By Hari Bapuji & Colin Higgins

As part of Business & Society’s inclusion agenda, we promote the issues concerning, and voices of, the groups that endure historic and ongoing marginalization and oppression. In April, we will focus on Dalits, commonly stigmatized around the world as the “Untouchables” and formally classified as Scheduled Castes in the Indian Constitution.

Dalits – meaning broken or oppressed – is a label adopted by many individuals belonging to these groups. Although predominantly located in South Asia, Dalits are also found in many parts of the world due to migration of people from the Indian subcontinent over time, including forced migration for plantation labour during the colonial era. Estimations of the global Dalit population vary, but range between 250 million and 300 million.

Historically denied access to education and forced to do “dirty work”, Dalits have a meager presence in elite professions, including management academia, as available evidence shows. For example, only 2.7% of faculty in the Indian Institutes of Management (i.e., elite business schools setup by the Indian government) belong to these groups, as against their population share of about 20% and the 15% “reservation” the constitution of India has mandated. Unsurprisingly for a field that lacked adequate representation from the oppressed communities, caste has remained largely absent in business and society scholarship, as well as business scholarship broadly. It is only recently that caste and its implications for work and workplaces have emerged as an area of inquiry in business and management research. Therefore, it is important that we use every possible avenue to spotlight caste and its consequences for everyone, particularly Dalits.

Although April was the month in which Dalits have for long showcased Dalit icons and history, a group of Dalit women in 2013 gave it a distinct shape as Dalit History Month. Since then, it gradually spread and is now recognized and celebrated globally, including by the Canadian province of British Columbia and the state of Washington, US. In addition to showcasing the oppression and resilience of Dalit people, Dalit History Month celebrates the life and works of Dalit intellectuals and social reformers. Foremost among them is Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, whose birthday falls on April 14^th. Dr. Ambedkar’s intellectual contributions ranged from economics, politics, and jurisprudence to social sciences, and are increasingly gaining attention of scholarly communities around the world, including scholars of business ethics, organizational psychology, and communication studies. As a political leader, he led several legislative reforms for the equality of women and other marginalized groups (including Dalits and Adivasis or Scheduled Tribes). However, his lasting legacy is that of being the principal architect of Indian constitution, based on the ideals of justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity.

Business & Society is pleased to join this growing global community and celebrate April as Dalit History Month. As part of this celebration, we capture below a few insights generated by articles published in Business & Society related to caste at the intersection of business and society. Although not all articles we discuss next relate to Dalits specifically, they collectively present useful insights on how caste system creates inequalities in organizations and societies, resulting in the oppression of Dalits. Full citations of these articles along with their abstracts are presented at the end of this blog.

In a study of microfinance lending decisions, Patel and colleagues showed broadly that Dalit women in India face discrimination when their credit scores are below the mean, and that even visible signals of business ability do not improve their chances of receiving a loan. In another study from North India, Pandey and Varkkey showed that caste manifests in the social arena and in workplace relations, and influences trade union dynamics, with loyalty to union competing with loyalty to caste. In yet another paper, Poruthiyil argued that social movements driven by religious nationalism and economic fundamentalism may coopt divisive norms of caste, but business scholars can teach values of equality and respect for nature by grounding curricula in the tenets of the same religion. Finally, in a study of small businesses in India, Soundararajan and colleagues showed that business owners evade institutional demands for improved working conditions by adopting taken for granted practices based on language, gender, and caste.

As these four articles show, caste is intricately intertwined with business and society, and thus Business & Society is a natural home for scholarship on caste. We hope to see more such high-quality scholarship on caste in business and management research, and aim to be the leader in enhancing our understanding about caste, and other such systems of inequality.

Articles on caste published in Business & Society (available open-access until May 5th, 2023)

Patel, P. C., Lenka, S., & Parida, V. (2022). Caste-Based Discrimination, Microfinance Credit Scores, and Microfinance Loan Approvals Among Females in India. Business & Society, 61(2), 372–388.

We draw on the phenomenon of caste-based discrimination in India and signaling theory to assess whether microfinance credit scores improve the odds of female micropreneurs from a lower caste receiving loans and whether visible business characteristics further improve the odds of receiving microfinance loans. In a sample of 3,144 female microfinance loan applicants at a female-focused microloan enterprise in India, females from a lower caste, relative to those from a higher caste, have lower odds of receiving loans when their credit scores are below the mean. However, when females from a lower caste have credit scores higher than the mean, the odds of receiving a loan increase. The practical effect of size is small but meaningful. Loan applicants from a lower caste with a visible signal of business ability do not improve their chances of receiving a loan relative to those from a higher caste.

Pandey, J., & Varkkey, B. (2020). Impact of Religion-Based Caste System on the Dynamics of Indian Trade Unions: Evidence From Two State-Owned Organizations in North India. Business & Society, 59(5), 995–1034.

Religion and its envisaged structures have both macro- and micro-level implications for business. Of the many stratification schemas prevalent in India, two macro-social stratification schemas are important at the workplace: caste, which has been an age-old, religion-mandated, closed social stratification prevalent in Hinduism that had led to inequality in the society, and trade union, which is a relatively new and optional open workplace stratification that empowers workers and fosters equality. This study tries to decipher whether these two structures influence each other; if yes how and why do they influence each other (the tensions and contradictions that may happen between them), and whether the influence is uniform for all members. We conducted in-depth interviews with 43 trade union members, three trade union leaders of two state-owned organizations in North India. Initially, we found that caste does not have any superficial effect on the relationship between union members. However, a deeper analysis reveals that roots of this social reality reflect in the social and workplace exchanges between union members, and affect their social identity and loyalty. In the discussion we present a model of twin loyalties between union and caste. From the institutional logic perspective, we also delineate the caste and trade union perspective, and show how there is a change in trade union identity because of the influence of caste-based logic. Our findings have implications for industrial democracy, worker representation, and union effectiveness.

Poruthiyil, P. V. (2020). Religious Ethics: An Antidote for Religious Nationalism. Business & Society, 59(5), 1035–1061.

Social movements driven by a combination of religious nationalism and economic fundamentalism are globally grabbing the levers of political, economic, and intellectual control. The consequence is a policy climate premised on polarization in which inequality and destruction of the natural environment are condoned. This creates demands on key academic institutions like business schools, with stakeholders who are complicit in the sustenance of these social movements. Scholars in these schools have an opportunity to respond through curricula that facilitate reflection on the ideological preferences of such groups under their influence. However, stakeholders influenced by religious nationalism tend to reject the premises of liberal secular vocabulary as elitist or alien and hence suspicious. This article considers a teaching strategy to instill values of equality and respect for nature among the stakeholders by grounding curriculums in the tenets of the same religion valorized by the social movements. The consequences of such a strategy is discussed through its application to the business curriculums taught in India, where a regressive social movement with totalitarian pretensions—Hindutva—combined with neoliberalism has secured unparalleled power. Elements of this strategy could inform educators in other democratic societies facing similar challenges.

Soundararajan, V., Spence, L. J., & Rees, C. (2018). Small Business and Social Irresponsibility in Developing Countries: Working Conditions and “Evasion” Institutional Work. Business & Society, 57(7), 1301–1336.

Small businesses in developing countries, as part of global supply chains, are sometimes assumed to respond in a straightforward manner to institutional demands for improved working conditions. This article problematizes this perspective. Drawing upon extensive qualitative data from Tirupur’s knitwear export industry in India, we highlight owner-managers’ agency in avoiding or circumventing these demands. The small businesses here actively engage in irresponsible business practices and “evasion” institutional work to disrupt institutional demands in three ways: undermining assumptions and values, dissociating consequences, and accumulating autonomy and political strength. This “evasion” work is supported by three conditions: void (in labor welfare mechanisms), distance (from institutional monitors), and contradictions (between value systems). Through detailed empirical findings, the article contributes to research on both small business social responsibility and institutional work.