MN Srinivas (1916-1999)

[Chandan R. Narayan]

Dear list-members:
Just writing to note the passing of MN Srinivas on Dec.1 in Bangalore.
Here is a brief obituary from The Hindu:

Noted sociologist dead

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, NOV. 30. Prof. M. N. Srinivas, well-known
sociologist, passed away here today following a brief illness. He was 83.
He is survived by wife and two daughters.

One of the better known sociologists, whose works attracted international
recognition, Prof. Srinivas is best known for his theory of
``Sanskritisation'' in which he had observed that the lower castes in
Indian or Hindu society emulated the upper castes and adopted their
customs and mores as a form of advancement. The theory has held good
though it has been challenged by later day sociologists.

Prof. Srinivas was also known for the methodology he had
evolved for his research projects - the evolution of the concept of
``Participant observation'' under which the researcher lived with the
people he studied. He had lived amidst the people of Rampura village in
Mysore district about which he wrote his famous treatise ``The Remembered
Village''. When his original manuscripts regarding the book were destroyed
in a fire in an American university in the Seventies, the then American
President, Richard Nixon, apologised to Prof. Srinivas.

His other better known work was ``Social Change in Modern India''.  Prof.
Srinivas, who hailed from Mysore city, had graduated from the Maharaja's
College in Mysore. His elder brother, M. N. Parthasarathy
(Patchhu) had taught English in the Maharaja's College and was better
known for his cricket commentaries.

He was later educated in Bombay and Oxford universities
and had taught Social Anthropology in Bombay, Maharaja Sayyajirao (Baroda)
and Delhi universities besides some foreign universities including Oxford,
Cambridge, Stanford, Cornell and Canberra as a visiting professor. He was
the recipient of honorary doctorates from Nice (France), Mysore, Chicago
and Delhi universities. He had been awarded the Padmabhushan by the Union
Government, and the T. H. Huxley Memorial Medal by the Royal
Anthropological Institute (England) and also the Kannada Rajyotsava Award
(1996).

Prof. Srinivas was one of the founders of the Institute for Social and
Economic Change in Bangalore along with Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao. He was its Joint
Director and later Professor Emeritus. He was also a Fellow of the
National Institute of Advanced Studies, here.





chandan r. narayan || cnarayan at socrates.berkeley.edu
                   || socrates.berkeley.edu/~cnarayan