Which sociologist developed the concept of Sanskritization to describe a specific pattern of social mobility in India?

M. N. Srinivas. Sociologist M. N. Srinivas developed the concept of Sanskritization to describe a specific pattern of social mobility in India. Read more: Sanskritization and the Dominant Caste: M. N. Srinivas's Theory.

Caste as a Tool of Social Stratification

Caste is often called India’s most distinctive form of social stratification. What that actually means has changed a great deal over time.

📑 Contents

1Ritual Status, Reform, and Caste’s Continuing Relevance
2Urbanization, Political Mobilization, and Caste-Class Mismatch
3Test Yourself
4Evolving, Not Static, and the Affirmative-Action Debate
52026: The Supreme Court Clears the Way for India’s First Caste Census Since 1931
6Previous Year Questions

✊ Must Know

1. Ritual Status, Reform, and Caste’s Continuing Relevance

Definition Social stratification refers to how a society ranks its members hierarchically, and caste has historically been India’s most visible such system.
Caste Features Caste traditionally combined ritual status, occupation, and endogamy, meaning marriage within one’s own caste group. It once determined access to land, education, and public spaces far more rigidly than it typically does today.
Legal Reform Constitutional and legal reforms, including reservations and anti-discrimination laws, were designed specifically to weaken caste-based stratification.
Why Caste continues to shape political mobilization, marriage patterns, and social networks in much of contemporary India, even as its economic grip has loosened somewhat.

📘 Good to Know

2. Urbanization, Political Mobilization, and Caste-Class Mismatch

Urbanization Effect Urbanization and market-driven employment have weakened caste’s control over occupation in many, though not all, parts of India.
Instead Caste-based political mobilization has, in some cases, empowered historically marginalized groups by giving them organized electoral influence.
Instead Caste and class do not always align: some historically lower-caste individuals have achieved considerable wealth, while some upper-caste individuals remain poor.

Test Yourself

📝 Test Yourself

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💎 Great to Know

3. Evolving, Not Static, and the Affirmative-Action Debate

Takeaway Caste as stratification is best understood as evolving, not static: its social force has shifted across regions, generations, and economic contexts.
Instead Debates continue over whether affirmative-action policies should be based on caste alone, or should incorporate economic criteria as well.
Link Comparing caste to other stratification systems worldwide, such as race-based hierarchies, highlights both shared patterns and important differences in how each system operates.

📰 Current Affairs

4. 2026: The Supreme Court Clears the Way for India’s First Caste Census Since 1931

SC Ruling On 10 April 2026, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant heard a plea seeking to halt the upcoming caste census. The bench dismissed it (Source: Akashvani News, 10 April 2026).
What’s Happening The 2027 Census will include caste enumeration for the first time since 1931, and will be India’s first fully digital census. Enumeration runs across two phases, between 2026 and February 2027.
Earlier Ruling On 2 February 2026, the Court had also declined to hear a separate challenge to how caste data would be recorded, classified, and verified.
So what This article’s own account of caste as a stratification tool is about to face its most direct empirical test in nearly a century. That test comes once the count and its data are actually released.

📝 Previous Year Questions

UPSC Mains 2024, GS Paper I, Q9: Intercaste vs. Interreligious Marriages

Mains PYQ Asked to discuss why intercaste marriages between castes of socio-economic parity have risen, but interreligious marriage less so.
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UPSC Mains 2023, GS Paper I, Q19: Caste Identity, Fluid and Static

Mains PYQ Asked why caste identity in India is both fluid and static.
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UPSC Mains 2022, GS Paper I, Q18: ‘Sect’ Versus Caste, Region, and Religion

Mains PYQ Asked to analyse the salience of ‘sect’ in Indian society vis-a-vis caste, region and religion.
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UPSC Mains 2020, GS Paper I, Q8: Has Caste Lost Its Relevance?

Mains PYQ Asked whether caste has lost its relevance in understanding multi-cultural Indian society.
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UPSC Mains 2018, GS Paper I, Q8: Caste’s New Identities and Associational Forms

Mains PYQ Asked to comment on caste assuming new identities and associational forms, and whether it can be eradicated in India.
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