Thinkers On Caste System

Top 30 Scholars on Indian Caste System: Contributions, Works, and Themes

S.No	Name	Discipline	Key Work(s) (Bold + Year)	Themes / Contributions
1	G.S. Ghurye	Sociologist	Caste and Race in India (1932)	Historical and racial view of caste
2	M.N. Srinivas	Sociologist	Social Change in Modern India (1966)	Sanskritization, Dominant Caste, Westernization
3	B.R. Ambedkar	Jurist / Sociologist	Annihilation of Caste (1936)	Caste as inequality; critique of Hinduism
4	Louis Dumont	Anthropologist	Homo Hierarchicus (1966)	Hierarchy, purity-pollution model
5	Andre Béteille	Sociologist	Caste, Class and Power (1965)	Empirical study of caste-class intersections
6	Rajni Kothari	Political Sociologist	Caste in Indian Politics (1970)	Political mobilization and caste dynamics
7	Nicholas Dirks	Historian / Anthropologist	Castes of Mind (2001)	Colonial construction of caste categories
8	S.C. Dube	Anthropologist	Indian Society (1955)	Caste in rural transformation and modernization
9	Irawati Karve	Anthropologist	Kinship Organization in India (1953)	Kinship patterns and caste
10	T.N. Madan	Sociologist	Family and Kinship in Rural India (1965)	Family structure and caste norms
11	D.N. Majumdar	Anthropologist	Races and Cultures of India (1944)	Tribal-caste continuum and ethnography
12	Y.B. Damle	Sociologist	The Untouchable Class in India (1969)	Dalit conditions and caste exclusion
13	J.H. Hutton	Anthropologist	Caste in India: Its Nature, Function and Origins (1946)	Colonial administrator’s view of caste
14	Mckim Marriott	Anthropologist	Caste Ranking and Community Structure (1955)	Value system and behavioral models
15	Christophe Jaffrelot	Political Scientist	India’s Silent Revolution (2003)	Dalit-Bahujan rise through democracy
16	Gail Omvedt	Sociologist	Dalits and the Democratic Revolution (1994)	Dalit feminism and social movements
17	Vina Mazumdar	Feminist Scholar	Emergence of the Women’s Question in India (1985)	Caste-gender intersectionality
18	Nandu Ram	Sociologist	Dalits in Contemporary India (1988)	Empirical Dalit studies and exclusion
19	Satish Deshpande	Sociologist	Contemporary India: A Sociological View (2003)	New caste identities, reservation, and merit debates
20	Surinder S. Jodhka	Sociologist	Caste in Contemporary India (2012)	Caste in modern economy and rural spaces
21	Dipankar Gupta	Sociologist	Interrogating Caste (2000)	Modern reinterpretations and critiques of caste
22	Shailaja Paik	Historian	Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India (2014)	Gender, caste, and education
23	Suraj Yengde	Scholar-Activist	Caste Matters (2019)	Global anti-caste discourse
24	Meena Dhanda	Philosopher	Caste in Britain: Socio-Legal Review (2012)	Caste discrimination in diaspora
25	Brahma Prakash	Cultural Theorist	Cultural Labour (2020)	Folk culture, subaltern performance and caste
26	Wandana Sonalkar	Economist / Translator	Why I am Not a Hindu Woman (2018)	Translation of Dalit-feminist narratives
27	Anand Teltumbde	Scholar / Activist	The Radical in Ambedkar (2018)	Ambedkarism and critique of capitalism
28	Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd	Political Theorist	Why I am Not a Hindu (1996)	Bahujan empowerment and anti-Brahminical critique
29	Ashwini Deshpande	Economist	Affirmative Action in India (2013)	Data-driven analysis of caste-based policies
30	S.N. Balagangadhara	Philosopher / Indologist	The Heathen in His Blindness (1994)	Critique of caste as a colonial construct