Thinker
G.S. Ghurye
- Six features; Indigenous Indology; caste as structural core.
- Worries about politicisation vs national integration.
- Assimilationist on tribes-as-backward-Hindus.
Thinker
M.N. Srinivas
- Sanskritisation, Westernisation, dominant caste — process tools.
- Field-view village ethnography (Coorgs, Rampura).
- Ritual rank + secular power both matter.
Thinker
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.
Thinker
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.
Thinker
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.
Key points
Dipankar Gupta
- Contemporary hierarchy blurred / idiosyncratic — hard single ladder.
- Critiques over-harmonious Sanskritisation stories.
- Multiple hierarchies and continuous contestation.
Thinker
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.
WRAP Exams coaching notes for UPSC Anthropology optional. Pair with the official syllabus when you need every heading in order.