eprintid: 29008
rev_number: 13
eprint_status: archive
userid: 6
dir: disk0/00/02/90/08
datestamp: 2020-10-30 15:10:52
lastmod: 2020-11-02 16:01:00
status_changed: 2020-10-30 15:10:52
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Michaels, Axel
title: ‘At the point of confluence of sociology and Indology’: Louis Dumont’s postulate reconsidered
subjects: ddc-300
divisions: i-702000
keywords: Indology, anthropology, philology, caste, colonialism, transculturality
note: Dieser Beitrag ist aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich. *** This publication is freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
abstract: 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’.
date: 2020
publisher: Sage (Publ.)
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00029008
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1177/0069966720945513
ppn_swb: 1737578689
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-290089
language: eng
bibsort: MICHAELSAXATTHEPOINT2020
full_text_status: public
publication: Contributions to Indian Sociology
volume: 54
number: 3
place_of_pub: Los Angeles, Calif. ; New Delhi
pagerange: 357-387
issn: 0069-9667 (Druck-Ausg.), 0973-0648 (Online-Ausg.)
edition: Zweitveröffentlichung
citation:   Michaels, Axel  (2020) ‘At the point of confluence of sociology and Indology’: Louis Dumont’s postulate reconsidered.  Contributions to Indian Sociology, 54 (3).  pp. 357-387.  ISSN 0069-9667 (Druck-Ausg.), 0973-0648 (Online-Ausg.)     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/29008/1/10.1177_0069966720945513.pdf