Andre Beteille

Andre Beteille (born 30 September 1934) FBA is one of India's leading^[1] sociologists and writers. He is particularly well known for his studies of the caste system in South India. He is a Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics at the University of Delhi where he is Professor Emeritus of Sociology since 2003.^[2] He was appointed National Research Professor by the Government of India in 2007.^[3] He is a recipient of the Indian civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.^[4]

In the words of historian Ramachandra Guha, ^[5]

Béteille has written insightfully about all the major questions of the day: India's encounters with the West, the contest between religion and secularism, the relationship between caste and class, the links between poverty and inequality, the nurturing of public institutions, the role and responsibilities of the intellectual.

In the words of Dr. Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay ^[6]

Béteille is also one among the few influential sociologists of our times and his writings bear testimony to this amalgamation of academic our times and his writings bear testimony to this amalgamation of academic.

In 1992, he became a Fellow of the British Academy.^[7] In 2005, Béteille received the Padma Bhushan from Government of India, as a mark of recognition for his work in the field of Sociology.^[8][9] The same year he was appointed a member of the Prime Minister's National Knowledge Commission. In 2006, following a proposal for increasing caste-based reservations, Beteille quit the Commission in protest. He is Professor Emeritus at Department of Sociology, University of Delhi.^[10]

Presently he is the Chancellor of North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya ^[11] and Ashoka University, in India.^[12]

Bibliography

• Sociology: Essays on Approach and Method, Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Antinomies of Society: Essays on Ideologies and Institutions, Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Chronicles of Our Time, Penguin Books, 2000.
• The Backward Classes in Contemporary India, Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Society and Politics in India: Essays in a Comparative Perspective, Athlone Press, 1991 (L.S.E. Monographs in Social Anthropology, no. 63).
• The Idea of Natural Inequality and Other Essays, Oxford University Press, 1983 (new, enlarged edition, Oxford University Press, 1987).
• Inequality Among Men, Basil Blackwell, 1977 (Italian edition published as La diseguaglianza fra gli uomini, Il Mulino, 1981).
• Studies in Agrarian Social Structure, Oxford University Press, 1974.
• Six Essays in Comparative Sociology, Oxford University Press, 1974 (enlarged edition published as Essays in Comparative Sociology, Oxford University Press, 1987).
• Inequality and Social Change, Oxford University Press, 1972.
• Castes: Old and New, Essays in Social Structure and Social Stratification, Asia Publishing House, 1969.
• Caste, Class and Power: Changing Patterns of Stratification in a Tanjore Village, University of California Press, 1965.

Essays

• Secularism Re-examined
• Race & Caste
• Teaching & Research
• Teaching and Research, Andre Beteille
• Government & NGOs (scroll down)

References

External links

• Andre Béteille interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 1 June 1986 (film)
• Andre quits the knowledge commission - CNN-IBN news report
• A long view of two Indian social scientists