The Andre Beteille Omnibus

The scholarship of Andr© B©teille, one of India's most distinguished sociologists, has had significant impact on the development of Indian sociology. B©teille's original and incisive work, spread over four decades, has helped shape the discourse on key aspects of the discipline. This Omnibus brings together three seminal works on caste, social stratification, and inequality. Caste, Class and Power , first published in 1965, is considered a classic in Indian sociology. Based on B©teille's doctoral thesis, the book illustrates the process by which modernity transformed a traditional village with a caste-based social structure to one based more on political parties and panchayats. The second edition in which an Epilogue and two Appendices supplement the original thesis is reproduced here. Drawing from the disciplines of sociology, history, philosophy, and law, The Idea of Natural Inequality and Other Essays examines various aspects of inequality with reference to contemporary India. The book is concerned with patterns of inequality in the distribution of goods, relationships between persons, and legal and moral systems. Equality and Universality discusses the Indian experience of inequality from the perspectives of both theory and policy. In an Introduction written specially for this Omnibus, B©teille discusses the nature of his work and the course of its development.