Dominant castes play an important role either advancing or retarding the process of Sanskritization. For a caste to be dominant it should own a sizable amount of arable land locally available; have strength of number of occupy a high plea in the local hierarchy. New factors of dominance include western education, jobs in administration and urban source of income. These dominant castes stimulate in the lower castes a desire to imitate their prestigious style of life and thereby improve upon their social status. In some places the dominant castes were reported to have harassed the lower castes and dissuaded them from following their life styles by means of force and threat. The census of India for instances, states that in North Bihar the high caste Rajputs and Bhumihar Brahmins prevented the Auras from assuming the symbols of the twice born caste. Hatton has mentioned a similar type of conflict between Kollar, a dominant caste and Harijans in the Ramnand district of South India. Roui has mentioned the caste of the Noniyas, the low caste salt makers beaten by the Kshatriya land lord when in mass they donned sacred thread.
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