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Sociology: Emergence and Development of Sociology: Emergence and Development of Sociology in the West

Emergence and Development of Sociology in the West

  • Sociology, as a subject doesn՚t have a long history, but have a long past. We can trace the glimpses of sociological statements in Kautilya՚s Arthashastra. Aristotle՚s statement of “Man is a political animal” sowed the seeds of sociology. But sociology as a discipline emerged after the French Revolution of 1789. At that time, many thinkers asked for the studying of sociology. Prominent among them was Simon, who for the first time argued that study must be made in all aspects to understand the root cause of the problem. Later, it was his disciple Auguste Comte who said sociology should be studied in a scientific manner just like other natural sciences to reveal the laws of evolution and functioning of the society. He further identified three stages of human society as follows
Illustration: Emergence and Development of Sociology in the West
  • When Comte laid the foundation of the discipline, Herbert Spencer, British Sociologist developed the idea of evolution through his three-volume book viz, Principles of sociology ‘’ . Like Charles Darwin՚s evolution of species, he argued for evolution of societies over time to be the most differentiated and complex ones at the end. He also advocated “Survival of the fittest” theory insociology. Hence, his theory is called “Social Darwinism” . Lester Word, an US sociologist differentiated pure and applied sociology, and also advocated for the scientific approach. Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist developed sociology as an independent discipline. Through his works he emphasised on social facts like marriage rules which are not formed based on individuals but on the basis of collective nature of the society. And these social facts regulated human behaviour and can be explained in the light of other. On contrary to this, Max Weber, a German sociologist argued forsocial actions rather than social facts and believed that the subjective aspects of every action must be analysed.
  • Karl Marx was having a phenomenological perspective, in which he concentrated more on social factors and discussed how historical factors influence human behaviour. He believed thatconflicts are the initiators of social changes. As more and more philosophers and thinkers started exploring the subjects, separate departments for sociology started appearing by the end of 19th century in the west.

Development of Sociology in India

The development of sociology in India can be divided into three phases.

Foundation of Sociology in India (1769 - 1900)

  • Origin and development of sociology in India is attributed to the British officials. For convenient and easy administration, it was necessary for them to have a better and clear understanding of the social laws, customs and structure of Indian society. Few such first attempts were made in the year 1769 by the then governor of Bengal and Bihar Henry Verelst followed by Francis Buchanan by conducting a survey of people in Bengal in the year 1807. Many books were written during the first phase on Indian Society. One such important book was by Abbe Dubois in 1816, namely “Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies” dealing with the caste system existed here. In 1820, Walter Hamilton՚s gazetteer “A Geographical, Statistical, and historical Description of Hindustan and Adjacent Countries” , estimated India՚s population.
  • In 1776, a book on Hindu law in English was prepared for British Judges. In 1774, William Jones found Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal to study the ‘nature and man’ of India, and started a journal publishing articles based on Sanskrit and Arabic literatures. Later Max Muller՚s translated Indian works on German were further translated to English too. The major step was the first all India Census conducted in 1871 by British Government which became a source of information on population, society and cultural life of people.
Illustration: Foundation of Sociology in India (1769 - 1900)

Professionalisation of Sociology in India

The second phase is also characterised by the enormous contribution of British scholars to Indian sociology through their works which concentrated more on the caste system and tribes of India. Major works on this time are tabulated below,

Table Supporting: Professionalisation of Sociology in India
YearAuthorWork
1916Sir. Herbert LesleyPeople of India (book)
1906W. H. R. RiversMonograph on Toads, a pastoral community of Nilgiris
1922A. R. RadcliffMonograph on tribes of Andaman Islands.
S. C. RoyMan, in India (1st journal on anthropology in India)
D. N. MajumdarThe Eastern Anthropologist (journal)
M. N. SrinivasMarriage and family in Mysore.
G. S. GhuryeSociological Bulletin.
  • During this phase departmental development was also occurring mainly in Bombay, Calcutta and Lucknow. A full-fledged department of sociology was established in Bombay in 1919. The students of Bombay University under the leadership of G. S. Ghurye collected an enormous regional data on sociological aspects. Ghurye later found Indian Sociological Society in 1951. In 1917, a department of sociology was also started in Mysore University. Later in 1921, a department of anthropology was started where; river՚s articles were posthumously presented under the title of Social organisation. At this time, Lucknow emerged as a centre for sociological studies under the leadership of Radha Kamal Mukherjee, DP Mukherjee and D. N. Majumdar the combined department of economics and sociology. Later in 1951, an independent department of sociology was established there.
  • In the 20th century, L. K. Anandakrishnan Iyer and S. C. Roy were the major Indian sociologists. Iyer studied exclusively on castes and tribes of Cochin and Mysore and Syrian Christians of Kerala. S. C. Roy studied about Oraon, Munda and Birhor tribes. The tribes were the favourite topics of sociologist and Verries Elwin proposed certain approaches, through which tribes can be better understood.