Govind Sadashiv Ghurye made important contributions to understanding caste in India through his book Caste and Race in India, published in the early 1930s. In this work, he studied the caste system from three key perspectives: historical, comparative, and integrative. He highlighted two main points in his research on kinship and caste.
First, Ghurye noted that the kin and caste networks in India had similarities with those in other countries. He argued that caste was not an entirely unique feature of Indian society but had parallels in other Indo-European cultures. For example, the gotra and charana in India are kin-based categories that help systematize rank and status among people. These categories were derived from the names of ancient sages, who were considered the founders of these groups. In India, descent was often traced not through blood relations, but through spiritual lineage from these sages. This spiritual descent is also seen outside kinship networks in the guru-shishya (master-disciple) relationship, where the disciple takes pride in being connected to a spiritual master.
Second, Ghurye emphasized that the kinship and caste networks in India served as an integrative framework for society. The evolution of Indian society involved integrating diverse racial and ethnic groups through these networks. Caste and sub-caste systems brought people together into a ranked order, based on norms of purity and pollution. The rules of endogamy (marriage within one’s own caste) and commensality (eating with members of the same caste) helped organize people into a collective whole, despite the divisions between different castes. The Hindu religion played a central role in providing the guidelines for this integration, with the Brahmins playing a key part in legitimizing caste ranks through their interpretation of the Dharmashastras, which were sacred texts containing religious codes.
In conclusion, Ghurye’s work demonstrated how kinship and caste networks in India functioned not only as a system of social division but also as a means of integrating different groups into a larger societal framework.
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