Caste is one of the oldest concerns of the social sciences in India that continues to be relevant even today. This book tracks how scholars from different disciplines have responded to the caste question in independent India and highlights recent shifts in perspective.
The general perception about caste is that it is an outdated concept that was slowly but inevitably dying out until it was revived by colonial policies and promoted by vested interests and ...
Globalization, Hindutva, and the Mandal agitation have transformed our social landscape over the last two decades and confronted us with new problems and possibilities. This book seeks to critically re-examine what popular common sense tells us about these and other contemporary concerns. Why are we so eager to claim modernity in some contexts and so anxious to disown it in others? How does the economy come to rival religion and history as a source of national ...
Anthropology and sociology have long histories in India. Yet, with the exception of fieldwork experience, there is neither much available on the institutional and material contexts of these disciplines, nor on the practices of pioneering anthropologists and sociologists. The present book fills an important gap. While the sociology of India is not purely national phenomenon (scholars and centers studying Indian exist outside) and while western theories have been ...