Structure of Indian Society - Then and Now

List of contents

Introduction 1. Caste in the 21st Century: From System to Elements 2. Purity, Impurity, Untouchability: Then and Now 3. Sanskritization Revisited 4. Sects and Hindu Social Structure 5. The Rural–Urban Networks in India 6. The ‘Dalit’ Category and Its Differentiation 7. Can the Caste Census be Reliable? 8. Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat 9. Untouchability, the Untouchables and Social Change in Gujarat 10. The Tribes — So-called — of Gujarat: In the Perspective of Time 11. The Mirage of a Caste-less Society in India 12. A Government Programme to Train Scheduled Caste Priests 13. The Village in the City, the City in the Village 14. Myths, Rural and Urban

About the author

A.M. Shah was formerly Professor of Sociology at the University of Delhi and National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. Felicitated with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Sociological Society at the All India Sociological Conference in 2009, he has also been the recipient of the Swami Pranavananda Award from the University Grants Commission. He has held fellowships at the University of Chicago; the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences, Stanford; the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK; and the University of New England, Australia. He has authored and edited many books, including The Household Dimension of the Family in India (1973); Division and Hierarchy (co-authored with I. P. Desai, 1988); The Family in India: Critical Essays (1998); Exploring India’s Rural Past (2002). He has also contributed ex-tensively to academic journals and symposia, including ten articles in Gujarati. He has been honoured with a festschrift, Understanding Indian Society: Past and Present (2010), edited by B. S. Baviskar and Tulsi Patel.

Summary

Indian society continues to be an enduring enigma, evading explanations.

This book examines how it has evolved and proliferated through an amalgamation of institutions and practices which has divided and united people across communities through the centuries. It highlights the changing structural features of Indian society including shifts in the structures of social groups, institutions and processes, such as caste, tribe, sect, and rural-urban relations.

Based on a wealth of field research as well as archival material, the book

• Interrogates the prevailing structuralist thinking in Indian sociology;



• Studies Indian society from contemporary as well as historical perspectives;



• Critically examines how caste, class and tribe function in rural and urban landscapes;



• Focuses on the emerging debates and discourses on identity politics in India.

This second edition, with four new chapters, will be a key text for students and scholars of sociology and social anthropology, political science, modern history, development studies, and South Asian studies.

Additional text

"This book forces its reader to revisit the Indian society as it exists today… [it] comes as a fresh guide for young sociologists in understanding the Indian social structure in a refreshing and befitting academic framework." — Rajesh Gill, Sociological Bulletin


"Shah’s articles open up some less trodden paths in the study of India." — Sirpa Tenhunen, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Product details

• Authors: A. M. Shah
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 31.01.2019, delayed
• EAN: 9780367001681
• ISBN: 978-0-367-00168-1
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology