Showing papers in "Contributions to Indian Sociology in 1979"

Widows and goddesses: female roles in deity symbolism in a south Indian village

Abstract: In this paper it is argued that certain cultural ideas about female personality are a consequence of women’s subordination to men in society. It is further held that these ideas are utilized and reinforced by ritual symbolism. In particular, women as mothers and wives are the source of stereotypes of female compassion and sexuality which are used by society to conceptualize deities which control human health. In the discussion which follows, a look is taken at the role of women in the Gavara caste, farmers in the Telugu-speaking state of Andhra P;adesh. Asa, an ideology about the excessive compulsiveness and passion of women, is identified and analyzed as a rationale for male domination. Next, a goddess festival, utilizing feminine symbolism, is considered. In the analysis it becomes clear that the goddess is not merely a deified woman but rather a personified power of a non-human order. The way allusions to femininity are com-

Raja-dharma in 19th century south India: land, litigation and largess in Ramnad Zamindari:

Abstract: Les composantes ideologiques de l'organisation economique, sociale et politique de l'Inde du Sud rurale au XIX siecle. Etude de cas centree sur les magnats ruraux, le concept de raja-dharma et le systeme zamindari, dans l'Etat de Madras.

Inequality in Colonial India

Abstract: It was a sense of puzzlement over contemporary India that led me initially into an interest in inequality, but neither the many excellent analyses of the caste system nor the more recent statements on social stratification aided much in resolving this puzzlement. Slowly I came to believe, first, that this inequality, if adequately understood, would help establish sociological control over numerous other issues concerning the contemporary Indian social structure’ and, second, that the roots of this inequality have to be located in the colonial experience. Here I work through the second proposition. Much of the treatment has to be excessively brief and tentative, but I hope to be able to make amends in the future.

Tribal absorption and Sanskritisation in Hindu society

Abstract: The purpose of this article, as the title indicates, is to consider together two of the most important processes that have been identified as operating for a long time in Hindu society. I have concentrated on Nirmal Kumar Bose for his formulations on tribal absorption and on M.N. Srinivas for his elaboration of the process of Sanskritization in Hindu society. The emphasis is on a systematic treatment of such contributions made by Bose and Srinivas as are relevant to the theme of this article. First of all, an effort is made to reconstruct the expositions of their formulations, as far

Power in modern India: caste or class? An approach and case study

Abstract: This paper is a follow-up to a work which began with the study of power in traditional India seen through the case of Rajasthan (see Stern 1977). Here I propose to examine the implications of the change from a traditional type of sovereignty (the Hindu kingdoms) to a modern type of State in India. Put briefly, the question is as follows: have the changes brought about by British colonization and, subsequently, by Independence, caused an upheaval right throughout the traditional Indian social structure, or has the latter by and large withstood these events? Can we observe a shift away from the structural universe of caste, in which relations of hierarchy and interdependence encompass the factors of separation and opposition *

For a Sociology of India: Trends in Indian Sociology

Abstract: an attempt to comprehend the sociology of Indian sociology.’ To fulfil this task we should concentrate our attention on why a particular trend emerged in a specific social situation and with reference to a distinctive category of sociologists. For ’fact’ and ’value’ operate as confounded variables : the facts are predicated by the aspect(s) of reality one considers ’desirable’ to give priority for attention. Therefore, the valuebase of answering the ’why’ (or the Third) question of what has been done in Indian sociology over time becomes our focal point of examination.

Kinship, marriage and ideology among the Raj Gonds: a tribal system in the context of south India

Abstract: For Gonds the life of a new human being begins at the time of birth.’ This starts with labour and ends after the ritual of purification a week or so later. They make little distinction between the birth of a boy or a girl. A human birth is the coming together of five elements, earth, air, fire, water and sky or ether’ which is given life, ji,3 by god, Bhagvan. Combined, these substances and force are elemental, like a seed that can multiply