“The centrality of castes and tribes in Indian society and the religious definition of it same a part of the conventional wisdom of comparative sociology, so that social stratification was perceived as being essentially a religious phenomenon, emanating somehow from the very nature of Hinduism. Caste has both a positive and a negative significance for many members of contemporary Indian society. What is difficult is to weigh and measure these different components and draw an accurate balance sheet. Where the evidence is contradictory and points in different, even opposite, directions, the sociologist is very like to draw on it in accordance with his own bias, and that bias may lead him either to exaggerate or to underrate the contemporary significance of castes and tribes in India. This book will contribute towards a realistic and sympathetic appraisal of the contemporary situation in a sensitive, vulnerable and potential explosive part of Indian Society.â€
ABOUT THE AUTHOR P K Mohanty
Dr. P. K. Mohanty is now working as a senior level officer in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. He has been engaged in the field of tribal development for last three-and-a-half decades. He has worked as a developmental administrator in different capacities in both State Government of Orissa and Government of India in the Ministries of Home and Tribal Affairs, Planning Commission and National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. He has visited most of the remote tribal areas in the country. He is associated as a member in different expert groups of Ministries of Science and Technology, Culture and Health and Family Welfare. As an academician, Dr. Mohanty has been associated with Central University. He has been trained in the University of Wales in UK on Social Development. He has been awarded Ph.D. degree in Anthropology from University of Ranchi. He is a regular guest speaker on various aspects of tribal cultural and tribal development in Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, Mussoories, National Institute of Child Development, Indian Institute of Public Administration, National Institute of Manpower Planning at Delhi and other Universities. He is a well-known Applied Anthropologist and developmental administrator in the country.
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