Book: Caste As Social Capital
Author: R. Vaidyanathan
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 162
Very recently, the Bihar Government has brought the issue of the Caste Census to the forefront, as it carries a significant impact, as it helps in understanding the social dynamics of the society and as a result the nation better, which can bring a significant difference in the policy-making and implementation.
Caste is a topic that emerges regularly in our country, especially when the elections are coming in various states and on the central level as well in the upcoming year. And this, caste becomes the day-to-day conversation everywhere. But what we see mostly is the social, religious, and political aspects of caste, and the economic factor takes a backseat in that conversation. And thus, this book initiates it.
Caste As Social Capital by Professor R. Vaidyanathan provided the perspective of caste from the lens of business, economics, and entrepreneurship and its importance in finance, markets, and the workforce. The author provides a qualitative view of caste and represents the age-old institution of the caste system in a new light of representation.
Through the help of various data, surveys, research, census, reports, and examples, the author shares his views, observations, and suggestions on various topics, including reservation, creamy and non-creamy layer, employment, its social capital role, service sector, and of course politics.
The author through the support of literature, presents a perspective of caste that many people do not want to see and acknowledge. Its importance increases in the present scenario because all the policies that we have work on the data that were collected decades ago, neglecting the ever-changing situation of society. Thus, the perception of caste through the lens of caste becomes important, which is rightly shown in the book.
Although I was not able to understand a few topics and at some points, the data was overflowing. Also, caste is very dynamic and complex, and thus understanding it through a particular lens can ignore the other aspects, as it doesn’t work in a vacuum. As Nandini Bhatia rightly said in the review of the book in Business Standard, “Balancing financial security across castes and classes may be important, but it cannot exist in isolation without achieving social security of castes and classes.” And I cannot express it better than that.
I was provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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See Also: Highway To Swades by Bhairavi Jani
Being the Change- In The Footsteps of the Mahatma by Ashutosh Salil and Barkha Mathur
Open Book – Not Quite A Memoir by Kubbra Sait
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