Development and Validation of the Caste Consciousness Scale

In the caste system, individuals affiliated with unalterable, endogamous groups interact within a framework of expected behavior and attitudes organized around groups (i.e., hierarchical relationships of pollution vs. purity). This structure creates a psychological reality (i.e., the consciousness of an individual as expressed in behaviors and attitudes such as identities, rituals, expectations, motivations, perceptions, worldviews, and restrictions) that has not been adequately studied. In the present study, we developed a tentative Likert-type scale of caste consciousness by following standard test development procedures: Generation of a large set of relevant items, item analyses conducted by experts, and subsequent follow-up checks. Subsequently, this scale was administered to a sample of 892 college students (age: M= 19.9 years, SD= 3.8) and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. The exploratory factor analysis reported a correlated five factor structure for caste consciousness, i.e., pro-social personality traits, life approach, inter-group relationship dread, concerns of status, and perception of others. The confirmatory factor analysis supported this five factor structure and showed strong measurement invariance across caste, gender, residential area, and religion in the shortened caste consciousness scale. Moreover, we found that Muslim, other backward caste, and women had lower caste consciousness. Conversely, scheduled caste had higher inter-group relationship dread and general caste (compared to other backward caste) had higher perception of others. The present study developed a reliable and valid 28-item caste consciousness scale that may be valuable for the psychological study of caste system.