Author: Andre Beteille
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 257
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195662598
Description
The essays in this volume examine various aspects of inequality in a comparative perspective with special reference to contemporary India. They deal with different forms and dimensions of inequality and with alternative conceptions of equality.
The essays are based on lectures delivered in universities and other institutions as far apart as Bombay, Cambridge, Sydney, and London.
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS
This stimulating collection has several salutary lessons for practicing social scientist. The author combines analytical rigor with prose that is drawn from the language of everyday life.
-Indian Economic and Social History Review
Professor Beteille has range widely across the disciplines of history, philosophy, and law.
-Michael Banton, Man
A remarkable contribution to sorting, out the difficulties and the complexities involved in a delicate and problematic area.
-Social Action
A formidable body of work on inequality…it is addressed to the general reader as well as to the specialist who is willing to set aside the well guarded frontiers of his own discipline.
-The Book Review
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Idea of Natural Inequality
Homo Hierarchicus, Homo Equalis
Harmonic and Disharmonic Social Systems
The Backward Classes and the New Social Order
The Pursuit of Equality and the Indian University
Equality of Opportunity
Individualism and the Persistence of Collective Identities
Equality of Opportunity and the Equal Distribution of Benefits
Index