Introduction

Sociologists and social anthropologists studying social structures are generally impressed by the fact that social inequality is a universal feature. Even those who talk of equality in ideological terms acknowledge the existing inequalities and forcefully advocate the desirability of an egalitarian society. Such a society is their dream, not an existential reality.

In all societies—simple or complex—power, or prestige, or even property (in fact, all kinds of wealth) is unevenly distributed in its populace. There are both biological and sociological differences that account for this disparity.

Biologically, the population is divided into (i) various age groups—from infants to aged citizens; (ii) different genders—male, female, and transvestites and eunuchs (although censuses conflate the third category with males); (iii) different races and ethnic groups; and (iv) people with different health statuses such as healthy, sick and physically challenged. These biological differences are also ‘culturally’ evaluated and ranked. To these are added the sociological differences expressed in terms of various status positions and their rank order in the context of a sub-system (or a group), and the ranking of sub-systems.

Such ranking of inequality in the social context is termed social stratification. In this and subsequent we shall focus on this phenomenon—summarize the major theories advanced, explicate associated concepts, and dwell on some concrete systems of social stratification—classes and the caste system.