This day, that age

This collection of essays, while examining complex social realities in a manner that does not intimidate the reader, gives a composite picture of past-Nehruvian India, says IRA SINGH.

ANDRE BETEILLE'S collection of essays includes newspaper articles of more than 30 years, all produced for the editorial page of The Times Of India. In his introduction, he talks of why he persisted in writing for newspapers, despite word limits and early deadlines. It was to "bring a sociological perspective to bear upon some of the major social and political issues of our time". Also, "academic work is specialised work ... writing for a non- specialist readership provides ... relief and also the opportunity to see one's own work in a wider perspective".

This collection's greatest strength is its ability to examine complex social realities in a concise analytical mode, without the use of obfuscating language and in a manner which is not daunting to the lay reader. The book is divided into eight sections and the several articles included in each were written between the late 1960's and early 1970's to the mid-late 1990's. This provides a sense of historical perspective and gives us a composite picture of post-Nehruvian India. Beteille's concern is with the movements and ideologies that have shaped 20th Century liberal doctrine; thus he continually takes issue with Marxism, secularism, and ideas of social justice.

As both a university teacher as well as a sociologist, this collection reflects Beteille's multi-pronged concerns. For example, there are two sections on universities and institutions.

In the former, a number of issues are examined: the quality and improvement of higher education, the need for a national eligibility test for lecturers, the issue of academic autonomy and the need for strikes.

As a university lecturer, I am slightly uncomfortable with Beteille's constant criticism of the unionisation of teachers.

In an article called "White Collar Trade Unionism" he points out that as university professors are the constituting authorities of the very bodies they are going on strike against, what point does a strike accomplish? While it is undeniably true that the large middle class populace, including the media, is alienated from the cause of striking teachers, as the strike in 1998 indicated, and that there is a need to debate the forms of protest, this does not seem a good enough reason to not go on strike. In another essay he also makes a distinction between industrial workers and the university teacher and declares that strikes eat into the self esteem of the university teacher, because "he is not an industrial worker, and has a middle class sense of self esteem". This seems to posit a stereotypical notion of the working class psyche.

Three sections are the backbone of the book: "Equality and Justice", "Tribe, Caste, and Religion", and "Reservations". A number of these essays examine the very contentious reservation issue. Most are written before the Mandal agitation of 1990 and I was struck by the ways in which they apprehend so many of the later criticism of the Mandal recommendations, like what/ who constitutes the creamy layer, as well as the description of socially backward classes. In a 1990 essay called "Social backwardness", Beteille points out that the two criteria used to judge backwardness are a low marriage age and the fact that women work outside the home. Considering that the former was originally seen as a value which protected the "purity" of women in upper caste families, Beteille points out that it is ironic that it is seen as a measure of social backwardness in the lower castes. In the latter category, "no useful purpose can be served by labelling as socially backward those families that must, under pressure of economic necessity send women to work under oppressive and degrading conditions". It is the amelioration of these conditions that concerns Beteille, and not the superficial labelling of those who work in these conditions.

There are a number of other essays on caste, from the way in which electoral politics exploit the caste factor to the 1970 "Social Inequality in India", where he argues the nexus between class, caste and power and examines social stratification in the context of agrarian hierarchies. Also there are a number of essays on the colonial construction, the use of caste and in tracing the historical turning points. In what has become a fractious debate, Beteille does us a service.

In a large number of more general essays, Beteille displays a hands on, commonsensical approach to issues like rights. In a 1999 essay called "A Right for Every Season", he remarks: "A belief in the transformative power of rights may turn out to be no less delusive than the belief in the potency of planning models." The upshot of his argument is that rights should only be created if they can be enforced.

Beteille joins issue with the New Economic Policy as well. While his statement that market reforms might increase inequalities among the middle classes and not necessarily between the working class and the middle classes seems a trifle too sanguine, to say the least, his argument against reservations in private companies throws up some of the questions of reservations in the public sector and the corruption of the bureaucracy.

While it is obvious that Beteille is critical of the communist experiment, he does not see Marxism as a retrograde philosophy. Rather he points out the difference between a crucial understanding of Marxism and the practical workings of it.

Despite being steeped in the tradition of liberal inquiry and intellectual thought, though, Beteille seems to regard intellectuals as a pernicious breed; particularly the Third World intellectual. Suffering from a corrosive sense of self contempt on the one hand, but a privileged, upper caste, alienated and confused on the other, and with only the weakest sense of commitment to a coherent position, Beteille's construction of the intellectual left me slightly disturbed wondering where to locate Beteille himself.

On the whole, though, this book is interesting, informative and cogent. Dedicated to R. N. Dhar, K. N. Raj, and M. N. Srinivas, "who gave shape and form to the Delhi School of Economics, which in turn shaped countless others, among whom I was one", it stands as welcome testimony to the intervention of intellectuals in public life.

Chronicles Of Our Time, Andre Beteille, Penguin, Rs. 295.

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