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Andre Béteille is one of India's leading sociologists and
writers. He is particularly well known for his studies of the caste system in South India. He was a
Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics at
the University of Delhi where he is Professor
Emeritus of Sociology since 2003.
He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in
anthropology from the University of Calcutta.
Thereafter he received his doctorate from the University
of Delhi. After a brief stint at the Indian Statistical
Institute as a research fellow, he joined the faculty of
sociology at the DSE.
In his long and distinguished career, he has in the past taught
at Oxford University, Cambridge University, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics.
He is currently Chairman of the Centre for
Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and of the Indian Council of
Social Science Research.
In the words of historian Ramachandra Guha,
|
“ |
Béteille has written
insightfully about all the major questions of the day: India's
encounters with the West, the contest between religion and
secularism, the relationship between caste and class, the links
between poverty and inequality, the nurturing of public
institutions, the role and responsibilities of the
intellectual. |
” |
In 2005, Professor Béteille received the Padma Bhushan as a mark
of recognition for his work in the field of Sociology. The same
year he was appointed a member of the Prime Minister's National Knowledge
Commission. In 2006, following a proposal for increasing caste-based reservations, Andre
Beteille quit the Commission in protest. In 2006, he was made
National Professor.
Béteille was born in Chandannagore - the
youngest of three brothers and a sister. His father was mayor of
the Chandannagore Municipality. He was educated in Calcutta - where
the family shifted after independence. He graduated from St. Xavier's College,
Calcutta and joined Delhi School of Economics for further
studies.
Bibliography
- Sociology: Essays on Approach and Method, Oxford
University Press, 2002.
- Antinomies of Society: Essays on Ideologies and
Institutions, Oxford University Press, 2000.
- Chronicles of Our Time, Penguin Books, 2000.
- The Backward Classes in Contemporary India, Oxford
University Press, 1992.
- Society and Politics in India: Essays in a Comparative
Perspective, Athlone Press, 1991 (L.S.E. Monographs in Social
Anthropology, no. 63).
- The Idea of Natural Inequality and Other Essays,
Oxford University Press, 1983 (new, enlarged edition, Oxford
University Press, 1987).
- Inequality Among Men, Basil Blackwell, 1977 (Italian
edition published as La diseguaglianza fra gli uomini, Il Mulino,
1981).
- Studies in Agrarian Social Structure, Oxford
University Press, 1974.
- Six Essays in Comparative Sociology, Oxford University
Press, 1974 (enlarged edition published as Essays in Comparative
Sociology, Oxford University Press, 1987).
- Inequality and Social Change, Oxford University Press,
1972.
- Castes: Old and New, Essays in Social Structure and Social
Stratification, Asia Publishing House, 1969.
- Caste, Class and Power: Changing Patterns of Stratification
in a Tanjore Village, University of California Press,
1965.
Essays
Selected
quotes
- "The Indian intelligentsia has somewhat mixed attitudes towards
the Indian village. While educated Indians are inclined to think or
at least speak well of the village, they do not show much
inclination for the company of villagers."
- "In the past, Indian society was unique in the extremes of
which it carried the principle and practice of inequality; today
Indian intellectuals appear unique in their zeal for promoting the
adoption of equality in every sphere of society."
- "The vitality of a religion depends on a continuous critique of
it by its own reflective members."
- "A civilisation that cannot accommodate a variety of
traditions, seeking to maintain a jealous hold on only one single
tradition, can hardly be called a civilisation."
- "The practice of untouchability is indeed reprehensible
and must be condemned by one and all; but that does not mean that
we should now begin to regard it as a form of racial
discrimination. The Scheduled Castes of India taken together are no
more a race than are the Brahmins taken together. Every social
group cannot be regarded as a race simply because we want to
protect it against prejudice and discrimination." [1]
- "Treating caste as a form of race is politically mischievous;
what is worse, it is scientifically nonsensical" [2]
See also
References
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