Transaction and hierarchy : elements for a theory of caste / Harald Tambs-Lyche.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-367) and index.

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
1. Precepts and Preliminaries 1
The Enigma of Caste 1
Three Objections 3
Theories of Caste to 1950 6
Early Sociology and G.S. Ghurye 7
Village Studies 9
Louis Dumont: An Integrated Theory of Caste 17
Alternative Approaches to Meaning: Marriott
and the Chicago Indianists 19
Debating Caste: From the 1960s to the 1980s 22
From the 1980s to the Third Millennium 25
Where do we Stand Now? 27
Can we Still Talk of Different ‘Cultures’? 28
Is Anthropology a ‘Eurocentric’ Science? 30
My Own Voice 32
2. From History to the Individual 40
The Plan of the Book 40
Can we Construct a History of Caste? 45
Is there an Indian Brand of Individualism? 53
The ‘Modernist’ Individual 64
Individualist Discourses 66
Towards an Indian Conception of the Individual 68
3. From Individual to Community 85
Interaction in India and the West 85
On the Buses 88
In Train Compartments 92
Learning from Interaction 94
Inside, Outside and Among Communities 96
Caste, Family and the ‘We’ 98
Conceptions of Family 100
vi Contents
‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ 103
The Diversity of Castes as Forms of Community 105
Castes Traditionally Employed in Agriculture 106
Ex-untouchables in Farming and Other Occupations 109
Artisans and Other Specialist Castes 111
Brahmins and Priestly Castes 113
General Remarks 114
4. Estates, History and the Village 124
Alternative Perspectives on Caste Society:
The Estates 124
Other Estates 128
Brahmins and Untouchables 131
Ways of Living Together: Historicity and
Power in the Village 137
Power and History in Small Villages:
Saurashtra and Rajasthan 142
Relative Autonomy: Hamlets in the Periphery
of Saurashtra 148
5. Integration, Hierarchy and Power 161
Integration and Hierarchy in a Large
Saurashtra Village: Praj 161
Feudal Fiefs and Mosaic Patterns in South Kanara 169
Descendants of Pioneers in the Bangladesh
Sundarbans 173
Brahmadeya Villages of Tamil Nadu 179
Power and Violence 186
The Moneylender and the Peasant 190
Custom as Politics 193
Caste in Modern Politics: South Kanara 195
Politics of Caste in Gujarat 198
6. Kings and Urban Society 207
Regional Authority and the Role of the King 207
Forms of Kingship: Gujarat and Northern India 210
Kingship in South India 215
A Tentative Typology of Indian Kingship 220
Urban Life: Power and Community 223
Pre-colonial Towns of Tamil Nadu 226
Vijayanagar in the Sixteenth Century 229
Surat, the Port of the Mughals 230
Temple Towns or Ritual Centres 233
Udupi: From Temple Centre to the Modern Town 235
Contents vii
Power and Community in the Towns of Gujarat 237
Ahmedabad 238
Bombay: Metropolis with a Communitarian Structure 239
Calcutta and Other Metropolitan Centres 245
Caste and Urban Structure 248
7. Abstractions and Models 257
Urban Life: Community and Cosmopolitanism 257
Towards an Abstract Order 260
Indigenous Models of Indian Society 262
Abstract Models and Social Dynamics 264
Overarching Indigenous Models:
The Brahmin Model 267
The King-centered Model 270
The Merchant Model 272
A Western Model of Stratification 274
Alternative Models of Western Society 279
Contesting the Holistic Models 280
The Models Subalterns Use 282
Hegemony and Subaltern Thought 284
Indigenous Models Today 286
8. A Discourse that Structures Hegemony 291
Caste and Hinduism 291
Is there a Hindu Pantheon? 292
A Historical Approach: Rise and Fall of the Gods 295
The Question of Integration through Ritual 298
Hierarchy Re-defined as Discourse 303
From Inequality to Hierarchy 304
Discourse as Assertion 305
Hierarchizing Discourse: An Example from Religion 308
Defining Hierarchizing Discourse 311
Inclusion or Separation: A Debate about Goddesses 313
Hierarchizing Discourses on Kingship 316
Discourse, Models and Hegemony 319
Dominant and Contesting Discourses 321
Discourse Structure and Social Reality 323
9. Conclusion 328
Bibliography 339
Index 369