Hello, from the resident sociologist on silklist. Shiv is quite correct -- sociology is a tired, underdeveloped, nelected, and largely irrelevant discipline in India, despite the fact that (I think) it produces more PhDs than any other. There are many reasons for this, and I would not like to bore members with a long discussion of these. It has to do with the history of the discipline in India, institutional problems, and many others. The language problem is also acute -- most of the 'good' sociology is carried out in English, with little link to debates going on in regional/ Indian languages.
But there are nonetheless some sociologists around who are doing relevant and interesting work (in a few good centres such as DU and JNU), and who are also concerned about this problem -- hence the frequent lamentations from sociologists themselves about the state of the discipline. (To its credit, sociology is probably the most reflexive discipline around; we do a lot of navel gazing.) And quite a few sociologists do actually carry out important policy-related research, sit on government committees, submit reports on current issues (never read!) and so on. But there is much more that needs to be done. There is some research funding available from ICSSR and others bodies, even Tatas and others do cough up money sometimes; but most of us seek outside sources of funding (ie, outside of India). Another problem is that many of the best social scientists have flown the coop, and teach in western universities (I am a reverse migrant!), so we are not reproducing outselves. But now we see some returnees, coming back as fresh PhDs or with a few years of teaching -- this may change the picture ... A perennial conundrum for Indian sociology has been figuring out the correct frame of analysis; if all the theories and categories of sociology are imported from the West, how can they help us to undestand India? On the other hand, it has tended to be insular, looking only at India, without a sufficient comparative perspective. An unresolved debate ... and there are many others. Thanks to Shiv for highlighting this issue, since the general public, including intellectuals, seem to think that disciplines like sociology are quite irrelevant and unimportant. With the unbridled faith in science, technology and economic growth that seems to have gripped the middle classes, some critical reflection on India's current development trajectory is in order -- which is precisely what sociologists (and others) are supposed to be good at. Yet they do not often enough air their views, or their knowledge, in public. May I recommend a recently published book -- Anthropology in the East edited by Patricia Uberoi et al (Permanent Black, 2007). It's a collection of articles about important figures in the history of Indian sociology / social anthropology, and one of its purposes was to make a beginning at trying to understand the reasons for the sorry state of the discipline, by tracing its history. I also have a piece in this volume, in which I try to understand certain aspects of the discipline by looking at the work of one of the founding 'fathers', GS Ghurye. But you might find such a tome rather boring! Carol ----- Original Message ----- From: shiv sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 8:15 pm Subject: [silk] Failure of Sociology in India? To: [email protected] > I don't mean to hurt anyone, although it is possible that people > may feel > hurt. > > I apologize in advance for any hurt I may cause as I post > opinions. > > What I write below are OPINIONS. Not research findings. > > Using Google it is easy to find references that point to the > failure of > Sociology in India. One paper spoke of sociology in India being a > "tired" > specialty. Another spoke of failure to address really big issues. > > My life revolves around talking to people and hearing their > innermost secrets > and I am faced with a whole lot of questions. Sometimes, answers > to those > questions seem come by chance when I am reading Western > literature. At other > times people make serendipitous observations that seem to have > truth in them > > I tend to think that India has a very narrow base of scholarship. > In the last > 60 years the entire country has rushed headlong into technical > education and > the humanities have been badly neglected. Day to day issues > affecting Indian > society are not addressed at all by the miniscule body of Indian > sociologists. Some questions have no answers except the chance > observations > by Western sociologists studying India and Indians. Neither the > government > nor corporate bodies come forward as far as I can tell to fund > research in > departments of sociology, and I suspect that the little sociology > there is in > India is funded by meager grants from some NGO or the other. I > don't really > know for sure. > > I believe that sociology in India is "massive work waiting to be > done". None > of the major issues that crop up have been addressed at all even > though they > stare you in the face or hit you between the eyes. > > I saw one reference that said that India had 15,000 sociologists, > but only > 1700 had registered with the association, and the number of papers > being > published was far fewer than that from a Finland. The blame for > that is laid > on the forced need for English and th lack of English competence > among Indian > sociologits, with no mechanism for them to write in their mother > tongues. > Is sociology neglected or not in India? > > --------------------------------------------- Carol Upadhya Fellow, School of Social Sciences National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bangalore-560 012 phone: +91-80-2218-5000/ 5141 cell: 93413-11453
