Gopal Guru
Biographic Data
| ID | 1380393 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gopal Guru |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gopal |
| FAMILY NAME | Guru |
| SIGNATURE | GURU G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Jawaharlal Nehru University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Jayant Lele (1935−2025): An Undogmatic Theorist
,
Debating the Concept of Public Schooling in India
This article explores the concept of schooling in India, particularly in the context of the school as a source of normative equality and dignity. It delves into the infrastructure that facilitates the conceptualisation and realisation of these values; spotlights the educational initiatives undertaken by the educational thinkers from the disadvantaged communities; scrutinises the private schools’ assertion about their publicness and underscores th…
Dhirubhai L. Sheth (1932–2021): A People’s Theorist of Democracy
Authority of the Social
In many of the uses of the idea of the social in everyday life, social is used as a term of authority. Authority may need individual agents to enforce it but the notion of authority itself is independent of enforcement. The chapter discusses the inherent problem within the idea of this notion of authority. To exhibit how the idea of authority becomes so important, we discuss how nature gets authority within the natural sciences. We show that ther…
Belonging and Becoming
How do different people come together in a society? We focus on two types of experiences in this chapter: becoming (such as in becoming a citizen) and belonging (as in belonging to a religion). We look at many ordinary examples of belongingness and the relation of this to the idea of the social. The term ‘Indian society’, for instance, is commonly understood as something more than the collection of some individuals in it. This might be based on a…
Social Self and Identity
In this chapter, it is argued that the idea of a social self is at the origin of much of the everyday understanding of the actions of the social, including that of identity within groups. We begin with the idea of social action and argue for the essential sociality of every individual. How is it, that individuals invoke concepts like ‘We’ to describe certain kinds of processes and experiences? Is the use of ‘We’ similar to the use of ‘I’ when des…
Metaphysical and Lived Time of the Social
In this chapter we add another layer to the various qualities of the social, a quality which, in our view, is the most important element of the social—the ethical. Or more aptly, the experience of the ethical. A social is cognized through an affectual, ethical relationship along with its other perceptual modes. The special character of this experience is what marks out the uniqueness of the human social. Thus, our fundamental experience of the so…
Conceptualizing the Social
The concept of the social has been discussed extensively in sociology and other related disciplines. This chapter traces a particular problem related to the ambiguity of this term over time. One perspective is that the social can be seen as a unity, a given whole which cannot really be broken into parts made up of individuals. Or it could be seen as a field which is spread out, located in space and time, and having properties that are ‘experience…
Maitri: Ethical Rationality between Different Socials
In this chapter, we argue that two socials have a relation of belongingness to each other analogous to the individual having a relation of belongingness to a social. Just as individuals come together through the experience of being-with, two socials comprising of individuals who are independently part of them, can also be in a similar relation of being-with each other. Any meaningful model of society which has many socials has to accommodate this…
Food as a Metaphor for Cultural Hierarchies
Cooked food is a major source for social analysis. In this chapter Gopal Guru argues that, in the context of Indian Dalits, cooked food can be a potential source of humiliation, if not of the violation of human rights. As the author argues, the Dalit middle class uses food as a metaphor for harmony, while the subaltern Dalit uses the metaphor that suggests subversion. In the Indian context, chili forms the basic ingredient in the daily meals of t…
Sensing the Social
Social is not an abstract term. It is one that is experienced through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. People talk about the social as if it is something that they can experience. How can we make sense of this character of the social? In what sense could the social be real in such a way that it can be experienced? This chapter discusses many examples of how the social is accessed through these senses and how they repeatedly occur in caste e…
Migration: A Moral Protest
This essay seeks to make an argument which is different from the research work that is available on migration. It tries to understand the connection between the creation of moral community that is premised on the mediation between migration and physical space. Migration from one place to another is intrinsically moral as it is forced. It happens through the disruption of life plans of working population. Forced migration, the essay argues, is the…
Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social
This book develops a radically new way of understanding the social by focussing on different experiences we have of the everyday empirical reality. This book offers a new way of understanding the social processes of societies in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, all of which have complex experiences of the everyday social. The authors begin with the argument that the everyday social is the domain where the first experiences of the social are for…
Caste
Caste in contemporary India is not a static social reality. It has been expanding beyond endogamy but with ideology of purity pollution. It has expanded into ecology, urban cities, sports, and rental markets. Hence, textual production of caste through its thick description in various anthropological accounts does not fully inform us about the expansive dimension of caste. Similarly, it is not simply the thought of the Hindu law giver Manu that gi…
Liberal Democracy in India and the Dalit Critique
Dalits view liberal democracy as a means of enabling and realizing their common ideal of a more egalitarian order. However, because the response to the Dalit question of both liberal democracy and the Indian nation has been uncertain and at times callous, Dalits simultaneously see liberal democracy as limited in its possibilities. As a result, they find themselves simultaneously on the inside and the outside of both liberal democracy and the Indi…
Dalit vision of India: From bahishkrut to inclusive Bharat
Short Communications
Reservations and the Sanskritization of Scheduled Castes-Some Theoretical Aspects
Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social
This book develops a radically new way of understanding the social by focussing on different experiences we have of the everyday empirical reality. This book offers a new way of understanding the social processes of societies in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, all of which have complex experiences of the everyday social. The authors begin with the argument that the everyday social is the domain where the first experiences of the social are for…
Liberal Democracy in India and the Dalit Critique
Dalits view liberal democracy as a means of enabling and realizing their common ideal of a more egalitarian order. However, because the response to the Dalit question of both liberal democracy and the Indian nation has been uncertain and at times callous, Dalits simultaneously see liberal democracy as limited in its possibilities. As a result, they find themselves simultaneously on the inside and the outside of both liberal democracy and the Indi…
Dalit vision of India: From bahishkrut to inclusive Bharat
Reservations and the Sanskritization of Scheduled Castes-Some Theoretical Aspects
Migration: A Moral Protest
This essay seeks to make an argument which is different from the research work that is available on migration. It tries to understand the connection between the creation of moral community that is premised on the mediation between migration and physical space. Migration from one place to another is intrinsically moral as it is forced. It happens through the disruption of life plans of working population. Forced migration, the essay argues, is the…
Reservations and the Sanskritization of Scheduled Castes-Some Theoretical Aspects
Short Communications
Dalit vision of India: From bahishkrut to inclusive Bharat
Liberal Democracy in India and the Dalit Critique
Dalits view liberal democracy as a means of enabling and realizing their common ideal of a more egalitarian order. However, because the response to the Dalit question of both liberal democracy and the Indian nation has been uncertain and at times callous, Dalits simultaneously see liberal democracy as limited in its possibilities. As a result, they find themselves simultaneously on the inside and the outside of both liberal democracy and the Indi…
Caste
Caste in contemporary India is not a static social reality. It has been expanding beyond endogamy but with ideology of purity pollution. It has expanded into ecology, urban cities, sports, and rental markets. Hence, textual production of caste through its thick description in various anthropological accounts does not fully inform us about the expansive dimension of caste. Similarly, it is not simply the thought of the Hindu law giver Manu that gi…
Authority of the Social
In many of the uses of the idea of the social in everyday life, social is used as a term of authority. Authority may need individual agents to enforce it but the notion of authority itself is independent of enforcement. The chapter discusses the inherent problem within the idea of this notion of authority. To exhibit how the idea of authority becomes so important, we discuss how nature gets authority within the natural sciences. We show that ther…
Belonging and Becoming
How do different people come together in a society? We focus on two types of experiences in this chapter: becoming (such as in becoming a citizen) and belonging (as in belonging to a religion). We look at many ordinary examples of belongingness and the relation of this to the idea of the social. The term ‘Indian society’, for instance, is commonly understood as something more than the collection of some individuals in it. This might be based on a…
Social Self and Identity
In this chapter, it is argued that the idea of a social self is at the origin of much of the everyday understanding of the actions of the social, including that of identity within groups. We begin with the idea of social action and argue for the essential sociality of every individual. How is it, that individuals invoke concepts like ‘We’ to describe certain kinds of processes and experiences? Is the use of ‘We’ similar to the use of ‘I’ when des…
Metaphysical and Lived Time of the Social
In this chapter we add another layer to the various qualities of the social, a quality which, in our view, is the most important element of the social—the ethical. Or more aptly, the experience of the ethical. A social is cognized through an affectual, ethical relationship along with its other perceptual modes. The special character of this experience is what marks out the uniqueness of the human social. Thus, our fundamental experience of the so…
Conceptualizing the Social
The concept of the social has been discussed extensively in sociology and other related disciplines. This chapter traces a particular problem related to the ambiguity of this term over time. One perspective is that the social can be seen as a unity, a given whole which cannot really be broken into parts made up of individuals. Or it could be seen as a field which is spread out, located in space and time, and having properties that are ‘experience…
Maitri: Ethical Rationality between Different Socials
In this chapter, we argue that two socials have a relation of belongingness to each other analogous to the individual having a relation of belongingness to a social. Just as individuals come together through the experience of being-with, two socials comprising of individuals who are independently part of them, can also be in a similar relation of being-with each other. Any meaningful model of society which has many socials has to accommodate this…
Food as a Metaphor for Cultural Hierarchies
Cooked food is a major source for social analysis. In this chapter Gopal Guru argues that, in the context of Indian Dalits, cooked food can be a potential source of humiliation, if not of the violation of human rights. As the author argues, the Dalit middle class uses food as a metaphor for harmony, while the subaltern Dalit uses the metaphor that suggests subversion. In the Indian context, chili forms the basic ingredient in the daily meals of t…
Sensing the Social
Social is not an abstract term. It is one that is experienced through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. People talk about the social as if it is something that they can experience. How can we make sense of this character of the social? In what sense could the social be real in such a way that it can be experienced? This chapter discusses many examples of how the social is accessed through these senses and how they repeatedly occur in caste e…
Migration: A Moral Protest
This essay seeks to make an argument which is different from the research work that is available on migration. It tries to understand the connection between the creation of moral community that is premised on the mediation between migration and physical space. Migration from one place to another is intrinsically moral as it is forced. It happens through the disruption of life plans of working population. Forced migration, the essay argues, is the…
Experience, Caste, and the Everyday Social
This book develops a radically new way of understanding the social by focussing on different experiences we have of the everyday empirical reality. This book offers a new way of understanding the social processes of societies in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, all of which have complex experiences of the everyday social. The authors begin with the argument that the everyday social is the domain where the first experiences of the social are for…
Dhirubhai L. Sheth (1932–2021): A People’s Theorist of Democracy
Jayant Lele (1935−2025): An Undogmatic Theorist
,
Debating the Concept of Public Schooling in India
This article explores the concept of schooling in India, particularly in the context of the school as a source of normative equality and dignity. It delves into the infrastructure that facilitates the conceptualisation and realisation of these values; spotlights the educational initiatives undertaken by the educational thinkers from the disadvantaged communities; scrutinises the private schools’ assertion about their publicness and underscores th…
Sociology (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Indian History and Philosophy (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Social science (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works)