CASTE PREJUDICE AMONG YOUTH 47 enjoyed before.8 All the same, caste bonds have been strengthened by political activity to an extent never experienced before. Mukherjee observes that caste has both economic and social aspects: "The economic aspect is related to the change in the occupational specialization of castes, and social aspect concerns with adopting of higher caste customs giving up the polluting profession".4 Castes are also associated closely with socio-economic distribution of the community^ facilities. The higher castes are synonymous with the upper class. However, in the post-independence period the lower castes have acquired a political manipulatory power. They have started making claims on the basis of certain legal "reservations" in employment and education as well as other bargaining potential. Nevertheless, it is evident that castes are still distinguished by the differential socio-economic forces, prerogatives and handicaps. Thus the psychological and political aspects of caste ism have come to engage the attention of social scientists. A number of authors have discussed caste dynamics from social and psycholgical viewpoints8. The present investigation only tries to fathom the extent of prejudice among students of different caste origin. It also brings into focus the impact of variants like socio-economic status and sex on the bias. Rural-urban Setting The sample for the survey covered men and women students of Magadh University attending the first to the sixth year classes. Altogether 1380 students between the ages of 15 and 22 were tested in groups of 30 at a time. All the subjects were administered an Indian Caste Prejudice Scale (ICPS) developed by the authors6 in Hindi to assess prejudice. This scale consists of 44 positive and negative items which are to be judged on a 5-point scale ranging from "fully agree" through^undecided"to "fully disagree". The response scores of each subject were summed across 44 items (after converting the negative item scores into the positive.) The extent of prejudice was determined by computing mean values of the scores for the students belonging to different caste groups: Brahmin (priests), Bhumihar (landowners), Kshatriya (warriors or rulers)^ Kayas" tha (scribes), Vaisya (businessmen or merchants), Yadava (cowherds), Harijan (untouchables). The results as shown in tables I and II were analyzed against background, factors and sex difference. Analysis of the data as shown in table I indicates that the rural subjects were more exposed to caste prejudice than their urban counterparts.Though comparisons of the mean values are significant only in the cases of Bhumihar, Rajput and Harijan castes (p<.01 for Bhumihar and Rajput and <.05 for Harijan), but overall comparison(p<.01) shows that caste consideration seems to predominate in the rural setting.^ The caste complex has its root and core in the Indian villages, and it is clear that