Contributed articles.

Filippo and Caroline Osella, anthropologists who spent three years in rural Kerala, south India, write about the modern search for upward social mobility: the processes involved, the ideologies that support or thwart it, and what happens to the people involved. They focus on the caste called Izhavas, a group that in the mid-19th century consisted of a small land-owning and titled elite and a large mass of landless and small tenants who were largely illiterate and considered untouchable, and who eked out a living by manual labor and petty trade. In the 20th century, Izhavas pursued mobility in many social arenas, both as a newly united caste and as families. The work considers how successful the mobility has been and looks at the effects on their society of an ethos of progress. Distributed by Stylus. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Affirmative Action, Commonly Alluded To As Reservation, Is One Of The Few Policy Instrumentalities Provided In The Indian Constitution To Peck A New Socio-Political Order Based On Equality And Justice. On The One Side, The Policy Seeks To Compensate For The Unprecedented Discrimination Heaped On The Marginalized Sections Of The Society, And On The Other Side To Empower And Integrate These People With The Mainstream Society, In A Sense To Oversee Their Transformation From The Status Of Subjects Under Ancient Regimen To That Of Citizens In A Modern Democratic Polity.This Book Traces With Brilliant Analytical Clarity The Impact And Consequences Of Reservation On The Scheduled Caste In Kerala.. What Is The Degree And Extent Of Their Social Mobility? Have These People Achieved Social Acceptance And Integrated With The Larger Society? Is There A Caste Differential In Mobility Among Them? What Is The Role Of Elected Sc Representatives In The Decision Making Process? What Is The Extent Of Their Political Mobility?These Are Some Of The Specific Issues Addressed In The Book. And This Makes It An Essential Reading For Those Who Are Interested In Understanding The Implication And Impact Of Reservation And, In A Sense, The Working Of The Indian Constitution For The Last Half A Century.

Since the Independence (1947), India has undergone profound social, political and economic transformations driven by the agrarian reforms in the 1950s, the Green Revolution in the 1970s and the neoliberal turn in the 1990s. While these changes have undeniably contributed to the economic development of the country, it is less clear to what extent better opportunities for social mobility opened up to individuals and groups of individuals historically disadvantaged by their caste affiliation. Large-scale studies of social mobility in India have been limited by the lack of intergenerational data and the impossibility to disaggregate caste categories into jatis (birth-ascribed endogamous groups). Using unique data at the individual level of the entire population of Palanpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, surveyed seven times from 1958 to 2015, this thesis aims at verifying whether the social mobility has increased over time and whether the caste, at the jati level, continues to prevail as a factor of social stratification. We combine a longitudinal analysis of trends, patterns and determinants of social mobility over three generations of individuals with a qualitative analysis of 102 semi-structured interviews carried out during six months fieldwork. We find evidence of social mobility increasing but mainly downward and horizontal from the agrarian classes toward the class of daily manual workers. The upper classes maintain a comparative advantage in terms of social stability, but secondary education increasingly equalizes the chances of upward mobility. However, access to education remains sensitive to economic inequalities and social origins. Globally, the influence of caste on the social destination has diminished for all, regardless of class of origin and level of education. Moreover, although historically disadvantaged castes still have relatively lower chances to access the salariat class, a perception of empowerment emerges among lower castes who were previously dominated by large landholders. Ultimately, caste would partly dissociate from class, and power would shift from the ritual sphere to the economic sphere. Beyond this case study, the thesis develops an original approach of mixed methodology and a comprehensive analysis of the material and subjective dimensions of mobility and intersectionality.