Louis Dumont treats caste as having brahminic superiority and sanskritic exclusivity in contrast to Andre Beteille who considers it as an objective reality. Discuss.

LOUIS DUMONT ON CASTE

→ Louis Dumont through his book 'Homo Hierarchicus: Caste and Its Implications' explains caste system on the dual principles of • hierarchy • dichotomy of purity and pollution

→ Brahminic superiority: Dumont focuses on the hierarchical aspect of caste through his

textual approach in which he places Brahmins at the top of hierarchy largely due to their practices which are categorized as pure-vegetarianism, cleanliness, etc.

→ Sanskritic exclusivity: Dumont further elaborates that the caste hierarchy is maintained through exclusions based on the concept of purity and pollution.

→ He argues that lower castes absorb the impurity in order to maintain Brahminic purity and superiority.

ANDRE BETEILLE ON CASTE

→ Andre Beteille contradicts the arguments of Louis Dumont through his study of Sripuram

village in Tanjore where he observes that it is not necessary that only Brahmins occupy superior status.

→ He used Weberian trinitarian approach to explain that caste, class and power all play a role in determining position of group in social dynamics.

→ As opposed to Dumont's view that caste system is a unique form of inequality found only in India → Beteille gives examples of ascriptive identities like monarchy in Western countries.