The business of caste in India (livemint.com/Wall Street Journal)
“[A]s the country debates the idea of a caste-based census and policymakers grapple with the possible political ramifications of such data-gathering, the relevance of caste as an economic entity remains intact, says Tirthankar Roy, professor at the London School of Economics and the author of Company of Kinsmen, a book that examines how enterprise and entrepreneurial communities adapted to globalization.”
“Claiming that economic cooperation was the basis of defining caste, Roy says that ‘these (caste-based) groups are protecting access of outsiders to assets—be it skills, people, capital... sometimes successfully, sometimes not. They are guilds, rooted in blood, rather than rules. The ties run so deep that if anyone breaks a business rule, they can be excommunicated from the community.’”
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