Fifty Somethings

The Rudolphs8217; engagement with India began in 1956 and still continues. Apart from the many books that they have written or edited, the Rudolphs have authored a huge number of essays that have been collected in these three volumes. It is, of course, impossible to do full justice here to the range of essays, but one point has to be made about them. Read after 50 years, most works can seem either dated, in terms of data or analysis, or even in tone. The Rudolphs8217; essays, however, have a contemporary air to them, displaying their writing and analytical skills at their best. They provide an intellectual history of the Rudolphs and a 50-year perspective on how events and society were seen at different periods.

What has been the main contribution of the Rudolphs to India studies? Unquestionably, it is their contention that modernity in India has built itself on tradition, at times, merging the two, as in the case of Gandhi. Once contested, this is seen as almost axiomatic now. Was there something about their methodology that led them to arrive at this conclusion? Certainly, and the methodological aspect is probably their main contribution to India studies. For one, when the Rudolphs set out on their intellectual voyage, it was at a time when Nehruvian progressivism tried to overshadow the reality of institutions such as caste and their impact. While the Nehruvian consensus looked at caste as obsolete and ignored its role in Indian society, the Rudolphs went against the tide and studied it, noting how caste and caste associations actually influenced social, political and economic lives, leading at times to their being labelled reactionary.

Two, they looked at society, politics, education and economy as linked and not separate categories. Additionally, when they began with regional studies, they realised that such studies were specific in time and space, and whatever certainties they were taught had to be quickly shrugged off, including the contention that western industrialised societies were the norm, and all developing countries would eventually evolve into their mirror image. It is this rigorous intellectual independence which formed, and continues to form, their formidable scholarship.

The Rudolphs have seen a newly independent India groping its way forward, finally emerging as a functional democracy and, unexpectedly, as an information-technology and nuclear power. Along the way, they have met many fascinating individuals, and seen many interesting events. Isn8217;t it time they put down their memoirs of their tryst with India?