Collected Essays - M N Srinivas

Collected Essays - M N Srinivas

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Author: M N Srinivas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 733
ISBN/UPC (if available): 978-0-19-565174-4

Description

This comprehensive collection of essays, many of which have long been out of print and others not been published before, makes available an important corpus of work central to sociology in India.

The work of M N Srinivas occupies a position of seminal importance in the development of sociology and social anthropology in India. Srinivas favored the form of the essay, to the great advantage of his student. His essays are remarkable for their methodological rigor and accessibility. They are also noteworthy for their wide range; they bridge theory, method and fieldwork reality, and also cover a large area of this reality, and also cover a large area of this reality. Displaying an acute awareness of changing social realities, Srinivas wrote with the objectivity necessary for sociological method, and with a humanist’s compassion. His essays are ample evidence of this skill and gift.

This comprehensive collection of his essays is organized thematically into eight sections that reflect the vast terrain of his scholarship: Village Studies; Caste and Social Structure; Gender; Religion; Cultural and Social Change in India; Sociology and Social Anthropology in India; Method; and Autobiographical Essays. The autobiographical pieces are especially valuable — they provide glimpses of the person behind the sociologist, and reveal just how intertwined the two were.

Many of these essays have long been out of print; others have not been published before. With a foreword by Professor A M Shah, this volume makes available an important corpus of work central to sociology in India. It will be of immense value not only to students and teachers of sociology and anthropology, but also to those interested in understanding the manifold dimensions and changes of social reality in India.

Contents

PART I : VILLAGE STUDIES : RAMPURA
The Indian Village: Myth and Reality
The Social System of a Mysore Village
The Dominant Cast in Rampura
The Study of Disputes in an Indian Village
A Caste Dispute among the Washermen of Mysore
A Joint Family Dispute in a Mysore Village
The Case of the Potter and the Priest

PART II : CASTE AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
The Evolution of Caste in India
Varna and Caste
Some Reflections on the Nature of Caste Hierarchy
Mobility in the Caste System
A Note on Sanskritization and Westernization
The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization
The Caste System and Its Future
Caste in Modern India

PART III : GENDER
The Changing Position of Indian Women
Some Reflections on Dowry
Culture and Human Fertility in India

PART IV : RELIGION
A Brief Note on Ayyapa, the South Indian Deity
Gandhi’s Religion
The Social Significance of Religion in India

PART V : CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA
On Living in a Revolution
Nation-Building in Independent India
Science, Technology and Rural Development in India
The Dual Cultures of Independent India
Changing Institutions and Values in Modern India

PART VI : SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN INDIA
Social Anthropology and Sociology
Sociology in India and Its Future
The Development of Sociology and Social Anthropology in India

PART VII : METHOD
Village Studies, Participant Observation and Social Science Research in India
The Fieldworker and the Field: A Village in Karnataka
The Observer and the Observed in the Study of Cultures
The insider versus The Outsider in the Study of Cultures
Participant Observation
Studying One’s Own Culture: Some Thoughts
India Anthropologists and the Study of Indian Culture
Social Anthropology and Literary Sensibility

PART VIII : AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS
My Baroda Days
Sociology in Delhi
Itineraries of an Indian Social Anthropologist
Practising Social Anthropology in India
All is Not Lost if Your Plans Go Awry

Afterword : An Interview with M N Srinivas
References
Index