Caste, Class and Race
“First published in 1948, this book is widely recognized as one of the most authoritative volumes of its kind. It analyzes caste (nature and origins, relationships with religion, occupations and family; class (the meaning of social, economic and political classes from their origins as “estates” down to modern times); and, in the longest section of the book, the concepts of race and the relation of race to caste and class. The book concludes with a hundred-page section on race in the United States.”
Preface
CASTE, CLASS, AND RACE ARE SOCIAL CONCEPTS WIDELY EMPLOYED in discussions of
current social problems, and yet neither the theoretical meaning nor the
practical implications of these concepts, as they apply to concrete situations,
have been satisfactorily examined. In the past these terms have been used
promiscuously and interchangeably, with the result that the literature on the
subject is exceedingly involved. Among these involvements two seem to
stand out: that between caste and race relations, and that between social class
and political class.
An understanding of the characteristics of a caste system is so important as a
basis for an understanding of other types of social systems that we have devoted
the entire first part of this study to it. A distinction having been made,
we could then discuss feudal, capitalist, and socialist systems without
distracting suggestions about caste. To some readers this discussion on caste
may seem too elaborate and labored. When, however, we consider the
hundreds of books written on this subject, the continued, almost universal,
misconceptions about the sociology of caste, and the significance of these
misconceptions to the student of the social sciences, the space given to it is
likely to seem small indeed. Although the writer spent some months observing the
partial operation of caste among the thousands of East Indians in Trinidad,
British West Indies, his data have been taken almost entirely from published
materials on the Hindus in
It is not ordinarily realized that, of all the great mass of writing on race
relations, there is available no consistent theory of race relations. The
need for such a sociological explanation is so great that recently, when one
author succeeded, with some degree of superficial logic, in explaining the
phenomena in terms of caste relations, the college textbooks and social-science
journals, almost unanimously and unquestioningly, hurriedly adopted his theory.
The situation appears to be similar with the concept class, especially in
the sense of a power-group phenomenon. With the exception of the
contributions of some of the “radical authors,” the present writer could
find very little material which discusses the modern class struggle
realistically. As a matter of fact, even the Marxian writers have not made
very clear for us their meaning of class, and this is probably one of the
reasons for their having been consistently rejected by the orthodox social
scientists. Yet, openly, the class struggle goes on with increasing fury.
There is no single hypothesis which serves to explain the functioning of caste,
class, and racial systems; therefore, it has not been possible to state one in
the beginning. However, we should make it clear that this is no
desiccated, academic dissertation. In fact, it may be thought of as partly
a reaction to that massive output on this subject which has little or no
theoretical content and which is often irritatingly evasive and circuitous in
style. Since we have not followed this tradition of tentative expression,
we may expect, from some very respectable quarters, the criticism of dogmatism.
To be sure, it is well to keep our heads while the world is in
convulsions, yet we may become inane if we discuss them as if we were describing
an Egyptian mummy. At any rate, in the handling of these vital social
problems we have deliberately tried to write clearly and unequivocally rather
than tentatively and impressionistically.
Moreover, in an examination of the functioning of modern political classes one
enters a field in which sides have already been taken; consequently it would be
presumptuous to expect a unanimous acceptance of conclusions derived from even
the most objective treatment of the data. Surely we do not assume that the
final word has been said on any of the larger problems considered in this study.
Most of them are only beginning to become vital in the social sciences; thus we
should expect views to remain fluid for some time. In the words of Hans
Kohn, “a work of this kind is never a monologue—it is an uninterrupted
conversation with those of the past whose thoughts we study, and with those
whose task it still is to build the future out of the heritage of the past.
And this conversation goes on after the work has been completed.”
In considering the behavior of “political
classes” it has been practically impossible to ignore the work of Karl Marx
and that of some of his associates; indeed, there should be no need to ignore
them. In capitalist societies, however, the very name of Karl Marx is
ordinarily anathema; consequently, unless the writer takes a position opposite
to that of Marx, he is likely not to be heard. Nevertheless, it seems that
interpretations of social data should be allowed to stand on their own
merits—and this regardless of whether Marx ever lived. If social science
has any claim at all to be science, it should at least refrain from distilling
social data through a context of designedly developed, popular prejudices.
We may be able, for instance, to demolish a certain chain of social logic
merely by stereotyping it “Marxian,” yet this achievement shows neither that
the reasoning is untenable nor even that we have taken the trouble to understand
it.
…There are over six more pages of the
preface in “Caste, Class and Race.”
Chicago, July 18, 1947 Oliver C. Cox
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