G.S. Ghurye
- Six features; Indigenous Indology; caste as structural core.
- Worries about politicisation vs national integration.
- Assimilationist on tribes-as-backward-Hindus.
M.N. Srinivas
- Sanskritisation, Westernisation, dominant caste — process tools.
- Field-view village ethnography (Coorgs, Rampura).
- Ritual rank + secular power both matter.
Louis Dumont
- Homo Hierarchicus: hierarchy of purity/impurity as ideological core.
- Homo Hierarchicus vs Homo Aequalis contrast with West.
- Renouncer / householder frame in Indian social theory.
- Criticism: over-privileges ideology; underplays power, class, Dalit experience.
André Béteille
- Inequality as empirical: caste, class, power in concrete settings (e.g. Tanjore village).
- Warns against treating India as only a museum of hierarchy.
- Useful sober comparative voice for Mains.
B.R. Ambedkar
- Caste as graded inequality sustained by endogamy and religious sanction.
- Political democracy hollow without social democracy.
- Annihilation of caste as political-ethical project — not a token 'reformer' line.
Dipankar Gupta
- Contemporary hierarchy blurred / idiosyncratic — hard single ladder.
- Critiques over-harmonious Sanskritisation stories.
- Multiple hierarchies and continuous contestation.
Ram Manohar Lohia
- Socialist critique: caste + class interlocking oppression.
- Backward caste mobilisation and preferential opportunities as justice.
- Useful when question links caste to politics of equality after Independence.
Pair with syllabus short notes for clause-by-clause Paper coverage.