Ideology & social science

‘[Amartya] Sen has recently given us The Argumentative Indian; and now, in your hands, is [André] Béteille’s equally compelling collection of essays on Indian ideas, themes and debates.’ —Ramachandra Guha

One of the pioneers of sociological studies in India, Professor André Béteille has, over the past four decades, contributed a series of topical and stimulating articles to various newspapers. Some of these articles were collected in the book Chronicles of Our Time, published a few years ago. Ideology and Social Science is a new and riveting collection of Professor Béteille’s writings on Indian society, politics and culture.

The fifty articles in this book cover a very wide range of subjects: from the practice of sociology to the prospects of political liberalism, from contemporary debates about caste and caste quotas to old and still persisting myths about what is said to constitute the essence of Indian culture. Béteille’s ambit includes the relevant and important themes of secularism, diversity and unity in cultures, the culture of tolerance, discrimination at work, value systems in the changing Indian family, and caste practices in village communities.

Steering clear of passing intellectual trends as well as partisan politics, Béteille reaches his conclusions based on a careful examination of the evidence, not on a search for facts that fit a preconceived theory. Through his writings, he makes a cogent and passionate appeal to separate sociological theory from the frameworks of social activism.

For students of sociology as well as the general reader, this is a book that will stimulate thought and generate interest in social and political issues that are at the core of India’s modernity and tradition.