ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the religious identity of the researcher gets reified in the research field. The fieldwork was conducted in two cities of Maharashtra; Nagpur and Kolhapur. The chapter also explores the testimonials of respondents during the fieldwork carried out on the caste question. It highlights the reporting and accounting of the subjective dispositions of the researcher while studying caste. The chapter proposes that the process of research enquiry can systematically objectify social reality with the careful assistance of subjective sensibilities. Participant observation, unlike other methods in the research field, not only allows close observation but also facilitates a detailed account of the socio-cultural life of the community. The social identity of the researcher is one of the problems that the researcher encounters in the research field. During fieldwork, the ascribed status of the researcher was evoked instead of the researcher’s achieved status.
