jains, caste and hierarchy in north Gujarat

Abstract

Scholarship on caste has paid insufficient attention to alternative ideologies of caste, such as found in Jainism. and to understandings and practices of caste among the merchant castes that occupy a dominant position in the so-called middle ranges of caste hierarchies. This article looks at caste practice from the perspective of the Jain merchant castes of north Gujarat. Jain castes are excellent examples of the middle-range castes that have always created intractable problems for theories of caste. This article looks at understandings of inter-caste rankings between Jain merchants and non-Jain Brahmans, and shows how different religious understandings of purity combined with a merchant valorisation of mercantile activity results in the Jain merchants ranking themselves higher than Brahman non-merchants. It looks at intra-Jain and inter-caste interactions, and shows how merchant values of an urban and mercantile lifestyle are ranked higher than a rural and agricultural lifestyle. It then looks at intra-Jain. intra-merchant level practices, and shows how wealth and urban residence result in a superior ranking. In conclusion, the article argues for an understanding of caste that does not assume a single ideology and ranking system across the subcontinent. Instead the work of Charles Malamoud. T.N. Madan and Rodney Needham is used to advance an understanding of caste that starts with a sensitivity to contexts of time, place and person.