A student reads a well-known study written by an Indian scholar after long fieldwork in a Karnataka village. In it, members of a potter caste gave up eating meat, began wearing the sacred thread and copied the rituals of the priestly caste, hoping to be seen as higher in rank. At the same time, a numerous peasant caste, which had gained land rights after Independence, controlled the village panchayat and the local economy.
Who among the following, known for terms that describe both these village processes, most likely wrote the study?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → M.N. Srinivas
Option (1) G.S. Ghurye — Incorrect. G.S. Ghurye was an early Indian sociologist who wrote on caste and race mainly from texts. The terms sanskritisation and dominant caste came from another scholar.
Option (2) A.R. Desai — Incorrect. A.R. Desai was a Marxist sociologist known for his work on the social background of Indian nationalism. His work centres on nationalism and class, far from these village terms.
Option (3) M.N. Srinivas — Correct. M.N. Srinivas gave the terms sanskritisation and dominant caste. The potters copying priestly rituals show sanskritisation, and the landed peasant caste is a dominant caste. His village study The Remembered Village is set in Karnataka.
Option (4) D.P. Mukerji — Incorrect. D.P. Mukerji was a sociologist known for his writing on Indian tradition and culture. His work stays with tradition and culture, away from village fieldwork and these two terms.
NCERT (2026-27): “Caste in the Present … “Sociologists and social anthropologists coined many new concepts to try and understand these processes of change. Perhaps the most common of these are ‘sanskritisation’ and ‘dominant caste’, both contributed by M.N. Srinivas, but discussed extensively and criticised by other scholars. …” |