Abstract
Despite having outlawed the caste system and the concept of untouchability in 1947, caste identity remains a cornerstone of social, political and economic life in India. Like other social institutions, educational institutions are the reflection of caste prejudices and discrimination. The recent inclusion of lower castes through the reservation system (affirmative action) has changed the nature of higher education. Based on an ethnographic account of a university campus and students’ perceptions about caste issues, the authors suggest that the structure of higher education in India is designed in a manner that exacerbates, instead of ameliorates, tensions of class and caste. Using Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital, the paper defines the existing campus culture as a ‘caste culture’. The text concludes that elite institutions do not yet guarantee the capability to overcome existing caste prejudices and stereotypes, regardless of structural attempts at reform.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agar, M. H. (1980). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnography. New York, NY: Academic Press.
Ambedkar, B. R. (1989). Essays on untouchables and untouchability. Writings and speeches. Bombay: Government of Maharashtra Press.
Baviskar, A., & Ray, R. (2011). Elite and everyman: The cultural politics of the Indian middle class. London: Routledge.
Behar, R. (1996). The vulnerable observer. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Bergquist, W. (1992). The four cultures of the academy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Blunt, E. (1946). Social service in India: An introduction to some social and economic problems of the Indian people. London: His Majesty’s Stationary Ofce.
Bourdieu, P. (1973). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In R. Brown (Ed.), Knowledge, education, and cultural change: Papers in the sociology of education (pp. 71–84). London: Tavistock.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Homo academicus. (P. Collier, Trans.). 1988. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press.
Fernandes, L. (2006). India’s new middle class: Democratic politics in an era of economic reform. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Guru, G. (2009). Rejection of rejection: Foregrounding self-respect. In G. Guru (Ed.), Humiliation: Claims and context (pp. 209–225). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kumar, V. (2016). Discrimination on campuses of higher learning: A perspective from below. Economic and Political Weekly, 51(6), 12–15.
Nathan, R. (2005). My freshman year: What a professor learned by becoming a student. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Spring, J. (2015). Economization of education: Human capital, global corporations, skill-based schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.
Thorat, S. (2006). Paying social debt. Economic and Political Weekly, 41(24), 2432–2435.
Tierney, W. G. (1999). Models of minority college-going and retention: Cultural integrity versus cultural suicide. The Journal of Negro Education, 68(1), 80–91.
Tilak, J. B. G. (2013). Higher education in trishanku: Hanging between state and market. In J. B. G. Tilak (Ed.), Higher education in India: In search of equality, quality and quantity (pp. 391–407). New Delhi: Orient Black Swan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pathania, G.J., Tierney, W.G. An ethnography of caste and class at an Indian university: creating capital. Tert Educ Manag 24, 221–231 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2018.1439998
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2018.1439998