ABSTRACT
In the years between 1930 and 1955 the Rajput biradari hierarchy passed through a phase of reformation and counter-reformation. During this period the Rathis at the bottom of the ladder attempted to repudiate their inferiority by denying daughters to those who would not give brides in exchange, withdrawing from other asymmetrical exchanges which defined them as inferiors, and appropriating the attributes of their superiors. Although they failed to accomplish their aim of subverting the whole hierarchy and persuading those higher up the ladder to marry with them on a symmetrical basis, they did precipitate a series of convulsions which reverberated through the whole hierarchy, and which temporarily transformed each biradari into a unit of endogamy.
