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I have been in sociology and social anthropology for nearly five decades - as student, teacher and researcher. I have mostly been in Mumbai city and engaged with its institutions. The common pattern in India is to include social anthropology within the ambit of sociology. My approach draws from both lineages and is also influenced by feminism.
My research and writings have been around the themes of gender, caste and kinship; feminist methodology and archiving; culture, religion and identity, and syncretism; Tamil Diaspora.
I regard Sociology as a vital knowledge framework that lights up the dynamics of culture and workings of contemporary society. I am in continuous thrall of the potential of its insights to shape the world around us and our responses to it, whether or not we are professional sociologists. I have treated activities of outreach advocacy and application as part of my professional brief.
I started out with a bachelor’s degree in the natural sciences. In the early 1970s, I was greatly influenced by the emerging feminist movement and its transformative agenda. My science training did not equip me to deal with my personal concerns. In the 1970s-90s, I was active in the women’s movement . But I also felt the need for deeper understanding of the basis of the gendered division of society. Sociology seemed like a promising field to explore. The intersections of sociology, social anthropology and feminism have provided me with rich theoretical, epistemological and methodological opportunities.
My education has been within the Indian system. My teaching too has been largely within India, except for brief stints as visiting faculty in Europe. My research and ethnography have been in India and outside, in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Toronto. My collaborative, outreach and advocacy activities have been international.
For two decades, I was on the faculty of the Department of Sociology, Bombay, now Mumbai University, established in 1919. Its status as the oldest department of sociology in the country and its location in India’s commercial capital have shaped my sociological sensibilities. The Department was helmed for many years by Prof. G.S.Ghurye, one of the founders of the discipline in India. His emphasis on fieldwork, and his approach of treating sociology and social/cultural anthropology as a single field have impacted the early phases of sociology in India.
By the time I entered the Department, sociology itself was questioning its inherited approaches of value-neutral research. The deteriorating socio-economic conditions in the country had triggered a disenchantment with prevalent development models. The Department started engaging more directly with issues of inequality and social justice with an empirical emphasis on marginalised sections of society. On the other hand, Mumbai, with its commercial ethos, has also increasingly emphasised on job relevance for students. All these changes have also been part of my own maturing as a professional.
In recent years, I have expanded my canvas to explore intersecting themes in sociology, Indology and history. Working on Tamil saint poetry, on Tamil diasporic identity, on Carnatic music and its interface with Islam, has provided nourishment for my roots in South India, and an opportunity to meld sociological insights with personal biography.
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