Critical Themes in Indian Sociology brings together the writings of a number of scholars--both well established and younger, in India and in different parts of the world--on various themes that express the richness and diversity that defines sociological scholarship on India. The book reflects changes in scholarship over time and charts out new subjects and methods for the study of social life in India. Commemorating the 50 plus years since Contributions to Indian Sociology was first published, this book is a tribute to a journal that has sustained an internationally acclaimed and rigorous sociological engagement with India. Comprising a wide range of themes such as village, city, class, caste, politics, gender, sexuality, media, food and education, this book presents a concise, yet in-depth sense of a sociological view of India today.
Abraham, Janaki: -
Janaki Abraham is Associate Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi. Her research interests include the study of kinship, gender and caste, visual anthropology, and gender and space, particularly the study of towns. She is currently finalising her manuscript entitled Gender, Caste and Matrilineal Kinship: Shifting Boundaries in Twentieth-century Kerala. Outcomes of a project on visual culture were presented at an exhibition entitled 'Exploring the Visual Cultures of North Kerala: Photographs, Albums and Videos in Everyday Life' at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2008, and was based on her postdoctoral research. From 2012 to 2016, she was coeditor of the Book Reviews section in CIS.
Arif, Yasmeen: - Yasmeen Arif is Associate Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi. Her book Life, Emergent: The Social in the Afterlives of Violence (2016) explores a politics of life across multiple global conditions of mass violence. Her forthcoming book The Unusual Urban: Cities in Conversation compiles her work on cities. She has held positions at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities), Minneapolis; the Graduate Institute, Geneva; Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi; and the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship, among others. From 2012 to 2016, she was co-editor of the Book Reviews section in CIS.
Srivastava, Sanjay: - Sanjay Srivastava is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University (North Campus), Delhi. His publications include Constructing Post-colonial India: National Character and the Doon School (1998), Asia: Cultural Politics in the Global Age (2001, co-authored), Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia (2004, contributing editor), Passionate Modernity, Sexuality, Class and Consumption in India (2007), Sexuality Studies (2013, contributing editor) and Entangled Urbanism: Slum, Gated Community and Shopping Mall in Delhi and Gurgaon (2015). From 2012 to 2016, he was co-editor of Contributions to Indian Sociology (CIS).
