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VOL. 10, ISSUE 2 (2025)
What comes after caste? social order, moral regulation and the search for stability in Post-Traditional Indian Society
Authors
Dr. Dheeraj Pratap Mitra
Abstract
Caste has long worked as the deepest organizing force of Indian society
shaping everyday life through inherited status, moral expectations and shared
ideas about belonging. It did more than rank people. It quietly regulated
behaviour, limited choices, provided a stable, if unequal, social order. In
recent decades, however, this structure has begun to weaken. Economic change,
education, migration and the spread of market life have reduced the everyday
power of caste rules even as caste identities continue to appear in politics,
religion, and public debate. This shift raises a difficult question that is
often avoided as what holds society together when caste no longer performs its
earlier role, and no equally strong system stands in its place? This paper argues
that India is not moving toward a casteless society but toward a
post-traditional condition marked by moral uncertainty, fragile social bonds
and unstable forms of regulation. As caste weakens as a lived structure, gaps
emerge in moral guidance, community support, shared expectations etc. producing
anxiety rather than simple freedom. These gaps are only partly filled by the
market, the state and political identity, each of which regulates social life
in limited and uneven ways. Drawing on classical social theory and contemporary
Indian experience, the paper shows how caste has shifted from an everyday
system of regulation to a symbolic and institutional presence that still shapes
life chances without providing social stability. The argument moves beyond debates
about the survival or decline of caste to focus on the deeper problem of social
order asking how Indian society seeks balance, meaning, continuity in the
uncertain space that follows the weakening of its most enduring structure.
Pages:65-73
How to cite this article:
Dr. Dheeraj Pratap Mitra "What comes after caste? social order, moral regulation and the search for stability in Post-Traditional Indian Society". International Journal of Advanced Educational Research, Vol 10, Issue 2, 2025, Pages 65-73
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