[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) › c4.s8.1 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c4.s8.1 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c4.s8.1 - **Language:** English ### [c4.s8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c4.s8.1) The universal order propounded by the modern state implied a novel, analytic view of society.²¹ Rejecting the pervasiveness of conflict, it could only conceive of society as made up of separate, self-contained units. Hence the notion of the self-sufficient "village republic." Hence also the exclusivist census definition of caste as a world unto itself, which disregards the interrelations of castes as well as other, noncaste groupings, such as guilds or brotherhoods. This definition translates the scriptural notion of \*varṇa\*, but distorts the living realities of \*jāti\*. Identifying the conflict-free ideal of \*varṇa\* separation with the conflictive interdependence of \*jāti\*, the modern state sought to establish its universal order. In this way, an inflexible grid was devised to allow the state to rule society, by remote control as it were, through impersonal, mechanistically conceived rules and agencies. It may well be that this view has in a significant way contributed to the idea of an unchanging or stagnating society held in the unyielding grip of monolithic tradition. - [Previous: c4.s7.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c4.s7.3) - [Next: c4.s8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c4.s8.2) - [Up: c4.s8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c4.s8) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c4.s8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c4.s8.1) · Pramāṇa