Sociology · Indian Sociological Thoughts B K Nagla
Chapter 33 : Sociology in India: An Issue for Indian Sociology
Table of contents22 sections
- 1.The Foundational Debate (1950)
- 2.Key Terms
- 3.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 4.Ideology, Theory and Methods in Indian Sociology
- 5.Key Terms
- 6.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 7.Debate on Sociology for India
- 8.Shift in the 1970s and 1980s
- 9.Burghart's Critique of the Single System Model
- 10.The Culturological Tendency
- 11.The Universal vs. Particularistic Dilemma
- 12.Ideology, Alienation, and Decolonization
- 13.Key Terms
- 14.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 15.Universal vs. Specific Sociology for India
- 16.Key Terms
- 17.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 18.Western Social Science and Sociology in India
- 19.The Shift in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s
- 20.Key Terms
- 21.📌 Exam Tidbits
- 22.Quick-Recall Box
Chapter preview
The Foundational Debate (1950)
The formal discussion regarding the status and nature of sociology in the Indian context began in 1950. The debate is structured around three distinct but interrelated issues:
The Three-Fold Classification of Indian Sociology
| Concept | Focus | Examples / Thinkers |
|---|---|---|
| Sociology in India | Professional activities of sociologists related to the teaching of sociology within India. | University teaching, professional academic activities. |
| Sociology of India | Approaches to studying Indian society and the actual researches conducted on it. | Studies on caste, kinship, and villages. Application of western theories (e.g., Srinivas and Dube applying the structural-functional approach). |
| Sociology for India | Postulating a set of concepts and theories specifically suitable to study Indian social reality. | Oommen (1986). |
Young sociologists increasingly demand emancipation from colonial sociology. For instance, Louis Dumont, a French sociologist who studied India, rejected the idea of inequality in caste, focusing instead on the hierarchy in the structure of Indian society. This highlights the need for the decolonization of thoughts and the deconstruction of western approaches.
3 Issues for Pondering the Debate
| # | Issue | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emancipation | Breaking free from colonial sociological frameworks. |
| 2 | Indological sociology | The "book view" of Indian society based on classical texts. |
| 3 | Contextualization: Indigenization | The "field view" or Indianization of sociological study. |
Book View vs. Field View
| Dimension | Indological Sociology (Book View) | Contextualization: Indigenization (Field View) |
|---|---|---|
| Basis of Study | Relies on Indological classical texts to understand Indian society. | Relies on contextualized, empirical indigenization (Indianization) of sociological study. |
Key Terms
| Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sociology in India | The professional activities of sociologists related to the teaching of sociology in India. |
| Sociology of India | The approaches and researches done on Indian society (e.g., caste, kinship, village studies) often applying western theories. |
| Sociology for India | The effort of postulating a set of concepts and theories suitable to study Indian social reality (Oommen, 1986). |
📌 Exam Tidbits
- 1950 → The year the debate on sociology in, of, and for India commenced.
- Srinivas and Dube → Applied the structural-functional approach to Indian society (Sociology of India).
- Oommen (1986) → Emphasized postulating concepts suitable for Indian social reality (Sociology…
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