Sanskritisation

 In Context 

• M.N. Srinivas, an eminent social anthropologist, produced a detailed explanation of the phenomenon of Sanskritization in ‘A Note on Sanskritization and Westernisation (Far Eastern Quarterly, 1956)’.

What is Sanskritisation?

• Sanskritisation referred to the lower castes’ adoption of the practices and rites of the locally dominant caste in a particular region, which included Brahmin and non-Brahmin castes, who were politically powerful, socio-economically influential and ritually higher in the local caste hierarchy.
• Sanskritisation became a process through which mobility in caste positions/roles became possible for certain castes. 
  • But for Dalits, this process did not guarantee higher social stature nor lead to any improvement in their everyday life. 
    • Other factors such as economic well-being, political power, education, and establishment of literary/historical evidence for their affiliation to/descent from a particular caste/caste lineage were also important for their aspirations for higher social positions.

Models of Sanskritization

• Sanskritization also needed a medium to transmit in society. There were mainly three modes in which it took place in society. These are:
  • Cultural Model
  • Varna Model
  • Local Model
• Cultural Model
  • Castes have been assigned high or low status according to cultural characteristics. 
  • Example wearing of sacred thread, denying the use of meat and liquor, observing endogamy, prohibition of widow remarriage etc.The low castes or tribes imitate the culture, beliefs, values and lifestyles of the dominant caste so as to get the status equal to the upper caste.
• Varna Model
  • In the Varna system the highest status is given to that of a Brahmin followed by Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra.  The lower castes cope with the ideals and lifestyle of the superior castes. Where the Kshatriyas enjoy superiority, the lower castes followed their lifestyle and ideals. Simultaneously where the vaishyas enjoy superiority, the lower castes followed their lifestyle and ideals.
• Local Model
  • In every area, some castes are considered to be more respectful than others on account of their economic power. This caste can be referred to as the  “dominant caste”. So the lower caste copies the lifestyle of the local dominant caste in order to improve their status.

Critics to Sanskritization Theory

• Sanskritization fails to account for many aspects of cultural changes in the past and contemporary India as it neglects non-sanskritic traditions. Sanskritic rites are often added to non-sanskritic rites without replacing them.
• The motive force behind sanskritization is not of cultural imitation per se but an expression of challenge and revolt against the socio economic deprivations.
• Sanskritisation is not a universal process.

Source:TH