disabilities like non-access to shops, water courses, Dharmasalas (rest house for pilgrims), etc., or abetment of such acts is a cognisable offence punishable by imprisonment which may extend up to six months or by a fine extending to five hundred rupees, or both.

(18) Bopegamage, A. and Kulahalli, R.N., Caste and Occupation in Rural India: A Regional Study in Urbanization and Social Change, Rural Sociology, XXXVII (1972), 352–388Google Scholar.

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(20) Here we have added the percentages of rows two, four and five in the last column.

(21) This is a socio-religious movement founded in Karnatak by Basava, a Saivaite Brahmin, in the twelfth century A.D.

(22) Davids, T.W. Rhys, Buddhism (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1887), pp. 56–79Google Scholar; Narasu, P. Lakshmi, The Essence of Buddhism (Madras, Srinivasa Varadachari, 1907), p. 70Google Scholar.

(23) Zelliot, Eleanor, op. cit. pp. 50–51, 67Google Scholar.

(24) Bopegamage, A. and Veerahaghavan, P.V., Status Images in Changing India (Delhi, UNESCO/New York, Humanities Press, 1967)Google Scholar.