Lardinois: Scholars and Prophets

Lardinois, Roland:
Scholars and Prophets : Sociology of India from France in the 19th - 20th Centuries / Roland Lardinois. Translated from the French by Renuka George. - New Delhi : Social Science Press, 2013. - X, 564 S. - (French writings on India and South Asia)
Einheitssachtitel: Invention de l'Inde <engl.>
ISBN 978-81-87358-70-1
Rs. 795,00
US$ 39,45 (D.K. Agencies)
DDC: 954.0072

Beschreibung
Scholars and Prophets: Sociology of India from France 19th – 20th centuries is being translated from L’invention de I’ Inde. Entre ésotérisme et science, and deals with the historical genesis of the long and rich scholarship on India in France since the beginning of 19thcentury, with particular reference to the work of Louis Dumont. It considers the works of scholars and the essayists, poets, or esotericists who published on India and shows that Dumont has been influenced by both groups. This understanding illuminates the main criticism that is still addressed to Homo hierarchicus, that in this book Dumont mistook the internal Brahminical view point on the caste system for a sociological view.
   In the last chapter, the book contrasts Dumont’s work with issues raised by McKim Marriott’s project and the Subaltern Studies from India. It defends that the core issue dealt with by all scholars is the epistemic status given to scientific knowledge of Indian society.
   In the course of explaining the French intellectual tradition, the author relates many fascinating interactions and little known anecdotes of famous men and women which capture the intellectually vibrant climate of the time. Both scholars and students of the social sciences will find this book very useful. [Verlagsinformation]

Übersetzung von: Lardinois, Roland: L’invention de l’Inde : entre ésotérisme et science / Roland Lardinois. - Paris : CNRS Éditions, 2007. – 493 S. - ISBN 978-2-271-06590-2

Besprechungen

• Padoux, André: « Roland Lardinois, L'invention de l'Inde. Entre ésotérisme et science », in: Archives de sciences sociales des religions 4/2009 (n° 148), p. 109ff. (URL: Archives de sciences sociales des religions (via Cairn.info)).
• Gayer, Laurent: “Reviews: Constructing India: Roland Lardinois, L’Invention de l’Inde. Entre ésotérisme et science ...”. In: International Sociology 24.5 (2009), p. 665-668.
• Leclercq, François: « Roland Lardinois, L’invention de l’Inde: Entre ésotérisme et science », in: South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal [Online], Book Reviews. URL: http://samaj.revues.org/2949.
• Fussman, Gérard: « Compte rendu de Roland Lardinois, L’invention de l’Inde, Entre ésotérisme et science, Paris 2007 », in: Annales, Histoire, Sciences sociales, 64e année, n° 1 (janvier-février 2009), p. 274-277.
• Rabault-Feuerhahn, Pascale: « Une Anamnèse de L’Invention de L’Inde », in: Revue de synthèse 132.3 (2011), p. 435-441.
• Naudet, Jules: The Fascination for India (2013, Books & Ideas, Online verfügbar), French version: La fascination de l’Inde (2009, La vie des idées, Online verfügbar).

Inhalt
Introduction: Genesis of the sociology of India
Prologue: René Daumal and the autofiction of the cultural field
PART ONE: THE GENESIS OF A SAVANT MILIEU (1795-1927)
   1. The struggle for academic legitimacy
   2. Orientalist knowledge and prophetic discourses
   3. The Struggle for institutional autonomy
PART TWO: SCHOLARS AND PROPHETS (THE INTERWAR PERIOD)
   4. The field of scholarship on India in the 1930s
   5. Scholarly practices
   6. Prophetic strategies
   7. Hinduism as a disciplinary issue
PART THREE: SOCIAL SCIENCE AND INDIGENOUS SCIENCE (SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY)
   8. Louis Dumont and the indigenous science
   9. Louis Dumont and the cunning of reason
   10. The Avatara of scholarship on India
Conclusion: Sociology put to the test of India
Postscript: Note on the construction of a research subject
Appendix: Multi Correspondence Analysis
Postface to the English-language edition
List of documents, tables, figures
Sources and bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

Autor
ROLAND LARDINOIS is a sociologist, Director of Research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris (France). He is Fellow at the Centre d’études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris.He has published works on the history of family in India, historical demography of South India, history of French scholarship on India, and edited a volume of correspondence exchanged between Sylvain Lévi and Russian Orientalist scholars. Profile page (CEIAS). Profile page (C.S.H.).

Quellen: Social Science Press; Orient BlackSwan; Scholars Without Borders; WorldCat; D.K. Agencies
Bildquelle: Social Science Press
Bibliography: [1]

References