11-04-2006, 02:19 AM
From The Telegraph, 3 nov., 2006
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->CASTE, CLASS AND NEW WAYS OF LOOKING AT INDIAN SOCIETYÂ
<b>Anti-Utopia: Essential writings of Andrà BÃteille Edited by Dipankar Gupta, Oxford, Rs 595</b>
André Béteille, a sociologist par excellence, has produced works of consistent eminence for the past four decades. In terms of theory, methodology and application in social policy, Béteille has taken Indian sociological studies to a new height. Dipankar Gupta has brought together the essence of Béteilleâs writings by selecting and compiling his essays in this book. It comes with an introduction by Gupta and the essays range from the conceptual understanding of sociology, the significance of comparative method and ideas of inequality to concrete issues of Indian reality such as caste, class, civil society and distributive justice.
During Béteilleâs college and university years in Calcutta, and even till date, Marxism has been the most dominant intellectual force, but he found himself unsympathetic to it, on account of the utopian promise that Marxist theories made. <b>According to Béteille, social inequality can be tamed, even controlled, by interventions of various kinds, but cannot be done away with. To this end, he proposes various social policies, including those of positive discrimination. Classless society is utopian; a stratified society with social inequality as well as intervention is the best possible bargain any society can have.</b>
Béteille worked for his thesis with M.N. Srinivas but there was a significant departure in his theoretical orientation. Srinivas made a difference to the way social anthropology was researched in India through his emphasis on in-depth fieldwork. Béteille acknowledged the importance of fieldwork but was conceptually in another league â that of Weberian sociology. Functionalism was the order of the day, Orientalism and English empiricism were also in fashion. Hermeneutics, structuralism, interpretative sociology and phenomenology were not in vogue. But Béteille was open to these sociological theories and his major contribution was to actually use the Weberian mode of analysis in his doctoral thesis on caste, class and power in a South Indian village. He used Weberâs concept of class, status and power in the context of Indian ground realities. Till then, village studies were either documentary in character, governed by functionalism, or romanticized generalizations. <b>Béteille critiqued Dumontâs Homo Hierarchicus for portraying the Indian caste system as an ubiquitous totality. Caste in India is neither uniform nor continuous.</b>
For Béteille, like Weber, the comparative method is the essence of sociological research. But comparison, according to him, should not be a compulsive search for difference and exotica â a search for similarities is an equally rigorous analytical pursuit. Sociology, explains Béteille, is a systematic study of the nature and forms of social life with special emphasis on social institutions, groups like caste, class and so on. Comparative analysis by placing all societies on the same plane of enquiry should be the starting point. Sociology seeks to understand desirable ways of living as well as how people actually live. It is a descriptive and interpretative discipline rather than being idealistic and prescriptive in nature.
<b>Béteilleâs study of caste reflects his commitment to the comparative method and his distaste for utopian thinking. Caste for him is not a timeless, static phenomenon binding all Hindus unequivocally. The British rule, along with the impetus from Indian scholars and social reformers, and opportunities used by Indian trading and artisan classes, made transformations in the caste system possible. Most importantly, caste has lost much of its ritual purity.</b> Constitutionally backed positive discrimination and affirmative action for the backward castes and classes have increased. This is surely the result of active participation and support of intellectuals and civilians belonging to the more privileged castes. Political activism in democratic India has come a long way.
<b>With modernity and the emergence of strong public opinion, the individual has gained recognition, with a concomitant undermining of traditional group loyalties. Béteille places his futuristic vision in the establishment of a civil, secular and open society, where citizens are on an equal platform with the State.</b>
André Béteilleâs contribution to the way sociology is researched and taught in India has been immense. Dipankar Guptaâs selection of some of Béteilleâs most influential essays would prove to be indispensable for students and scholars of sociology and social anthropology.
SUHRITA SAHA
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->CASTE, CLASS AND NEW WAYS OF LOOKING AT INDIAN SOCIETYÂ
<b>Anti-Utopia: Essential writings of Andrà BÃteille Edited by Dipankar Gupta, Oxford, Rs 595</b>
André Béteille, a sociologist par excellence, has produced works of consistent eminence for the past four decades. In terms of theory, methodology and application in social policy, Béteille has taken Indian sociological studies to a new height. Dipankar Gupta has brought together the essence of Béteilleâs writings by selecting and compiling his essays in this book. It comes with an introduction by Gupta and the essays range from the conceptual understanding of sociology, the significance of comparative method and ideas of inequality to concrete issues of Indian reality such as caste, class, civil society and distributive justice.
During Béteilleâs college and university years in Calcutta, and even till date, Marxism has been the most dominant intellectual force, but he found himself unsympathetic to it, on account of the utopian promise that Marxist theories made. <b>According to Béteille, social inequality can be tamed, even controlled, by interventions of various kinds, but cannot be done away with. To this end, he proposes various social policies, including those of positive discrimination. Classless society is utopian; a stratified society with social inequality as well as intervention is the best possible bargain any society can have.</b>
Béteille worked for his thesis with M.N. Srinivas but there was a significant departure in his theoretical orientation. Srinivas made a difference to the way social anthropology was researched in India through his emphasis on in-depth fieldwork. Béteille acknowledged the importance of fieldwork but was conceptually in another league â that of Weberian sociology. Functionalism was the order of the day, Orientalism and English empiricism were also in fashion. Hermeneutics, structuralism, interpretative sociology and phenomenology were not in vogue. But Béteille was open to these sociological theories and his major contribution was to actually use the Weberian mode of analysis in his doctoral thesis on caste, class and power in a South Indian village. He used Weberâs concept of class, status and power in the context of Indian ground realities. Till then, village studies were either documentary in character, governed by functionalism, or romanticized generalizations. <b>Béteille critiqued Dumontâs Homo Hierarchicus for portraying the Indian caste system as an ubiquitous totality. Caste in India is neither uniform nor continuous.</b>
For Béteille, like Weber, the comparative method is the essence of sociological research. But comparison, according to him, should not be a compulsive search for difference and exotica â a search for similarities is an equally rigorous analytical pursuit. Sociology, explains Béteille, is a systematic study of the nature and forms of social life with special emphasis on social institutions, groups like caste, class and so on. Comparative analysis by placing all societies on the same plane of enquiry should be the starting point. Sociology seeks to understand desirable ways of living as well as how people actually live. It is a descriptive and interpretative discipline rather than being idealistic and prescriptive in nature.
<b>Béteilleâs study of caste reflects his commitment to the comparative method and his distaste for utopian thinking. Caste for him is not a timeless, static phenomenon binding all Hindus unequivocally. The British rule, along with the impetus from Indian scholars and social reformers, and opportunities used by Indian trading and artisan classes, made transformations in the caste system possible. Most importantly, caste has lost much of its ritual purity.</b> Constitutionally backed positive discrimination and affirmative action for the backward castes and classes have increased. This is surely the result of active participation and support of intellectuals and civilians belonging to the more privileged castes. Political activism in democratic India has come a long way.
<b>With modernity and the emergence of strong public opinion, the individual has gained recognition, with a concomitant undermining of traditional group loyalties. Béteille places his futuristic vision in the establishment of a civil, secular and open society, where citizens are on an equal platform with the State.</b>
André Béteilleâs contribution to the way sociology is researched and taught in India has been immense. Dipankar Guptaâs selection of some of Béteilleâs most influential essays would prove to be indispensable for students and scholars of sociology and social anthropology.
SUHRITA SAHA
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