Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions
Race and Caste – A Cross-Cultural Comparison
Just like caste in India, race, in South Africa stratifies society into a hierarchy. About one in seven is of European ancestry, yet South Africa’s White minority holds the dominant share of power and wealth. Dutch traders settled in South Africa in the mid-seventeenth century; early in the nineteenth century, their descendants were pushed inland by British colonisation. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the British gained control of what became the Union and then the Republic of South Africa. To ensure their political control, the White European minority developed the policy of apartheid, or separation of the races. An informal practice for many years, apartheid became law in 1948 and were used to deny the Black majority citizenship, ownership of land, and a formal voice in government. Every individual were classified by race, and mixed marriages were prohibited. As a racial caste, Blacks held low-paying jobs; on average, they earned only one-fourth of what whites did. In the latter half of the twentieth century, millions of Blacks were forcibly relocated to ‘Bantustans’ or ‘homelands’ – dirt-poor districts with no infrastructure, industry, or jobs. All the homelands together constituted only 14 percent of South Africa’s land, while Blacks made up close to 80 percent of the country’s population. The resulting starvation and suffering were intense and widespread. In short, in a land with extensive natural resources, including diamonds and precious minerals, the majority of people lived in abject poverty. The prosperous White minority defended its privileges by viewing Blacks as social inferiors. However, they also relied on a powerful system of military repression to maintain their power. Black protestors were routinely jailed, tortured, and killed. Despite this reign of terror, Blacks collectively struggled for decades under the leadership of the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela, and finally succeeded in coming to power and forming the government in 1994. Although the Constitution of post-apartheid South Africa has banned racial discrimination, economic capital still remains concentrated in White hands. Empowering the Black majority represents a continuing challenge for the new society. “I have fought against White domination and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
What do race and caste have in common?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Ascribed Status
Option (1) Achieved Status — Incorrect. An achieved status is one a person gains by their own choice and effort; modern society asks that identity be chosen and achieved, not ascribed. No one can choose or earn their race or caste.
Option (2) Ascribed Status — Correct. A person’s social position in a system of stratification is ascribed: children take the positions of their parents. One is born into a caste, and in the same way one is born into a race. Both rank society into a hierarchy fixed by birth.
Option (3) Ritual Hierarchy — Incorrect. A ritual hierarchy, based on purity and pollution, belongs to caste alone; racial ranking in South Africa rested on race and law, not on ritual.
Option (4) Marriage Patterns — Incorrect. Both did restrict marriage (endogamy in caste, the ban on mixed marriages under apartheid), but that is one practice that keeps the groups apart; what they share at root is that status comes by birth.
NCERT (2025-26): “Social Inequality … 2. Social stratification persists over generations. It is closely linked to the family and to the inheritance of social resources from one generation to the next. A person’s social position is ascribed. That is, children assume the social positions of their parents. Within the caste system, birth dictates occupational opportunities. The ascribed aspect of social inequality is reinforced by the practice of endogamy. That is, marriage is usually restricted to members of the same caste, ruling out the potential for blurring caste lines through inter-caste marriage.”
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