Abstract
The year 2016 marked 50 years for Contributions to Indian Sociology (CIS) which was renewed as a new series by T.N. Madan, after a year-long hiatus, in 1967. Critical Themes in Indian Sociology is a collection of chapters that commemorates 50 years of the new CIS. In this, it intends to be an accessible introduction to key themes that have dominated the sociological/anthropological discourse in India and South Asia, during the 20th and 21st centuries. Some chapters discuss dominant concepts like caste, class, village, kinship etc., deftly tracing the changes in the discourse, while reflecting on their traction in emerging empirical locations. Others bring to the fore later developments like discourses around intersectionality, gender, sexuality, disability, environment, medical pluralism etc., reflecting on their emergence in the South Asian academic context. In total, the chapters represent the diversity of issues, concerns, theoretical frameworks, ideologies and methods that populate the academic discourse of sociology/anthropology in and of India.
The chapters, by experts in their field, traverse myriad themes ranging from state, folk, religion (violence, new religious movements (NRMs)), village, biometric ID, culture (internet, education/school, work and new economy), labour, caste, class, tribe, gender, kinship, disability, sexuality, ageing, food, cinema, consumption, urbanity and space, environment, and medical pluralism. Each chapter does a comprehensive and vast survey of literature on the topic, often beginning by identifying roots in classical sociology, then mapping key transitions in the discourse over the years, before bringing it to current debates, and identifying questions, formulations, ideas and avenues for further engagement. Thus, Hansen arrives at the key challenge of ethnographic analysis of the state today, i.e. holding together the quotidian functioning of sarkari (governmental) institutions and attention to how political forces and popular demands consistently shape the ‘state’. Srinivas, discussing NRMs, arrives at their association with guruship, the cult of hyper gurus and through political patronage, the idea of ‘guru governmentality’. Jodhka, Krishnamurthy, Upadhya, De Neve, and Ray, in discussing the village, agriculture, ‘new economy’, labour, and the middle class respectively, mark the changes in the topics, and their academic enquiry, highlighting the vagaries of both in the neoliberal era. For instance, Krishnamurthy examines the early dominance of the concept of the jajmani system as a successful anthropological fiction, and discusses agricultural markets as sites of not only speculative exchange of commodities, but exchange of possible futures as well. Upadhya discusses the phenomenon of the middle class and the IT dream, growing employment in these new sectors, marked by individualisation and flexibilisation, and opines that yet we know little about their condition of work, migration, occupational restructuring on inequality, cultural identities and modes of value production. Ray further makes a case for discussing the middle classes, in the plural, as social groups, such as the Jats, OBCs, Muslims of Kozhikode etc., reconfiguring themselves and their consumptions patterns to enter the fray of the middle class. Michelutti shows how the field view of caste differs from the book view, and makes a case for new theorisations of caste, looking at taxonomies of representation, caste identities in the context of post liberalisation, and the rise of Hindu nationalism. Waghmore argues that new theorisations must bring together the vernacular nature of subject formation, endemic nature of hierarchy and exclusion in modern India, and the localised struggle of greater civility. Shah discusses the questions of tribal autonomy, adivasi egalitarian values and their relationship with the state.
Through discussions on gender, kinship, and sexuality, Palriwala, Mody, Grover, Basu, Alter, and Boyce & Dasgupta, effectively destabilise heteronormative moorings, reconfigure kinship through intimacies, and dispel the early predominance of the male voice as speaking for all. As the chapters move from discussions on caste, class and tribe to discussions on gender, kinship and sexuality, the questions of representation (both inside and outside academia) become more pertinent. In this strain however, one hopes that more analytical voices from the margins, especially on caste and tribe, were included in the book.
Addlakha, Lamb, Baviskar, Dickey, van Wessel, Brara and Sujatha discuss the emergence of disability, food, ageing, cinematic cultures, consumption, environment and medical pluralism respectively, which have only developed over the last decade or two. They reflect on this emergence which owes much to interdisciplinarity, and emergent social realities post liberalisation, marking areas where dominant sociological/anthropological discourse in and of India have been seriously remiss. Sujatha discusses the emergence of medical pluralism in sociology as a postmodern condition, noting how new articulations like ‘integrative medicine’ is making issues around pluralism more complicated. Addlakha, in relation to disability studies, further introduces an ethical-political question that can be posited to sociological/anthropological enquiry in general, i.e. can emancipatory research become a part of an academic enterprise? The centrality of this concern can be seen in other chapters as well, that discuss questions of marginality, civility and justice. Further, Brara connects the concepts of anthropocene, vulnerability, risk, adaptation, etc. to political ecology and environmental justice, to arrive at questions of posthuman and multispecies anthropology, especially in the context of shrinking natural habitats and interspecies conflicts.
In sum, the authors, by providing a comprehensive review of literature on specific themes, and mapping changes in the discourse, identify gaps and questions that need further enquiry. In this, the book would be immensely helpful for researchers and scholars, in identifying themes, topics and questions for new research, in such a way that it corresponds with and contributes to the existing body of sociological/anthropological knowledge. Further, it would be immensely helpful as a pedagogic reference, for students to get abreast with current trends and themes in Indian sociology. In conclusion, as the editors point out, the collection offers themes and issues that professionals deem valuable, and is particularly important in the backdrop of the political struggle over the kind of social sciences that is ‘relevant’ today.