Mysore Narasimbachar Srinivas (popularly known as M. N. Srinivas) is a highly respected name in the contemporary sociology/social anthropology. He was born in 1961 and received his early education in Karnataka.
He did his Masters in sociology from Mysore University, Ph. D in Sociology from Bombay University and D. Phil in Social anthropology from the Oxford University. Srinivas has taught at Delhi University, M.S. University, Baroda and Oxford University. He has been a recipient of many prestigious awards and fellowships.
The first systematic attempt to define the processes of social change in Indian Society was attempted by Srinivas through his path breaking concept of Sanskritizations and Westernization. This concept was evolved by him in the course of his study of Coorgs of South India, later published as and Society among the Coorgs of South India (1952). By providing lead in this direction, Srinivas inspired several Indian Sociologists and social anthropologists to do empirical research on India Society to understand the direction and the process of change hastened by the independence of the country.
Later on, when he published his paper Dominant Caste in Rampura (1959) in American Anthropologists, he gave further lead to the social scientist to understand the contemporary ground realities in village India. The phenomena of power and dominance in village India, to be understood through the concept of dominant caste, provide the basis to understand the nature of socioeconomic political change in village India.
When linked with twin concepts of Sanskritization and Westernization, this concept provide the crucial basis of understand the dynamics of social change were derived from memory after the whole text was lost in a dormitory fire where Srinivas was staying in the Stanford University USA. Some of his other very well known works are Caste in Modern India (1962), Social Change in Modern India
(1966) and India’s Village (ed.) (1955). Beside these and some other books he has also published more than hundred research papers.
