Indian Sociology The Role of Benoy Kumar Sarkar (An Old and Rare Book)

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The reader may well approach the present volume with Some trepidation, especially on account of its title. There may be sociology (ies) in India, of India, and, of course, for India (one may, for example, examine the series of erudite prescriptions "For a Sociology of India’ appearing in the pages of the Contributions to Indian Sociology, both the original and the new series, —(cf. Thapan, 1988). But is it legitimate or sensible to talk of Indian Sociology? "Is there also Indian chemistry ?" asked Bailey (1957 : 97). Obviously, the query is made from a positivist standpoint. The notion of a science of society, similar to natural and biological sciences, is still staunchly supported by many, although it has come also under heavy fire. It tends to disregard the fact that sociology as a distinctive field of human inquiry has a place not only in sciences but also in the humanities (Abraham, 1973:16). The difference of sociology from all the other sciences lies in the fact that the person who wishes to make sense of what is happening in society, to understand the ‘web of relationships’ that makes a society tick or function and gives ita distinct form, is himself a pro- duct of that society so that in trying to understand it he is at the same time trying to understand himself and his position in society better. In this respect sociology becomes part of the culture of that society.

A special kind of understanding characterises sociologi- cal pursuit. We cannot deal fully with the actions and interactions of people in society without understanding why the people act in the way they do, and we can only do so because we ourselves know that we would, in all probability, be moved in similar circumstances by the same motives as have guided the actions of the people under study. Social facts are known because they are ‘"‘lived’". In sociology, a social fact has a meaning. We abstract the meaning that it has for us, and relate it to the other meanings derived from the other related facts. The scientific approach (in the narrow sense in which it is understood in natural sciences) is therefore "inadequate’’ in sociology (Madan, 1966: 14). "But so is the humanistic’, promptly cautions Narain. Exclusive reliance on the latter may result in intellectual chaos and demolish all knowledge and understanding. The only way to forestall it is "to introduce the scientific approach, if not by the front door, at least by the back door" ( Narain, 1971 : 133).

It is, of course, important to appreciate why the admis- sion of the scientific approach in sociology should be through the "back door" only. The discovery of uniformities of behaviour (aimed at by the scientific approach) may be an important task of sociology, and it may even be possible to ‘a degree to express these uniformities in terms of ‘causal laws. But this is far from being the sole objective in socio- logy, since it is as certain as anything else in social life ‘that disformities ate as persistent, and perhaps as important, as the uniformities and sociology must be able .to account for these disformities or dissimilarities or specificities. ‘It ‘seems what a society shares with other societies is the out- come of biological, psychological and historical factors ‘what is peculiar to itis its sociological character" (Madan, 1966: 14).

It is, thus, legitimate, and even necessary, to imagine and work out an Indian sociology based on concepts and propositions derived from the study of Indian society and "culture. "Such propositions or concepts may be loaded with social and cultural meanings found in Indian society’’ (Singh, 1970: t43). These concepts and propositions, which are logical abstractions from singular observations, contain in themselves the possibility of higher levels of abstractions which would ultimately enrich general or universal sociology. But what is more important is that concepts are not, as Daya Krishaoa demonstrates, mere tools for the under- standing of what exists. Rather, they are modes of orga- nising our experience in a particular manner and giving it a certain meaning and significance, thereby making it intelligible ina distinctively human -sense. Concepts have the very important function of determining our attitudes towards what we perceive and guiding our actions in rela- tion to it. "‘But if this is so, then the acceptance of con- ceptual structures that have originated in the west tends to - implant an unconscious acceptance of the western way of looking at things resulting in adoption of the western way of judging those things also’ (Krishna, 1987: xvi). Book's Contents and Sample Pages