"At the point of confluence of sociology and Indology": Louis Dumont’s postulate reconsidered:
In this article, I aim to show how Louis Dumont’s famous claim that ‘the condition for a sound development of Sociology of India is found in the establishment of the proper relation between it and classical Indology’ has become obsolete and was from the beginning a problematic postulate. I first dev...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
October 14, 2020
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| In: |
Contributions to Indian sociology
Year: 2020, Volume: 54, Issue: 3, Pages: 357-387 |
| ISSN: | 0973-0648 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0069966720945513 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1177/0069966720945513 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0069966720945513 
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| Author Notes: | Axel Michaels |
| Summary: | In this article, I aim to show how Louis Dumont’s famous claim that ‘the condition for a sound development of Sociology of India is found in the establishment of the proper relation between it and classical Indology’ has become obsolete and was from the beginning a problematic postulate. I first develop the historical background of the denigration of anthropological approaches in India against the rise of an idealising Indology as a philological discipline. Then I discuss the structural, methodological and ideological problems that made it difficult to follow Dumont’s advice to search for the point of confluence of sociology and Indology. Finally, I place Dumont’s holistic approach in relation to the holistic structure of academic disciplines that emerged in the 19th century on the basis of the nation-state model and argue that it is misleading and reductive to think that ‘the construction of an Indian Sociology rests in part upon the existence of Indology’. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 12.11.2020 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 0973-0648 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0069966720945513 |