Book Review: Understanding Indian Society: Past and Present: Essays for A.M. Shah

B.S. Baviskar and Tusli Patel (eds.): Understanding Indian society: past and present: essays for A.M. Shah. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2010, viii + 378, pp., Rs 378 (hb). ISBN 978-81-250-3845-0 (Source: Sociological Bulletin, 59(3), December 2010)

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In terms of teaching, research and institutional development, Prof. Arvindbhai Manilal Shah, a former Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, occupies a rare position in Indian sociology. His interest in sociological research goes back to his undergraduate days when he got an opportunity to be associated with M. N. Srinivas during his fieldwork in Rampura. From then on he has consistently researched and published in various major subject-areas of sociology/social anthropology: kinship, family, caste, village, religion, and culture. His major contribution to Indian sociology has been that he brought fieldwork in centre of teaching and research activities and sensitised us to the importance of historical perspective for sociological understanding. He was an outstanding teacher and research supervisor, and a successful administrator too. In the instant volume, his students, colleagues and friends have put together fifteen essays including an elaborate introduction detailing the academic contributions of Prof. Shah and an epilogue presenting his biographical sketch.

The volume is thematically divided into four parts. Part 1 deals with gender relations. Based on the case study of five Muslim women in Delhi and an understanding of life-cycle rituals in the Muslim community such as aqiqah, bismillah, burqa and dastarkhwan, Mohini Anjum rejects the usual portrayal of Muslim women as being docile, submissive and subjugated. She argues that Muslim women are quite articulate, assertive and independent in different ways in their lives, and have been able to create space for themselves and make their voices heard in an otherwise patriarchal closed society. Tulsi Patel’s paper, based on data collected by the Grameen Bank about Bangladeshi Muslim women, radically differs from Anjum’s. She argues that the Muslim women, caught in a horrid complex situation created by poverty, religion and patriarchy, face miserable conditions and harsh dilemmas while trying to meet the conflicting demands and struggling to break out the structural forces that shape their relentless oppression. In this context, the paper discusses the interplay between women’s agential capacity to bring about a little change in their life through the microcredit programmes of the Grameen Bank and oppressive structures. In this process the paper brings out poignant everyday life experiences of Muslim women. Based on the colonial records on sex ratios among different castes, the paper by L. S. Vishwanath shows that female infanticide was a mechanism for maintaining caste status. Referring certain castes such as Rajputs, Kanbis, Lewa Patidars, Jats, Ahirs, Gujars, and Khutris, he argues that the castes that practiced hypergamous marriages resorted to extensive female infanticide during the nineteenth century because such marriages involved substantial dowry payment to the groom’s side.

Part 2 is about religion or religion-based phenomena. Based on a study of around 1000 laity in Mangalore, the paper by Alphonsus D’Souza opines that it is particularly due to modernization after the Second Vatican Council the perception of laity regarding the nature of the role of the Catholic priest has changed. Majority of the laity believe that the priests, apart from performing purely cultic or ritualistic functions, should actively work for the welfare of the people by providing leadership in socio-cultural and political areas. Media reports on the communal riots in Gujrat in1992 constitute the data base of the paper by Lancy Lobo and Bishwaroop Das. The paper narrates the incidence of riots and argues that different state-based newspapers approached and reported the riot differently. For example, Gujrat Samachar was very critical of the progressive secular people and castigated them as ‘pseudo-secularists’, and it claimed that the riot was caused chiefly by the Godhara incident. Whereas Gujrat Today suggested that the riot was an outcome of the overall legitimization of communal and criminalized politics. The paper by Ragini Shah claims to contradict Max Weber’s thesis on religion and development by presenting an ethnographic study of a Hindu organization ‘Muni Seva Ashram’. By narrating the social work initiated and completed by the Muni Seva Ashram, the paper argues that Hinduism is equally concerned with this-worldly activities.

Part 3 talks about the issues of cultural dimension of development, agro-industrial cooperatives, Indian diaspora, and informed consent in medical practice. T. Scarlett Epstein’s paper, which is based on diverse field experiences, brings out the cultural dimension of the problem of development by reasoning that since in Asian or African countries wisdom and experience are positively related with age, the development planners must create space for the grandparents in their scheme of things because they can be mediators in the process of production and their views can prove to be a fruitful lesson for development workers. The paper by B. S. Baviskar and D. W. Attwood shows the significant roles of cooperatives in the promotion of agro-based industrialization in rural areas. Once it happens, the authors argue, other forms of industry follow the process. Such industrialization is more beneficial to rural populace because it is led by the institution of cooperatives. P. J. Patel and Mario Rutten’s piece presents, in a historical perspective, the sociological dynamics of the Patidar diaspora in central London. The Patidars settled in London after they were driven out from African countries. The paper shows that in order to maintain their identity and culture the diasporic Patidars have built Hindu temples, publically and consistently perform rituals and celebrate festivals, run centre to teach Gujrati language to the younger generation, and visit villages in central Gujrat to maintain and strengthen their social or kinship relations and practice including the traditional pattern of marriage. It also spells out the changes which are occurring in the diaspora in terms of the dilemmas that the younger Patidars are facing. The paper by Aneeta Minocha argues that there is a cultural dimension to the practice of informed consent in India because family or kin groups of the patient play major role in it. The paper presents the hotly debated doctrine of informed consent along with the repercussions it will have for the empowerment of patient and consequently in changing the traditional patient-doctor relationship.

The last part is devoted to some disciplinary concerns. The paper by Andre Beteille is a detailed study of two all-important conceptualizations of kinship conventionally known as ‘elementary unit of kinship’ and ‘atom of kinship’. Contrary to the widely-held belief that the ‘atom of kinship’ is conceptually more perfect, he argues that ‘elementary unit of kinship’ is more inclusive and provides clear guidelines in the empirical investigation of kinship and in ordering of complex and seemingly incongruous data. Rajni Palriwala in her paper presents a case study of the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, to explore the dynamics of engendering of a social science syllabus. The paper argues that though the department has become gender sensitive over the last two decades, gender sensitive writings are still asked to prove themselves conceptually and empirically good enough to be included in the syllabus. The paper by Shanti George argues for creating space for children in anthropological research by accepting a child as an ethnographic participant. She believes that children can prove to be a rich source of relevant and creative information, and it is important to know the life-world of children, a very important section of the household, through their vision and version.

Thus, like the works of Shah, papers in this anthology are appealing, creative and provoking, and based on field and/or historical data. In fact, this work is a testimony to the great influence that the works of Shah command in contemporary sociological/social anthropological scholarship in India.