4.

1 INTRODUCTION

The idea of image here does not necessarily relate to something visual, a photograph, a film
captured by a camera, telescope, microscope, or other device, or displayed on a computer or
video screen or a geometric sketch or a map. Another form of data collection is that of the
"image." The image is the protuberance that an individual puts onto an item or mental construct.
An image can be constructed about the physical world through a particular individual's
perspective, primarily based on that individual's past or observed experiences. As for example an
individual may form an image of a novel after completing reading it. Similarly, one can be in a
position to tell you from the field the difference between the ways the birth of a girl child is
viewed in a family in Mizoram (welcome) and that in Madhya Pradesh (a burden). The idea of
the image is a primary tool for ethnographers to collect data which presents a holistic cultural
portrait of the field and subjects that incorporates the views of the participants (emic) as well as
the views of the researcher (etic). It might also consolidate the needs of the group and advance
need-based actionable changes in the society studied.

After delineating the idea of image as a mental construct or a descriptive category, the first unit,
this unit deals with the concept of ethnographic image as such and ethnographic image of Indian
society. While listing out the parameters of ethnographic image of Indian society, the next
section relates to the basic portrayal of India's unity diversity, village India, caste, tribes and
religion. The last section of this unit discussed the features of little and great traditions in India
society.

4.2 ETHNOGRAPHIC IMAGE

'Ethnographic image' the refers to a methodological framework which is a detailed portrayal of

the features of population, culture, communities, their ethnogenesis and habitat. Ethnography is
the process of documenting the culture of a group from the subject's own perspectives.
Ethnography, as the presentation of empirical data on human societies and cultures, is
interdisciplinary in character absorbing within its fold the social, and cultural branches of
Anthropology, Culture Studies, Sociology, Communication Studies, Social Work, Education,
Folkloristics, Religious Studies, Geography, Criminology, History and Museology.

Ethnographic image is a symbolic expression or authentic impression that a person, a community

or culture, organization, or product presents to the public about its glorious characteristics. The
idea of an image relies on the imagination which is used and utilized to reflect on the patterns of
the groups ideas and beliefs expressed through language or other activities, and how they behave
in their groups as expressed through their actions that the researcher observed. The image
presents the perspective, experiences, and influences of an individual as a single entity and in
consequence the individual may represent this image in the group under study. Data analysis
involves interpretation of the functions and meanings of human actions. There are two popular
forms of ethnography such as realist ethnography and critical ethnography, which have been
brought into academic discourse in an attempt to reform the contemporary understanding of
society, culture, history, traditions and ethnic diversities.

Ethnographic research can range from a realist perspective, in which behavior is observed, to a
constructivist perspective where understanding is socially constructed by the researcher and
subjects. Research can range from an objectivist account of fixed, observable behaviors to an
interpretive narrative describing “the interplay of individual agency and social structure”
(Schatz,2009:117). Critical theory researchers address issues of power within the researcher-
researched relationships and the links between knowledge and power.”

4.3 ETHNOGRAPHIC IMAGE OF INDIA

The early account of ethnographic image of India is found in The People of India’ project
instituted by British India to study the society, culture, caste, tribe and Indian folklore. Two able
British East India Company officers trained in Anthropology, John Forbes Watson and John
William Kaye compiled an eight- volume study entitled The People of India between 1868 and
1875, containing 468 annotated photographs of the native castes and tribes of India. The origin of
the project is traced to the desire of Lord Canning, the then Governor-General of India, who
conceived of the collection of images for the private edification of himself and his wife
(Metcalfe, 1997:117).

The very purpose of this project was to develop a fuller understanding of the customs and beliefs
of the people whom they were to administer with strategic control. Hence was a visual
documentation of “typical” physical attributes, dress and other aspects of native life with brief
notes regarding what were thought to be the “essential characteristics of each community.
In 1908 Herbert Risley, the Census Commissioner for the 1901 Census of India, furthered the
same project and came out with another volume ‘The People of India’ containing 25 illustrations
on Races, Caste and Tribes in India.

Many member of the Indian intelligentsia were unimpressed with the general undertone and the
outcome that their people had been depicted both unfairly and dispassionately. The last such type
of work by British ethnographers cum administrators, was J. H. Hutton’s Caste in India,
published in 1944. The contributions of different national traditions either American, Indian,
French, or British anthropologists along with the internal diversity of national traditions have led
to multidirectional influences on ethnographic image of India. Both western and Indian
ethnographic image of India had following areas of emphasis in common:
a) Unity in Diversity
b) Village India
c) Caste
d) Tribes
e) Religion
f) Little and Great Traditions

4.4 UNITY IN DIVERSITY

India’s unity in diversity has been variously portrayed. Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is one.
Indian society exemplifies the best case of unity in diversity.
India is a vibrant amalgamation of varied cultural practices, races, ethnic groups, climate,
religions, regions and traditions. Ancient Indian culture stood for an infinite variety of symbols
and rituals. The fine arts were valued in ancient India. It is said that India is the cradle of the
human race, the birth place of human speech, the mother of history and the great grandmother of
tradition. Indian culture believes in the principle of humanity, tolerance, unity, universal
brotherhood, secularism and close-knit social system. Indians have maintained their modesty and
simplicity despite the aggressiveness of the Muslim conquerors and the reforming zeal of the
British, the Portuguese and the Dutch. The Indians are distinguished for their humanness and
serene nature without any severity in their principles and ideals. In spite of several diversities
based on caste, regions, race, languages, religious and colour diversities, Indian society has
maintained its unity.
4.5 VILLAGE INDIA

A book entitled Village India by McKim Marriott- like its twin- India ‘s Villages by Srinivas
(both published in 1955)presented the first results of their ethnographic endeavor. Marriott’s
study situated Indian “civilization” from a grass-roots empirical perspective. Srinivas’s
contribution in Village India is a classic example of an account of “social structure.” He
perceives Rampura, the pseudonym for his village of study, as a well-defined structural entity”.
He investigated how local castes are, on the one hand, separated by rules of commensality and,
on the other hand, interdependent through occupational specialization and patron-client
relationships. The dominant caste fulfils, in his view, a unifying function for the village as a
whole.

Ethnographic imaging of village India exhibits contested dimensions as well. Kathleen Gough
did not see “India’s” village as “well-defined structural entity.” She observed the severe social
consequences of drastic economic changes: decreasing coherence at the village level and
increasing rivalry between castes, especially the contestation of Brahmanical dominance in
Kumbapettai, a village in the Tanjore District of Tamil Nadu. Similarly, André Béteille, Gerald
D. Berreman, Joan Mencher, and Frederick G. Bailey, were being mainly concerned with
questions of power and dominance in village India.

Mandelbaum (1972) writes, “A village is not a neatly separable social and conceptual package
but it is nonetheless fundamental social unit.” The French sociologist Louis Dumont refers to
three meanings of the term village community' as a political society, as a body of co-owners of
the soil and as the emblem of traditional economy and polity, a watchword of Indian patriotism.
Thus, according to this view the village community in India has been a part of India’s polity and
economy. A village is far more than a locale, more than just a collection of houses, lanes and
fields.

In the early nineteenth century, British administrators described Indian villages as little
republics’. They opined that Indian villages have a simple form of government and are
economically self-sufficient units. Villages of India have to give a share of produce to the king
and need to send their young men to serve in the wars. Other than these two restrictions, Indian
villages have no interference on the higher levels of political authority and they are unconcerned
about who are ruling them, according to British administrators. The standard quotation, often
reprinted, on the Indian village as a monolithic, atomistic, unchanging entity is from a report by
Sir Charles Metcalfe, one of the founding administrators of British rule in India. The passage
begins, “The village communities are little republics, having nearly everything they want within
themselves and almost independent of any foreign relations.” It goes on to say that wars pass
over it, regimes come and go, but the village as a society always emerges unchanged, unshaken,
and self-sufficient.

Check Your Progress 1

i) State whether the following statements are true or false. Mark T for true or F for false against
each statement.
A) The image is the protuberance that an individual puts onto an item or mental construct.
B) The views of the researcher on ethnographic data are called emic views.
C) Both western and Indian ethnographic image of India had Unity in Diversity as an area of
emphasis in common.
D) 1955 is a landmark in the history of village studies in India.

ii) What are the three meanings that Louis Dumont associates with the term village community?
Three meanings are
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________

4.6 CASTE

Indian society comprises the different social systems and sub-systems such as family. Jati, and
village, and the different role actors have in these systems, the latter being understood in
behavioral terms, as interactions between different individuals and groups. Several ethnographers
concentrated on caste because they believed that understanding caste was to understand people
and hence to understand India. Caste, locally called ‘jati’ is the backbone of the Indian social
system. Caste ranking is perceived as an extreme form of “stratification,” and “pervasive
inequality” is indicated as a key feature of the caste system as has been viewed by David G
Mandelbaum. For Louis Dumont, by contrast, caste is not an observable reality in the first place
but a “state of mind”. This means that caste cannot be explained merely as a particular form of
social structure or a particular type of social behavior but primarily in terms of ideas and values.

There are thousands of such jatis, and each has its distinctive rules, customs, and modes of
government. The term Varna (literally meaning “color”) refers to the ancient and somewhat ideal
fourfold division of Hindu society: (1) the Brahmans, the priestly and learned class; (2) the
Kshatriyas, the warriors and rulers; (3) the Vaisyas, the farmers and merchants; and (4) the
Sudras, the peasants and laborers. Below the category of Sudras were the untouchables, or
Panchamas (literally “fifth division’”), who performed the most menial tasks.

Marriott (1955) sees intercaste transactions in Kishan Garhi village “as a kind of tournament
among 24 teams (castes) which make up this village society”. The actors’ goal in this tournament
is to gain “dominance over others through feeding them or securing dependence on others by
being fed by them”.

MN. Srinivas (1955) has also debated the question of rigidity in caste. In an ethnographíc study
of the Coorgs of South India, he observed considerable flexibility and mobility in their caste
hierarchies. He asserts that the caste system is far from a rigid system in which the position of
each component caste is fixed for all time; instead, movement has always been possible,
especially in the middle regions of the hierarchy. It was always possible for groups born into a
lower caste to rise to a higher position by adopting vegetarianism and teetotalism” i.e. adopt the
customs of the higher castes. The concept of Sanskritisation or the adoption of upper-caste norms
by the lower castes, addressed the complexity and fluidity of caste relations.

Max Muller, (1860) a German Indologist, writes, “the whole caste system, as it has come down
to us, bears unmistakable evidence of Brahminical origin”. Muller reveals that the Brahmans
have been the strongest advocates of the caste system. They have created the vast divisions in
Hindu society. They cruelly punished those who questioned the caste system and their
supremacy. The principle of exclusion and inclusion or seclusion or rejection based on birth and
endogamy resulted in diversification of caste groups, occupational roles and rituals.
S.V. Ketkar (1979) believes hereditary membership and endogamy as the basis of caste as an
organic structure of relations. Here the organic nature of caste refers to harmony of relations
between different caste groups. Emile Senart writes: A caste system is one whereby a society is
divided into a number of self-contained and completed segregated units (castes), the mutual
relations between them are ritually determined in a graded scale.

K.L.Sharma (1980) views that caste has never been a static system. The prevalence of thousands
of castes and sub-castes and many more clans and sub- clans within these castes is a proof of
diversification, differentiation and change in the caste system. Inter caste and mixed marriages,
migration, change in occupations, the Buddhist movement, the impact of Islam, the impact of
British and several other factors have made caste not only an adaptive but also a living symbol of
social relations.

4.7 TRIBES

India can proudly be called the largest “tribal” population in the world. Most of the tribal people
of India live in hilly or forested remote and isolated landscape where population is very thin and
communication difficult. They are found from high valleys near the spine of Himalayas to
southernmost India. The main tribal territories are in the broad central belt of hilly country from
West Bengal, Orissa, and Bihar on the east, through central India, to the upland parts of
Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra on the west. Although there are great social and cultural
differences among the tribal people dispersed across India, the main occupations of the tribes are
(1) shifting cultivation;
(2) forestry and food gathering by hunting;
(3) settled agriculture;
(4) agricultural labour;
(5) animal husbandry; and
(6) household industry

D.G.Mandelbaum (1972) points out the following characteristics of Indian tribes: (1) kinship as
as an instrument of social bonds;(2) lack of hierarchy(rigid status distinction) among men and
groups(clans and lineage);(3) absence of strong and formal organizations;(4) communitarian
basis of land holding;(5) segmentary character;(6) little value on surplus accumulation, on the
use of capital and on market trading;(7) lack of distinction between form and substance of
religion; and (8) a distinct psychological make-up for enjoying life.

The tribal people are bound by a sense of strong identity. Language, kinship, magical rites and
practices, pattern of habitation, food habits, and styles of life are the special features of tribal life.
Kinship in tribal community governs the major social, economic and political life of their people.
In tribal life the principal links for the whole society are based on kinship. Individual equality as
kinsmen is assumed, dependency and sub-ordination among men are minimized. Agnatic bonds
form the fundamental web, affinal ties are of lesser significance. Tribal societies are small in
size. They possess a morality, religion, and world view of their own, corresponding to their social
relations.

B.K.Roy Burman (1972) divides tribal communities into five territorial groupings, taking into
account their historical, ethnic and socio-cultural relations. These are as follows (1) North-East
India, comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura;(2)the sub-
Himalayan region of north and north- west India, comprising hill districts of Uttar Pradesh and
Himachal Pradesh;3) Central and East India, comprising West Bengal, Bihar(now
Jharkhand),Orissa, Madhya Pradesh(now Chhattisgarh) and Andhra Pradesh;(4) South India
comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka; and (5) Western India, comprising Rajasthan,
Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The Scheduled Tribes (article 342 of Constitution of India) in India, also referred to as adivasis
(original inhabitants), are spread across the central, northeast, and southern regions of ndia.
These various tribes resided in India long before the Aryans had arrived roughly in 1500 B.C.
The tribals were however socially and geographically isolated, following the entry of the Aryans
and then consequently the Muslims and the British. More than six hundred and fifty tribes that
make up the Scheduled Tribes speak a multitude of languages. They are also religiously diverse,
with some following animism, while others have adopted Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity. The
social traditions of most tribals make them stand out from the country's mainstream Hindu
population.

Along with being geographically and socially isolated, the tribal groups have historically been
politically under-represented. Their regions of residence also have been economically
underdeveloped. Scheduled tribe status under the Indian Constitution has designated reserved
seats for tribals in political forums, such as the parliament, along with job reservations in the
civil service and educational institutions. Some of the noted scheduled tribes in India comprise:
Andamanese, Bodo, Bhils, Chakma, Dhodia Tribes of Gujarat, Gonds, Khasis, aboriginal people
of Lakshadweep, Kurichiya, Kurumbar, Tripuris, Mizos, Mundaris, Nagas, Nicobarese, Oraon,
Santals, Todas, Maldharis of Gujarat, Cholanaikkan, Warli, Kisan Tribe, Dongria Kondh, Bonda,
Kutia Kondh, and Bishapus.

Check Your Progress 2

i) How do Mandelbaum and Dumont differ with regard to their views on caste in India?
ii) Name any three any three main occupations of tribes in India.

4.8 RELIGION

Religious diversity has been defining characteristic of India’s population for centuries. The
country has no official state religion, but religion plays a central role in Indian daily life. Thus,
India’s unity in diversity is also visible in the sphere of religion. The major religions of India are
Hinduism (majority religion), Islam (largest minority religion), Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism,
Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahá’í Faith. India is a land where people of different
religions and cultures live in harmony. This harmony is seen in the celebration of festivals. The
message of love and brotherhood is expressed by all the religions and cultures of India.

Whether it’s the gathering of the faithful, bowing in prayer in the courtyard of a mnosque, or the
gathering of lamps that light up houses at Diwali, the good cheer of Christmas or the brotherhood
of Baisakhi, the religions of India are celebrations of shared emnotions that bring people
together. People from the different religions and cultures of India, unite in a common chord of
brotherhood and amity in this fascinating and diverse land.

At the ethnographic level, some scholars try to see interconnections between religion and power.
Religious status as expressed in the opposition of pure/impure is for Dumont the key value of
Indian society, and it is represented by the Brahman priest in the Varna model. Within the
ideology, this value does not merely stand in opposition to its antithesis power, represented by
the kshatriya varna or the king-rather it encompasses the latter. Religion, the pure, and the
Brahman thus represent society as a whole. While, according to Dumont, on the ideological level
the religious is thus always superior to power, on the empirical level the reverse may be the case:
the king being in terms of power- superior to the materially dependent Brahman priest. The
superior encompassing value of purity and the clear distinction between religious status
(Brahman) and power (the king) are the main conclusions Dumont draws from his analysis of the
varna model.

Ranjit Guha (1987) emphasizes the role of religion for understanding subaltern agency. For
Guha, "religiosity was, by all accounts, central to the Santal rebellion of 1855. The notion of
power which inspired it, was made up of such ideas and expressed in such words and acts as
were explicitly religious in character. It was not that power was a content wrapped up in a form
external to it called religion. It is not possible to speak of insurgency in this case except as a
religious consciousness".

Religion is taken seriously in Indian society to form communities or social groups. Followers of
India's religions have created communities," or groups who largely coexist peacefully but live
and worship in separate social circles. Accordingly, when violence does break out between
groups, it is referred to as "communal" violence. The concept of communalism is discussed in a
later unit.

4.9 LITTLE AND GREAT TRADITIONS

Milton Singer and Robert Redfield (1955) developed the twin concept of Little Tradition and
Great Tradition while studying the orthogenesis of Indian civilizatíon in Madras city, now known
as Chennai. Tradition means handing down of information, beliefs and customs by word of
mouth be way of examples from one generation to another. In other words, tradition is the
inherited practices or opinion and conventions associated with a social group for a particular
period. This also includes the attitudes of the people, durable interactional patterns and socio-
cultural institutions. Great tradition associated with the elites, literate and reflective few who are
capable of analyzing, interpreting and reflecting cultural knowledge. Great tradition is a body of
knowledge which functions as the beacon light of knowledge. In contradiction to this little
tradition comprises the belief pattern, the institutions, knowledge including proverbs, riddles,
anecdotes, folk tales, legends, myths and the whole body of folk-lore of the folk and /or the
unlettered peasants who imbibe cultural knowledge from the great tradition. The unity of Indian
civilization is reflected in the perpetuation of the unity of worldview of both the folk /peasant
and the elites or the literati through cultural performance and their cultural products. Cultural
performance is institutionalized around the structure of both great tradítions and little traditions.
There are several centres of the great tradition in India and there is a network of socio-cultural
relationship. This relationship is based on cultural knowledge and ideology. There is a difference
in cultural performances of great tradition and little traditions. The domain of great tradition
represents the textual or the Shastriya nuances, whereas the universes of little traditions are
folk/peasant and local versions of textual knowledge and cultural performance. Great tradition
stands for persisting important arrangements of various roles and statuses appearing in such
corporate bodies, like caste, sects, teachers, reciters, ritual leaders, priests, cultural performers,
religious preachers etc. all of whom are engaged in inculcation and regular dissemination of
cultural knowledge. The body of knowledge which they include is from various religious texts,
such as mythology and epics.

The little tradition of its own role incumbents: folk artists, folk musicians, story- tellers, tellers of
riddles, street singers, mendicant performers, interpreters of proverbs and puzzles, street dancers,
astrologers, fortune-tellers and medicine men. In a village, the primary school teacher is a key
person as regards little tradition knowledge. He himself performs multiple cultural roles and with
the help of village leaders organises various folk performances, mythological plays, dramas,
recitation of sacred language, saying of prayers accompanied by folk music which serve two
purposes: (1) singing of devotional songs and (2) providing entertainment. The former activity is
a sacred duty and the latter act is a secular one, meant for relieving stress and strain to which the
peasants are sometimes subjected to.

The two traditions are not distinguishable in very isolated tribes. Among the Andaman Islanders
we find nothing at all about any esoteric aspect of religion or thought. An older person may be
likely to know what there is to be known as any other. There are differences between laymen and
specialists in the understanding of the religion. In a primitive tribe this sort of dichotomy is
similar to the difference between the great tradition and little tradition in respect of civilisation
and peasant society, respectively. The folk or tribal society constitutes a proto-dimension of
peasant society.

Marriott stressed that in the North Indian context, the great Sanskritic tradition could be viewed
as an indigenous civilization’; a body of cultural forms elaborated in an orthogenetic fashion
from a regional pool of ideas. Great tradition Hinduism thus constituted a primary civilization by
contrast with other great traditions such as Spanish Catholicism in Latin America which were
foreign impositions rather than the orthogenetic outgrowth of indigenous culture. Such
heterogenetic great traditions did nonetheless amalgamate, Or syncretiz, with indigenous
traditions to form ‘secondary civilizations’.
Check Your Progress 3
i) What is meant by little tradition’ and ‘great tradition? Use one sentence for your
answer.
A) Great tradition is associated with
_______________
b) Little tradition comprises
_______________

ii) How is the unity of Indian civilization best reflected?

iii) State whether the following statements are true or false. Mark a T for true or F for
false against each statement.

A) The folk or tribal society constitutes a proto-dinmension of peasant society.

B) The primary school teacher organising mythological plays is his performing

sacred duty not secular one.

C) Among the Andaman Islanders we find nothing at all about any esoteric aspect of
religion or thought.

D) India has no official state religion.

4.10 LET US SUM UP

First of all, in this unit, the idea of image was defined as a mental construct or a descriptive
category followed by clarification of concepts like ethnographic image and most specifically the
ethnographic image of Indian society. The parameters of ethnographic image of Indian society
such as India’s Unity in Diversity, Village India, Caste, Tribes and Religion were discussed next.
Before summing up, the penultimate section identified the features of Little and Great Traditions
in India.

ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
i) State whether the following statements are true or false. Mark T for true or F for false against
each statement.
A) T.
b) F.
c) T
d) T
ii) What are the three meanings that Louis Dumont associates with the term village community?
Three meanings are as a political society, as a body of co-owners of the soil and as the emblem
of traditional economy and polity. A watchword of Indian patriotism.

Check Your Progress 2

ii) How do Mandelbum and Dumont differ with regard to their views on Caste in India? Caste
ranking is perceived by David G Mandelbaum as an extreme form of stratification,” and
“pervasive inequality” which is a key feature of the caste system. Louis Dumont, by contrast
says, caste is not an observable reality in the first place but a “state of mind”.
I) Name any three main occupations of Tribes in India.
A) shifting cultivation; b) forestry and food gathering by hunting; and c) agricultural labour and
animal husbandry.

Check Your Progress 3

What is meant by little tradition’ and ‘great tradition’? Use one sentence for your answer.
A) Great tradition is associated with the elites, literate and reflective few who are capable of
analysing, interpreting and reflecting cultural knowledge.
B) Little tradition comprises the belief pattern, the institutions, knowledge including proverbs,
riddles, anecdotes, folk tales, legends, myths and the whole body of folk-lore of the folk and /or
the unlettered peasants who imbibe cultural knowledge from the great tradition.
Ii) How is the Unity of Indian civilization best retlected? The unity of Indian civilization is
reflected in the perpetuation of the unity of worldview of both the folk /peasant and the elites or
the literati through cultural performance and their cultural products. Cultural performance is
institutionalized around the structure of both great tradition and little traditions.
Iii) State whether the following statements are true false against each statement.
A) T.
b) F.
c) T.
d) T.