Opinion No longer caste in stone

Enter economic liberalisation. Since liberalisation,the urban middle class,historically made up of upper castes,has become more diverse. Although the lower castes are still underrepresented,their numbers have increased gradually. While diversity doesn’t necessarily mean a more inclusive society,our research finds that the same economic opportunities that have allowed for the financial success of lower castes have opened the door to increasing social integration through intermarriage.

To better understand intermarriage,we studied the preferences of Dalit and upper caste women in the urban,middle class,arranged-marriage markets in three states: Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. We examined women’s preferences because they adopt the caste of their husbands and stand to either gain or lose caste through intermarriage.

We contacted prospective brides with matrimonial interests from three similar men who matched on family background,age,height,skin colour and education. All three grooms were from upper-middle-class backgrounds. But each belonged to a different caste category: Dalit,backward and upper caste,respectively.

What did we learn? Contrary to popular belief,62 per cent of our 1,070 Dalit and upper caste participants were willing to look beyond their own caste category while responding to matrimonial interests. Our interviews with women in the marriage market indicate that this willingness might be even greater if prospective brides could make decisions independent of their families. These findings reflect a trend we found in newspaper matrimonial ads placed in dailies published in Delhi,Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata: whereas in the 1980s,28 per cent of ads contained a specific request for a partner of a particular caste,by 2010,only 19 per cent of ads contained such a request.

Why are people willing to cross caste boundaries in the marriage market? We found that in a highly status-conscious society,many people approached the marriage market with a view to upgrade either their economic class or caste status. But,like any other market,the marriage market works on the principle of exchange; to get something,one has to be able to offer something. An upper caste,middle class woman could use her high caste status to upgrade her economic status by marrying a wealthier lower caste man. Similarly,a Dalit woman from a wealthy family could aspire to a caste status upgrade through marriage by leveraging her class status. Although an expression of matrimonial interest does not necessarily translate into a marriage,even considering an inter-caste match represents social change. After all,to consider someone as a life partner,one has to acknowledge the person and their family as respectable.

Even though interest in intermarriage is high among our respondents,not surprisingly,upper castes are more reluctant to intermarry than Dalits; 71 per cent of Dalit and only 54 per cent of upper caste women responded to expressions of interest from outside their own caste. We also found that the shadow of caste-related stigma persists; the Dalit profile was the least likely to elicit a response from potential brides,reminding us that social transformation takes time. But there is no denying that today,a fierce desire to move up the status ladder is challenging the significance of caste.

The writers are at the departments of political science at the University of California,Santa Barbara and Berkeley,respectively