2 A1 - MNS Lyst1071

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Perspectives on The Study of Indian Society
1. Indology (GS. Ghurye).
2. Structural functionalism (M N Srinivas).
3. Marxist sociology (A R Desai).
Structural Functionalism
It Asks Certain Basic Questions Like

• How did various institutions or customs originate?
• How does it fill in the broader context?
• How does the part relate to the whole?
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown’s Perspective

Regarding this perspective, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown says that:
o The total social structure of a society, together with the totality of social usages,
constituted a functional unity
o It’s a condition in which all parts work together with a sufficient degree of
harmony or internal consistency
o That is, without producing persisting conflicts which can neither be resolved nor
regulated.
• It treats changes as a slow, cumulative process of adjustment to a new situation.
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Understanding Structural Functionalism

• Its explanation consists essentially of pointing out how the different types of activity fit
on top of one another, and are consistent with one another, and how conflicts are contained
and prevented from changing the structure.
• The structural-functional perspective relies more on the field work tradition for
understanding the social reality so that it can also be understood as ‘contextual’ or ‘field
view’ perspective of the social phenomena.
• The important followers of this perspective are M.N. Srinivas, S.C. Dube, McKim
Marriott, I.P. Desai, D.N. Majumdar and others.
Application on The Study of Indian Society

• Let us now discuss the structural-functional approach adopted by M.N. Srinivas, S.C.
Dube and McKim Marriott in the study of Indian society.
• WH Wisers Jajmani System also used the perspective.
• It is believed that relevance of Structure Function increased after welfare economy Policies
in India.

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MN Srinivas
1. Initiator: M.N. Srinivas is to be credited for initiating the new line of structural-functional
analysis in sociological and social anthropological research in India.
2. Inductivism - Srinivas had initiated the tradition of basing macro-sociological
generalizations on micro anthropological insights.
3. Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives
1. Moved from western textbooks or from indigenous sacred texts to "direct
observation, field study and field experience".
2. Field study of Coorgs between 1940-42:
1. Rites in terms of worshipping Rivers (Ganga, Kaveri in Coorg)
2. Coorg Study revealed similarity in religious rituals.
Coorgs – People of the place Coorg
1. Functional unity was explained by explaining the interaction in ritual context of
different castes of Coorgs, mainly Brahmins (priests), Kaniyas (astrologers and
magicians) and Bannas and Panikas (low castes)
2. Studies of caste, religion (1952, 1959, 1962, and 1966) highlighted not only their
structural functional aspects, but also the dynamics of the caste system in rural
setting.
4. Introduced new concepts
1. Proposed conceptual tools like ‘dominant caste’, ‘Sanskritization, westernization’
and ‘secularization’ to understand the realities of inter-caste relations and also to
explain their dynamics.
2. The concept of ‘dominant caste’ has been used in the study of power relations at the
village level.
MN Srinivas – Important Works

His work can be arranged and studied under the following heads –
1. Social Change
2. Religion & Society
3. Study on village
4. Caste
5. Dominant caste

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Social Change
• Srinivas attempted to construct a macro-level analysis using a large number of micro-level
findings on the processes of ‘sanskritization’, ‘westernization’ and ‘secularization’.
• He gave the concepts of Brahminization, Sanskritization (Religious + Secular),
Westernization (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary) and Secularization.
• Study of Coorgs: Sanskritisation – Case of Anticipatory Socialisation – Generally inter–
generation – Followed with rise in Secular mobility.
• Study of Rampur (village) – Dominant caste. That is, when entire group gets mobility
(Sanskritisation) it leads to creation of Dominant caste.
Religion and Society

• While studying the Coorgs of South India, he formulated the concept of ‘Brahminization’
to represent the process of the imitation of life-ways and ritual practices of Brahmins by
the lower-caste Hindus.
• The concept was used to interpret changes observed through field study
• It later led to a higher-level concept, ‘sanskritization’, Brahminic model as frame of
reference had limitations (copying of life ways and rituals of other higher castes also).
• Book- Social change in Modern India (1966)
• Though referring mainly to the processes of cultural imitation, has a built-in structural
notion, that of hierarchy and inequality of privilege and power, since the imitation is
always by the castes or categories placed lower in social and economic status.
• Sanskritization- It is the process by which a ‘low’ caste or tribe or other group takes over
the custom, ritual, beliefs, ideology and style of life of a high and, in particular, a ‘twice-
born’ (dwija) caste.
• The sanskritization of a group has usually the effect of improving its position in the local
caste hierarchy.
• Westernisation - It was a change resulting from the contact of British socio-economic and
cultural innovations and ideological formulation after independence to deal with the
question of religious groups and minorities.

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Study of Village
1. Srinivas considers village as the microcosm of Indian society and civilization.
2. It is the village, which retains the traditional composition of India’s tradition.
3. Srinivas was concerned with the spread of Hinduism.
4. He believed Hinduism was being spread by the process of Sanskirtisation. He curiously
did not take up why masses of Hindus still lie in low castes or no castes.
5. He was not fascinated by Hinduism in its holistic form. He looked for it in the caste
system.
Rampura village- Dominant Caste
• He conducted the study of Rampur- a Mysore village - which gave him the concept of
‘dominant caste’.
• The study has been contained in The Remembered Village (1976).
Views on Caste
1. He showed how castes are interdependent in villages by his study of Rampura Village.
2. Srinivas has extensively talked about the social evils of the caste society, he pleads for
change in caste system and discusses westernization and modernization as viable
paradigms of changes.
3. Srinivas views caste as a segmentary system.
Every caste, for him, is divided into sub-castes which are:
1. Segmentory - The unit of endogamy;
2. Whose members follow a common occupation;
3. Pollution and Purity
4. Commensality
5. Whose members are governed by the same authoritative body, viz., the panchayat.
Keyword - SOPCP
Dominant Caste
He first proposed it in his early papers on the village of Rampura.
In Rampura village there were many communities- Brahmins, peasants, untouchables.
Peasants hold lands, and although they are lower in hierarchy than Brahmins they hold
considerable power over them in the village.

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Six attributes:
1. Sizeable amount of arable land
2. Strength of numbers
3. High place in the local hierarchy
4. Western education
5. Jobs in the administration
6. Urban sources of income.
Of the above attributes of the dominant caste, the following three are important:
1. Numerical strength
2. Economic power through ownership of land
3. Political power
Criticism of MN Srinivas
Criticism
1. MNS’s views come across as Upper caste views only –
a) For him, Indian traditions are those, which are manifested in caste and village.
b) His traditions are hinduized traditions and in no sense secular ones.
c) The construction of sankritization and dominant caste put him closer to hindutva
ideology of cultural nationalism.
d) More elitist or presents only upper caste view.
2. Yogender Singh criticizes M. N. Srinivas on the ground that his structure functionalism is
a manifestation of objective idealism (a preconceived notion that India changes at a
slower pace in comparison to west)- rather in India change in really fast.
3. Maitri Chowdhary considers that M. N. Srinivas theory is conservative as it cannot
understand the changes experienced by Indian social institutions under the influence of
globalization and feminist movements
4. Anand Chakravarti- MNS is silent on class, factional politics and different kinds of
political manipulation persisting.
5. Y. Singh - Indian society has in the past and is still rapidly changing of many factors
(Islamisation, Westernisation), villages no longer microcosm of India.
6. Gail Omvedt: Reflection of Brahminic ideology than value neutral sociology. Caste as a
product of culture is shared by all Indians is absolutely unacceptable.

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7. Gail Omvedt – MNS doesn’t explain why Dalits couldn’t become Dominant caste inspite
of numbers.
8. Ghanshyam Shah: Dominant caste nothing but class mobilization.
9. Yogesh Atal:
Dominant castes have different meanings at different places.
There are often Multiple Dominances.
Example –
i. At Village level – Family dominates
ii. At State level – A caste dominates
iii. At National level – various Dominant castes
10. RK Mukherjee: Presently in capitalist India, Urban areas make the structure of society,
villages are a were recipient of the structure made.
11. Does not explain mobility experienced by non–Hindu communities.
12. Difficult to say what constitutes a dominant caste when there are so many sub–castes.
13. Dipankar Gupta: In Gujarat, KHAM, MY – various groups came together as a power
faction to overpower dominant castes. (KHAM overpowered Patedars).
Do add Standard criticism of Structure functionalism–
a) Status Quoist
b) Teleologies
c) Ignores Conflict
d) Tendency to Generalise (Empirical Anarchism)


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T.

www.sleepyclasses.com Available on App Store 1

It Asks Certain Basic Questions Like

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown’s Perspective

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Understanding Structural Functionalism

Application on The Study of Indian Society

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MN Srinivas – Important Works

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Religion and Society

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