Who Speaks for Whom? Revisiting M. N. Srinivas and the Idea of Public Sociology

ABSTRACT This forum reply questions Kumari and Tiwari's (2026) framing of M. N. Srinivas as an early practitioner of public sociology. Drawing on Srinivas's own writings and on accounts by A. M. Shah, Satish Deshpande, and others, we argue that Srinivas's “field view”, his concept of Sanskritisation, and his institution‐building were empirical and disciplinary achievements rather than acts of civic or advocacy‐driven public engagement in Burawoy's sense. We trace what his framework left out—most notably a serious engagement with Ambedkar—and situate this gap within a wider pattern of upper‐caste dominance in Indian sociology's canon. We conclude that Srinivas's legacy lies in giving Indian sociology a disciplined empirical foundation, on which a more genuinely public and inclusive sociology still needs to be built.