1. The document discusses the social background and emergence of sociology in India, noting that India has a rich heritage of social thought dating back to the 3rd century BC. 2. It describes how early Indian texts like the Dharmashastra discussed concepts related to social categories, place, and time. Other classical texts also related to mundane and social realities. 3. Western scholars in the 18th-19th centuries like Magasthenes, Fa-Hien, and Al-Biruni provided accounts of Indian society that described social conditions and daily life. The establishment of universities and academic associations in India promoted the growth of social inquiry.

1. SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIOLOGY
IN INDIA
By Dr SAJEENA S

2. Cohen, 1969
• India has a rich heritage of thought of reflection on socio-
cultural reality
• There have been recorded observations on Indian society
since the third century BC
Dude, 1977
• Several stereotypes impede an adequate appreciation of the
Indian tradition of deliberations on man and society.
• Indian treatises discussing ideas about society and its values
were far removed from society
The Heritage of Social Thought in India

3. The ancient texts
such as sastras and
smritis, despite their
philosophical and meta
physical content, were
not concerned with the
eternal varieties of
truths only and did not
ignore the existential
reality of the time.

4. • (Manu’s)
Dharmashastra:
The assumptions
and principles
underlying the
concepts of dharma
related to
sthana/desa
(place/country), kala
(time) and patra
(person/social
category) .
Varna-samkaras
• Arthasastras
• Kamasastras
• Vartasastras
• Vastusastra-all
related to
mundane of life
and social reality
(Bhattacharya,
1990)
• Charakasamhitha

5. Sociography in Classical and Arab-Persian Accounts
Magasthenes (Greek Ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya): Indian
society is divided into seven classes
Fa-Hien (AD 400-411), Yuan Chwang (AD 629-644), I-Tsing (AD 671-695): described
the socio-cultural conditions of their time in India
Arab traveller, Al-Biruni : was familiar with Sanskrit sources and the Indian system of
thought
Ibn Batutta: Offered valuable information regarding the geography of India, socio-
cultural conditions and daily life of people of India.
Marco Polo and Faristah’s narratives are the works in sociography

6. 1. Economically its base was mainly agricultural, arts and crafts mostly
connected with poorly developed production grew.
2. Socially its framework mainly consisted of comparatively self-sufficient
village communities, caste was the typical Indian institution to
accommodate various socio-economic strata and nascent classes
3. Ideologically, the outstanding feature of Indian culture, the foundations
of all its religion and philosophy, was the idea of karma and rebirth,
which discouraged, in general, social mobility and individual initiative
and secured social stability thereby
Socio-economic Conditions of India at the advent of British Rule

7. Three Major Approaches of the westerners to Indian
Society and Culture
Western
interpretations of
Indian Reality
Missionary

8. Official View of British Regarding Castes and Tribes
• Henry Verelst (1769) stressed the importance of collecting
information regarding the leading families and their customs.
• Francis Buchanan (1807) undertook ethnographic survey
• Abbe Dubois (1816) wrote “Hindu Manners, Customs and
Ceremonies”.
• In 1861 the first all India census was taken by British
government marked more systematic way of gathering data.
• Sir Herbert Risley (1901) sought to find an ethnographic
survey of India which would develop as part of census.

9. Growth of Associations and Institutions Promoting Social
Inquiry
1797,
Asiatic
Society of
Bengal
1828,
Academic
Association
1838-1843,
Society for the
Acquisition of
Knowledge
1839,
Tattwabodhi
ni Sabha

10. Thinker’s and Reformers were..
Akshay Kumar Dutta (1820-1886)
Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar
Pyari Chand Mitra
Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
Dadabhai Naoraji (1825-1917)
Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928)
J. G. Phooley (1827-1888), M. G. Ranade (1824-1901)

11. Literary contributions
Transactions of
the Literary
Society of
Bombay, 1929
The Madras
Journal of
Literature and
Science, 1835
A society for
Sociological
Studies was
established in
Jaipur in 1869
Shyamaji Krishna
Verma started
the journal
Indian Sociology
on 1905

12. Early Sociological Beginnings
Karl Marx, Max
Weber, Durkheim
depended on British
and continental
writings on India for
their analysis of
Indian society and
culture.
W.H.R River’s study The
Thodas was based on
intensive work and was
the first monograph on
people of India in the
modern anthropological
tradition
• L.K.
Ananthakrishna
Iyer and S.C Roy
made their mark
in anthropology in
India.
• Bajendranath Seal
introduced
Sociology in Indian
universities

13. Culcutta University –The first University Department of Anthropology in India
Bombay University (1919)- The first Department of Sociology and Civics
Lucknow University became a centre of Sociology and Anthropology.
A combined Department of Sociology and Anthropology was started in the
Deccan College of Post Graduate Research Institute in Poona.
In 1928, Osmania University offered Sociology as one of the options at BA level.
In 1946 full fledged Sociology department started at Osmania University.

14. Conclusion
Sociology provides effective assistance to understand how the
millions of Indians with their myriad beliefs and values would
respond to the call of development of the nation.