Edited by R. S. Khare
This volume in the OIRSSA series is a well-rounded and rigourous analysis of the study of caste and hierarchy in India. The essays herein are a contextualized sociological appraisal of the work of Louis Dumont. They constitute Indian responses to Dumont's path breaking work Homo Hierarchicus, and
discuss the logic, application and problems associated with his influential structural and comparative method in sociology. The essays in Section I provide the reader with accessible summaries and overviews of Dumont's work. Section II is a critical appraisal of aspects of his works, while Section
III reflects the general shift in Indian sociology and social anthropology towards postcolonial debates and discourses. The final section includes excerpts from Dumont's own writings, along with comments on the issues of method, theory, and analysis.
With contributions from important
scholars of Indian sociology and anthropology, the reader is the second volume after Social Stratification (in the series) to look at the issue of caste. This high profile volume will feed into courses on Indian sociology across universities and be of particular interest to students of sociology and
social anthropology in post graduate and M.Phil level courses, in addition to other scholars of caste and political sociology.
T.N. Madan: Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Value, Oppositions and Hierarchy: Indian Discussions of Louis Dumont's Work
Section I: Overviews and Reviews
1. T.N. Madan: Louis Dumont and the Study of Society in India
2. R.S. Khare: A Theory of 'Pure'
Hierarchy
3. Veena Das and J.P.S. Uberoi: Elementary Structure of Caste
4. T.N. Madan: The Comparison of Civilizatations: Louis Dumont on India and the West
Section II: Different Evaluations
5. M.N. Srinivas: Some Reflections on the Nature of Caste Hierarchy
6. André
Béteille: On Individualism and Equality: Reply to Louis Dumont
7. Dipankar Gupta: Continous Hierarchies and Discrete Castes
8. Dipankar Gupta: Imagination against Typification
9. Arun Bose: Indo-Hierarchy Theory
10. Arun Bose: Louis Dumont on Individualism
11. Sudipta Kaviraj:
Indo-centric Theories in the Marxist Framework
12. Patricia Uberoi: Hierarchy and Marriage Alliance in Indian Kinship
Section III: Post-colonial Commentaries
13. Partha Chatterjee: An Immanent Critique of Caste
14. Arjun Appadurai: 'Is Homo Hierarchicus?'
15. Veena Das:
The Anthropological Discourse on India: Reason and Its Other
16. R.S. Khare: Dumontian Sociology and Since: Challenges Facing South Asian Anthropology
Section IV: Dumont in His Own Words
17. Louis Dumont: Change, Interaction, and Comparison
18. Louis Dumont: On Individualism
and Equality
19. Christian Delacampagne: Louis Dumont and the Indian Mirror
20. Jean-Claude Galey: A Conversation with Louis Dumont
Epilogue
References
Index
Contributors
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
R.S. Khare is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, USA.
CASTE IN HISTORY - Edited by Ishita Banerjee-Dube
Social Stratification - Edited by Dipankar Gupta
Making Sense in the Social Sciences - Margot Northey, Lorne Tepperman and Patrizia Albanese
