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The imagery of ‘otherness’ played a significant role in modern Europe's cognisance of the orient, the colonised, the feminine and the homosexual which were viewed as threats to the values of a ‘rational, progressive and civilised’ society. But how was ‘the non-European other’ represented in classical sociology's canons authored by the trinity of Durkheim, Weber and Marx? The paper focuses on Durkheim's examination of the Hindu sati as an altruistic suicide, Weber's theorisation that the European Protestant Christianity could only produce rationality and capitalism, and Marx's non-reflexive neglect of the progressive pre-modern from India's pre-colonial past. A critical post-colonial reading of the selected texts identifies the ahistorical, orientalist, racialised, colonialist and historicist fault lines that crisscross the sociological canons. The time is ripe to rectify the denial of subjecthood to the ‘non-western other’ that we often encounter in the sociological canons. The paper concludes that the ‘non-western other’ is capable of being a subject in her own right. The critical engagement with the sociological canons is a small step towards building the ground for a more reflexive and historically specific global sociology in the post-colonial era. As an intellectual endeavour of the post-colonial era, global sociology should be vigilant about global capitalism's tendency towards obliterating the diverse ways of thinking and acting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper applies a theory of institutional change enriched with mezzorules, fluidity and agency to India's informal sector institutional evolution using two illustrative examples. The concrete examples are rooted in unfree labour and rural casual labouring in India, a country which has a high degree of informality. Section 1 introduces some concepts, and section 2 examines processes of institutional change in the informal sector. In section 3, two illustrations are explored: (1) the norms for girl child bonded labour; (2) the individualisation of women labourers. Section 4 concludes. The fluidity of institutional rules demands a recognition of the supra-economic nature of the context within which economic-institutional change occurs. We propose the analysis of mezzorules in a dialogic research context, i.e. interactions among workers and collective agents - as a helpful and transformative approach for sociologists specialising in the informal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early fifties M.N. Srinivas's sociological imagination has defined the perspectives and methodologies that govern the contours of Indian sociology. This text, which is the seventh memorial M.N. Srinivas lecture, makes a critical assessment of Srinivas's contribution to sociology in India and to sociology of the world. It argues that Srinivas's theories and conceptual repertoire has not been able to capture the complexities of Indian society. It remains trapped in middle class, upper class and patriarchal orientations. The 'field view' that Srinivas advocated, the study of the micro (the caste system in the village) through participant observation is limiting and needs to be compensated and complemented by other methods. The paper argues for the imperative to assess the macro in order to examine the nature of contemporary polity and economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the `book view' of rural India by Indologists and Orientalists, constructed from Hindu scriptures and historical record, and the `field view' of sociologists and anthropologists. Importance of studies by sociologists and anthropologists in the context of development; Importance result of the studies; Problems with participant observation.