Kaitlyn Smith

SOC-161-104
India Social Conflict Approach
Term Project (Final Copy)

The mental picture that most people have of India is one that includes snake charmers,
belly dancers and beautiful mosques (including the famous Taj Mahal). However, the real India
is not always so charming and picturesque. Any experienced traveler who has been to India will
tell you that many places cater especially to tourists. But it only takes a few steps off the beaten
path for you to suddenly find yourself in a much more unfamiliar, not-so-picturesque, and
sometimes savage country.
Like many other nations, India is plagued by a certain degree of inequality between
social classes as well as inequality between genders. Social Conflict Theorists argue that
inequality is actually implemented into the culture itself and then maintained over time by the
respective ruling class of each society, creating a self-running system that keeps the ruling
class in power and the subordinate class complacent and in line. This often includes
implementing a false consciousness, by teaching citizens untruths so they believe that things
are as they should be, and making them unable to recognize that they are being oppressed
and mistreated by the ruling class. The ruling class uses its control of national resources, power
and influences to maintain dominance over the subordinate class; and if that doesnt work,
brute force is always an option.
India is a very large, very diverse melting pot of different cultures. It is known for being a
world leader in exports such as textiles, precious metals and precious stones. It is also known
for its famous caste system, which breaks the population into classes ranging from the highest-
ranking Brahmins (priests and nobles), to the Sudras (unskilled workers), to the Untouchables
who are considered to be outside/below the normal caste system. The caste system ensured
division of labor, keeping the wealth and knowledge base confined within a specific caste (inter-
caste marriage was forbidden back then) and acted as a guild for skill training necessary to be a
functional member of your class.
The caste system is actually almost a perfect example when it comes to explaining social
inequality as defined by social conflict theory. People who violated social norms could be
stigmatized by being made untouchables, and a false consciousness was implemented to
ensure that people stayed within the caste they were born into. In order to move up the ladder
to a better caste, you must live an honest, virtuous life in your own caste. Those who do, have
the chance to be reincarnated (born again) into a better caste after they die. Its an effective
strategy to encourage good behavior and compliance with laws and customs designed by the
ruling class or else. However, it is conveniently (for the ruling class) impossible for anyone to
know if someone ever even did manage to be reincarnated into a higher caste. It was, and still
is, an assumption based on faith.
With increased urbanization, the caste system eventually became obsolete, and
discrimination based on caste is now legally forbidden. People now discriminate in other ways.
The modern political system in India is a union of states a Sovereign, Secular, Democratic
Republic with a Parliamentary system of Government, but many of the cultural values and
ideas of modern India implemented by the caste system are still present in the modern,
underlying structure of the society. Because culture is the "operating system, anything that
stems from it will be made in its image, and therefore the social structure of a society will
usually be consistent with the values, beliefs and social norms dictated by culture. In India, this
includes a certain degree of gender inequality.
India is chiefly a patriarchal (male-dominated) society. Women are typically more
submissive and are viewed as the weaker sex, both physically as well as spiritually. They are
encouraged to be shy, timid and homebound while men are taught to be outgoing and tough.
Sons in Indian families are taken significantly better care of than daughters. They are fed more,
and given better health care. Many parents regrettably will turn a blind eye to their sick
daughters, only seeking help once nothing can be done, either because they cant afford
treatment or simply out of cold neglect. >Women, by tradition, eat last and eat less (almost
1,000 calories a day less, according to one statistic). This leads to many health problems among
the female population including anemia as well as developmental problems due to
malnutrition. >The number of female deaths per year in India vastly outnumber those of men
(almost 300,000 more a year), with one in six infant deaths being a direct result of gender
discrimination (feticide, in other words).
Along with other countries like Afghanistan and Haiti, India struggles with high illiteracy
rates. >As per the 2011 census, the literacy rate for the country was under 75%, with a
significant difference between the literacy rates of men versus those of women, with the gap
becoming more pronounced every year. Women in India are far less likely than men to be able
to be able to read, write, or even attend school. Part of the problem that fosters illiteracy is
simply the eclectic nature of the country itself. Hundreds of different languages are used
throughout India (including Hindi, Bengali and English), along with thousands of different
dialects. Because of the variety in the languages and dialects, creating a generalized standard to
be taught in schools would be extremely difficult. Many people dont believe that being literate
is even necessary, because knowledge and trade skills are shared and passed down through
generations of a family.
With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census (a statistic that
has most likely only gone up since 2011), India is the second-most densely populated country in
the world, second only to China. India also contains the largest concentration of people living
below the World Banks International Poverty Line (about fifty percent of the population); this
means that the many citizens live on approximately, or less than, $1.25 U.S. dollars per day.
About twenty-five percent only make between $0.50 and $0.75 a day. And you think living in a
trailer park is bad. This extremely large, poverty-stricken class has remained mostly constant
throughout the history of the country, back to the days of the caste system. Forty-eight percent
of children less than five years old in India are underweight, and half of them suffer from
chronic malnutrition. Slavery is also a huge, problem; with approximately 18 million people in
India enslaved in some way or another. However, most Indians dont even know that its going
on, and it is said to get a blind eye from the Indian government.
Meanwhile, Indias economy (regarded as one of the fastest-growing in the world),
agricultural program and business class have grown exponentially, from being essentially
nonexistent to being some of the best in the world. Indias famous Bollywood sub-culture has
also greatly influenced the development of pop culture as well as the media industry.
Globalization has played a major part in the development of India. Globalization, which is
defined as the process of increased interconnectedness among the economics, politics and
culture between countries, has had a direct effect on the rapid expansion of Indias trading
empire. Things like the internet and social networking have made trade and interaction
between countries just as easy as interacting with a next-door neighbor, and many Indians are
beginning to adopt more westernized ideas (also known as Americanization). So why is half the
nation still starving, illiterate, enslaved or living in poverty?
On one hand, you have to look at India from an economic perspective. There is no
question that India is massively overpopulated. A billion children standing on each others
shoulders would stretch past the moon. Now imagine adding a few hundred million more,
having to feed them, clothe them and provide them with equal opportunity for education and
later, employment. Thats a lot of resources. A LOT of resources. Believing that there are not
enough resources to go around is a reasonable assumption, and it is what many people choose
to believe. However, these precious resources are often internationally distributed to the
highest bidder, rather than to the citizens of the country who really need it and are already
struggling to survive and feed their families with less than a dollar a day (which is unfair enough
as it is).
The educational system in India is also skewed in favor of the wealthy and upper class.
Quality of education is largely dependent on the quality of available resources, and when those
resources are not being provided, except to those who can pay top-dollar for them, the lower
classes end up getting the short end of the stick, as it were. The educational systems that are
available to the poor are typically low-quality government schools that dont necessarily offer a
substantial education, but rather only what is deemed necessary by the Indian government, or
what is most cost-efficient. With half the country living on approximately a dollar a day, the
lower class citizens obviously dont have enough money to fully reimburse the providers of
these resources, so the money would have to come out of government pockets. The best
educational resources are reserved for and are more accessible to the upper class, as well as
more accessible to men, ensuring that the wealth and knowledge base of the upper class stays
exclusive to the upper class or preferred citizens. So the money endlessly circulates within the
upper class, and who even cares about the poor as long as theyre not causing trouble?
Prior to this assignment, I knew little about the social structure of modern India. I have
long been familiar with the concept of the caste system, as well as some of the nations
religious practices, including reincarnation and the significance of the Ganges. However, I was
unaware of how rapidly the nation has developed over the last few decades, as well as the
extent of the poverty and inequality within the society, or how it is more a direct result of
underlying political issues rather than economic ones. Through exploring social conflict theory,
which highlights inequality between classes, it is easy to see how everything could just be part
of a web woven around the agendas of the ruling class (and this idea can be easily applied to
more places than just India, including the United States).