G.S. Ghurye — caste, Indology and national integration

Indigenous Indology and method

G.S. Ghurye — 'father' of Indian sociology; book-view Indology plus social structure.

• Indigenous Indology: interpret India using texts and civilisational categories from within.
• Trained under British sociology yet insisted India needs its own conceptual labour.
• Later critics (field-view) say he over-privileges texts; still indispensable for caste features.

Society, caste and women

• Caste as structural backbone of Hindu society — not a minor custom.
• Wrote on family, kinship and the status of women inside caste-Hindu order.
• Saw reform and modernisation as real, but caste resilience as deeper than law alone.

Six features of caste (classic list)

• Segmental division of society — hereditary segments by birth.
• Hierarchy — castes ranked; ritual status ≠ pure economic ranking.
• Restrictions on feeding and social intercourse (commensality).
• Civil and religious disabilities / privileges.
• Lack of unrestricted choice of occupation.
• Restrictions on marriage (endogamy as hard shell).

British rule, change and politicisation

• Colonial census, law and education reified and politicised caste identities.
• Caste associations and public politics grow under colonial public sphere.
• Ghurye worried about caste becoming a political weapon against national unity.

Untouchability and national integration

• Untouchability as extreme disability end of the caste spectrum.
• National integration requires reforming caste hierarchy, not only celebrating diversity.
• Tribes-as-backward-Hindus thesis feeds his assimilationist tribal policy (see policy debate page).

Caste census — for and against (exam frame)

Criticism

• Book-view bias; underplays field process (Srinivas critique lineage).
• Assimilationist tribal reading contested by Elwin and later Adivasi politics.
• Caste features ideal-typical — living India shows mobility, factions, class.