Essays on caste demography, occupational diversity, education, and entrepreneurship in India

Abstract

India's diverse socio-economic fabric has been shaped by its caste system over centuries. This thesis constructs and analyzes a unique database on caste sub-groups (jatis) to study population structures, occupational diversity, education, and entrepreneurship in colonial and contemporary India. In the first essay, we use 1911 Indian caste census data to create a novel pan-India map of caste compositions, revealing regional disparities in caste composition, dominant castes, and their attributes – fractionalization and sex ratios. We correlate these findings with agroecological factors like rainfall and soil quality to offer insights into the relationship between caste dynamics and regional geography. The second study investigates the impact of diverse historical caste compositions on contemporary educational and occupational outcomes in India. It reveals a diminishing influence of individual caste and religious identities when transitioning from the oldest to the youngest generations. Nevertheless, it also highlights that geographical location can disrupt this trend. Specifically, the historical caste composition of a region continues to be a significant factor across different age groups, affecting educational and occupational outcomes, which does not necessarily exhibit a diminishing trend from the oldest to the youngest cohorts. In the third essay, we study the cumulative impact of a large demographic shock caused by the 1918 influenza pandemic and drought on occupation-based caste groups and the resulting occupational shifts of these groups in the Central Provinces. The findings suggest an inverse relationship between population decline and caste rank. However, population shocks did not directly correspond to the magnitude of changes in sectoral shifts or a significant shift to traditional jobs, despite a temporary preference for traditional occupations among skilled non-agricultural castes during the influenza decade. In our fourth essay, we study the relationship between the caste system and entrepreneurship. Using the 1911 Industrial Census, we create the first comprehensive caste-based firm mapping, unveiling the dominance of trading castes, regional variations, and greater significance of non-trading castes than suggested in the existing literature. We connect the historical findings to the present using the 2013-14 Economic Census, revealing persistent barriers for lower-ranking castes in entrepreneurship. Additionally, we emphasize the role of ritual purity and traditional occupations in business and introduce a framework for analyzing caste and entrepreneurship.