The Marxist scholars, on the other hand, viewed the caste system as a kind of class formation.Īn interesting feature of these discourses is the absence of the contributions of one of the most original thinkers on the caste system. Earlier, the famous Bengali anthropologist who was at one time the personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi proposed a theory of ‘Hindu Method of Tribal Absorption’. In the 1950s, the noted Indian sociologist, MN Srinivas, propounded a theory of social mobility within the caste system through a process which he termed ‘Sanskritization’. The anti-Dumont scholars like the American anthropologist Mckim Marriott gave more emphasis on the local and regional variations in caste perceptions. This ran counter to the modern western notion of equality and democracy. The distinguished French anthropologist Louis Dumont (1911-1998) in his book, Homo Hierachicus (1966), viewed caste as the typical expression of the Indian mind and culture in which hierarchy and inequality were deemed to be natural. It is shameful that the original of this article remained unnoticed in academic discourses on caste. A century has passed since Dr BR Ambedkar (1891-1956) wrote a perceptive article on caste.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |