M. N. Srinivas occupies a central place in Indian sociological traditions for his application and adaptation of the structural functionalist approach to the study of Indian society. Trained in social anthropology and influenced by British structural functionalists like A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Bronislaw Malinowski, Srinivas did not merely transplant Western theories into the Indian context but reshaped them to suit the complexities of Indian social reality. His work marked a shift from textual and Indological approaches to an empirical, field-based understanding of Indian society. Structural functionalism, as employed by Srinivas, focused on the interrelated parts of society and the functions they perform in maintaining social order and continuity. He viewed Indian society as a system of structures such as caste, kinship, religion, and village organization, each performing specific functions that contributed to social stability. However, unlike rigid functionalist models that emphasized equilibrium alone, Srinivas paid close attention to processes of change within the structure, making his approach more flexible and dynamic. One of Srinivas’s most significant contributions within this framework was his analysis of the caste system. He treated caste not merely as