ISBN : 9780199489374
Talking Sociology is the ninth title in the OUP series of Ramin Jahanbegloo's conversations with prominent intellectuals who have made significant contribution in shaping the modern Indian thought. The present volume covers the life and works of the influential Indian sociologist and public intellectual, Dipankar Gupta. As a social scientist, Gupta has made remarkable contribution to contemporary social theory by redefining and reconstructing the central concepts of the past masters and taking sociology beyond its disciplinary boundaries by helping several generations of Indians understand contemporary social change and transformation of institutions. He is considered the most insightful analyst of modernity and modernization in India. The conversation in this volume revolves around Gupta's career and contribution to the field, and discusses the key areas of sociology such as the problem of social stratification, citizenship and democracy, and the caste system and ethnic groups in India.
Introduction: Dipankar Gupta-Making Sense of India and Modernity Part I: From Bihar to Delhi A Bengali Household Growing Up in an Apolitical Family Nehruvian Times and the Partition Effect An Agnostic Indian The Art of Being a Bengali An Unhappy School boy A Mumbai Man Entering Academics and the Delhi School of Economics Appreciating Philosophy The Joshi Influence The JNU Years Politics at JNU Part II: Thinking Sociology The Shiv Sena in Bombay The Emergency Years Learning Experiences in the West Becoming a Regular Teacher Ethics and Business Reading Levinas Contributions to Indian Sociology Thinking with the French Culture The Impact of Levi-Strauss Part III: Citizenship and Democracy Revolution from Above The Bilbao Experience The Comparative Mood and the Indian Laboratory The Role of the Citizen Elite Gandhi and the West Gandhi and the Political Grammar of Democracy Exoticising Gandhi Thinking Nonviolence Today Gandhi, Nehru and the
Constitution Ram Mohan Roy and Saint Simon Fraternity and Empathy Citizenship and Indianess Part IV: Caste, Village, and Modernity How to Judge Rural India Are We Moderns? Orientalism and Caste The End of Caste? Caste and Elections in India Part V: Communalism and Ethnicity Sikh Identity Politics The Sikh Identity Nation-States and Their Enemies The Sacralization of India Nationalism and Grievances The Role of Sociologists in Democracies Part VI: Modern Institutions and Cultural Spaces Space, Non-Space and Secularization The Sacred in Indian Politics Religion and the State Reason and Progress Index About the Authors