UNDERSTANDING SOCIOLOGY

  LOUIS PIERRE ALTHUSSER     Ø   L Althusser – a French Marxist Philosopher (of Jewish origin) Ø   Born in 1918 in French Algeria Ø   Father was a bank manager whom he saw as an authoritarian figure. Ø   He got his name from his paternal uncle who died in World War I. Ø   He believed that his mother wanted to marry his uncle but due to his death married his father instead. Ø   Believed that his mother treated him as a replacement of his dead uncle which results in deep psychological problem in him. Ø   After his father’s demise Althusser’s mother along with Althusser and his younger sister moved to Marseilles. Ø   Althusser performed brilliantly in his school. Ø   In 1939 he admitted to Ecole Normale. Ø   Due to World War II his studied disrupted. Ø   During German occupation of North and East France- Althusser was put in German concentration camp for five years. Ø   The Nazi occupatio...

  USE OF NATIVE CATEGORIES IN THE ANALYSIS OF INDIAN SOCIETY   ü   During the colonial period many British and European scholars were writing on Indian society and culture. They used conceptual categories which were Eurocentric in nature. For example the word ‘caste’ came from Portuguese word ‘casta’ . Britishers used it both for Varna and Jati. ü   It created confusion because they were different concepts and products of different period. ü   Some of Western scholars tended to distort history and imputed meanings to Indian reality in the abstract as it to perpetuate colonialism. ü   According in Yogendra Singh (Atal, 2003) most of the categories used to understand Indian society have also some Western   influence. ü   Initially, categories like caste, tribe and nation; caste class and power; mind, body and wealth were used by the researchers without following a rigorous methodology that requires conceptual clarity and dependable too...