The origin of sociology and social anthropology in India can be traced to the days when the British officials realized the need to understand the native society and its culture in the interest of smooth administration. However, it was only during the twenties of the last century that steps were taken to introduce sociology and social anthropology as academic disciplines in Indian universities. The popularity that these subjects enjoy today and their professionalization is, however, a post-independence phenomenon.
Attempts have been made by scholars from time to time to outline the historical developments, to highlight the salient trends and to identify the crucial problems of these subjects. Sociology and social/cultural anthropology are cognate disciplines and are in fact indissoluble. However, the two disciplines have existed and functioned in a compartmentalized manner in the European continent as well as in the United States.
This separation bears the indelible impress of western colonialism and Euro-centrism, According to Srinivas and Panini (1973: 181), the growth of the two disciplines in India falls into three phases: The first, covering the period between 1773-1900 AD, when their foundations were laid;
The second, 1901-1950 AD, when they become professionalized; and finally, the post-independence years, when a complex of forces, including the undertaking of planned development by the government, the increased exposure of Indian scholars to the work of their foreign colleagues, and the availability of funds, resulted in considerable research activity. Here, three major phases in the introspection in sociology, which have been discussed by Rege (1997) in her thematic paper on ‘Sociology in PostIndependent India’, may also be mentioned.
Phase one is characterized by the interrogations of the colonial impact on the discipline and nationalist responses to the same, phase second is marked by explorations into the initiative nature of the theoretical paradigms of the discipline and debates on strategies of indigenization.
Sociology in the Pre-Independence Period:
As is clear by now that sociology had its formal beginning in 1917 at Calcutta University owing to the active interest and efforts of B.N. Seal. Later on, the subject was handled by Radhakamal Mukerjee and B.N. Sarkar. However, sociology could not make any headway in its birthplace at Calcutta. The Department of Sociology was established in 1919 with Patrick Geddes at the helm of affair. He was joined by G.S. Ghurye and N.A. Toothi.
This was indeed a concrete step in the growth of sociology in India. Another centre of influence in sociological theory and research was at Lucknow that it introduced sociology in the Department of Economics and Sociology in 1921 with Radhakamal Mukerjee as its head. Later, he was ably assisted by D.P. Mukerji and D.N. Majumdar. In South India, sociology made its appearance at Mysore University by the efforts of B.N. Seal and A.F. Wadia in 1928. In the same year sociology was introduced in Osmania University at the undergraduate level. Jafar Hasan joined the department after he completed his training in Germany.
Sociology in the Post-Independence Period:
The next phase, as mentioned by Lakshmanna (1974: 45), in the growth of the subject, corresponds to the period between the attainment of independence and the acceptance of the regional language as the medium of instruction in most states of the country. Towards the end of this period, we also witnessed the interest on the part of the Central Government to promote social science research through a formal organization established for the purpose. This phase alone experienced tremendous amount of interaction within the profession as two parallel organizations started functioning for the promotion of the profession. In Bombay, Indian Sociological Society was established and
Secondly, sociology established its identity as discipline by separating itself from psychology, anthropology, social philosophy and social work. Although, in some universities, still social pathology and social psychology are taught as a part of sociology courses. In many others, a highly diversified curriculum structure in proper sociology exists including such specialization as rural and urban sociology, sociology of kinship, sociology of religion, 16 sociology of stratification, sociology of education, political sociology, medical sociology, social demography and sociology of economic development.
Thirdly, diversification followed the lines of extension of sociological approach to different areas of social life. It was related to the growing needs of development in independent India. Colonial legacy became a thing of the past and democratic processes were introduced at all levels. Developments in the Seventies: There have been a few reviews of developments in sociology and social anthropology since earlier times till the 1970s and onwards (see, for example, the collection of essays in Unnithan, Singh et al., 1965; ICSSR, 1971, 1974, 1985; Rao, 1974; Mukherjee, 1977; Mukherjee, 1979; Singh, 1986; UGC, 1978, 1979, 1982; Lele, 1981; Oommen and Mukherjee, 1986; Dhanagare, 1993; Singhi, 1996) Of these, Ram Krishan Mukherjee’s review has been more exhaustive and substantial for the discipline as a whole.
The ICSSR trend reports covered in detail the developments in each of the specializations. Rao (1982: 16-23) reviewed the developments in the seventies under three heads:
(i) areas of the interest and specialization which got crystallized;
(ii)areas of interest which have developed but not got crystallized; and
(iii) emergence of new approaches in the established areas.
0 Comments