Collected Essays

The work of M.N. Srinivas occupies a position of seminal importance in the development of sociology and social anthropology in India. Srinivas favoured the form of the essay, to the great advantage of his students. His essays are remarkable for their methodological rigour 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. 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 sociologists, 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.