The Writings of D. N. Dhanagare: The Missing Tradition (Debates and Discourses in Indian Sociology)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

It must be said at the outset and with a deep sense of gratitude I too that opportunities to write some of the essays, included in this book, were offered to me by the Indian Sociological Society and the sociology profession from time to time. The essays on civil society were written in response to the Society's invitation to present it in a symposium (at the All-India Sociological Conference held at Thiruvananthapuram in December 2000), and those on 'globalisation', and on 'sociology and social policy' were written as presidential addresses delivered at the sociological conferences held at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur (December 2002) and at Udaipur (December 2003) respectively. This was possible only after my getting elected as President of the Indian Sociological Society, a post I held between January 2002 and December 2003. I am, therefore, beholden by the members of the sociology profession in India for the trust they reposed in me. Two essays included in this collection-namely Practising Sociology Through History' and 'Rethinking the Concept of "Revolution"-were presented as the 18th I. P. Desai Memorial Lecture, and the Second Radhakamal Mukerjee Memorial Lecture respectively. The former was delivered at the Centre for Social Studies, Surat, while the second lecture was delivered on invitation from the Indian Sociological Society during the 36th All-India Sociological Conference (at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in December 2011) on the occasion of the Society's Diamond Jubilee celebration. My special thanks to the Director and Managing Committee of the Surat Centre for doing me the honour by inviting me to deliver the I. P. Desai Memorial Lecture. Also, I am grateful to the Managing Committee of the Indian Sociological Society for inviting me to deliver the Second Radhakamal Mukerjee Memorial Lecture.

The essay on Green Revolution was first presented at the Indo- German Colloquium on 'Equality and Inequality' organised by the Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi in August 1987. The presence of André Béteille at this seminar assured me that my paper that was published subsequently in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) was in a sense a token of my participation in the 'Equality-Inequality' discourse that he had initiated way back in the 1970s. Later, this essay was also reproduced by the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (USA). The article on 'Practising Sociology Through History' was published by the EPW in two parts much against their editorial policy of not publishing longish articles. The article received an overwhelming response. The preliminary draft of the essay was first presented at the Special Session on 'Themes in Indian Sociology' organised as a part of the programme of the World Congress of Sociology held at University of Brisbane, Australia (7-12 July 2002). At Surat, the I. P. Desai Memorial Lecture was presided over by Professor A. M. Shah. Professor Shah's pioneering contribution to the discourse on historical sociology cannot be ignored by any serious student of sociology. It has been widely acknowledged both in India and abroad. I have richly benefitted from his concluding observations on that occasion. My thanks are due to Professor André Béteille and Professor A.M. Shah.