Introduction
The expansion of the market economy post-liberalization has transformed Indian social stratification from a closed, ritual hierarchy into a fluid, hybrid class-caste matrix. While scholars like Dipankar Gupta point to the delinking of ritual status from economic position, market forces have simultaneously allowed traditional social inequalities to reinvent themselves in modern, secular spheres.
1. Reconfiguration of Class and Labor Markets
The post-reform era altered traditional occupational structures, yet modern market forms continue to be mediated by inherited social capital.
- The New Middle Class and Merit: Satish Deshpande observes that liberalization birthed an assertive New Middle Class (NMC). However, Carol Upadhya's empirical research on the IT sector demonstrates that cultural capital—cosmopolitan fluency, social poise, and English proficiency—is frequently coded as objective 'merit', subtly entrenching upper-caste hegemony within modern corporate corridors.
- Agrarian Capital and Informalization: Dominant agrarian castes, as conceptualized by M.N. Srinivas, successfully leveraged rural surpluses into urban entrepreneurial ventures. Conversely, Barbara Harriss-White demonstrates that India's informal capitalism remains 'socially regulated' along primary caste identities, while displaced subaltern rural labor is pushed into insecure forms of 'footloose labor' (Jan Breman).
2. Dalit Capitalism: Agency versus Structural Friction
Market integration has offered subaltern groups new avenues for agency while presenting deep structural hurdles.
- The Market as an Equalizer: Organizations like the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), founded by Milind Kamble, advocate 'Dalit Capitalism' to transform marginalized individuals from job-seekers to job-givers. Proponents like Chandra Bhan Prasad argue that competitive markets break down traditional patron-client feudal dependencies.
- Capital Constraints and Network Exclusion: Aseem Prakash's empirical work reveals that Dalit entrepreneurs encounter systemic 'caste-ascribed friction'. Despite enterprise and ambition, structural barriers persist in obtaining formal credit, accessing prime supply chains, and entering elite business cartels.
3. Market Biases and Class Polarisation
Rather than dissolving social hierarchies, market mechanisms often refract existing group disparities into sharp class divides.
- Hiring Discrimination: The resume-audit study conducted by Sukhadeo Thorat and Paul Attewell evidenced persistent private-sector bias, demonstrating that identical resumes with Dalit or Muslim identifiers received substantially fewer interview callbacks than upper-caste equivalents.
- Wealth Concentration: Data from Oxfam reveals severe wealth disparities, with the top 10% holding roughly 77% of total national wealth. This highlights how market-driven class polarization frequently maps onto pre-existing social vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
Rather than liquidating traditional social hierarchies, the Indian market economy has facilitated what D.L. Sheth terms the secularisation of caste. In this modern landscape, historical ritual supremacy is repurposed into modern class advantages, ensuring that market mobility remains unevenly distributed along historical lines of privilege.