Does Caste-based Social Stratification Moderate the Relationship Between Social Capital and Life Satisfaction? Evidence from India

Abstract

This study examined if India’s caste system, a form of social stratification that divides different social groups into ranked categories, moderates the relationship between social capital and life satisfaction. Using data extracted from the International Social Survey Programme’s module on Social Network and Social Resources (N = 909), we conducted Principal Component Analysis and identified two distinct components of social capital – formal and informal. Using Multiple Hierarchical Regression, we examined the relationship between social capital (formal and informal) and life satisfaction, and it was found to be significant. We also found that the relationship is different for different castes. Average life satisfaction was lowest among the middle castes (Other Backward Classes), and not the lower castes (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes). Formal social capital was found to positively contribute to life satisfaction across all the caste categories, but heavy informal social capital was observed to reduce life satisfaction among upper castes.

Keywords:

• Caste
• India
• life satisfaction
• social capital
• subjective well-being

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the reviewers for their extremely helpful critical comments and suggestions. Our thanks also go to the ISSP for making publicly available the required dataset; to Dr. Mitesh Arvindbhai Shah, Dr. Hitesh Parmar, Dr. Dhaval Maheta, and Gaurang Dattubhai Rami for their valuable guidance; and Ngangom Bidyarani Devi for her constant support and encouragement.

Declaration of interest statement

We declare no conflicts of interest for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this current paper.