Conflict, caste and resolution: a quantitative analysis for Indian villages

Vani Borooah, Anirudh Tagat () and Vinod Mishra

Indian Growth and Development Review, 2019, vol. 13, issue 2, 319-338

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative assessment of caste-based conflict in India. The data for this paper are from the Rural Economic and Demographic Survey (REDS) of 2006 encompassing 8,659 households in 242 villages in 18 Indian states. Design/methodology/approach - Using these data, the authors examine two broad issues: the sources of conflict in rural India and the degree to which these sources contribute to caste-basted, as opposed to non-caste-based conflict; the sources of conflict resolution in rural India: are some conflict-resolving agencies more effective at dealing with caste-based conflicts and others more effective with non-caste-based conflicts? Findings - There was a rise in caste-based conflict over the (approximate) period 1996-2006. There are several reasons for the rise in caste-based conflict but, in the main, is the rise in assertiveness of persons belonging to India’s lower castes. In terms of conflict resolution, panchayats and prominent individuals were important in resolving village conflicts: 69 per cent of caste-based, and 65 per cent of non-caste based, conflicts were resolved by one or the other of these two agents. Originality/value - This is the first attempt, using econometric methodology, to study caste conflict at a village level in India.

Keywords: India; Caste; Conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
Working Paper: Conflict, Caste, and Resolution: A Quantitative Analysis for Indian Villages (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:igdrpp:igdr-08-2019-0087

DOI: 10.1108/IGDR-08-2019-0087

Access Statistics for this article

Indian Growth and Development Review is currently edited by Professor Chetan Ghate, Professor Prabal Chowdhury and Professor Prabal Chowdhury

More articles in Indian Growth and Development Review from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().