Roland Lardinois: Scholars and prophets: Sociology of India from France
– 19th–20th centuries (trans. from the French by Renuka George). New Delhi: Social Science Press, 2013,
xi + 564 pp., Price not mentioned (hb). ISBN 978-88358-70-1
In this book, Roland Lardinois provides a detailed sociological expo-
sition of the genesis of a sociology of India in France. Seen as being marked by a structural tension between the two disciplinary approaches
of philology and the social sciences that were synthesised in the work of
Louis Dumont, the study attempts to bring to light the implicit
assumptions of this intellectual activity. To do this, it employs a novel sociology of knowledge framework of Bourdieusian inspiration, within
which the concepts of fields, habitus,
and forms of capital, among others,
draw into their fold practices that have defined the social reality of India
in French
discourses.
Importantly, the study delineates, with painstaking documentary and
other historical evidence, the porous borders between the social sciences
and other discursive
fields, such as
those of art and literature (particularly in the form of the surrealist movement), as well as with the worlds of orientalist
scholarship
and journalism.
This, besides enriching the
account, underlines the value of moving beyond the narrow confines of institutional analysis, in order to catch the dynamism and fluidity that characterise social and intellectual phenomena everywhere.
The book
consists of three parts,
the first
being
a
history of orientalist institutions from just after the French Revolution till the years following World War II. The second part is a structural analysis of the field in which discourses about India were produced in France during the interwar period. The third part focuses on Louis Dumont‟s contribution,
identifying the influences it was shaped by and the ones it avoided, such
as that of Weber, and relating it to Dumont‟s biographical trajectory, to
uncover its underlying principles. Significantly, in this part of his book, the author also traces the parallel trajectory of McKim Marriott at the
University of Chicago, since Marriott‟s work seemed to encounter challenges akin to Dumont‟s, and also initiated the move towards an indigenisation of social sciences, evident among researchers of the Subaltern
Studies Group in North American academia
today.
The book begins with a dense and scholarly description of the emer-
gence of orientalist studies, amid tensions and struggles for legitimacy that inevitably unfolded upon a complex canvas reflecting the chequered
history of France after the Revolution, the impact of French colonial
expansion, and transformations affected by internal institutional innovations. Part
of this analysis
engages
in minute
detail
with the
centrality assumed by the learning of languages, such as Sanskrit, which,
to
begin with, was considered essential for studying India, and which, significantly, found
a place in the College de France. The discussion of Sanskrit is one example among others of how the analytical framing of
processes of institutionalisation within wider social and historical
contexts, as has been done in this work, makes for a precious contribu-
tion
to the development of a sophisticated historical sociology.
In the next part of the book, along with an account of various other
important aspects of French scholarship on India in the interwar period, the dominant position of the scholar Sylvain Levi is extensively and
skilfully reconstructed in terms of his habitus, constituted in part by the volume
of the Orientalist capital he
had acquired very early on, as
well as the internal structure of this capital. This mode of analysis, while focus- sing on an individual, bridges the divide
between
psychological and
sociological explanations, transforming what may seem like redundant biographical details
into a rich resource
for
analytical insights.
Another significant feature of the study is a remarkably erudite discussion of the varied contexts and numerous forms in which the
notion that Hinduism in general and Brahminism in particular are the
defining characteristics of society in India, permeates scholarly writings.
While the author‟s own critique of this dominant perspective does find
expression in this study, it is a low-key articulation, and the dominant
trends are presented in a consistently scholarly fashion: nuanced, histori-
cally specific, meticulously referenced, and nowhere marred by dogmatic
refutations
and shrill polemics.
Striking, too,
is the analysis of Dumont‟s comparative sociology which is premised on the binary of hierarchy and equality. The author
argues that it is a product of Dumont‟s situation in a contradictory position `where an internal conflict was played out: it was as if his class
habitus led him to deny his condition
as a modern man who was the basis of his scientific position, while
his scholarly
habitus
incited
him
to defend (universal) science while objecting to its modern principles‟ (p. 375). This unusual and original way of understanding Dumont‟s work is
a thought provoking contribution to debates and discussions about how
to read
scholarly writing.
A notable feature of this book, which makes its contribution to the world of scholarship substantive in more ways than one, is the wide
range of material used, including, besides books and journals in French and
English, sources such as public and private archives, and oral
interviews. Bourdieu‟s influence is evident, too, in the sophisticated use
of statistical
data, including the
method
of Multi Correspondence Analysis, exemplifying the complementarity of quantitative and qualitative techniques of research, and
the
rich results produced by their
fusion in relation
to
the subject being studied.
The only feature of the book that appears a bit out of place within its
otherwise tightly structured framework is the fairly elaborate discussion of post-colonial scholarship on India in North American universities, even as a critique of the orientalist framework, an important constituent
of this study, is the starting point of the discussion. The strain to incorporate the contemporary that this inclusion seems to carry results in a certain blurring of vision, especially as it falls short of being comprehensive by neglecting other lineages and trajectories of the influence of
French studies of
India
on scholarship around the world.
The above, however, is a minor flaw, subject to being qualified by other readings and interpretations. What is undoubted is that the book is
exceptionally valuable on many counts: in its ability to reveal a terrain of intellectual life with methodological and conceptual rigour and sophisti- cation; in its rich blend of disciplinary perspectives such as the historical
and the sociological; and in its keen and original insights into a complex
and multidimensional social reality, bringing together the world of ideas,
of the everyday, and of institutional structures, within an exemplary
framework of sociological research. For all this, the author needs to be
congratulated, and
his future
works keenly awaited.
Sheena Jain
Department of Sociology,
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
