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Cover -- Contents -- Series Note -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART I - On Concepts and Methods -- 1 - Newness in Sociological Enquiry -- 2 - Paradigms and Discourses: New Frontiers in the Sociology of Knowledge -- 3 - Relevance of the Marxist Approach to the Study of Indian Society -- 4 - Altruistic Suicide: A Subjective Approach -- 5 - Rational Social Action as a Basis for Creative Comparisons -- 6 - Feminist Social Theories: Theme and Variations -- 7 - Social Structure -- PART II - On Sociological Thinkers -- 8 - Vidyas: A Homage to Auguste Comte -- 9 - Max Weber's Theory of Social Stratification: Controversies, Contexts and Correctives -- 10 - Malinowski on Freedom and Civilization -- 11 - Some Reflections on Karl Popper's Theory of Social Explanation -- 12 - Outsider Bias and Ethnocentricity: The Case of Gunnar Myrdal -- 13 - Robert Merton's Formulations in Sociology of Science -- 14 - Bourdieu's Theory ofthe Symbolic and theShah Bano Case -- Index -- About the Editor and Contributors -- Appendix of Sources.

Wendy Doniger, Beyond Dharma, Dissent in the Ancient Indian Sciences of Sex and Politics. New Delhi: Speaking Tiger, 2018, 226 pp. + xiv., ₹599. ISBN 978-93-87693-21-0 (Paperback).

Taking the lead from Erving Goffman's celebrated work on stigma, this article attempts to examine 'stigma as process' (the process of stigmatisation), delineating the conditions most fecund for the crystallisation of 'stigma as product'. These factors, appearing almost infallible, make an individual highly vulnerable, non-rational and lonely, with his or her survival instinct climbing the summit. Selfishness reigns, as the cause is located in an external factor which becomes the enemy. In fact, the infected comrades-in-arms become the foes. The lower strata of society, the working force in the tertiary sector of the economy, the poverty-stricken and minorities are stigmatised as potential carriers of the virulent virus. The realisation that the coronavirus has no soul, no life, no discretion and can grip anyone is pushed away. One panacea to eradicate the stigma is to think in terms of the reversal of roles and with the ethos of empathy. We should not forget that those who were stigmatised as disease spreaders are saving the lives of others by donating their plasma.

About social structure, A. L. Kroeber said that it is a 'pleasant puzzle', because there are several opinions on its constitution. In a similar vein, R. K. Merton said that social structure is polyphyletic and polymorphous, i.e. it has many meanings and ideas. The same is true of the concept of community. We use many concepts that we understand, but when it comes to defining them in precise terms, we start facing problems, and the concept of community is one of them. This paper submits that community is one concept that is not being discussed these days. Here, it is taken up for a detailed treatment against the backdrop of the case of a pastoral community from Rajasthan.

This article written in honour of Ishwar Modi, a renowned teacher of sociology at the University of Rajasthan, explores the relationship between three concepts—pilgrimage, tourism and leisure. Although these categories may be seen as overlapping, and an individual may consider his pilgrimage as an example of touring the unknown lands with an objective to have leisure, in theoretical terms, each one of them has its own defining properties. If religious submission is central to pilgrimage, tourism and leisure may be viewed as non-religious pursuits, although certain types of tourism may be religious as well. In fact, the idea of religious tourism may be taken up for defining pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is not a secular practice, notwithstanding the loose use of this term by an individual.

Renu Gupta, A Course in Academic Writing, (2nd edition). Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2017, 196 pp., ₹330, ISBN: 978-93-86689-63-4 (Paperback).

This article is a critical commentary on the report that the High-Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India submitted to the Government of India in 2014. This is one of the most exhaustive reports on tribal societies in India, providing well analysed data on the different indices of their social and cultural life. The analysis of data on socio-economic, health and educational status is followed by a set of recommendations that the state and the institutions of civil society may examine. At the end, all these recommendations are brought together in a consolidated set and the feasibility of each of these is discussed. An important point the report makes is that the state has paid a lot of attention to issues of development in tribal areas without caring for protecting them from the elements which have been exploiting them. Development has rendered a large number of them homeless, and this makes them hugely vulnerable to different forms of oppression.