Andre Beteille

Who is Andre Beteille?

Andre Beteille FBA is one of India's leading sociologists and writers. He is particularly well known for his studies of the caste system in South India. He is a Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics at the University of Delhi where he is Professor Emeritus of Sociology since 2003. He was appointed National Research Professor by the Government of India in 2007.

In the words of historian Ramachandra Guha

Béteille has written insightfully about all the major questions of the day: India's encounters with the West, the contest between religion and secularism, the relationship between caste and class, the links between poverty and inequality, the nurturing of public institutions, the role and responsibilities of the intellectual.

In 1992, he became a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2005, Béteille received the Padma Bhushan from Government of India, as a mark of recognition for his work in the field of Sociology. The same year he was appointed a member of the Prime Minister's National Knowledge Commission. In 2006, following a proposal for increasing caste-based reservations, Beteille quit the Commission in protest.