Indian Sociology, Village Structures, and Regional Imagination

This chapter explores Hetukar Jha's sociological contributions, focusing on village structures, caste dynamics, and regional imagination in India. Jha criticised the disconnect between elitist, Western-oriented sociology and vernacular, region-specific approaches, advocating for the use of Indian languages and local histories to ground sociological inquiry. His innovative use of colonial “village notes” reconstructs historical narratives of Indian villages, viewing them as cooperative yet conflictual spaces shaped by caste, class, and community interactions. Jha's studies of Mithila and Bhojpur reveal regional variations in caste hegemony, with lower castes in Bhojpur resisting dominance more effectively than in Mithila. His work on marginal groups, like the Saini Musahar, and critiques of upper caste-dominated Maithili society highlight exploitation and elite-mass divides. Jha noted the urban bias of Maithili organisations and their failure to address rural concerns or foster unified regional consciousness. The author suggests Jha's work could be enhanced by incorporating gender analysis, comparative regional studies, and interdisciplinary perspectives from anthropology, political science, and cultural studies to deepen understanding of rural India's socio-political dynamics

Ethnography · Government (linguistics) · Narrative · Work (physics) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indian and Buddhist Studies · South Asian Studies and Diaspora