CULTURE, STRATIFICATION AND DEVELOPMENT

The book presents a well-knit analysis of intertwining of culture, stratification and development in the first decade of 21st century in India. “Social difference” and “power” are seen as the most effective bases of social stratification. Caste as a system has lost its appeal, but caste as a phenomenon has gained considerable space in elections, mobilisations and in extra-legal actions. Caste is, thus, more of a state of mind and identity rather than a bedrock of intercaste and intracaste relations.

Individual and family have relegated caste to the background. Globalisation has enhanced the significance of the concepts of “individual”, “development”, “freedom”, “opportunities”, “market”, “competition”, etc. Besides a critique of the caste system in the wake of these concepts and related practices, the book offers a lucid analysis of issues relating to gender, diaspora, cultural space and status, social opportunity and mobility, etc. The views of D.P. Mukerji, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, Charles Bettelheim, Gunnar Myrdal, John Stuart Mill, Amartya Sen, Pierre Bourdieu, Ramchandra Guha, etc., have been discussed in terms of their significance for interlinking of culture, stratification and development. The book is a valuable contribution not only for the students and researchers of Social Sciences, but also for the intellegentsia in general.

K.L. Sharma is Vice-Chancellor of Jaipur National University, Jaipur. Formerly, he was Professor of Sociology and Rector (Pro-Vice-Chancellor) at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was also Vice-Chancellor of Rajasthan University from 2003 to 2005 and Visiting Professor at College de France, Paris, for five times, between 1991 and 2006. Author of more than 20 books and 70 research papers, he is widely read by students and teachers of Sociology and other Social Sciences.