André Béteille, one of India’s most distinguished sociologists, passed away on 3 February 2026 in Delhi at the age of 91, following age-related illness. His death marks an irreplaceable loss to Indian sociology and to comparative social theory more broadly.
Born on 30 September 1934 in Chandannagar (then under French rule) to a French father and an Indian mother, Béteille’s mixed heritage informed the comparative sensibility and intellectual balance that characterised his scholarship. Educated at the University of Calcutta and the University of Delhi, he later became Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Delhi and was closely associated with the Delhi School of Economics. Over his long academic career, he also taught at Oxford, Cambridge, the University of Chicago, and the London School of Economics, and served as Chancellor of North-Eastern Hill University and Ashoka University.
Béteille’s work fundamentally reshaped the sociological understanding of caste, class, inequality, and social stratification in India. His classic study Caste, Class and Power (1965), along with later works such as Castes: Old and New and Inequality among Men, combined meticulous empirical research with theoretical clarity and moral restraint. In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan (2005) and elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
I learned of Professor Béteille’s passing while attending a national seminar at the University of Jammu, where a condolence meeting was held prior to the inaugural session—an indication of the deep respect he commanded across the sociological community. Only a week earlier, I had visited his residence in Delhi, where his daughter informed me that he had been hospitalised and was in the ICU. A brief conversation with his wife that day now remains a poignant personal memory of a scholar whose life was devoted to reasoned inquiry and intellectual integrity.
Beyond his publications, Béteille was an inspiring teacher and a principled public intellectual. My interactions with him at seminars and conferences, and the publication of a long interview with him during my tenure as editor of Bhartiya Samajshastra Samiksha, revealed a thinker marked by humility, analytical rigor, and an unwavering commitment to rational debate.
André Béteille will be remembered not only for his enduring contributions to sociology but also for exemplifying the ethical vocation of the intellectual in public life.
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