‘Si vous voulez mûrir votre pensée, attachez-vous à l'étude scrupuleuse d'un grand maître, démontez un système dans ses rouages les plus secrets. C'est ce que j'ai fait et mon éducateur fut Renouvier» (I). C'est le conseil que Durkheim avait donné un jour à un de ses él`ves et qu'il est un peu agaçant pour un sociologue de 1962 de retrouver chez le « père de la sociologie scientifique », chez le « premier sociologue qui ait fait de la véritable recherche empirique ». Simplement parce que, bien souvent, le sociologue européen de 1962 est quelqu'un à qui on avait conseillé, quand il faisait sa classe de philosophie, de faire exactement cela.

Since World War II, 54 former colonial or dependent territories have become independent states. Most of them, perhaps all, face the task of building a political community. In the context of the twentieth century that task is a by-product of national sovereignty and hence of the idea of a national community of citizens, first launched by the French Revolution and diffused throughout the world ever since.

One of the major factors of change in rural India since Independence has been the programme of community development inaugurated in 1952 by the Government. Stemming from experimental schemes in pre-Independence times, the programme has been carried to a majority of the nation's villages. Its main aims are to raise the standards of living of the rural populace, and to aid in the establishment of democratic local government and in the stimulation of felt needs which villagers will themselves plan to meet.

I can distinguish four separate referents of ‘caste’ in India. I) Caste as varna. There are four (sometimes five) varna (‘colour’) in India, and in order of ranking these are, as everyone knows, Brahmans or priests, Ksattriyas or warriors, Vaisyas or men of commerce, and Sudras who are workmen. These varna are not groups but categories. They are not exhaustive, since some of the population (e.g. such non-Hindus as Muslims or Tribals, and the Untouchables of Hinduism itself) do not fall within the four categories.