Cast System that is not evil!
Scientists and scholars have been on a quest over the past decade to better understand and measure the interplay between social relationships and economic performance. Volker Bornschier, a sociologist at the University of Zurich, looked at the economic performance of 24 rich countries and 9 newly industrialized nations from 1980 to 1998. “Bornschier found that high levels of trust and tolerance had a measurable impact on economic performance, along with several other variables, including technological capital.
Most of us are not fully familiar with the emerging phenomenon of ‘social capital’ — an area of study where culture and economics confluence. Francis Fukuyama, says, relation-based societies generate culturally defined social capital. Social capital is non-formal networking based on kinship within societies. The emerging view is that social capital expedites the socio-economic development process. So social capital refers to people’s ability to work together in groups, I prefer to define the concept more broadly to include any instance in which people cooperate for common ends on the basis of shared informal norms and values. Social capital is regarded as a key ingredient in both economic development and political empowerment.
While we as individuals are related by families, our community identity links our families; this transcends the local limits and networks the people across the world now. This collective network stretched across the globe is our collective Social capital and if used positively we will see economic progress and positive drive of development on all fronts including social and political fronts.
Let consider Indian analogy, Caste base network has been is a very strong bond and effectively used rather exploited political objectives, same route can also be use for economic empowerment. Let me give you couple of illustrations. The caste system, which was admittedly savvy with economics over millennia, has in modern times engaged the market in economics and democracy in politics to reinvent itself. It has become a great source of entrepreneurship also. The entrepreneurship generated by the Patel caste today dominates two-thirds of the global diamond trade. The Nadar caste runs over three-fourths of the retail trade, match works, and fireworks in Tamil Nadu. In Tirupur, Goundar caste entrepreneurs, 80 per cent of whom are not even matriculates, compete at the global level, exporting knitwear garments valued at over $2 billion. The World Development Report 2001 found that the social networking within the Goundar caste and the circulation of capital by trust had enabled Tirupur’s rise as a global knitwear hub. In Sankagiri and Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, Goundar caste entrepreneurs own the largest fleet of lorry, tanker, and tipper transport vehicles in the whole of India. Ninety per cent of them were farmers earlier and 20 per cent were just rearing cattle. The list is too long to be captured here. Whether it is the Jatavs of Agra and Kanpur, or the Nadars, Naidus, or Goundars of Tamil Nadu, or the Patels of Gujarat, or the artisan Ramgadiyas of Punjab, they have risen as competent entrepreneurs – many at the global level – mostly by leveraging on their kinship-based social capital. Most of them have had very little education. It is the community that has acted as the knowledge provider thorough kinship and social network.
Now to conclude, nothing will remain unachieved if we build this social capital; social capital is nothing but network of trust and cooperation that spreads beyond family and covers entire community. Accounting to Robert Putnam, Social capital (SC) can be quantified or measured (SC = n1..t. ) and ‘n’ tracks number of sub organizations within the social group. So it not bad to have large number of communities in any society or country, what is bad is if they don’t sum up ( ) and are at logger heads. For diverse countries like India this can be used effective tool for economic reconstruction for entire country. It helps to grow in pack; and finally nothing is good or bad it is our intent that is good or bad.
