This book brings together a set of original essays written in tribute to Andre Beteille. Beteille's work has been marked by a distinctive combination of theoretical innovativeness and scrupulousness of scholarship. These essays, likewise, match theory with empirical data, engaging with, extending, and occasionally disputing the arguments of Beteille's work. Contributions from senior and established academics as well as younger scholars respond to and reflect the wide range of Beteille's interests. The settings vary from a steel plant in Madhya Pradesh to temples in Tamil Nadu.
Some studies focus on individuals, others deal with social classes or communities.
Most essays are set in India, but two explore inequalities in China and Russia and in Japan and England respectively. However, the essays all engage with themes and arguments from the oeuvre of Andre Beteille. And all deal, in one way or another, with the relationship between institutions and inequalities. The sequencing of the essays broadly follows the evolution of Andre Beteille's career. The book moves from studies of changing patterns of stratification through an analysis of agrarian structure to assessments of policies of protective discrimination.