India is a land of complex mixing of traditions and cultures. Through its ever continuous evolution, it has developed local flavours of religions. It has adopted practices, assimilated traditions, and even transformed the religious practices that have emerged in foreign lands to the local situations and needs. One such social institution is that of caste. [...]
Archive of posts tagged Sociology
India and English Language
Many years ago, a well known editor and columnist had written that since he writes in english, speaks most of the time in english, most of his reading is english, and he even consequently thinks in english, therefore his mother tongue ought to be English! At that time, such statement sounded too arrogant and whimsical. [...]
Initiation for the Probasi
“You are a Bihari, huh”? No! I protest, I am Mukherjee. “You are a Mukherjee!” – the man said with questioning disbelief and astonishment. “So where is your home?”. I say, I live at Asansol. “No-no”, he again protests – “where do you belong, where have you been brought up?”, he now asks with greater [...]
Literature, Nationhood and Imperialism
To deny the concept of nationhood that stood in binary opposition to the enterprise of imperialism is basically to deny imperialism and to see the whole imperial enterprise as a foreign rule. When we do a social-history study of colonialism as regards India, we must have some basic factual understanding. Often in interdisciplinary studies, scholars [...]
Indian Society and Hierarchy
The socio-psychological evaluation of Indian people has generally been termed as one that is disposed to hierarchy. Indians are in general, more comfortable in a situation of hierarchy, more precisely where the hierarchy is clear and stated. In some sense that imparts definiteness to social interaction. This hierarchy can be in the form of hierarchy [...]
Secularism and Pluralism
Secularism and pluralism are the two sides of the same coin. A society to exist needs religion – it cannot do without it. However, in todays world situation where the insularity of historical society has largely vanished, we find that every nation is not constituted by a single society, but by many societies that adhere [...]
The A of Theory
Theory is a construct that is a general representation of an actual or constructed truth. When the theory represents an actual, usually recurring, truth or reality it becomes a law. If it does not represent a proved reality, it continues to remain a theory. In such cases we may also find competing theories. eg. we [...]
Cultural Context and Interpretations
Culture gives meaning to our actions and ideas. Any action or idea can have meaning only in a particular cultural context. Waving the hand in a particular context may mean greeting, while in another it may mean a warning or threat. This same thing is also mediated by cultural usages and practices. Cultural difference is [...]
Understanding India through Films
Understanding India through Films © Anup Mukherjee (Oct 2004) Films of India come in various shades. There are the masala films of Bollywood, which is the popular mainstream cinema. There are the serious films of the parallel movement, and then there are topical and special films that deal with different issues. This last category [...]
