Uneven Odds: Social Mobility in Contemporary India

Social mobility research has held a central place in the sociological analysis of industrialized countries of the west, particularly with regard to the study of stratification systems, their forms, and processes. The research on India has however been mostly scattered. The lack of systematic research in this area implies that we do not have a sense of the precise amount of social mobility in contemporary India, and the changes such mobility has had on social structures over time and across demographics. This book draws on national level datasets and quantitative methods to understand the multiple strands of social mobility or the lack of it, by focusing on the overlapping identities of social class, caste, and gender in both rural and urban context. It investigates the contemporary processes and drivers of mobility, and appraises the role of education in supporting or preventing increased upward social mobility by concentrating on those groups that are disadvantaged from this very opportunity. It also takes into account the impact of liberalization on social mobility and argues that mobility today is differentially patterned on the basis of local and global identities.