Practicing Social Anthropology in India

Abstract

After completing a BA in social philosophy from Mysore, I went to Bombay to do graduate work in sociology with GS Ghurye, who had been a student of WHR Rivers at Cambridge in the 1920s. At the end of eight years, I became disillusioned with diffusionism and unfocused ethnography. I then went to Oxford, where I worked first with AR Radcliffe-Brown and then EE EvansPritchard. At Oxford, I became a structural-functionalist, albeit a somewhat skeptical one.

A suitable job?: A qualitative study of becoming a nurse in the context of a globalizing profession in India

“…Interviews, which typically lasted 45 minutes to an hour, covered how and why nurses entered nursing, their training and career paths to date and plans for the future, their experiences of providing nursing care and attitudes towards migration. All but four interviews were conducted in English (the language of instruction in nursing colleges, but not necessarily the participant's first language) by the lead author (SJ) who, with dual Indian-British identity, had an 'insider-outsider' status (Srinivas, 1997) which is often attributed to 'Non Resident Indians'. Four interviews were conducted in a mixture of Kannada, the preferred language of these respondents, and English, by a local research assistant with the lead author present.…”

Software, sports day and sheera

“…8 For example, individualism was often correlated with economic growth of a country (Hofstede, 1980). 9 The caste system in India is centuries old and is in existence today as well, particularly for marriage as well as for the operation of specific businesses (Srinivas, 1997). The four castes traditionally are the Brahmins or priestly class, the Kshatriyas or warrior class, the Vaishyas or traders and business people and the Shudras, or those at the lower end of the caste system, who do the menial work or have low level jobs.…”

“…This term was introduced bySrinivas (1997), an Indian anthropologist to refer to mobility processes of groups within the caste system. A group could move up the caste system by Sanskritizing themselves i.e., by imitating the customs, rituals and lifestyle of a higher caste.…”

Minority Religious Groups and Life Satisfaction in India

“…Last, but not least, Hindu nationalism emerged during the colonial period to mark the identity of the Indians (Van der Veer ) and was afterwards incorporated in Savarkar's understanding of what led India to modernisation (Devare ). Moreover, groups other than the Hindus had established their identity through their traditional cultures before independence (Srinivas , ).…”