MYSORE NARSIMHACHARYA

SRINIVAS ( M.N. SRINIVAS)

Srinivas had initiated the tradition of basing
macro-sociological generalizations on micro-
anthropological insights and of giving a sweep and
perspective to anthropological investigations of small-scale
communities
APPROACH
■ Srinivas wanted to understand his countrymen not on the basis
of western textbooks or from indigenous sacred texts but from
direct observation, field study and field experience.
■ Was influenced by Radcliffe Brown (influenced him on structure)
and Evans Pritchard
■ Srinivas took the path of small regional studies rather than the
construction of grand theories.
■ Field work plays an important role to understand the nativity of
the rural Indian society.
■ Srinivas also realized the need for a mathematical and statistical
orientation in sociology.
IMPORTANT WRITINGS
■ Marriage and Family in Mysore (1942)
■ Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South
India (1952)
■ India’s Villages (1955)
■ Caste in Modern India and Other Essays (1962)
■ Social Change in Modern India (1966)
■ The Remembered Village (1976)
■ India: Social Structure (1980)
■ The Dominant Caste and Other Essays (1987)
■ The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization (1989)
VILLAGE STUDIES - COORG
■ He made intensive field study of Coorgs between 1940-42.

■ In his study, he describes the concept of functional unity 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).

■ His field work among the Coorgs relates his approach as

structural-functional and represents an exposition of the
complex interrelationship between ritual and social order in
Coorg society.
VILLAGE STUDIES – COORG
■ It also deals with the crucial notion of purity and pollution
as also with the process of incorporation of non-Hindu
communities into the Hindu social order.
■ This refers to the concept of ‘sanskritization’ which he used
to describe the process of the penetration of Sanskritic
values into the remotest parts of India.
■ Amma Coorgs forward
■ Concept of Brahmanisation, Sanskritisation evolved
SANSKRITISATION
■ 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 as an explanatory device to interpret
changes observed in the ritual practices and life-ways of the
lower castes through intensive and careful field study.
■ Srinivas achieved this through enlarging the meaning of
sanskritization. This conceptual scheme, 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.
VILLAGE STUDIES - RAMPURA
■ In Rampura also, he describes that the various
castes in a village are interdependent.
■ Srinivas has portrayed the character types in ‘Three
Important Men of Village Rampura': the village
headman and the landlord of the old type; the
broker between village and the outside world, Kulle
Gowda; and the powerful enterprising landlord of
the new type, Nadu Gowda.
■ Concept of dominant caste evolved.
VILLAGE STUDIES - RAMPURA
■ Technological change occupied a prominent place in the life
of the people of Rampura soon after independence. It went
hand in hand with economic, political and cultural changes.
■ The main aim of Srinivas has been to understand Indian
society. And, for him, Indian society is essentially a caste
society.
DOMINANT CASTE
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; and
(6) Urban sources of income.

Of the above attributes of the dominant caste, the following three

are important:
(i) numerical strength,
(ii) economic power through ownership of land, and
(iii) political power.
VIEWS ON CASTE
■ Srinivas views caste as a segmentary system.
■ Every caste, for him, is divided into sub-castes which
are:
1. The unit of endogamy;
2. Whose members follow a common occupation?
3. The units of social and ritual life;
4. Whose members share a common culture; and
5. Whose members are governed by the same
authoritative body, viz., the panchayat?
OTHER ATTRIBUTES OF CASTE
■ Hierarchy
■ Occupational differentiation
■ Restrictions on commensality, dress, speech and custom
are also found among castes.
■ There is a dietic hierarchy and restrictions on acceptance of
food.
■ Pollution
■ Caste Panchayats and Assemblies
STUDY ON SOCIAL CHANGE
■ Used concept like
‘sanskritization’
‘westernization’ and
‘secularization’

■ Srinivas thinks that the only meaningful social change is

that which takes place among the weaker sections for
attaining higher status by imitating values of twice-born.
And, those of the lower castes and tribal groups, who fail in
this race of imitation, are doomed to remain backward.
STUDY ON SOCIAL CHANGE

■ Sanskritization brought changes within the framework of

Indian tradition whereas westernization was a change
resulting from the contact of British socio-economic and
cultural innovations.
■ Along with these concepts, Srinivas has used the term
‘secularization’ to denote the process of institutional
innovations and ideological formulation after independence
to deal with the question of religious groups and minorities.
■ This became a national ideology.
CRITICISM
■ In his endeavour for promoting sanskritization, he has
marginalized and alienated religious minorities.
■ Understanding was more elitist or presents only upper caste
view.
■ Lyall and Risley as ‘Aryanization’ and ‘Brahminization’ for
Sanskritisation
■ Yogendra Singh , sanskritization and westernization are historic-
specific’ and ‘contextual-specific’
■ Westernisation noted by D P Mukherji