1st Edition
Scholars and Prophets Sociology of India from France in the 19th-20th Centuries
The book deals with the long and rich scholarship on India in France since the beginning of 19th Century, with particular reference to the work of Louis Dumont. It considers the works of scholars and the essayists, poets, or esotericists who published on India and shows that Dumont has been influenced by both groups. The book draws on archives and empirical material.
PART I - GENESIS OF A LEARNED MILIEU 1. The conquest of scholarly legitimacy 2. Orientalism and prophetic discourse 3. The struggle for institutional autonomy. PART II - SCHOLARS AND PROPHETS 4. The field of production of discourses on India 5. Scholarly practice 6. Prophetic Logic 7. Study of Hinduism as a disciplinary issue. PART III - SOCIAL SCIENCE AND INDIGENOUS SCIENCE 8. Louis Dumont and the Brahmanical science 9. Louis Dumont and the cunning of reason 10. The avatars of scholarship on India. Conclusion: Sociology put to the test of India
Biography
Roland Lardinois is a sociologist, Research Fellow (HDR) at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), member of the Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (UMR 8564) at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Since November 2009 he has joined the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi.
