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Understanding Economic Inequality Through the Lens of Caste

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Abstract

Research on economic inequality has largely focused on understanding the relationship between organizations and inequality but has paid limited attention to the role of institutions in the creation and maintenance of inequality. In this article, we use insights from the caste system—an institution that perpetuates socio-economic inequalities and limits human functions—to elaborate on three elements of economic inequality: uneven dispersions in resource endowments, uneven access to productive resources and opportunities, and uneven rewards to resource contributions. We argue that economic inequalities persist because these three different elements of inequality feed from and reinforce each other. Our study underscores the potential of the caste lens to inform research on economic inequality as well as organizational theory and practice.

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Notes

  1. Equality of opportunity or equal access is often considered as equity in non-business literatures. However, organizational researchers have used equity to refer to disparities in rewards. For a discussion on this, please see Alamgir and Cairns (2015) and Bapuji and Mishra (2015).

  2. Although some scholars have tried to merge the concepts of Caste and Class, such efforts ignore the intricacies that make them distinct from each other. Both caste and class allude to stratifications in society, but they segregate groups in different ways. While the caste system is legitimized through ritualistic authority, the class system is solely based on wealth and power (Dumont 1980). However, some scholars have argued that social stratification is only one feature of class (Hyman 2006). Class in society is established on the construction of identity and social significance of diverse economic groups through the conflicts and relationships between them, reconciling the “‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ dimensions of class structure” (Hyman 2006, p. 33). While certain aspects of caste system manifest in society similar to the class system, its primary distinction is the segregation based on the sacred, ritualistic and ethnic differences. Another divergence between class and caste is social mobility (Mondal 2014). An individual may be born into particular social class, but there is no restriction to mobility to other classes. Such mobility might be hard, but is not impossible. On the other hand, upward mobility in caste is impossible even when “lower” castes pursue non-traditional occupations or achieve political and economic power. Further, the caste system is organic and biological, while class is ‘segmentary’, where divisions of class are driven by competition (Mondal 2014; Leach 1960).

  3. Throughout this paper, we italicize many words that have an origin in Sanskrit language and provide their approximate English equivalent or a brief description as necessary.

  4. The term Dalit is a recent invention. In the past, they were called achoot or untouchables. During the Indian freedom struggle, Gandhi attempted to alleviate untouchability by referring to them as harijans (meaning the children of God). This imposition of a label was resisted by Dr. Ambedkar, a Dalit social reformer and politician, who renamed “Untouchable” to “Dalit” or the oppressed.

  5. Reliable data on population shares of various castes are not available because the census data have not been made public. Also, castes are clubbed together for various purposes. For example, both upper castes (i.e. brahmins, kshatriyas, and vaisyas) and a number of castes that have better socioeconomic standing have been termed as forward castes for the purposes of affirmative action.

  6. While “lower” castes seek mobility through sanskritization, “upper” castes seek social mobility through westernization. For example, the orthodox Brahmin’s perception of western norms is associated with ritual impurities; however, the western world is economically and politically powerful, thus, making them imitable (Saha 1993). This accounts for Brahmins’ accommodation of western culture and practices to remain relevant in modern society.

  7. According to National Crime Records Bureau of India, there were a reported 71 cases of such killings in India in 2016. However, Honour Based Violence Awareness Network estimates that 1000 such killings occur in India each year, while 5000 occur around the world.

  8. Census conducted during the British colonial rule have arguably codified and formalized the numerous sub-castes (jatis) into various schedules, a practice that continued in Independent India.

  9. Our own examination of the data from Socio Econimic and Caste Census 2011 (secc.gov.in) revealed that 4.25% of the total households in India fell under the category that owned ‘2.5 acres or more irrigated land with at least one irrigation equipment’ whereas only 1.28% of the Dalit households fell into that category.

  10. In a rare exception, one temple has recently appointed a few Dalits and other “lower” castes as priests (Philip 2017).

  11. In explaining the interlinkages between the various elements of economic inequality, we excluded the processes of value creation and distribution within firms and other economic entities, which influence dispersion in rewards. This is because our interest is primarily to contribute to the theorization of the broader construct of economic inequality rather than focus only on income inequality. Also, other scholars (e.g. Bapuji 2015; Bapuji et al. 2018; Cobb 2016; Cobb and Stevens 2016; Cobb and Lin 2017) have examined the processes within firms that contribute to uneven dispersion of rewards, and the consequent income inequality.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the handling editor Prof. Raza Mir and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions. The authors would also like to thank W.E. Douglas Creed, Krishna Udayasankar, Charlene Zietsma, and Michael Zyphur for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. This paper also benefitted from the comments of participants of Organisation Studies Research Workshop at the University of Melbourne, as well as anonymous reviewers of AOM and IABS conferences. The authors express their gratitude to all of them.

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  1. Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Hari Bapuji & Snehanjali Chrispal

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  1. Hari Bapuji
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  2. Snehanjali Chrispal
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Correspondence to Hari Bapuji.

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Bapuji, H., Chrispal, S. Understanding Economic Inequality Through the Lens of Caste. J Bus Ethics 162, 533–551 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3998-8

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