Reproducing Difference? Schooling, Jobs, and Empowerment in Uttar Pradesh, India

Summary

This article examines the role of school education in reproducing caste and class inequalities in rural Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Drawing on Bourdieu’s work, the article shows that a rural elite has used its superior wealth, connections, and social status to ensure that their sons receive privileged access to schooling credentials and government employment. The greater availability of formal educational opportunities allied to the political rise of lower castes has allowed a small group of Dalits to raise their social standing, but has failed to alter historical relationships of dependence and exploitation.

Introduction

Rural north Indians are increasingly seeking prolonged schooling for their sons with a view to obtaining off-farm incomes. A rising rural middle class has been in the vanguard of this change, but the expansion of rural schooling is also affecting substantial sections of the poor. In large parts of rural north India, a shift is occurring from a direct mode of reproduction, wherein resources are passed on within households through the transfer of property at inheritance, to mediated reproduction, in which the provision of educational credentials and social networking skills is increasingly significant (Bourdieu, 1996).

In spite of the importance of these dynamics and their implications for understandings of development, there has been rather little research conducted on the impact of schooling on processes of social differentiation in South Asia. Much development research has considered the role of education in generating “human capital” (e.g., Krueger & Mikael, 2001) often through focusing on children’s access to lower primary schooling (Grades I–V) (e.g., Drèze and Sen, 1995, Govinda, 2002, World Bank, 1998). But issues of power, social change, and the meanings attached to education have not been adequately explored (see also Heyneman, 1980). This article addresses this research gap through exploring how schooling beyond Grade V (upper primary and secondary schooling)¹ reproduces, transforms or undermines patterns and processes of social inequality in a single village in rural Bijnor district, western Uttar Pradesh (UP). Drawing on field research conducted by the three authors in 2000–02, we argue that the expansion of upper primary and secondary education is reinforcing inequalities based upon caste and class in western UP while also allowing some Dalits (ex-Untouchables) to challenge established structures of power.²

The next two sections outline the political economy of schooling and employment in UP and the theoretical basis of our enquiry. Section 4 introduces the setting of our research and methodology. In Section 5, we explore the schooling and employment strategies of the locally dominant Jat caste and relatively marginalized Chamars (a Dalit caste) in Nangal village. We uncover the role of secondary schooling in entrenching rural inequalities based upon caste and class. Jats have been more successful than Chamars in the search for educational credentials and salaried employment. Section 6 focuses on the occasional success of educated Chamars in the search for government employment and the social implications of this mobility. Section 7 summarizes our argument and draws out the wider implications of our study for an understanding of social reproduction and development.