Postmodernity proposes the idea that society is no longer governed by history or progress. A postmodern society is highly pluralistic, differentiated, and diverse. It rejects all grand narratives such as Marxism, Gandhism, and rationalism, which are propagated as universal explanations of society. Postmodernity meets the challenges given by modernity. In India, modernity's benefits are cornered by high caste Hindus, elites, political leaders, and higher classes. The subalterns, the marginals, and the disadvantaged masses have been left high and dry. It is the modernity which has created religious, academic, and market fundamentalism and an age of dark dogma. In Indian society, modernity has brought damage to various ethnicities. In this book, the author applies the perspective of postmodernity to the interpretation of increasingly changing contemporary Indian society. With this, he looks afresh at family, caste, village, culture, and religion. From a sociological perspective, fundamentalism is given a thorough examination. The author courageously establishes that Indian society is a postmodern society.

PERSPECTIVES ON INDIAN SOCIETY India is a hierarchical society. Whether in North India or South India, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and social groups are ranked according to various essential qualities. Although India is a political democracy, notions of complete equality are seldom evident in daily life. Societal hierarchy is evident in caste groups, amongst individuals, and in family and kinship groups. Castes are primarily associated with Hinduism, but caste-like groups also exist among Muslims, Indians, Christians, and other religious communities. Within most villages or towns, everyone knows the relative rankings of each locally represented caste, and behaviour is constantly shaped by this knowledge. Individuals are also ranked according to their wealth and power. For example, some powerful people, or “big men,” sit confidently on chairs, while “little men” come before them to make requests, either standing or squatting not presuming to sit beside a man of high status as an equal. Hierarchy plays an important role within families and kinship groupings also, where men outrank women of similar age, and senior relatives outrank junior relatives. Formal respect is accorded to family members—for example, in northern India, a daughter-in-law shows deference to her husband, to all senior in-laws, and to all daughters of the household. Siblings, too, recognize age differences, with younger siblings addressing older siblings by respectful terms rather than by name. The book is a must for sociology and anthropology teachers, NGOs, researchers and students. Contents: • The Unique Caste System in Hindu Society • Hallmarks of Hindu Society • Rural Social System • Modern Status of the Caste System • Economic and Political Systems of Society • Religion and Society • Indian Society and Modernization • Feminism, Tradition and Modernity • The Pressure to Modernize and Globalize • Culture and Economic Development: Modernization to Globalization

The present anthology which covers eighteen well-explored articles on tribal perspectives in India, assesses critically the tribal art, culture and literature. It also endeavours to bring into surface issues and challenges faced by Indian tribes in reference to their life and hardships, policies adopted by government for their development and problems in their implementation. The book as a whole tries to meet all crucial aspects of Indian tribes. Hopefully the book would serve to larger section of humanity laying bare many hidden facts related to tribal life and culture.

The leading voices in science studies have argued that modern science reflects dominant social interests of Western society. Following this logic, postmodern scholars have urged postcolonial societies to develop their own "alternative sciences" as a step towards "mental decolonization". These ideas have found a warm welcome among Hindu nationalists who came to power in India in the early 1990s. In this passionate and highly original study, Indian-born author Meera Nanda reveals how these well-meaning but ultimately misguided ideas are enabling Hindu ideologues to propagate religious myths in the guise of science and secularism. At the heart of Hindu supremacist ideology, Nanda argues, lies a postmodernist assumption: that each society has its own norms of reasonableness, logic, rules of evidence, and conception of truth, and that there is no non-arbitrary, culture-independent way to choose among these alternatives. What is being celebrated as "difference" by postmodernists, however, has more often than not been the source of mental bondage and authoritarianism in non-Western cultures. The "Vedic sciences" currently endorsed in Indian schools, colleges, and the mass media promotes the same elements of orthodox Hinduism that have for centuries deprived the vast majority of Indian people of their full humanity. By denouncing science and secularization, the left was unwittingly contributing to what Nanda calls "reactionary modernism." In contrast, Nanda points to the Dalit, or untouchable, movement as a true example of an "alternative science" that has embraced reason and modern science to challenge traditional notions of hierarchy.

"This book is both about social movements and collective actions, and about the discipline of sociology and prevailing concepts of Indian society. Presenting a post-modernist critique of the study of social movements, Professor Rajendra Singh maintains that it is these movements which truly represent the contemporary nature of Indian society. He thus challenges the dominant view that these struggles are expressions of disruption and a breakdown of the established social order. The author goes on to argue for the need for a post-sociology, based on broader perspectives drawn from all the social science disciplines, to fully grasp the realities of present-day Indian society."--BOOK JACKET.

Postmodernism is a notoriously elusive concept and still the object of critical debates among scholars across a range of different disciplines. In literature, in particular, these debates are complicated by “postmodern” styles emanating from outside the concept’s Western origins. By analyzing contemporary Hindi novels, and drawing on both Western and Hindi literary criticism, "Postmodern Traces and Recent Hindi Novels" aims to understand some of the manifestations of postmodernism in contemporary Hindi fiction, including ways the latter might challenge the traditional parameters of postmodern literature. This book is essential reading for scholars and students specializing in South Asian studies and both postcolonial and comparative literature. It will also interest the general reader curious to know more about one of the less explored areas of world literature.

Ritzer's long-awaited text in Postmodern Social Theory is a readable & coherent introduction to the fundamental ideas & most important thinkers in postmodern social theory.