31, August 2026
Caste, Community, and Social Harmony: A Sociological Reading of Indian Knowledge Traditions
Author(s): Dr. Ashu Ram
Authors Affiliations:
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology,
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan
DOIs:10.2017/IJRCS/202608009 | Paper ID: IJRCS202608009Abstract
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Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the sociological understanding of caste and community in Indian knowledge systems and social harmony. Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) are contested systems of inheritance, and there are hierarchy, communitarian, devotional, heterodox, reformist and anti-caste traditions within them. Caste was depicted in classical sociological terms such as hierarchy, endogamy, occupation, ritual status and segmentation, and in postmodern terms, through social mobility, political economy, colonial classification, gender and democratic assertion. The paper summarizes the history of how caste communities have been used as markers of identity, means of livelihood (the occupation), sources of mutual assistance, sources of local regulation, and a source of dignity and social belonging, but also as restricting mobility and source of untouchability and inequality. It then looks at the counter traditions corresponding to the Buddhism and Phule-Ambedkarite thought, Bhakti and Sant tradition and the modern constitutional morality. But recent survey evidence shows a high level of mixing in terms of friendships and marriages between public tolerance and social closure. Survey findings indicate that there is considerable overlap between the public and social tolerances when it comes to friendships and marriages. The paper suggests that the idea of sustainable social harmony cannot coexist with the traditional hierarchical system. Any IKS framework that is justifiable in the social sense should differentiate between community solidarity and caste domination and reinterpret, through the lenses of dignity, equality, fraternity, dialogue and constitutional rights, inherited knowledge. This will allow an examination of Indian traditions as living tools to understand Indian society, and an opportunity for critical examination of power and exclusion.
Keywords: Indian Knowledge Systems, caste, community, social harmony, sociology, Ambedkar, Bhakti, social stratification, constitutional morality.
Dr. Ashu Ram (2026); Caste, Community, and Social Harmony: A Sociological Reading of Indian Knowledge Traditions, International Journal of Research Culture Society, ISSN(O): 2456-6683, Volume – 10, Issue – 8, Available on – https://ijrcs.org/