Give a critical analysis of Andre Beteille’s study of Tanjore village. (UPSC CSE Mains 2018 - Sociology, Paper 2)
Andre Beteille was a follower of Max Weber. He followed weber''s famous tripartite model of social stratification i.e Caste, Class and Power. The book "Caste, Class and Power : Changing patterns of stratification in Tanjore Village (1965)" mentions Beteille''s tripartite model of Stratification.His approach was reflexive, dynamic and analytical. He talked about segmentation of caste i.e. presence of sub-castes within caste. E.g. Brahmins in Sripuram village were divided into two groups such as Srivaishnav and Samarthas.
In Sripuram, there were following three relations of Stratification before the British rule:
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- Brahmins were the landlords and dominant class also.
- Non-Brahmins were peasants and less powerful than Brahmins.
- Adi-Dravids were landless farmers or sharecroppers and powerless also.
- Andre Beteille’s study of Tamil village of Sripuram (1965), demonstrate how the structures of traditional caste hierarchy were getting replaced by class based categories of stratification.
- His concern was that Ghurye, DP Mukherjee and Srinivas studied social inequality in India from caste perspective indicating that other forms of inequalities are produced and reproduced only by caste.
However, his study has been criticised by some scholars on the ground that there are some value judgments given by him. This criticism has been done due to following reasons:
- Andre Beteille has resided in Agrahara. He was supposed to follow a Brahminical lifestyle.
- He was not allowed to go to Cherri (Place of Adi-Dravidians). Instead of visiting them, some people from Cherri were invited to a place.
- When he asked them questions, most of them kept mum considering him as an outsider. So, research was finally completed by applying some common sense.
- As a result, value judgements entered in his piece of work. Thus, his study has been criticized for not being value free.
Despite above Criticism Beteille''s Field study brought Indian Sociology out from the clutches of Redundant Book View.
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