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SOCIAL INTERACTION IN AN INDIAN VILLAGE
Author(s) -
BOSE SANTI PRIYA
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9523.1967.tb00551.x
Subject(s) - caste , urbanization , prestige , social class , sociology , metropolitan area , social relation , social group , social status , socioeconomics , geography , economic growth , social science , political science , economics , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , law
Summary Social Interaction in an Indian Village The data presented in the study suggest that caste plays a significant role in the patterns of social interaction in Indian society. In seeking one's friend, in inviting people to a wedding, and in visiting, a villager chooses more often a person of his own caste than of his educational or landownership category. In conviviality‐groups people of the same caste tend to gather together. While this is true of the village it would not be correct to say that the caste system is immutable. Our data gathered in a middle‐class area in the metropolitan city of Calcutta present a different picture. Here caste is the least important as a determinant of social interaction. In the city, income appears to have a greater influence. Most people living in the city came not more than one or two generations ago from the village where the caste system was strong. But through the influence of urban living they have changed their patterns of social interaction. Wealth and prestige have now become important and caste has been relegated to the background. It appears that the efforts of the planners have not yet succeeded in changing the patterns of social interaction in the Indian village. But there seems to be no reason why this pattern will not change with increased urbanization.