Santhosh Shetty | Kuvempu University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Santhosh Shetty
Pragmatha Journal, 2016
A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. ... more A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. These castes and their practices have been and continue to be described by most scholars as a system of castes. According to standard descriptions, different castes are organised in a systematic manner with a strong hierarchical order, which differentiates various castes by providing each a higher or lower status. Therefore, there has to be a principle, which determines this social status. That is to say, the principle of hierarchy is identified as a fundamental tenet of the caste system and it divides castes in to different rungs. The scholars studying caste system have considered the notion of purity and impurity to be the foundational principle of this system. This paper tries to identify the problems that lie in these descriptions and specifically contests the basic assumption that there ought to be a relationship between ritual, purity, and hierarchy.
A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. ... more A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. These castes and their practices have been and continue to be described by most scholars as a system of castes. According to standard descriptions, different castes are organised in a systematic manner with a strong hierarchical order, which differentiates various castes by providing each a higher or lower status. Therefore, there has to be a principle, which determines this social status. That is to say, the principle of hierarchy is identified as a fundamental tenet of the caste system and it divides castes in to different rungs. The scholars studying caste system have considered the notion of purity and impurity to be the foundational principle of this system. This paper tries to identify the problems that lie in these descriptions and specifically contests the basic assumption that there ought to be a relationship between ritual, purity and hierarchy.
This book is the first of its kind to bring post-colonial perspectives into a study of Hinduism. ... more This book is the first of its kind to bring post-colonial perspectives into a study of Hinduism. Consequently, there are no conventional reference points for the author to use to build her narrative. She has to figure out how to use the conceptual apparatus of the one to study the other. In this sense, although the book is experimental in its nature, there is nothing hesitant or tentative about some of the conclusions she draws. How successful is the author in bringing the two, the study of Hinduism and a post-colonial perspective, together? If someone
is influenced by post-colonial thought, the judgment will have to be in the positive. However, having never been enamored by this genre of thinking, I find her framework both limiting and damaging to the study of Hinduism. Before I identify some of my problems, a few words about the book are necessary.
Today, there are multiple images of India current in the West. There is the mystic India, an imag... more Today, there are multiple images of India current in the West. There is the mystic India, an image that the German Romantics created and the 'flower children' of the sixties made popular. There is the third world India with enormous poverty and suffering, which the developmental workers have projected. There is also the India, the centre of IT outsourcing, which the developments in the last decade have brought into existence, and so on. Amartya Sen, the Indian noble prize-winner in Economics, has written a book on "The Argumentative Indian" which speaks of an India that he wants us to consider. This India is an India with a history of toleration and pluralism, an India that has brought forth its own version of 'secularism', and an India that is every bit rational, discursive and analytical as the western culture itself.
Pragmatha Journal, 2016
A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. ... more A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. These castes and their practices have been and continue to be described by most scholars as a system of castes. According to standard descriptions, different castes are organised in a systematic manner with a strong hierarchical order, which differentiates various castes by providing each a higher or lower status. Therefore, there has to be a principle, which determines this social status. That is to say, the principle of hierarchy is identified as a fundamental tenet of the caste system and it divides castes in to different rungs. The scholars studying caste system have considered the notion of purity and impurity to be the foundational principle of this system. This paper tries to identify the problems that lie in these descriptions and specifically contests the basic assumption that there ought to be a relationship between ritual, purity, and hierarchy.
A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. ... more A seemingly glaring fact about India is that it is inhabited by a large variety of caste groups. These castes and their practices have been and continue to be described by most scholars as a system of castes. According to standard descriptions, different castes are organised in a systematic manner with a strong hierarchical order, which differentiates various castes by providing each a higher or lower status. Therefore, there has to be a principle, which determines this social status. That is to say, the principle of hierarchy is identified as a fundamental tenet of the caste system and it divides castes in to different rungs. The scholars studying caste system have considered the notion of purity and impurity to be the foundational principle of this system. This paper tries to identify the problems that lie in these descriptions and specifically contests the basic assumption that there ought to be a relationship between ritual, purity and hierarchy.
This book is the first of its kind to bring post-colonial perspectives into a study of Hinduism. ... more This book is the first of its kind to bring post-colonial perspectives into a study of Hinduism. Consequently, there are no conventional reference points for the author to use to build her narrative. She has to figure out how to use the conceptual apparatus of the one to study the other. In this sense, although the book is experimental in its nature, there is nothing hesitant or tentative about some of the conclusions she draws. How successful is the author in bringing the two, the study of Hinduism and a post-colonial perspective, together? If someone
is influenced by post-colonial thought, the judgment will have to be in the positive. However, having never been enamored by this genre of thinking, I find her framework both limiting and damaging to the study of Hinduism. Before I identify some of my problems, a few words about the book are necessary.
Today, there are multiple images of India current in the West. There is the mystic India, an imag... more Today, there are multiple images of India current in the West. There is the mystic India, an image that the German Romantics created and the 'flower children' of the sixties made popular. There is the third world India with enormous poverty and suffering, which the developmental workers have projected. There is also the India, the centre of IT outsourcing, which the developments in the last decade have brought into existence, and so on. Amartya Sen, the Indian noble prize-winner in Economics, has written a book on "The Argumentative Indian" which speaks of an India that he wants us to consider. This India is an India with a history of toleration and pluralism, an India that has brought forth its own version of 'secularism', and an India that is every bit rational, discursive and analytical as the western culture itself.