Author: M N Srinivas
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 306
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0140257608
Description
As India attempts to ready itself for the twenty-first century, the issue of caste takes on an overwhelming importance. This book, edited and introduced by one of India's most eminent sociologists, attempts to answer crucial questions.
What form does caste take today? How can its debilitating aspects be countered.
The essays in this volume, each authored by an expert on the subject, include a stimulating assessment of the role of women in perpetuating caste; incisive analyses of the relationship between caste and the economy, and between caste and Hinduism; a review of the backward class movements in Tamil Nadu; a commentary on the power struggle in UP and Bihar amongst the backward castes; the relationship between efficiency and job reservation; observations on caste amongst Muslims and Christians in India and critiques of the Mandal Commission Report and the Mandal Judgement.
THE EDITOR:
Professor M N Srinivas, FBA, the doyen of sociology and social anthropology in India, started his academic career at Oxford where he taught in a department headed by the late professor E E Evans Pritchard.
He started the first department of sociology in India at MS University, Abroad, and later headed the department of sociology in Delhi University. In 1972,m he founded the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bangalore, alongwith with Professor V K R V Rao.