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M.N. Srinivas: the man and his work
T.N. Madan
The Hindu
December 8, 1999
Title: M.N.Srinivas:
the man and his work
Author: T.N.Madan
Publication: The Hindu
Date: December 8, 1999
To say that someone's
death has created a void that is difficult to fill is often only trite,
but sometimes it is true. The unexpected death of Mysore Narasimhachar
Srinivas (better known as M. N. Srinivas) after a short illness on November
30, exactly two weeks after his 83rd birthday, removes from our midst a
most distinguished scholar and citizen, one without peer. Since the 1950s
he was internationally recognised as a front rank leader among scholars
devoted to the study of Indian society, and his views on matters of national
concern, which appeared in major newspapers and magazines from time to
time, were read by the interested public with avid interest. Prof. Srinivas's
death will be widely and deeply mourned.
Prof. Srinivas discovered
sociology during his undergraduate days at Mysore University. It interested
him sufficiently to go to Bombay for further studies in the subject at
the only university department of sociology in the country at that time.
He evinced early interest in research and wrote a Master's level dissertation
on the basis of published materials, which was published as Marriage and
Family in Mysore in 1942. He proceeded to engage in the generation of primary
data through fieldwork in Coorg, and earned a Ph.D. on its basis under
the supervision of G.S. Ghurye, one of the two sociology professors in
the country at that time. Prof. Srinivas later went to Oxford, where he
reanalysed his material to write a theoretically informed interpretation
of the significance of domestic rituals in the maintenance of social order
among the Coorgs. Prof. A. R. Radcliffe Brown, one of the most famous anthropologists
of his time, and his successor, E. E. Evans Pritchard, were Prof. Srinivas's
mentors at Oxford. They were sufficiently impressed with his work to appoint
him to the newly created Lecturership in Indian Sociology and, at the same
time, enabled him to undertake a fieldwork based study of a multi-caste
village near his home city of Mysore.
Prof. Srinivas was already
back in India, as the first Professor of Sociology at the M.S. University
of Baroda, when the Oxford doctoral dissertation was published in 1952
by the Clarendon Press, under the title of Religion and Society among the
Coorgs of South India. It immediately attracted wide scholarly attention
and was acknowledged as a modern classic within a few years. Among other
things, Prof. Srinivas pointed out that Hinduism and Hindu society were
absorptive in character, gradually incorporating diverse folk cults and
communities, and characterised by much variety. He wrote of the regional
and all India levels of Hinduism and of the caste system. He also identified
the process through which lower castes seek to raise their ritual and social
status by adopting traits characteristic of upper-caste lifestyles, and
called it 'Sanskritisation'.
The 1950s were witness
to elections in India at various levels on the basis of universal adult
franchise. Prof. Srinivas was quick to see that caste loyalties would be
utilised in electoral politics. He came out boldly in a number of addresses
and articles pointing out that caste would thus find a new lease of life,
that it would not wither away under the impact of modem political institutions
but adapt to them. In data-rich and insightful analyses of village politics,
he showed how numerical and economic strength, combined with high caste
status and the ability to use physical force, enabled some families to
emerge as the 'dominant caste', and direct others to follow their lead.
Prof. Srinivas thus illumined the process of the formation of 'vote banks'.
Prof. Srinivas combined
a steady flow of publications with time-consuming and remarkably successful
work as an institution builder. After placing the Department of Sociology
at Baroda University on a firm foundation, he moved on to Delhi in 1959
at the invitation of Vice- Chancellor V.K.R.V. Rao to start the teaching
of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. He spent the next two decades
nurturing the new Department, and had the satisfaction of seeing it recognised
by the University Grants Commission as a Centre for Advanced Studies. In
1970 he was persuaded by Prof. Rao to become the Joint Director of the
Institute of Social and Economic Change in Bangalore, with Mr. Rao himself
as the Director. Again Prof. Srinivas established a sociology division
and later assumed the institute's chairmanship.
In the midst of all these
and other professional responsibilities, Prof. Srinivas managed to maintain
his presence on the international academic scene. He held many visiting
appointments and fellowships in England, the U.S. and elsewhere. It was
during his stay as a Fellow at the Advanced Centre for Behavioural Sciences
at Stanford (U.S.) that his processed fieldnotes of 18 years of field work
in a Karnataka village got gutted when, in 1970, rioting arsonists set
on fire the building in which he had his office. Out of this misfortune,
Prof. Srinivas evolved a new genre of sociological writing, based on the
imaginative recreation of field observations aided by a good memory. The
resultant book, appropriately entitled The Remembered Village (1976), was
received, like the Coorgs and Social Change books, most enthusiastically
by sociologists and social anthropologists everywhere. It was praised for
its sociological worth no less than for its literary merit.
Prof. Srinivas's achievements
won him many accolades and honours. Of these, particular mention may be
made of the following: the honorary doctorate of the University of Delhi;
the Padma Bhushan; the Rivers and the Huxley Medals of the Royal Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the latter medal being the highest
honour that the Institute may bestow; the Corresponding Fellowship of the
British Academy; and the Foreign Fellowship of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences. At the time of his death, Prof. Srinivas was J.R.D.
Tata Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)
in Bangalore.
When I think of Prof.
Srinivas, three qualities stand out in my memory above all others. First
(and here I speak as much from personal experience as from what I have
heard from others), his genuine interest in other human beings of all stations,
high and low, which found particular expression in his support of students
(not only his own) and young scholars. His wide sympathies combined with
keen observation and a marvellous sense of humour made him the adorable
raconteur that he was. His ability to laugh, including at himself, was
infectious.
Secondly, I was impressed
by his eye for significant detail in commonplace things and events and
his truly impressive ability to write about it engagingly. He never paraded
theories nor did he feel the need for jargon. It is not widely known that
he published two short stories, The legend on the wall, when he was still
in his late twenties, and The image maker in 1988. Both are literary gems.
I asked him several times, "why only one or two?"; he never gave me an
answer and indeed played down the achievement.
Thirdly, I respected
Prof. Srinivas's intensely felt social concerns. He agonised over the shortcomings
of national politics, the academia, and civil society. In the last couple
of years, he spoke to me and wrote In letters about the distress he felt
to witness the mindless exploitation of religion by the fanatics of all
religious communities, and the equally unthinking attitude of most secularists
towards religion as a social force. He regretted that the serious study
of the role of religion as a source of social legitimacy had suffered a
decline in our times. In fact, his last conversation with me in September
this year was about a conference on religion that he was helping to organise
at NIAS later next year. He wanted me to write a paper for it, and said:
"I am giving you a year's notice: don't say later I didn't tell you well
in advance!" It is so ironical that he went away without giving any notice,
quietly - the Srinivas way.
(The writer is Emeritus
Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi.)
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