Class 11 Sociology Chapter 10 Indian Sociologists

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Class 11 Sociology Chapter 10 Indian Sociologists

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Indian Sociologists

Chapter: 10

SOCIOLOGY

TEXTUAL QUESTION & ANSWER

Q. no 1. When and where formal teaching of sociology began in India? 

Ans : In India, formal university teaching of sociology began in 1919, at the university of Bombay. 

Q. no 2. Who founded the journal  ‘Man in India’ and when? 

Ans : Sarat Chandra Roy founded the journal Man in India in 1922 . 

Q. no 3. Who was the founder to institutionalize sociology in India? 

Ans : G. S. Ghurey is considered to the founder of institutionalized sociology in India. 

Q. no 4. Mainly on which communities S. C. Roy work monographs? 

Ans : S. C. Roy work monographs on the Oraon, the Mundas and on the Kharias. 

Q. no 5. Who was recognized as an authority on Chotanagpur ? 

Ans : S. C. Roy was recognized as on authority on Chotanagpur. 

Q. no 6. Who was the founder of the dept. Of sociology of the Lucknow University? 

Ans : Radhakamal Mukerjee. 

Q. no 7. What is the name the thesis of A. R. Desai ? 

Ans : A. R. Deasi published his thesis in the name of’the social background of Indian nationalism ‘ in  1948.

Q. no 8. What is the name of dectoral thesis of M. N. Srinivas? 

Ans : Religion and society among the Croogs of south India. 

(b) Short and Long Answers :

Q. no 1. Trace the development of sociology in India. 

Ans : Sociology is relatively a young branch of study which have emerged only a century ago in Europe. In India, the formal university teaching of sociology started at the university teaching of sociology started at the university of Bombay, Only in 1919. In the early years, it was not clear as what an Indian sociology would look like and whether India really needed something like sociology. In the west, sociology emerged as on attempt to make sense of modernity. What would be the role of sociology is a country like India where modernity was brought about by colonial subjugation? On the otherhand, social anthropology in the west arose out of the curiosity felt by European society about primitive cultures, what role could it have in India, where primitive societies exists within an ancient advanced civilization?

The pioneers of Indian sociology had to resolve such questions and while seeking answers to these questions social anthropologist like L. K. Ananthakrishna lyer, Sarat Chandra Roy, G. S. Ghurey. A. K. Desai and M. N. Srinivas established the skeleton of the discipline in India. 

Q. no 2. How did Ananthakrishna Iyer and S. C. Roy come to practice social anthropology? 

Ans : In the beginning, Indians became sociologists and anthropologist mostly by accident. Ananthakrishna Iyer , as for example began his career as a clerk, moved on to become a school teacher and later a college teacher in Cochin state in present day Kerala. In 1902 he was ashed by the Dewan of Kochin to assist with an ethnographic survey of the state. 

The British govt. Wanted similar surveys done in all the princely states as well as the presidency areas directly under its control. Iyre worked as superintendent of ethnography on a purely voluntary basis. His work was much appreciated by British anthropologist and administrators of the time and later he was invited to help with a similar ethnographic survey in Mysore state. Iyre was probably the first self taught anthropologist to receive national and international recognition as a scholar and academician. 

Sarat Chandra Roy was another accidental anthropologist and pioneer of the discipline in India. Before taking law degree in Calcutta ‘s Ripon college, he had done graduate and post -graduate degrees in English soon after he had legun practicing law, he decided to go to Ranchi to take up a job as an English teacher at a Christian missionary school. Roy gave up his school job and began practicing law at the Ranchi courts and he was eventually appointed as official interpreter in the court. 

As official interpreter his duty was to interpret tribal customs and laws of to the court. Roy became deeply interested in tribal society and he traveled extensively among tribal communities and did extensive fieldwork among them. These extensive fieldworks resulted in valuable monographs and research articles. 

During his entire career, Roy published more than hundred articles in leading Indian and British academic journals in addition to his famous monograph on the Oraon, the Mundas and the Kharias. Soon Roy became very were known anthropologists in India and British and was recognized as an authority on Chhotanagpur. He founded the journal. ‘Man in India ‘ in 1922.

Both Iyre and  Roy were true pioneers of the discipline in India. When they began practicing anthropology, it didn’t yet exist in India and no institution was there to promote it. 

Q. no 3. What were the main arguments on either side of the debate about how to relate tribal communities? 

Or 

What was Ghouryes position about the tribal communities  ?  Discuss. 

Ans : In the 1930s and 1940s there was much debate on the place of tribal societies within India. Many British administrators and anthropologists believed them to be primitive people with a distinctive culture far from mainstream Hinduism. They believed that the tribals would suffer exploitation and cultural degradation through contact with Hindu culture and society and state should protect the tribes. 

On the otherhand, the nationalist Indians were passionate about their belief in the unity of India and the need for modernizing Indian society. They believed that attempts to preserve tribal culture were misguided and resulted in maintaining tribals as a backward state as Museums of primitive culture. They believed that as many features of Hinduism which need reform, the tribes too needed to develop. 

Ghurey became the best known exponent of the nationalist view and insisted on characterizing the tribes as backward Hindus rather than distinct cultural groups. He cited detailed evidence from a wide variety of tribal cultures to show that they had been involved in constant interactions with Hinduism over a long period. Tribals were thus simply further behind in the same process of assimilation that all Indian Communities had gone through. 

The protectionists, headed by Verrier Elwin, argued that assimilation would result in severe exploitation and cultural extriction of the tribals. On the otherhand Ghurey argued that there ill – effects were not specific to tribal cultures, but were common to all the backward and downtrodden sections of Indian Society. 

This debate with verrier Elwin popularized Ghurye outside India. 

Q. no 4. discuss Ghurys position on caste and race.

                                   Or

Outline the positions of Herbert Risley and G. S. Ghurey on the relationship between race and caste on India. 

Ans : G. S. Ghurey ‘s doctoral dissertation at Cambridge, which was later published as caste and Race in India attracted attention of the sociologists as he addressed the major concerns of Indian anthropology of that time. In this book, Ghurye provides a detailed critique of the then dominant theories about the relationship between race and caste. Herbert Rsley, a British colonial official was the main proponent of the dominant view. This view held that human beings can be divided into distinct and separate races on the basis of their physical darateristies such as the length of the nose, circumference of the skull etc. Risley believed that India was a unique laboratory for studying the evolution of racial types because caste strictly prohibits intermarriage among different groups. Risley ‘s main argument was that caste must have originated in race because different caste groups seemed to belongs to distinct racial types. In general higher caste approximated Indo -Aryan racial triats, while the lower castes seemed to belong to non – Aryan aboriginals or Mongoloid or other social groups. 

On the basis of differences between groups in terms of average measurements for length of nose, size of cranium etc. Risley and other suggested that lower castes were the original aboriginal inhabitants of India who had been subjugated by the Aryan. 

Gyurye believed this argument to be only partially correct. Ghurey belived that Risley’s thesis of the upper castes being Aryan and lower castes being non – Aryan was broadly true only for the northern India. In other parts of India ,  the inter group differences in the anthropometric measurements were not very systematic. 

This suggested that, in most of India except the Indo – Gange plain, different racial groups had been mixing with each other for a very long time. Thus, racial purity had been preserved due to prohibition on inter – marriage only in Hindustan proper i. e. North India. 

Now the racial theory of caste is no larger accepted.

Q. no 5. What are the main features of caste, as was discussed by Ghurye. 

Ans : While offering a comprehensive definition of caste, Ghurye emphasized on six main features of caste. These are. 

(i) Caste is on institution based on segmental division. This means that society is divided into number of closed, mutually exclusive segments or compartments. It is closed because caste is decided by birth. 

(ii) Caste society is based on hierarchical division. Each caste is strictly unequal to every other caste. 

(iii) The institution of caste necessarily involves restrictions on social interactions, Specially the shoring of food. 

(iv) Caste also involves differential rights and duties for different castes. 

(v) Caste restricts the choice of occupation . 

(vi) Caste invokes strict restrictions on marriage. 

Q. no 6. Who can be considered as the founder of institutionalized sociology in India and why? 

Ans : G. S. Ghurye can be considered as the founder of institutionalized sociology in India. He was the head of the India first post -graduate teaching department of sociology at the Bombay University for 35 years. He also guided a large number of research scholars. He also founded the Indian sociological society as well as its journal  ‘Sociological Bulletin ‘ . So he can be considered as founder of institutionalized sociology in India. 

Q. no 7. Who were the famous trinity of the department of sociology of Lucknow University? 

Ans : The sociology of department of Lucknow University had three major figures. They were Radhakamal Mukherjee, (the founder of the department), D. P. Mukerji and D. N. Majumdar. 

Q. no 8. What does D. P. Mukherjee mean by a “living tradition “? Why did he insists that India that Indian sociologists be rooted to this tradition? 

Ans : According to D. P. Mukerji, the study of tradition was not oriented only to wards the past, but also included sensitivity to change. Thus tradition was a living tradition, maintaining its links with the past, but also adapting to the present and thus evolving over time 

For D. P. it is the first duty of an Indian sociologist to know the social tradition of India. He is to share the folk- ways, mores, customs and traditions for the purpose of understanding the social system of the country. As the tradition is living one, Indian sociologists should be rooted to this tradition to know the past, present well as the future of the Indian society.

Q. no 9. What are the Specificities of Indian culture and society and how do they affect the pattern of change? 

Ans : According to D. P. Mukerji, the Indian culture and society are not individualistic in the western  sense. The average Indian individuals pattern of desires is more or less rigidly fixed by his socio – cultural group pattern and he hardly deviates from it. Thus, the Indian social system is basically oriented towards group, sect etc. 

D. P. Strongly believed that the crucial distinctive feature of India was its social system and therefore, it was important for all social sciences to be rooted in this context. In India, history, politics and economics were less developed, in comparison with the west, while social dimensions were over developed. 

As Indian social system is basically oriented towards  group, Sociologists should study social traditions in order to understand the Indian society. According to D. P. The root meaning of the word tradition is to transmit. Traditions are strongly rooted in the past which is kept alive through the repeated recalling and retelling of stories and myths. However this link with the past doen’t rule out change, but indicates a process of adaptation to it. 

According to D. P. Internal and external sources of change are always present is every society. In the western society the commonly cited internal sources of change is class while in Indian society it caste. 

D. P. believed that were three principles of change recognized in Indian tradition – shruti, smriti and anubhava. Anubhava -i.e.personal experience is a revolutionary principle. In Indian context, personal experience soon flowered into collective experience. The most important principle of change in Indian society was generalized anubhava, or the collective experience of group. 

The high traditions were centred in shruti and smiriti and they were periodically challenged by collective experience of groups – as for example in the bhakti movement. According to D. P. This was the not only of Hindu but also of Muslim culture in India. In India Islam, the suffis have stressed love and experience rather than holy texts, and have been important in brining about change. 

Thus, for D. P. in India, discursive reason is not the dominant force for change, but anubava and prem have been historically superior as agents of change. 

Q. no 10. What is a welfare state? Why A. R. Desai Critical of the claim made on its behalf? 

Ans : A. R. Desai, in his essay named  “The myth of the welfare state ” provides a detaild critique of the notion of welfare state. After considering the prominent definitions available in the sociological literature, Desai identifies the following inique features of the welfare state –

(I) The welfare state is a positive state. It actively uses its considerable powers to design and implement social policies for the betterment of society. 

(ii) The welfare state is a democratic state. Democracy is considered as an essential condition for the emergence of welfare state. Formal democratic institutions like multiparty system, free and fair election etc are backbone of welfare state. 

(iii) Welfare state involves a mixed economy. Mixed economy means an ecomomy where both private capitalist enterprises and state ow ned enterprises co – exists. The stae sector concentrates on basis goods and social infrastructure, while private industry dominates the consumer goods sector. 

A. R. Desai goes on to suggest some test criteria against which the performance of the welfare state can be measured. These are 

(a) Does the welfare state ensure freedom from poverty, social discrimination and security for all its citizens? 

(b) Does the welfare state removes inequalities of income through measures to redistribute income from rich to the poor and by preventing the concentration of wealth? 

(c) Does the welfare state transform the economy in such a way that the capitalist profit motive is made subservient to the real needs of the community? 

(d) Does the welfare state ensure stable development free from the cycle of economic booms and depressions? 

(e) Does it provide employment for all? Using these criteria, Desai examinaes the performance of so called welfare state like Britian, U. S. A. etc. and find their claims to be greatly exaggerated. Thus most modern Capitalist state fail to provide minimum levels of economic and social security to all their citizens. 

They are unable to reduce economic inequality and unsuccessful to create stable economic development free from market fluctuation . High levels of unemployment is yet another failure of so -called welfare states. On the basis of these arguments Desai concludes that the notion of welfare state is something of a myth. 

Q. no 11. What argument were given for and against the village as a subject of sociological research by M. N. Srinivas and Louis Dumont ? 

Ans : The Indian village and village society remained a life long focus of interest for Srinivas. He took Indian village an unit of social analysis. However some social anthropologist like Louis Dumont was in favour of taking social institutions like caste , instead of village an unit of social analysis. For dumant   village is merely a collection of people living in a particular place . Villages may live or die and people may move from one village to the another but institutions like caste or religion follow them and go with them wherever they go . For this reason Dumant was not in favour of giving much importance to the village. 

As against this Srinivas belived that villages had served as a unifying identity and that village unity was quite significant in rural social life. Srinivas also criticized the British administrator anthropologists who had put forward a picture of Indian village as unchanging, self sufficient ‘little republics”. 

Using historical and sociological evidence, Srinivas showed that the village had, in fact, experienced considerable change . Moreever, villages were never self – sufficient and had been involved in various kinds of economic, Social and political relationship at the regional level. On the bais of there argument, Srinivas was in favour of taking villages as an umit of social analysis in India. 

Q. no 12. What is the significance of village studies in the history of Indian sociology? What role did M. N. Srinivas play in promoting village studies ? 

Ans : The village as a site of research offered many advantages to Indian sociology. It provided an opportunity to illustrate the importance of ethnographic research methods . It offered on eye witneess  accounts of the rapid social change that was taking place in the Indian countryside as the newly independent nation began a programme of planned development. These vivid descriptions of villages greatly helped the policy makers to understand as what was going on in the heartland Indian. Village studies thus provided a new role for a discipline like sociology in the context of an independent nation. 

M. N. Srinivas was  instrumental in establishing villages ad on unit of social analysis. He had made short visits to villages to conduct surveys and interviews. To get first hand knowledge of Indian villages he spent a year at a village near Mysone. While writing about the importance of village studies, he got involved in a  debate with Louis Dumant about the usefulness of the village as a concept. 

Dumont was in favour of taking caste, instead of village as an unit of social analysis. For Dumant village was only a collection of  people living in a particular place. But for Srinivas village is not merely a collection of people but serves an identity. Village unity is quite significant in rural social life. Srinivas also opposed the view, put forwared by the British administrator anthropologist that Indian villages are unchanging and self – sufficient. 

Srinivas, by using historical and sociological evidence showed that Indian villages had experienced considerable change and villages were never self – sufficient and had been involved in various kinds of economic, social and political relationship at regional level. 

Thus, Srinivas established villages os an unit of social analysis in Indian sociology. 

Q. no 13. What is living tradition ? 

Ans : According  to D. P. Mukerjee living tradition is a tradition which maintains links with the past by retaining something from it, and at the sametime incorporates new things. A living tradition thus includes some old elements but also some new ones. 

Q. no 14. What do you understand by the term administrator anthropologists ? 

Ans : The term administrator anthropologists refers to British administrative officials who were part of the British Indian government in the 19th and early 20th centuries who took great interest in conducting anthropological research, specially surveys censuses etc. 

Q. no 15. What is Anthropomentry? 

Ans : Anthropomentry is a branch of anthropology that studied human social type by measuring the human body, particularly the volume of the cranium, the length of the nose etc. 

Q. no 16. What is endogamy? 

Ans : Endogamy is a social institution that defines the boundary of a social or kin group within which marriage relations are permissible, marriage outside this defined groups are  prohibited. 

Q. no 17. What is exogamy ? 

Ans : Exogamy is a social institution that defines the boundary of a social or kin group with which or within which marriage relations are prohibited, marriage must be contracted outside there prohibited groups. 

Q. no 18. What is laissez faire? 

Ans : Laissez-faire stands for a political and economic doctrine that advocates minimum state intervention in the economy and economic relations. It is usually associated with belief in the regulated powers and efficiency of the free market.

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