Book excerpt: This book assists in understanding the various perspectives of Indian society, which has passed through a long evolutionary process, from monarchy to feudalism, colonialism, and democracy. Officially, India is now a plural, democratic, technological, industrial, and capitalistic society. Numerous sociological thinkers from India are discussed in the book, as well as a few Western sociologists who have done research in India and have developed their own perspectives on Indian society. The main perspectives are structural-functional, dialectical-historical, cultural, and subaltern. This second edition has been thoroughly updated and revised to include extended discussions on Irawati Karve and Andr Bteille, in indological and social stratification perspectives, respectively.