G.S.GHURYE (INDOLOGICAL APPROACH) CASTE AND RACE, TRIBE, INDIAN SADHUS

GOVIND SADASHIV GHURYE

 

INDOLOGY

Prof. G.S. Ghurye, the founding father of Indian sociology, is the primary architect for the Indology approach. Basically, indology advocates for a textual analysis of Indian society, which implies that we may investigate Indian society, its institutions, organizations, various forms of social behaviors, social interrelationships, and social structures using sacred texts. Because culture is such an essential component of Indian civilization, it influences human activities and relationships. Textual  comprehension becomes critical in this context. Indology has also been referred to as book view.

Orientalism is the foundation of Indology. Indology mostly promotes a positive image of India, while Orientalism promotes a negative image of India. According to Edward Said, a scholar and historian who wrote the book ORIENTALISM, Europeans or Western people used Orientalism to characterize or classify eastern people. Orientalism used to create a process of separation between East and West and to define the West in contrast to the East. Orientalist wanted to portray Indians in a stereotypical way, how India is a land of various superstitions, social vices, poverty, untouchability etc. They want to show the world order that India is a white man's burden and only the British can take care of India's welfare. According to Edward Said Orientalism is an attempt by the colonizers or the west to construct a stereotypical image of the colonized people. This is the process of othering.

Ghurye was well versed in Sanskrit and sanskritik texts. Louis Dumont and Pocock also argues in the support of indology. They advocate the confluence of indology and sociology. These are two knowledge streams which should meet each other. P.H. Prabhu, Binoy Kumar Sarkar, Irawati Karwe are some of the scholars who used indology in their writings. There is a Marxist writer D.D. Kosambi who merged Indology, Marxims and History together.

Ghurye was a Hindu nationalist and his sociology is known as Hindu sociology. (Carol Upadhyaya).

INDOLOGICAL APPROACH

BASIC TENANTS

According to Indologists, Indian society is unique and different.

People using an Indological approach argue that Western theoretical models and perspectives cannot be used to study and analyze Indian society.

These Western perspectives or models emerged to study European society, such as Marxist perspective, functional perspective, structural functional perspectives, phenomenological perspectives, etc.

We cannot use these approaches to study and explore the social reality of India.

Indologist basically focuses on Hindu culture which corresponded to Indian culture.

Thematic areas of Indological studies include Hindu philosophy, ethics, ideology and thought, which define the nature and character of Indian society.

Contexts can be Vedas, Puranas, Upnishads, Smritis, epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata etc. Other forms of tracing the knowledge of Indian society include coins, manuscripts, cave art, architectural sources, etc.

Indian society is completely shaped by Indian culture, so we have to study the values, norms, customs and traditions of Indian society. These Indian cultures were shaped by religion in the case of India.

Indology is older than sociology in India, which arose in the late 18th century.

The British wanted to understand and study Indian society to ensure its better administration and management with a motive to control the people of India.

CRITICISM

Prof. M.N. Srinivas criticises it and said that indology lacks empiricism.

Indology is termed as armchair theory because of lack of field work traditon.

Carol Upadhyaya: Its solely focus of Hindu culture. It considers Islamic and Christianity as aliens to India. Ghurye’s Indology is Hindu sociology which fails to acknowledge plural culture of India. It completely neglects medieval culture of India.

Gail Omvedt (Subaltern Thinker) Indology represents elite or Brahmanical perspective. It focuses on the study of sanskritic texts which were mostly religious and were written by Brahmins. These texts represents their ideology. It does not represents subaltern view.  

G.S. GHURYE    

·         Ghurye was born on December 12, 1893, in Malavan, Maharashtra, on India's West Coast, to a Saraswat Brahmin family.

·         He died in Bombay on December 28, 1983, at the age of 91. When Ghurye was a student, sociology was not a school or college subject.

·        Ghurye was admitted to Elphinstone College, Bombay, with Honours after passing the matriculation examination.

·        He received the Bahu Dazi prize, the university's blue ribbon for Sanskrit, after scoring first class in the BA examination.

·    In 1918, he received the Chancellor's Gold Medal for his first-class performance in the MA examinations in English and Sanskrit.

·        Ghurye eventually came to sociology with this type of Sanskrit background, which profoundly influenced later Ghurye's own writings and the course of research made in the field of sociology under his leadership.

·      Ghurye joined the London School of Economics and briefly worked with L.T. Hobhouse. He later moved to Cambridge and worked with W.H.R. Rivers. Rivers died in 1922, before Ghurye finished his doctoral studies. In 1923, he finished his PhD on Caste and Race in India under A.C. Hadden.

·        Sociology in Bombay developed under the leadership of G.S. Ghurye. Patrick Geddes was invited by the University of Bombay to start a Department of Sociology in 1919. Ghurye succeeded Geddes as head and as a Reader, took charge of the Department of Sociology at Bombay University in 1924.

·     He was appointed as Professor in 1934 and retired in 1959.

• Often acclaimed as FATHER OF INDIAN SOCIOLOGY
• Ghurye is often accredited as Theoretical Pluralist because he uses multiple theoretical approaches/methods to study Indian society and culture.
• He was greatly influenced by W.H.R Rivers which relects in his writings.

• Nationalist discourse also shaped his writings. Cultural nationalism is one of the important aspect of his writings.
• He backs the credits of being the founder of Indian sociological society and the Sociological Bulletin

METHODOLOGY OR APPROACH

ü  A combination of historical, diffusionist and descriptive ethnography.

ü  One may divide the entire range of Ghurye’s writing into a number of broad themes and analyze each of these items showing how Ghurye discussed the institutions and processes.

ü  Ghurye did not strictly conform to the functionalist tradition when interpreting the complex facets of Indian society and culture, which he chose to investigate.

ü  Ghurye insisted on fieldwork, though he himself was an armchair scholar.

ü  Ghurye utilized literature in sociological studies with his profound knowledge of Sanskrit literature, extensively quoted from the Vedas, Sbastras, epics, and poetry of Kalidasa or Bhavabhuti to shed light on the social and cultural life in India.

IMPORTANT WORKS OF GHURYE

1.Caste and Race in India (1932)
2. Indian Sadhus (1953)
3. Bharatnatyam and it’s costume (1958)
4.Family and Kinship in Indo-European culture (1955)
5. Social tensions in India (1968)

CASTE AND RACE IN INDIA

Sir Herbert Risley, a British civil servant posted in India, developed the race-based caste theory. His passion for ethnography was intense. He wants to examine the diverse castes and tribes of India as an ethnographer interested in local customs. Ghurye only partially agreed with this idea and claimed that the Racial thesis of Caste is not entirely applicable to India.

The Aryan invasion idea, which was first put out by German orientalist Max Muller and discusses the genesis of caste, served as the intellectual foundation for racial theory of caste. This theory contends that caste is a racial phenomenon. Racial characteristics are the foundation of caste differences.  Different caste have different racial features/physical appearances (caste is somehow linked to race) Risley tookthis explanation to explain his theory.

Risley claims that Aryans first arrived in the Indian subcontinent about 2500 BCE and stayed for at least 1000 years. As a result, their migration occurred in waves. They eventually settled in India. However, India was not an empty space at this moment. India was populated by its own indigenous people (called Dasas by Aryans). When they arrived in India, they encountered Dasas. Aryans were victorious, and Dasas were subjugated as a result. Aryans forced them to work in menial jobs in order to serve the Aryans. Following the fight, Aryans and Dasas formed two distinct races. Both had distinct physical characteristics.

Aryans were taller in height, fair in color, and had sharp features, but Dasas were shorter in height, had a flat nose, and dark complexion, distinguishing them from the Aryan race. There existed socioeconomic differentiation among Aryans at this period. They essentially had three classes.

Scholars (priests)

Rajanyas Kshatriyas (warriors/administrators)

Vish (common folk) were thereafter referred to as vaishyas.

This type of social distinction was not dependent on birth. It wasn't stagnant, fixed, or inflexible. There is evidence from the Rgveda Hymn that illustrates "I am a bard (a poet), my father is a physician, and my mother grinds corn on stone," indicating that members of a family selected three separate occupations. As a result, occupation was a personal option.

Various cultural restrictions were imposed by the priestly class (Aryans believe themselves superior) throughout the Vedic period. There is a strong emphasis on preventing Aryans from mingling with Dasas. The prevention of blood mixing and the preservation of racial superiority become critical. Endogamous constraints emerge as a result of this. Endogamy is now widely practiced in India. There were formerly just two varnas: Aryans and Dasas. Society is now split into four groups based on Varna rather than color. Varna traditionally meant "color."

Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra are the four varnas of society. The higher three were referred to as Dwijas because they were eligible for the Upnayan ritual, which meant they were eligible to obtain wisdom or knowledge. You are born twice when you receive knowledge. Shudras were not permitted to acquire knowledge. They were forbidden from Upnayan ceremony.

In this way upper caste engaged in the oppression of subjugated lower caste people. These arguments were presented by British scholars which not only created caste conflict but caste divide, Aryan Dravidian divide in Indian society. Many scholars asserts that these arguments are responsible for segmentalization Indian society.

According to G.S. Ghurye, there are six main characteristics of caste system, which are briefly given below.

1. Segmental division of society:

The caste system divides the whole society into various segments or sections. Each of these castes is a well developed social group, the membership of which is fixed by birth. So change from one caste to another caste is not possible.

2. Hierarchy:

The caste system is characterized by hierarchical order. Dumount believes that the hierarchical order of caste system is based on the concept of purity and pollution. At the top of this hierarchy are the Brahmins and at the bottom is the Shudras.

3. Restriction on feeding and social inter-course:

In caste system there are several restrictions which are related to food, drink and social inter-course. The members of the upper caste cannot take food or water from the lower caste members, even not interact with the members of the other castes but the vice-versa is permissible.

4. Civil and religious disabilities:

In caste system, there is an unequal distribution of privileges and restrictions among its members. Generally, the higher caste people enjoy all the privileges and the lower caste people are put to all kinds of restrictions.

5. Lack of unrestricted choice of occupation:

Under caste system, each caste has its own traditional occupation. Occupation is fixed at the time of birth and the members of a caste are forced to follow the occupation of that caste.

6. Restriction on marriage:

In caste system the principles of endogamy is strictly followed. That means, marriage within the own caste on sub-caste is purely followed.