Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) Copyright 2016 by ASCO 2016, Vol. 6, No. 1 Amity University Rajasthan Understanding Display Boards: A Semiotic Analysis of Caste Signs in Hyderabad

Shiva Thrishul Punyamurthy University of Hyderabad,

Abstract In this paper I looked at the symbols of caste and its nature of commodification which are on the display boards that are used to represent the malls, shopping complexes and function halls. As the society transforms, new forms of representation emerge and the modern spaces are providing enough room for the accommodation of the older identities in the form of display boards. The ideological modes of production of the symbols and its commodification are discussed in this paper. Drawing the works of Jean Baudrillard, I explain how the ‘sign’ and ‘commodity’ becomes one and a new form of object was brought called ‘sign-commodity’. The functionality of the sign on the display boards and the commodified nature of the sign are elaborated in the paper. These display boards are not just representation of something, but it has a symbolic value which is being used to reproduce the hierarchical authorities. A case study of ‘Pulla Pure Ghee Sweets’ is taken as a sign to explain the commodification of the sign – ‘pulla reddy’. I will explain how ‘Pulla Reddy’ has become a status symbol and how the sign-exchange value of the commodity merges with the economic and symbolic exchange values. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions are used to collect the data. Keywords: Caste, Sign, Commodity, representation Introduction production, labor is measured in terms of its exchange-value and India is a society where a social system of ‘castei’ plays a the production of commodities becomes the production of capital major role in creating social identity. People represent their caste and so the labor-power gets commodified. The social identity through different means of communication. Semiotics is characteristics of the men’s labor will be reflected by the playing a significant role in representing one’s identity as a commodity as the objective character of the products of the labor. member of a community. The vibrant name plates and display These objective meanings are replaced from the ‘commodified boards that are used to denote the names of the shops, malls, labor’ with ‘labor of signification’ (‘symbolic labor’). Here, manufacturing centres, and marriage halls are being named along Baudrillard draws the connection between the ‘commodity’ and the with the identity of caste. ‘sign’ and inter connection of the signifier, signified, use-value and Caste, even in the 21st century was easily able to get exchange-value. The sign and the commodity becomes one and a accommodated in the newer spaces of trade activities. Caste new form of object was brought called ‘sign-commodity’.A theory represented modernity and capitalism too. This sign boards are the of text generation and interpretation and a general theory of signs evidences, in newer forms, of the traditional identities. This prove to be mutually consistent. The reader plays an active role in identity of caste representation has lead to multiple interpretations textual interpretation because signs are structured according to an of the display boards. The culture of using the social identity inferential model. Texts can say more than one supposes, they can (caste) for representation in the economic firms leads to generation always say something new because signs are the starting point of a of varieties of meanings. The display boards are not just process of interpretation which leads to an infinite series of representing the institutions but it possesses a value, a sign value. progressive consequences. Signs are open devices, not stiff Identities represent and reproduce “subject position” through signs armours prescribing a bi-conditional identity (Eco, 1981). and symbols that serve as ‘symbolic capital’ (Bourdieu, 1991). Caste operates as a system of signs, the colour of the Caste as a social identity of an individual is represented in the form skin, the turf, clothes worn, hair are the some of the signs of of ‘visual images’ which is serving as a symbolic cultural capital. identifying caste (not necessarily all places). In the urban spaces This paper focuses on how the symbols that are linked to identity this identity was represented in the form of display boards. These not only create the solidarity that they point to, but also reproduce boards acquire a sign value and a symbolic power besides an hierarchies of status in society. Identity in this paper will be read as economic value. They are not just representations of economic a ‘signifying practice’ and refers to people’s use of range of sign centres but are representations of a symbolic and sign power. vehicles in an ongoing process of communication. As Marx explains about the fantastic form of relation Objectives of the study between the commodities which are the products of the labor • To know whether these display boards are reflecting the where a fetish character is acquired by the commodities, existing caste system. Baudrillard moves further and looks into the ideological modes of • To understand the procedure of modern representative production of the structure of capitalist system. In the capitalist system of caste.

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Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) Copyright 2016 by ASCO 2016, Vol. 6, No. 1 Amity University Rajasthan • To check whether these display boards are leading to further study on the sur names which can be taken as signs of caste. favouritism. Many Veg-restaurants titled with ‘Balaji’, ‘sampradaya’, • To analyze whether trade activities are being ‘Aakruthi’, ‘agarwal’, ‘udipi’, ‘Raghavendra Bhavan’, ‘kamat’ monopolized on caste lines. ‘gayathri’, ‘suprabhaat’, ‘Nandini’ have a great significance which is very closely connected to a caste identity with a very specific Methodology food cultural practice that can be read and interpreted as a common Semiotic analysis is used in this study. Since the study is symbol for a definite cultural practices. about the reading and interpreting the display boards, I preferred to Modernity of Caste choose a huge commercial area in Hyderabadii i.e., Kukatpally. I The forces of globalization alter the social relationships have chosen this area since it is one of the major spots in and identities. Power equations are defined differently in urban and Hyderabad where there are huge display boards and high rural India. The liberalization process, initiated in India through commercial transactions occur. I took the pictures of the display market reforms in the early 1990s, was a driving factor behind a boards from this area and interpreted their significanc e . M y heightened class consciousness. As the market was now open to pictures include the name plates of the petty shops, trading centers, the entry of new players, without the prerequisites pertaining to malls, complexes, theaters, marriage halls, apartments, educational caste affiliations, class consciousness began to set foot. institutions. For example: Some display boards titled as “Reddy The modern sector of contemporary Indian society is a Exide battery” to an automobile shop, “Chowdary enclave” to an series of institutions and organizations structured according to apartment, ‘Mahesh goud constructions’, “Yadav granite world” to western models, and located very largely in cities. These include a tiles shop, , ‘Pulla Reddy’ sweet shop, and ‘Khamma sangham’ universities, schools, scientific laboratories, hospitals, business to a function hall. I studied these display boards as modes of firms. Most of the institutions and organizations are structured in representation and the identity that they are carryingiii. I conducted terms of a hierarchy of offices, but the principles of this hierarchy semi-structured interviews or non-standardized interviews with are not those of ‘pollution’ and ‘purity’ related to ritual, as in those people who are the owners, proprietors of the shops. traditional caste hierarchy. Rather, the new underlying principles My method of enquiry is explorative since my objective are those of productivity, efficiency, coordination of effective is to know whether the display boards are used to represent the activity, and maintenance of order – in other words a rationalized social status and, to know whether the same hoardings are also bureaucratic hierarchy. However, certain proportion of the used as symbolic product of caste identity attaining symbolic population actually participates in them, and such participation is benefits apart from monetary profits. My sampling is purposive differently distributed among different caste groups. Some castes sampling so as to focus on particular characteristics of population have successful access to modern education and occupations earlier that are of interest which will enable me to get answers to my than did others and they control and monopolize over those research questions. institutions. Limitations of the Study Caste plays an important role in the modern urban The study was just limited in interpreting the signs of economy. For example, ownership of industry in India has only few castes which are clearly visible in the form of their caste historically been concentrated in the hands of a few social/cultural identity. Only caste signs of Reddy, Yadav, Chowdary, Vysya groups, and jobs at the top are always kept within close networks signs of caste were interpreted in this paper. However there are based on kinship (Munshi, 2006). Recruitments for other jobs are many other caste signs with titles of Goud, Mudhiraj, etc opened to outsiders only when the required personnel are not those symbols were not studied in detail. Since the geographical available within the community or the wider kin-group. ‘Caste area of study is Kukatpally and only 3-4 caste signs were found, begins to reproduce itself in the form of a hierarchy of network the research was only limited only to these castes. through degrees of monopolization over social and cultural Scope of the Study capitals’. (Jodhka, 2015) Caste symbols are not always visible with only names of Much of the debate after the 1992 market reforms in India was the castes. One of the important findings of my research is that the centered on whether an identity defined by class should be ‘Sur names’ play a very key role in acting as a sign for the caste. preferred over an identity defined by caste. We cannot ignore the For example: ‘Kesineni travels’ is identified as a ‘khamma’ fact that in a society which is divided along caste lines, capitalism, (Chowdary) owned business. Here, kesineni is seen as a caste sign with its emphasis on profit-seeking, completely alienates an entire which is the sur name for chowdarys who are one of the dominant section that has no share of the pie. caste groups of . So, there is a huge scope for 27

Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) Copyright 2016 by ASCO 2016, Vol. 6, No. 1 Amity University Rajasthan The growth of cities and increasing urbanization has display boards to express their solidarity towards one’s own enabled many people to escape this exploitative system and assume community in a particular status domain and communicate their new identities. With all its shortcomings, capitalism has enabled ‘situatedness’ to others as relevant context for the interpretation of economic, rather than social indicators, to take precedence. a person’s motives and goals. This culture of reproducing the caste Capitalist societies are characterized by the existence of mobile symbols on display boards as visual images works to permit “classes,” and this is a better alternative than divisions based on individuals to index their social position and to generate a caste where the possibility of upward mobility is virtually “defensive” social identity that permits individuals to distinguish nonexistent. the evaluative standards of their group from those of the other Globalizing forces have shaped caste identities in newer status groups. The displays boards that are linked to identity not ways. As markets have opened up, competition has caused an only create and enliven solidarity that they point to, but also increase in the number of individuals who have access to the free reproduce hierarchies of status in society. market. P.N. Panini argues there is enough evidence of caste The assumption that modernization would mean the clustering taking place in industrial units. The economic structure automatic dissolution of the caste system and its progressive was affected by the liberalization process of 1992, but he argues replacement by a class system analogous to that found in the that caste continued to remain an important aspect of an advanced industrial societies of the West did not get much individual’s identity. The need for trusted workers in a newly successful in India. Increased urbanization and the economic and liberalized economy made the employers favor the people who cultural environment of cities have been theorized to erode the belonged to the same community, and hence making the assertion dominance of existing social structures, such as caste (Rao, 1974). of one’s caste identity became important. And the Urban sociological theory argues that as individuals and Caste relations are superseded by class relations, just as groups adapt to city life, prior forms of social organization weaken the western sociological literature has argued that industrialization and modify (Wirth, 1938). But the recent social science research on was associated with a movement from hereditary privilege caste in urban India also suggests that caste identities continue to associated with the concept of “estate” held by nobility to an open shape schooling decisions, educational outcomes and the likelihood society in which the bourgeoisie could gain status through their of securing jobs. achievement in the marketplace (Borocz, 1997). In the contemporary, urban based order caste is Caste as a Sign persisting in the form of complex networks of interest groups Individuals in modern societies are free to contest their reflected in the display boards and hoardings. Capitalism and status, their ‘attachment or commitment to a common body of modernity unsettles caste in fundamental ways, it is equally true symbols’ associated with a particular moral community/status that caste adapts and survives within these formations rather well. group limits the range of symbolic resources that they feel they can India was the traditional society par excellence and her caste comfortably incorporate into their identities. Because people prefer system the antithesis of the class system reflected the rational to invoke this familiar set of symbols and, thus, to index the forces at work in modern society. Marx argued that colonialism support and solidarity of co-participant in their “local moral had laid the foundation for the technological and economic worlds”, the distinctions that mark subject position are reproduced changes that heralded the inevitable demise of caste but there has rather than transcended. Identification with a moral community is been no dissolution of it on the scale Marx foresaw, even in those fundamental to one’s sense of identity (Shaw, 1994). areas of Indian life that have reached advanced stages of The suffix domain names that are tagged to the names of modernization. the Indian Individuals are the social status domains. They are the The most important fact to be recognized in this discussion is that representatives of their Caste group. These Status domains are caste functions in the economic sphere as an adaptive structure viewed as intentional things that would not exist independent of more or less divorced from its traditional implications. In India our involvements with them and reactions to them; they are today the economic problem for individuals is scarcity-scarcity of casually active, but only by virtue of our mental representations of wealth, of jobs, and of opportunities generally to participate in the them. One can identify his/her social category with the end name new economic system that is slowly being built and is obviously of the individuals (Sharma, Reddy, Yadav, Kamble are some of the the prime source of wealth and power. Thus, the aspects of caste identity symbols of the caste groups). These names are tagged to that are most useful to the potential striver for position and power the names of individuals to express their community identity. They in the modern occupational order are nepotism and the material act as signs of the caste group. These signs are the identity signs. means to meet the costs of mobility and acculturation. The latter These signs are reproduced in the public sphere in the form of can provide the education, garments and transportation required, 28

Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) Copyright 2016 by ASCO 2016, Vol. 6, No. 1 Amity University Rajasthan but the former provides the entry to people who matter and the note is that most of these private educational institutions are owned basis upon which one may get selected for a position in preference by Kammas. In terms of social capital, Kamma settlers benefitted to possibly scores or even hundreds of others who may be equally from various caste-based networks, whether familial, educational, or even better qualified on merely objective grounds. associational, professional or political. Interviews with active Caste associations for wealthy castes organize private members of various Kamma institutions located in kukatpally schools and colleges as well as charitable trusts through which (marriage bureau, caste association, hostels and colleges, builders’ members obtain scholarships and loans for higher education. While association, political leaders) highlight the role of caste as social these schools are ostensibly open to all, members of the caste that capital not only in the process of migration (through information established the school often receive priority. Scholarships are given and mutual help) but also in the integration process (fast and easy based on recommendations from members of the caste-based access to property, to educational institutions for children, and to governing body. For rural students, educational opportunities in job opportunities) (Benbabali, 2012). cities are governed by their ability to obtain subsidized student When talked to a person from the ‘kamma sangham’ he replied accommodations. A search of hostels in Hyderabad turns up “Actually, it is the state that has categorized its citizens hostels with such identifiable caste names as “Reddy Hostel” and on caste basis. The state registers one’s nationality, religion and “Vysya Hostel”. In addition to caste-based educational caste in the birth certificate and without these details the birth is opportunities, some caste organizations have also set up not valid. The state itself is encouraging the caste system by cooperative banks, initially set up to serve caste members, and promoting reservations. Even though a meritorious student gets where caste members continue to retain considerable clout. good marks but could not get seat in a good college. And a student Interpreting Caste Signs who gets fewer marks is getting a seat in a very good college and ‘Chowdary’ as a Sign: also receiving scholarships despite him/her being a rich person. ‘Chowdary’ is the visible literal symbol of the kamma He/she is also getting a good job and promotions too. On the other caste group. The kamma community occupies a major share of the side the talented kid has to end up either in poverty or has to business activities, around 80% in Kukatpally. In Kukatpally commit suicide. Our caste students beings discriminated by the municipality, which is now part of Greater Hyderabad, half of the state both in providing scholarships and in providing seats in population are Kammas (approximately 2 lakhs), according to the educational institutions and government jobs, we are helping our caste association (Benbabali, 2012). caste members by providing all types of necessary information, The rural rich in the advanced coastal belt, belonging guidance and giving financial assistance to the poor and talented. predominantly to the Kamma community had for a long time We are also providing some job facilities. These caste associations nurtured the grievance of being politically marginalized in the are not as a rivalry against any other castes but to satisfy and help State’s Reddy-dominated Congress Party rule since 1956. Because fellow caste members and moving with brotherhood with other of this sense of marginalization, the Khammas easily gravitated to caste groups and doing social service”. N.T. Rama Rao (popularly known as NTR), a popular cinema actor Reddy as a Sign with a film career of more than three decades. NTR formed the The Reddys are distributed throughout the State; they are dominant in 1982, rallied the support of Kammas across in the and regions. It is the control of these the political spectrum and came to power less than a year later in castes over agrarian resources such as land and water that has been the 1983 Assembly elections. NTR thus became the State’s first the most important source of their economic and political power. Chief Minister from the Kamma community. As the major land-owning community and occupants of important The data collected by Benbabali (Benbabali, 2012) in positions of a village, they have traditionally controlled village May and June 2007 through a survey consisting in qualitative political life. In the post-Independence period, and especially interviews with key informants and a questionnaire addressed to following the Green Revolution due to the wealth it generated, they 100 Kamma households settled in Kukatpally brings out some expanded their activities into other spheres of the economy, i.e. interesting facts on Kamma community in Kukatpally. When asked business, transport, contracts and industry (Upadhya, 1988). about the choice of Kukatpally to settle in, 30 replied that they The political presence of Reddys already had relatives or caste fellows settled in Kukatpally. Some The Reddys of the prosperous coastal districts and informants talked more specifically about their preference for areas Rayalaseema fought for leadership positions in the Congress Party having a strong “Kamma culture”. 20 said that they chose against the Brahmins, who continued to dominate the party and Kukatpally because it is near HITEC City and offers a lot of government even after Independence. The formation of AP in 1956 business and employment opportunities. One interesting point to marked the political rise of the Reddys in the Congress Party 29

Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) Copyright 2016 by ASCO 2016, Vol. 6, No. 1 Amity University Rajasthan leadership, which was until then dominated by the educated élite them for any type of financial assistance that they would require predominantly of the Brahmin community. The polarization of the and satisfy their needs in this big city’. dominant peasant caste élite along party lines therefore constitutes PULLA REDDY as a sign: an important dimension of political articulation in the State Pulla Reddy pure ghee sweet shops are the famous sweet (Harrison, 1956). shops across the country. It was started in the year 1948 by late Sri During the early decades of Andhra Pradesh’s existence, Pulla Reddy and had risen to heights of over a turnover of Rs.45 the élite Reddy community’s dominance over the Congress Party crore per annum. Every object in addition to having a meaning that was almost total. N. Sanjeeva Reddy and K. Brahmananda Reddy, signifies use and economic exchange also has symbolic and who ruled the State between 1956 and 1971, were the most prestige meaning (Baudrillard, 1981). The sign of ‘Pulla Reddy’ powerful Congress Party Chief Ministers the State has seen. The acts as an index to a social position by marking solidarity and composition of the State Assembly between 1957 and 1967 shows expressing solidarity with the local moral community i.e. the that the Reddys (comprising between 25 and 28%) were the single ‘Reddys’. This sign (Reddy) of caste is an identity which has a largest group, whilst their share in the population was signifying practice and refers to the use of range of sign vehicles in approximately 6%. They were followed by the Kammas, who the process of communication. Pulla Reddy sweets are presented as comprised between 11.3 and 12.6% of the Assembly and just 4% an instrument or means to an end as a commodity, as a gift, as a of the population. One significant change, which in fact vindicates status marker. The use value of the object is given in its our argument that the political economy of change after instrumental use as ‘Pure Ghee’. Buyer can make the commodity a Independence favored agrarian castes, is the fact of the political gift to another. At this level ‘Pulla Reddy’ becomes a status decline of the Brahmins. From 6.6% in 1957 to 4.6% in 1967, the symbol. The sign exchange value of the commodity merges with Brahmin presence in the State Assembly may seem to have its economic exchange and symbolic exchange values. As the declined only marginally, but when seen in a historical perspective, commodity and the sign forms fold into one another, the ideology the decline is in fact quite substantial – prior to the formation of of the text freezes their meanings in single sign ‘Pulla Reddy’. This Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Ministers of both Andhra and convergence of meanings established an aristocratic morality that Hyderabad were Brahmins, yet after 1956, the reins of power surrounds the sweets. The logic of commodity becomes the logic changed hands completely and came under the Reddys control of the sign. (Elliot, 1970). The sign of ‘Pulla Reddy’ acts as an identity expression which Reddy hostels are in good number across the both Telugu helps in preserving social arrangements that are consistent with speaking states. Besides providing accommodation to particularly historical and institutional patterns and inherited social structures. Reddy community students they also allot some space in the The sign ‘Pulla Reddy’ is signaling a subject position of a hostels to non-Reddys too. Most of the Reddy students who come particular local moral world – a community whose symbolic from the rural areas move into this shelter where a good boundaries are largely determined by the shared subject (Reddy) accommodation and monthly fellowships are provided. positioning of its members to other status groups. This self Some of the objectives of the Reddy hostel located in Kukatpally: referential sign generates a ‘defensive’ social identity that permits 1. Providing Quality Education to the children of Poor, Needy and individuals to distinguish the evaluative standards of their group Rural Backward Communities. from those of other status groups and simultaneously to express 2. Providing skill orientation to the needy children at degree level. and reinforce solidarity and loyalty within the local moral 3. Encouraging the meritorious children with incentives. communities. 4. Achieving Universal Enrollment and Retention of Reddy The concept of ‘PURE GHEE’ Community children. In , the cow is sacred and the products of the When interacted with some of the owners of the Reddy’s cow are purifying. To eat cow flesh is heinous and one of greatest hostel, Reddy constructions and other Reddys who owns a complex sins that a human can commit is to kill a cow. The cow and its these are the reactions that I have got in return – products are marked as perfect purity: all the living substances of Respondent: ‘Because of the reservations in government the cow and its products (milk, yogurt, ghee, urine and feces) are educational institutions and jobs our Reddy children are finding it purifying. Only the ultimate product of the cow, its dead body, difficult to get through them despite of them being highly talented. pollutes and that pollution is comparably much greater than any The SC/ST children who don’t have any talent are simply getting other kind of pollution. As the ultimate polluting element, the meat the jobs in government sectors. We are just trying to help our boys of the cow is also inedible. The five products of the cow and girls get through good education and providing scholarships to (pancagavya) can purify humans who have transgressed the norms 30

Amity Journal of Media & Communication Studies (ISSN 2231 – 1033) Copyright 2016 by ASCO 2016, Vol. 6, No. 1 Amity University Rajasthan of proper actions for their community and can create pure spaces and cities the same names were just transformed with their caste and pure substances: these products are "agents with the power to identities as suffix: example Mallaiah Yadav, Yellanna goud, transcend opposites" (Lannoy, 1971). If a person breaks caste rules, SrikanthMudhiraj. e.g., by travelling across the seas, he could purify himself for re- entry into his caste society by ingesting the five products of the References cow. Thus, the consumption of cow ghee is considered as purifying Baudrillard, J. (1981). The Art Auction: Sign Exchange and oneself according to the Hindu texts. The customers associate this Sumptuary Value. concept of purity to the sweets since most of the sweets that are For a critique of thePolitical economy of sign. St.Louis: made in the Pulla Reddy sweet shop use cow ghee only. Telos Press Ltd. Apart from Pulla Reddy pure ghee sweet shops there are Benbabali, D.(2013).Importing new cultures into the city: The role around 100+ pure ghee sweet shops titled with the common status of Kamma migrants in the development of Andhra culture sign of ‘Reddy’ (for example : Bicha Reddy, Konda Reddy, Bal in Hyderabad. In Geeta Reddy Anant (Ed), Emerging Reddy, Vijay Reddy, Sai Reddy) pure ghee sweets. All these shops urban transformations: Multilayered cities and urban have a similar kind of display board with a yellow background systems. Proceedings of the International Geographical color and red color text. The customers who couldn’t buy sweets Union, Urban geography Commission, Hyderabad. from Pulla Reddy will be satisfied by buying from other ‘Reddy’ Borocz, J.(1997).Stand Reconstructed: Contingent Closure and shop. This particular Reddy community had occupied and Institutional Change.Sociological Theory, 15(3), 215–248. monopolized over the ‘pure ghee sweet shops’ in Hyderabad. Even Bourdieu, P.(1991).Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: though there are other sweet shops like Bikanerwala, Almond Harvard University Press. house but, yet these Reddy sweet shops managed to hold command Eco, U.(1981).The Theory of signs and the role of the reader.The over the production and selling of the sweets and the consumption Bulletin of the Mid-west Modern Language Association, of the sign of ‘Reddy sweets’ was highly spread across the city. 14 (1), 35-45. Elliot, C.(1970).Caste and Faction among the Dominant Castes: Conclusion The and Kammas of Andhra. In Kothari, Rajni The modern society had provided space for caste to (Ed.), Caste in Indian Politics. New Delhi: Orient exhibit it in most possible ways. Despite of Marx sayings that the Longman new economic order will perish all the existing traditional practices Harrison, S.(1956).Caste and Andhra Communists.The American the caste adapted to the new modern forms. Caste was being re- Political Science Review, 50(2). invented as a modern institution and new modes of reproduction Jodhka, Surinder S.(2015).Caste in Contemporary India. New and fresh meanings are being reflected. Caste got locked into the Delhi: Rutledge. tradition-modernity axis as an atavism. The conversations with the Lannoy, R. (1971).The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture owners of the institutions reveal that caste favoritism is still in and Society. London: Oxford University Press. existence. The idea of forming the Caste associations is to Munshi,K.(2006).Traditional Institutions Meet the Modern World: preserve the identity of caste and provide support to their fellow Caste, Gender, and Schooling Choice in a Globalizing caste people. The signs of caste on the display boards are nothing Economy. American Economic Review, 96(4), 1225-1252. but, the modern representation of the caste system in the Shaw, Thomas A.(1994).The semiotic mediation of Identity. contemporary society. In traditional rural setup individuals are American Anthropological Association,22(1), 83-119. addressed on the name of their caste as prefix to their name say for Upadhya, C.B. (1988).The Farmer-Capitalists of example: ‘ mallaiah’ (Golla = Yadav) saakali saidulu (Saakali Pradesh. Economic and Political Weekly,23(4). – washermen), Muthrasi Anjaiah (Muthrasi/mudhiraj – fishermen), Wirth, L. (1938). Urbanism as a Way of Life.American Journal of gownla yellanna (Gownlollu = Gouds). Whereas the modern towns Sociology, 44 (1), 1-24.

i Groups of people who claim to have a common descendant and whose identity is based on birth. It is a system of rigid social stratification characterized by hereditary status, endogamy, and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law and religion. ii Capital city of the both Telugu speaking states i.e Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, India. iii Reddy, Yadav, Chowdary, Goud, Khamma are all the names of the caste groups in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states.

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