Abstract
In this chapter, we engage with Ramkrishna Mukherjee’s study of social change in India with the belief scholars of his standing deserve to be read seriously, and not ignored or praised without engaging with their writings. We have placed specific emphasis on what he had to say on this substantive change rather than on how social change should be generally studied. An exposition of his formulations is followed by a critical examination, including his concept of ‘soft spots’.
For his personal communication, I am thankful to Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, and for comments on the paper, I would like to thank André Béteille, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and T. N. Madan. I have also published a tribute (Munshi 2016a) as well as a critique of RM (Munshi 2016b).
This chapter is a modified version of the article that was published in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 51; Issue 39, September 2016. It has been reproduced here with the kind permission of Economic and Political Weekly.
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Munshi, S. (2019). Social Change in India: Reconsidering Ramkrishna Mukherjee. In: Mukherji, P., Jayaram, N., Ghosh, B. (eds) Understanding Social Dynamics in South Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0387-6_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0387-6_11
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