The Indian Social Structure

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The Indian Social Structure/THE DOMINANT CASTE AND OTHER ESSAYS by T.K. Oommen Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987, 195 pp., 125.00

CASTE, KINSHIP AND COMMUNITY: SOCIAL SYSTEM OF A BENGAL CASTEby Satadal Dasgupta Universities Press, Madras, 1986, 291 pp., 125.00

THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM: THE SACRALIZATION OF A SOCIAL ORDERby Harold A. Gould Chanakya Publications, Delhi, 1987, 193 pp., 115.00

Sept-Oct 1988, volume 12, No 5

All the three books under review deal with significant dimensions of Indian social structure and are works of noted social -anthropologists. Notwithstanding the inevitable overlaps, I propose to discuss them successively in the order in which they are listed.

The Dominant Caste and Other Essays brings together seven papers by its author. Five of these essays were published in the 1950s and all of them are based on the data collected by the author four decades ago from Rampura, a village in Mysore, which has become a household name by now in social anthropology. The remaining two essays were published in the 1970s and are general statements based on the author’s long experience and continuous reflection for over quarter of a century, although they too are firmly anchored to his field-work experience.

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