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Status, Caste, and Market in a Changing Indian Village

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  • Ram Manohar Vikas
  • Rohit Varman
  • Russell W. Belk

Abstract

When social and economic conditions change dramatically, status hierarchies in place for hundreds of years can crumble as marketization destabilizes once rigid boundaries. This study examines such changes in symbolic power through an ethnographic study of a village in North India. Marketization and accompanying privatization do not create an independent sphere where only money matters, but due to a mix of new socioeconomic motives, they produce new social obligations, contests, and solidarities. These findings call into question the emphasis in consumer research on top-down class emulation as an essential characteristic of status hierarchies. This study offers insights into sharing as a means of enacting and reshaping symbolic power within a status hierarchy. A new order based on markets and consumption is disrupting the old order based on caste. As the old moral order dissolves, so do the old status hierarchies, obligations, dispositions, and norms of sharing that held the village together for centuries. In the microcosm of these gains and losses, we may see something of the broader social and economic changes taking place throughout India and other industrializing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Ram Manohar Vikas & Rohit Varman & Russell W. Belk, 2015. "Status, Caste, and Market in a Changing Indian Village," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(3), pages 472-498.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:42:y:2015:i:3:p:472-498.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucv038
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    Cited by:

    1. Sophie Duncan‐Shepherd & Kathy Hamilton, 2022. "“Generally, I live a lie”: Transgender consumer experiences and responses to symbolic violence," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 1597-1616, December.
    2. Hari Bapuji & Snehanjali Chrispal & Balagopal Vissa & Gokhan Ertug, 2023. "Local, yet global: Implications of caste for MNEs and international business," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(2), pages 201-234, June.
    3. Anaka Aiyar & Srinivas Venugopal, 2020. "Addressing the Ethical Challenge of Market Inclusion in Base-of-the-Pyramid Markets: A Macromarketing Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 243-260, June.
    4. Sujit Raghunathrao Jagadale & Jayne Krisjanous, 2023. "Exploring unheard voices: Best practices in interviewing women prosumers in Indian subsistence contexts," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 36-68, January.
    5. Rohit Varman & Per Skålén & Russell W. Belk & Himadri Roy Chaudhuri, 2021. "Normative Violence in Domestic Service: A Study of Exploitation, Status, and Grievability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 645-665, July.
    6. Mahardika, Harryadin & French, Juliana & Sembada, Agung, 2018. "Keep calm and eat satay: Indonesia's consumption-themed signals of defiance against terrorism," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 231-238.
    7. Dev Narayan Sarkar & Kaushik Kundu, 2018. "The overlap spaces of alternative economy and subaltern businesses: a study of emigrant peddlers," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 7(1), pages 1-24, December.
    8. Rohit Varman & Hari Sreekumar & Russell W Belk, 2022. "Money, Sacrificial Work, and Poor Consumers [The Low Literate Consumer]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(4), pages 657-677.
    9. Ateeq A. Rauf & Ajnesh Prasad, 2020. "Temporal Spaces of Egalitarianism: The Ethical Negation of Economic Inequality in an Ephemeral Religious Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 699-718, March.
    10. David Crockett, 2022. "Racial Oppression and Racial Projects in Consumer Markets: A Racial Formation Theory Approach [The Ghetto Marketing Life Cycle: A Case of Underachievement]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 1-24.
    11. Mukherjee, Srabanti & Datta, Biplab & Paul, Justin, 2020. "The phenomenon of purchasing second-hand products by the BOP consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).

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