Cambridge Companions to Sociology – serie

The Cambridge Companion to Periyar is a timely academic intervention which brings together scholars working on different aspects of modern Tamil politics, taking diverse perspectives, to comment on Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, the significant thinker whose thoughts inform political practices in contemporary Tamil Nadu. As the chapters seek to demonstrate, Periyar's thoughts can have a pan-Indian and a global significance, informing conversations on caste, gender, religion, regionalism, nationalism, and social justice. Likewise, in the wake of wider conversations on bringing diversity to the academic disciplines, this volume on Periyar will draw attention to a non-canonical thinker whose important intellectual and political contributions transcend the limits of his context. The volume brings together established academics in the field as well as early career researchers to provide the first of its kind companion to Periyar. Tapping new sources, challenging myths, and crossing disciplinary boundaries, this volume presents a Periyar for the times.

The Cambridge Companion to Periyar is a timely academic intervention which brings together scholars working on different aspects of modern Tamil politics, taking diverse perspectives, to comment on Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, the significant thinker whose thoughts inform political practices in contemporary Tamil Nadu. As the chapters seek to demonstrate, Periyar's thoughts can have a pan-Indian and a global significance, informing conversations on caste, gender, religion, regionalism, nationalism, and social justice. Likewise, in the wake of wider conversations on bringing diversity to the academic disciplines, this volume on Periyar will draw attention to a non-canonical thinker whose important intellectual and political contributions transcend the limits of his context. The volume brings together established academics in the field as well as early career researchers to provide the first of its kind companion to Periyar. Tapping new sources, challenging myths, and crossing disciplinary boundaries, this volume presents a Periyar for the times.

India has been underdoing widespread and far-reaching political and social transformation since 1989. Such shifts require us to seriously consider novel approaches to the study of political institutions, social mobilizations and ideas of India. The institutions that framed Indian politics and society since Independence have been challenged through patterns of mobilization and new forms of elite capture. Economic liberalization, anti-caste mobilization and Hindu nationalism have transformed the ideas that once underpinned political institutions and social mobilisation, requiring a change in the way we understand India. This companion aims to offer readers new theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches to studying politics and society in India. It introduces readers to key transformations in the study of institutions, mobilizations and ideas pertaining to India. The contributions are interdisciplinary, given that no single discipline can exclusively explain the complexities of ongoing political and social change in India.