From sociology to journalism: A lesson from André Béteille

The passing of André Béteille, renowned sociologist and public intellectual, reminded me of an exchange I had with him that shaped my approach to journalism in later years.

As a Master’s student, I had applied for a scholarship at the Centre for Advanced Study in Sociological Research for the academic year 1997-99. Besides the head of the department, Anand Chakravarti, the panel included many other stalwarts, including Professor Béteille.

I anticipated questions on thinkers such as Émile Durkheim, Louis Dumont, and Claude Lévi-Strauss. And sure enough, Prof. Béteille asked me about Durkheim’s comparative method and urged me to point out what I thought were the shortcomings of that approach.

Obituary | André Béteille: A sociologist with rigorous scholarship who laid emphasis on importance of fieldwork

I thought I was well prepared. I rattled off points I had picked up from commentaries on Durkheim.

“And you think Durkheim did not know this? You must always think for yourself and not just rely on what others have said about an issue,” he responded.

Prof. Virginius Xaxa came to my rescue and I managed to secure the scholarship. That brief exchange stayed with me.

Both scholarship and journalism require independent judgment, not borrowed opinions. Prof. Béteille’s own academic journey reveals this approach.

Also read | André Béteille: Sociologist who made India see itself clearly

Born in 1934 to a Bengali mother and a French father, his growing years reflected the confluence of cultures that defines India’s pluralism. Starting out as a student of Physics, he moved to Anthropology. After completing an M.Sc. in the subject from the University of Calcutta, he moved to Delhi.

Béteille did his doctoral research under the legendary M.N. Srinivas, who had set up the Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. Prof. Srinivas had given the concept of Sanskritisation to Indian sociology — the process through which castes placed low in the traditional hierarchy seek to move up by adopting the rituals and dietary habits of those above them. Prof. Béteille made caste, often understood in terms of one’s hereditary status, a dynamic concept. His book Caste, Class and Power (1965), based on his fieldwork in Sripuram village of Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district, demonstrated how land ownership, political authority, and economic change reshaped caste relations. It is a classic work in understanding social stratification in the modern Indian context and continues to be a model of how empirical research can illuminate broader theoretical questions.

Prof. Béteille was a quintessential old-school professor: he wore a tweed jacket with a matching tie during Delhi winters, bush shirts in summer, and occasionally, a dhoti-kurta in the Bengali style. Walking into the classroom, he would remove his leather-strapped wristwatch and place it on the table. Then, he would recap what had been taught earlier before continuing from where he had left off. More than any other scholar of his generation, he helped establish sociology as a rigorous, empirically grounded discipline — one that was capable of engaging with India’s social complexity without being captive to ideology. His work constantly reminded readers that society could not be reduced to slogans or theories alone; it had to be observed, measured, and understood in its contradictions.

His approach was not very different from what a reporter ought to do — go to the field, listen carefully, check facts, and resist the temptation to fit reality into preconceived frameworks.

Prof. Béteille took academic writing beyond esoteric circles without ever compromising on meticulous research. And his approach teaches journalists to follow academic rigour in our writings.

Reporting is not merely repeating; it is asking one’s own questions and testing every claim against evidence. I have to thank my professor for instilling a fundamental principle of journalism in me.

sandeep.phukan@thehindu.co.in