Themes and Perspectives in Indian Sociology D.N. Dhanagare

This book is a collection of my essays published in different periodicals between 1980 and 1990. I am grateful to the following institutions and publishers for granting permission to reproduce them here:

• Seminar: The Monthly Symposium (New Delhi), No. 254 (October 1980), pp. 23–26, for the article “Search for Identity”.
• Wiley Eastern / UNESCO, Paris, for the article “Sociology and Social Anthropology in India”, published in Sociology and Social Anthropology in Asia and the Pacific (ed. Y. Atal), 1984, pp. 313–360.
• Allied Publishers, New Delhi, for the article “Prospects of an Integrated Approach to Social Reality”, published in Philosophical Theory and Social Reality (ed. Ravinder Kumar), 1984, pp. 168–183. An earlier version of this article appeared in the Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Monsoon 1981), pp. 97–109.
• Sociological Bulletin (Journal of the Indian Sociological Society), Vol. 35, No. 1 (September 1986), pp. 33–54, for the article “Kosambi, Dialectical Materialism and the Structure and Dynamics of Indian Society”.
• Social Scientist, Vol. 16, No. 1 (November 1988), pp. 18–37, for the article “Subaltern Consciousness and Populism”.
• Sage Publishers (India) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research for the article “Action Groups and Social Transformation in India”, published in the Indian Journal of Social Science, Vol. 1, No. 4 (October–December 1988), pp. 37–59.
• Indian Journal of Social Work (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay), Vol. 51, No. 1 (January 1990), pp. 1–13, for the article “Relevance of Sociology”.

This book is dedicated to my elder brother and my sister-in-law (Bhabijce).

My brother—Prof. P. N. Dhanagare, who teaches English at a college in Amravati (Maharashtra)—may not have enjoyed the professional visibility that teachers based in postgraduate departments of Indian universities do. However, I have always found him up to date in his readings and full of refreshingly new ideas.

His reflective mind, strict sense of discipline, and meticulous attention to detail contributed richly to my upbringing within the family and to my academic training in later years, when we both pursued our postgraduate studies at Nagpur University.

Although he is my elder sibling, he treated me more as a friend and peer, and subjected my writings to rigorous scrutiny whenever I consulted him. The dedication of this book is a small token of repayment for the debt I owe him.

D.N Dhanagare

These essays, written by me since 1980, embody my reflections on the growth of sociology as an intellectual discipline in India. They are addressed not only to the sociological profession but also to the social sciences in India more generally. While attempting to trace the overall development of sociology, the essays also seek to highlight the dominant themes and perspectives reflected in the ways the craft of sociology has been employed by professional practitioners.

The essays critically review the conditions that account for shifts in sociological concerns, as well as changes in the theoretical and methodological orientations of Indian sociologists over time. Throughout the essays, the expressions “sociology in India” and “Indian sociology” are used interchangeably. The latter, according to Louis Dumont (1970, pp. 1–32), refers to a specialized branch situated at the confluence of Indology and sociology, which he advocates as the appropriate “mix” necessary for understanding Indian society. This specific usage, however, is not adopted in these essays.

Essentially, the essays focus on “sociology in India”: the manner in which it came to be institutionalized as an academic discipline and the phases of creative tension and fulfillment it has experienced. In this sense, this collection may be viewed as a study within the broad domains of the history of ideas and the sociology of knowledge, although it is primarily concerned with the course of development of sociology—and, to some extent, social anthropology—in India.

D.N. Dhanagare studied at the University of Nagpur, University of Massachusetts (USA) and University of Sussex (UK). He taught sociology at Agra University’s Institute of Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and University of Poona. He also served as Member-Secretary of the Indian Council of Social Science Research and Vice Chancellor, Shivaji University, Kolhapur. His other published works are: Agrarian Movements and Gandhian Politics (1975) and Peasant Movements in India (1983).