King's College London

India’s most influential tradition of village‑based social research helped to fix a Hindu‑majority idea of the nation in the public imagination - and that legacy continues to shape political thinking in today’s era of Hindutva, according to one of the country’s leading sociologists.

Speaking at King’s College London, Professor Surinder S. Jodhka offered a sharp rethink of the village studies associated with M. N. Srinivas.

These studies, often seen as straightforward descriptions of rural life, played a much deeper role, he argued: they helped to build an early post‑independence picture of India that placed dominant‑caste Hindus at the centre of national life. Groups such as Harijans and Muslims, meanwhile, appeared only at the edges of the story.

Srinivas documented caste hierarchy, land inequality and unequal power. Yet Jodhka suggested that his writing often used a language of harmony and integration that softened the harshness of those relationships.

That combination, he said, created a tension that still matters today. The village became a stand‑in for the nation - and, in the process, certain communities became quietly excluded from the national frame.

Jodhka also highlighted how Srinivas’s ideas have taken on a political life of their own. Concepts such as ‘dominant caste’, ‘Sanskritisation’ and ‘vote‑bank’ have moved well beyond academic settings. They now appear in news coverage, political speeches and everyday conversation.

Their popularity, he argued, shows how mid‑20th‑century social science continues to shape public debate, often without receiving the scrutiny it deserves.

His critique comes at a time when the project of Hindutva - rooted in asserting Hindu political and cultural dominance - has become increasingly influential.

Jodhka suggested that today’s majoritarian politics cannot be separated from the intellectual categories created by earlier scholars.

Social science, he said, has helped to establish assumptions that underpin much of India’s contemporary political common sense, even when those assumptions sit uneasily with the country’s democratic ideals.

His arguments were set out during the 2026 M. N. Srinivas Lecture, titled Reading Rampura, The Remembered Village, in the Time of Hindutva. Hosted by the King’s India Institute in partnership with the Royal Anthropological Institute.

A follow‑up discussion the next day, led by Dr Srilata Sircar, brought together students and scholars from across and beyond King’s. The conversation broadened the debate, exploring how long‑standing silences within the discipline - including around caste violence, spatial exclusion and the gap between ethnographic detail and national myth - continue to shape how India is understood.

Now in its eighth year, the Srinivas Lecture series has become a major forum for re‑examining the foundations of Indian sociology. Previous speakers include Veena Das, Arjun Appadurai, Akhil Gupta and David Mosse. From 2027, the lecture will alternate between King’s and the University of Oxford.

Jodhka’s intervention stood out for its urgency. Rather than treating village studies as a historical chapter, he described them as part of the living structure through which India continues to imagine itself.

At a moment when debates over identity, citizenship and religious majoritarianism dominate public life, he suggested that the struggle is not only political - it is also about how knowledge itself is constructed.

Watch Professor Jodhka’s lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgrEC283Cbg