Chapter – 5

Indian Sociologists

In this post we have given the detailed notes of Class 11 Sociology Chapter 5 (Indian Sociologists) in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in Class 11 board exams.

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Chapter 5: Indian Sociologists

Introduction

• Sociology is a relatively young discipline, even in Europe, having been established only about a century ago.  
• In India, interest in sociological ways of thinking is a little more than a century old, but formal university teaching of sociology only began in 1919 at the University of Bombay.  
• In the 1920s, two other universities, those at Calcutta and Lucknow, also began programs of teaching and research in sociology and anthropology.  
• Today, every major university in India has a department of sociology, social anthropology, or anthropology.

The Specificity of the Indian Context

• The pioneers of Indian sociology had to decide what role sociology would play in India.  
• Some of the questions they faced included:
  • What would be the role of sociology in a country like India, which was experiencing modernity but was also a colony?  
  • What role could social anthropology have in India, which was an ancient and advanced civilization but also had ‘primitive’ societies within it?  
  • What useful role could sociology have in a sovereign, independent India?  

The Pioneers of Indian Sociology

A. L.K. Ananthakrishna Iyer (1861-1937)

• Began his career as a clerk, then became a school teacher and later a college teacher.  
• Assisted with an ethnographic survey of Cochin state in 1902.  
• Was the first self-taught anthropologist to receive national and international recognition.  
• Helped set up the first post-graduate anthropology department in India at the University of Calcutta.  

B. Sarat Chandra Roy (1871-1942)

• Was a lawyer who became interested in tribal society while working as an official interpreter in the Ranchi courts.  
• Became a leading authority on the culture and society of the tribal peoples of the Chhotanagpur region.  
• Published more than one hundred articles and monographs on the Oraon, Mundas, and Kharias tribes.  
• Founded the journal Man in India in 1922.  

The Founding Figures of Indian Sociology

A. G.S. Ghurye (1893-1983)

• 1. Contributions and Background
  • Considered the founder of institutionalized sociology in India.  
  • Headed India’s first post-graduate teaching department of Sociology at Bombay University for thirty-five years.  
  • Guided a large number of research scholars and founded the Indian Sociological Society and its journal Sociological Bulletin.  
  • Wrote on a wide range of topics, including caste, race, tribes, kinship, family, marriage, culture, civilization, cities, religion, and the sociology of conflict and integration.  
• 2. Views on Tribes
  • Was a prominent exponent of the nationalist view of tribes, arguing that they were ‘backward Hindus’ rather than distinct cultural groups.  
  • This view was in opposition to the British administrator-anthropologists who believed that the tribes should be protected from Hindu influence.  
  • Ghurye argued that the tribes had been interacting with Hinduism for a long time and were simply further behind in the same process of assimilation that all Indian communities had gone through.  
• 3. Definition of Caste
  • Offered a comprehensive definition of caste that emphasized six features:
    • Segmental division: Caste is divided into closed, mutually exclusive groups.  
    • Hierarchical division: Each caste is strictly unequal to every other caste.  
    • Restrictions on social interaction: Especially the sharing of food, governed by ideas of purity and pollution.  
    • Differential rights and duties: Different castes have different rights and duties.  
    • Restriction of occupation: Occupation is decided by birth and is hereditary.  
    • Strict restrictions on marriage: Endogamy and exogamy rules help reproduce the caste system.  

B. D.P. Mukerji (1894-1961)

• 1. Contributions and Background
  • Was one of the ‘trinity’ of the Lucknow school of sociology, along with Radhakamal Mukerjee and D.N. Majumdar.  
  • Was a versatile intellectual with interests in various subjects, including literature, music, film, philosophy, Marxism, political economy, and development planning.  
• 2. Views on Tradition and Change
  • Emphasized the importance of studying Indian social traditions and understanding the ‘living tradition’ that maintained links with the past while adapting to the present.  
  • Argued that Indian culture and society were not individualistic in the Western sense and that the Indian social system was oriented towards group action.  
  • Identified three principles of change in Indian traditions:
    • Shruti: Scripture  
    • Smriti: Tradition  
    • Anubhava: Personal experience, which he considered the most important.  

C. A.R. Desai (1915-1994)

• 1. Contributions and Background
  • Was a life-long Marxist and was involved in Marxist politics throughout his career.  
  • Offered a Marxist analysis of Indian nationalism in his book The Social Background of Indian Nationalism.  
  • Also wrote on peasant movements, rural sociology, modernization, urban issues, political sociology, forms of the state, and human rights.  
• 2. Critique of the Welfare State
  • Provided a detailed critique of the notion of the welfare state, pointing out its shortcomings and arguing that it is a myth.  
  • Argued that even in the most developed countries, welfare states fail to provide economic and social security to all citizens, reduce economic inequality, and enable stable development.  
• 3. Views on the Marxist Theory of the State
  • Also wrote on the Marxist theory of the state, emphasizing the importance of democracy even under communism.  

D. M.N. Srinivas (1916-1999)

• 1. Contributions and Background
  • Earned two doctoral degrees, one from Bombay University and one from Oxford.  
  • Transformed his intellectual orientation during his years at the department of social anthropology in Oxford.  
  • Wrote a significant body of work on caste, modernization, social change, village society, and other issues.  
  • Helped establish Indian sociology on the world map through his international contacts and associations.  
• 2. Views on the Village
  • Played a key role in making village studies the dominant field in Indian sociology during the 1950s and 1960s.  
  • Argued against the view that the village was not a relevant social entity, emphasizing its historical significance and its role in rural social life.  
  • Criticized the British administrator-anthropologists who had portrayed Indian villages as unchanging, self-sufficient ‘little republics’.  
  • Showed that villages had experienced considerable change and were never self-sufficient.  

Conclusion

• These four Indian sociologists helped to shape the discipline of sociology in the context of a newly independent and modernizing India.  
• They are examples of the diverse ways in which sociology was ‘Indianized’.  
• Succeeding generations of Indian sociologists have learned from and critiqued the work of these pioneers, taking the discipline further.  

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