What factors affect the formation of a person's attitude towards social problems? In our society,…

Question

What factors affect the formation of a person's attitude towards social problems? In our society, contrasting attitudes are prevalent about many social problems. What contrasting attitudes do you notice about the caste system in our society? How do you explain the existence of these contrasting attitudes?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Attitudes to social problems form through family socialisation, education, direct experience and self-interest, which is why Indians hold opposed attitudes to caste, rejecting it in belief while retaining it in practice. The IHDS-II survey (2011-12) found about 27% of households admitting some form of untouchability.

**Introduction**

Attitude is a learned predisposition with cognitive, affective and behavioural parts, and caste shows how one society can hold opposed attitudes towards the same problem.

**Factors Shaping Attitudes to Social Problems**

1. **Family and education**: The family plants the first beliefs about purity or gender roles, while schooling and diverse peers can challenge them, as education sharpened Ambedkar's critique of caste.
2. **Experience and interest**: A victim and a beneficiary of privilege read a problem differently, and Daniel Katz's functional theory shows attitudes also protect one's status, with media and law reshaping them.

**Contrasting Attitudes on Caste**

SKETCH: comparison | Contrasting Attitudes to Caste
a: Egalitarian view
b: Traditional view
- Caste as injustice :: Caste as identity
- Inter-caste marriage :: Strict endogamy
- Merit plus equity :: Birth decides status
- Reservation as justice :: Reservation as unfair

1. **Said versus done**: Many reject caste in public yet practise it privately; the IHDS-II survey (2011-12) found about 27% of households admitting some untouchability, and only around 5% of marriages were inter-caste.
2. **Stigma versus ladder**: Caste is condemned yet used, as the Patidar, Jat and Maratha quota agitations of 2015-16 showed.

**Why the Contrasts Persist**

1. **Belief and feeling diverge**: Articles 15 and 17 and education change beliefs fast, but community emotions change slowly, producing Festinger's cognitive dissonance.
2. **Interest and politics**: M.N. Srinivas's dominant caste and Rajni Kothari's politicisation of caste show caste as a resource for votes and jobs, defended by those it benefits.

**Conclusion**

These contrasts mirror how each person's family, experience and interest shaped their attitude. Because attitudes are learned, contact, education and firm law can turn constitutional belief into the everyday fraternity Ambedkar called the foundation of democracy.

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