Indological or textual perspective: G.S. Ghurye, Radhakamal Mukerjee, Louis Dumont

1. The perspective

The Indological (textual) approach studies Indian society through its classical texts: the Vedas, Upanishads, Dharmashastras, epics and Puranas, along with history and ethnography. It assumes that Indian society has a distinctive civilisational character that can be understood only through its own ideas and values. It arose from Orientalist scholarship (William Jones, Max Müller) and was adapted to sociology by Indian scholars.

Merits: it explains the continuity of institutions over centuries and the values behind them. Criticism: texts were written mostly by Brahmins and present an upper-caste, prescriptive picture; practice in villages often differs (Srinivas’s field-view critique).

2. G.S. Ghurye (1893–1983)

Govind Sadashiv Ghurye headed the sociology department at Bombay University from 1924 and is called the father of Indian sociology. He studied under W.H.R. Rivers at Cambridge. He founded the Indian Sociological Society (1951) and its journal Sociological Bulletin.

Main works. Caste and Race in India (1932), The Aborigines “So-called” and their Future (1943, later The Scheduled Tribes), Indian Sadhus (1953), Family and Kin in Indo-European Culture (1955), Rajput Architecture and works on Indian costume.

Six features of caste (Caste and Race in India):

1. Segmental division of society. Each caste is a well-developed group with its own council and rules; membership is by birth.
2. Hierarchy. Castes are ranked, with Brahmins at the top.
3. Restrictions on feeding and social intercourse. Rules on who may accept cooked food (kachcha and pakka) and water from whom.
4. Civil and religious disabilities and privileges. Lower castes were denied access to wells, temples and streets; higher castes enjoyed privileges.
5. Lack of unrestricted choice of occupation. Occupations were hereditary.
6. Restrictions on marriage. Endogamy, which Ghurye considered the essence of caste, with gotra and sapinda exogamy within it.

Other contributions.

• Origin of caste: a combined racial and occupational view. Caste was a product of Indo-Aryan culture in the Ganga plain, spread elsewhere by Brahmins.
• Tribes as “backward Hindus”: he argued, against Verrier Elwin’s isolationism, that tribes had long been in contact with Hindu society and should be integrated, not segregated.
• Sadhus and renunciation: ascetic orders as a force for cultural unity and a check on caste.
• Method: textual study combined with history, census data and ethnography, drawing on Sanskrit sources as evidence of social practice.

3. Radhakamal Mukerjee (1889–1968)

With D.P. Mukerji and D.N. Majumdar, Radhakamal Mukerjee built the Lucknow school of sociology and economics.

• Social ecology: Regional Sociology (1926) studied society in relation to its natural environment; region is the natural unit of social study.
• Values: The Social Structure of Values (1949) and The Dynamics of Morals: society is a structure of values, and Indian values (dharma, a spiritual orientation) give it its distinct character.
• Transdisciplinary approach: economics, sociology, ecology and philosophy should be combined.
• He drew on Indian texts and on Indian institutions such as the village community and guilds, which puts him in the Indological group in the syllabus.

4. Louis Dumont (1911–1998)

A French anthropologist who studied the Pramalai Kallar of Tamil Nadu. With David Pocock he founded Contributions to Indian Sociology (1957), whose first issue declared that a sociology of India lies at the point of confluence of sociology and Indology.

Homo Hierarchicus (1966 in French; English 1970) argues:

• Hierarchy is the core value of caste, opposed to the Western value of equality (Homo aequalis).
• Opposition of the pure and the impure is the single principle that orders the whole system: the Brahmin is purest, the untouchable most impure, and each caste is placed by its distance from them.
• Separation of status and power: the Brahmin (status) ranks above the king (power); power is encompassed by status.
• Hierarchy is “encompassing”: the higher includes and ranks the lower.

Criticism. Too textual and Brahmin-centred; neglects power and economic factors (Gerald Berreman, Dipankar Gupta); ignores non-Brahmin and Dalit views of caste.

How this is examined

January 2026 (100 marks): “Discuss Indological perspectives of G.S. Ghurye”, 16 marks. January 2026 (80 marks): “Contributions of Louis Dumont”, 6-mark note. February 2025: “Explain the traditional characteristics of caste by Dr. G.S. Ghurye”. For Ghurye, define the perspective, give his works, the six features and his views on tribes and sadhus. For Dumont, give Homo Hierarchicus, pure/impure, status over power and one line of criticism.