[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985) › c17.1 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c17.1 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c17.1 - **Language:** English ### [c17.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.1) Apart from its obvious place in Max Weber's study of Hinduism, caste, though fairly often mentioned, does not appear to be a central concern in his thought. Weber, it would seem, is mainly interested in caste as a particular, even extreme case of the closed estate (\*Stand\*) as different from \*Klasse\*. The distinctive element that turns \*Stand\* into its extreme form, caste, is that it is underwritten by the ritual sanction of pollution.¹ With Louis Dumont, we may note in passing how Weber on this basis achieves a remarkable junction of hierarchy, ethnicity, and division of labor.² In an imaginative tour de force, he pulls together disparate notions on the nature and origin of caste in a succinct, logically coherent formula. In Weber's view, the caste phenomenon comes down to "eine umgreifende Vergesellschaftung die ethnisch geschiedenen Gemeinschaften zu einem spezifischen politischen Gemeinschaftshandeln zusammenschliesst".³ This formula may count as a school example of Weber's particular use of the concepts of \*Gemeinschaft\* and \*Gesellschaft\*.⁴ - [Previous: c16.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c16.35) - [Next: c17.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.2) - [Up: c17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c17.1) · Pramāṇa