The Essays In This Volume Present The Contributions Of Distinguished Social Scientist And Historians With Insightful Discussions And Analysis Of Caste, Class, Tribe, Their Inter-Relationship And Of Region As Well As The Approach Of Regional History. Topics Include Caste In Itself, Society And Culture Of The Tribal World In Colonial Eastern India, Varna Ratnakara And Its Ethnography.
This book is a comprehensive study of historical sociology and its development, especially in the Indian context. It looks at the works of Indian sociologists and analyses their approaches in terms of book-view (normative) and field-view (descriptive) history. The volume: critically appraises reports of empirical surveys conducted during early colonial rule including those by H. T. Colebrooke, Francis Buchanan, William Adam; engages with the works of sociologists such as M. N. Srinivas, Ramkrishna Mukherjee, Louis Dumont, Nicholas Dirks, Bernard Cohn, Yogendra Singh, D. N. Dhanagare, A. M Shah, T. K. Oommen, among others; and shows how historical perspective has been adopted in understanding aspects of Indian society villages, castes, traditions, socio-cultural change, education, peasants and their movements, etc.Presenting an alternative idea of social reality, this book will deeply interest students and scholars of sociology, social theory, and social history.
Despite A Distinctive History Of Conflict From The Times Of Buddha To The Contemporary Ambedkar, Social Scientists Have Made Non-Brahman Traditions A Part Of Broader Hinduism. In British India, Although A Number Of Social Reformers Had Launched Anti-Systemic Movements To Challenge The Hegemony Of Upper0Caste Hindus But There Are Several Issues Of Identity, Power, Conversion, Gender Inequality And Social Justice Which Have Not Been Addressed Properly. And, Since The Last Decade, The Militant Hindus With Their Extent Of Aggression To Implement The Agenda Of Pan-Hinduism. It Is In This Backdrop, An Attempt Is Made In This Book To Reveal The Other Side Of The Story. The Non-Brahmanic Perspective Perceives The Practices Which Are Non-Vedic, Non-Shastric, Non-Castiest, Non-Patriachal Or Having Equalitarian Character, And A Number Of Attempts Made To Bring About Change/Transformation Towards The Egalitarian Order Through Protest/Resist/Action Movements Against The Brahmanic Hegemony. Accordingly, The Attention Is Focused In This Book On The Concepts Of Nation And Village, The Roots Of Untouchability, Anti-Caste Movements, Conversion Movements, And Caste Inequality In Relation To Educational And Social Policies. The Book Will Prove Useful For The Students, Teachers And Scholars In The Disciplines Of Sociology, Politics, Social Anthropology And History. Contents: Introduction- S.M. Dahiwale; Understanding Indian Society: The Relevance Of The Perspective From Below- T.K. Oommen; Nation, Anthropology And The Village- Surinder S. Jodhka; The Broken Men Theory Of Untouchability- S.M. Dahiwale; Perspectives Of The Anti-Caste Movements: Subaltern Sociological Visions- Gail Omvedt; Decoding Dalitism: Reflections On Dalit Literature In Maharashtra- S.P. Punalekar; Conversion As Subversion Of Hierarchy- Ambrose Pinto S.J.; Conversion, Empowerment And Social Transformation- S.M. Michael; Brahmanical Social Order And Christianity In India- Lancy Lobo; Educational Stratification, Dominant Ideology And The Reproduction Of Disadvantage In India- Padma Velaskar; Confronting Caste Inequality: What Sociologists Must Do To Reorient Social Policy- Satish Deshpande.
Postmodernity proposes the idea that society is no longer governed by history or progress. A postmodern society is highly pluralistic, differentiated, and diverse. It rejects all grand narratives such as Marxism, Gandhism, and rationalism, which are propagated as universal explanations of society. Postmodernity meets the challenges given by modernity. In India, modernity's benefits are cornered by high caste Hindus, elites, political leaders, and higher classes. The subalterns, the marginals, and the disadvantaged masses have been left high and dry. It is the modernity which has created religious, academic, and market fundamentalism and an age of dark dogma. In Indian society, modernity has brought damage to various ethnicities. In this book, the author applies the perspective of postmodernity to the interpretation of increasingly changing contemporary Indian society. With this, he looks afresh at family, caste, village, culture, and religion. From a sociological perspective, fundamentalism is given a thorough examination. The author courageously establishes that Indian society is a postmodern society.
This book explores the structural features of Indian society, such as caste, tribe, sect, rural-urban relations, sanskritization and untouchability. Based on a wealth of field research as well as archival material, the book Interrogates the prevailing thinking in Indian sociology on these structures; Studies Indian society from contemporary as well as historical perspectives; Analyses caste divisions vis-à-vis caste hierarchy; Critically examines the public policies regarding caste-less society, reservations for Backward Classes, and the caste census. This second edition, with four new chapters, will be a key text for students and scholars of sociology, social anthropology, political science, modern history, development studies and South Asian studies. udies.
Children and Knowledge sheds light on what it is to be a child in India in the contemporary moment and in history. While acknowledging the ways Indian children are situated within structures of power, this volume foregrounds innovative methodologies for conducting research into childhood and children’s lives that meaningfully engage with young people’s understandings, stories and agency. The chapters probe conceptualisations of Indian childhoods, and interrogate both singularising models of childhood and the idea of ‘multiple childhoods’. The contributors use the theme 'children and knowledge' to analyse young people’s interactions with institutions of modernity and social structures – including gender, family, class, community and caste, as well as media, markets and development – that often marginalise and frame children in multiple, cumulative ways. The chapters juxtapose and triangulate three approaches to knowledge: knowledge about children; knowledge for children; and children’s own knowledge. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate how this juxtaposition is a useful framework for the analysis of historical and contemporary Indian social processes. Demonstrating that understanding Indian children’s experiences and knowledgeable perspectives is fundamental to any proper understanding of social complexity and change Children and Knowledge will be of great interest to scholars of childhoods studies, gender, education and South Asian studies. The book was originally published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.
Globalisation, Hindutva and Mandal agitation have transformed India's social landscape over the past few years. Re-examining the country in the light of these effects, the author questions why, in some respects, the country is so keen to modernise, yet remain in the past on other issues.
This volume looks at the concept of the ‘local’ in Indian history. Through a case study of Bengal, it studies how worldwide currents—be it colonial governance, pedagogic practices or intellectual rhythms—simultaneously inform and interact with particular local idioms to produce variegated histories of a region. It examines the processes through which the idea of the ‘local’ gets constituted in different spatial entities such as the frontier province of the Jangal Mahal, the Sundarbans, the dry terrain of Birbhum-Bankura-Purulia and the urban spaces of Calcutta and other small towns. The volume further discusses the various administrative as well as amateur representations of these settings to chart out the ways through which certain spaces get associated with a particular image or history. The chapters in the volume explore a variety of themes—textual representations of the region, epistemic practices and educational policies, as well as administrative manoeuvres and governmental practices which helped the state in mapping its people. An important contribution in the study of Indian history, this interdisciplinary work will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of science and technology studies, history, sociology and social anthropology and South Asian studies.
The volume is a collection of papers on certain aspects of Indian history, historiography and culture. The papers are fundamental, insightful and path-breaking to some extent. Combining literary, archaeological, scientific and other perspectives, they cover a range of subjects stretching from ancient to modern India. The volume deals with the Greek historians, the Indian epic and Puranic tradition of historiography, colonial and cultural expansion of the Aryans, the early history of north-west India, society, trade and commerce in ancient India, economic, political and cultural contacts of India with other parts of Asia in ancient and medieval periods, and the 1857 War of Independence in India. It takes up some very interesting and new subjects like role of Brahmanas in the anti-Alexander movement in north-west India and the concept of national integration in ancient India. It explores the sources of history of Uttar Pradesh and the antiquity of Ayodhya and historicity of Rama in an interesting study. The volume will be of immense use to historians and scholars of philosophy.
