Which term did the sociologist M.N. Srinivas use for caste groups lik…

Ramesh, a college student, spends a month in his grandmother's village in Karnataka for a field project. He finds that one caste group owns most of the farmland around the village and also forms a large part of its population. Members of this group head the gram panchayat, run the milk cooperative and lend money to smaller farmers. Families of other castes usually seek their backing before any important village decision. Older residents tell him that the same group has held this position for several generations.

Which term did the sociologist M.N. Srinivas use for caste groups like the one Ramesh observed?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 4

The correct answer is Option (4) → Dominant castes

Option (1) Proprietary castes — Incorrect. A proprietary caste is a caste group that owns most of the resources and can command labour to work for it. It is a general description of ownership. Srinivas used another term for the landowning caste of a region that is also large in number.

Option (2) Upper castes — Incorrect. Upper castes is a broad rank at the top of the caste hierarchy. Many landowning groups do belong to it, yet the highest caste, the Brahmins, are usually not major landowners. Srinivas used a separate term for the landowning and numerous group of a region.

Option (3) Cultivating castes — Incorrect. Cultivating castes is a loose description of castes that farm the land. It leaves out the large numbers and the local power that mark the group Ramesh sees.

Option (4) Dominant castes — Correct. M.N. Srinivas called the one or two major landowning castes of a region that are also large in number dominant castes. Such a group is the most powerful economically and politically, as Ramesh sees in the panchayat, cooperative and moneylending.

NCERT (2026-27): “4.1 Agrarian Structure: Caste and Class in Rural India …
In rural areas, there is a complex relationship between caste and class. This relationship is not always straightforward. We might expect that the higher castes have more land and higher incomes. And that there is a correspondence between caste and class as one moves down the hierarchy. In many areas this is broadly true but not exactly. For instance, in most areas the highest caste, the Brahmins, are not major landowners, and so they fall outside the agrarian structure although they are a part of rural society. In most regions of India, the major landowning groups belong to the upper castes. In each region, there are usually just one or two major landowning castes, who are also numerically very important. Such groups were termed by the sociologist M.N. Srinivas as dominant castes. In each region, the dominant caste is the most powerful group, economically and politically, and dominates local society. Examples of dominant landowning groups are the Jats and Rajputs of U.P., the Vokkaligas and Lingayats in Karnataka, Kammas and Reddis in Andhra Pradesh, and Jat Sikhs in Punjab.”

Which term did the sociologist M.N. Srinivas use for caste groups like the one Ramesh observed?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 4

The correct answer is Option (4) → Dominant castes