Introducing Indian Society

Answer : Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj is “a proclamation of ideological independence” he never compromised, his “confession of the faith” he never abandoned, “a rather incendiary manifesto” to enkindle his revolution.

Gandhi categorically insisted that “the English have not taken India; we have given it to them. They are not in India because of their strength: but because we keep them”. He was one of the earliest to realize that colonialism was something to be overcome in our own ....

Answer : M.N. Srinivas introduced the term ‘Sanskritization’ to describe the cultural mobility in the traditional caste structure of Indian society. Sanskritization is a process by which a lower caste or tribe or any other group changes its customs, rituals, ideology and way of life in the direction of a higher or more often twice-born caste. In this process a caste is only trying to change the status and not the social structure. Srinivas has used Sanskritization ....

Answer : Indological approach is not a theory in Sociology it is a form of methodology used by early sociologist like G.S. Ghurye to explain Indian Society. This kind of methodology was used by Indian Sociologist when there was no field study approach for social analysis, they mainly relied on texts of past history to interpret it with the recent development to understand Indian society.

G.S Ghurye considers that India is not a colonial construct, the people of ....

Answer : The use of Marxist perspective in analysis of Indian society is majorly observable in mid-20th century. Many social scientists like Ramakrishna Mukherjee, A.R. Desai, D.P. Mukerjee etc. by using conflict approach presented their analysis of Indian society based on study of changes occurring in the society.

D.P. Mukherjee has explained Indian society on the basis of conflict between Islam of Indian and Western tradition whereas Ramakrishna Mukherjee has studied Indian society based on class struggle, strain ....

Answer : M.N. Srinivas presented the concept of Sanskritization to exlain the social cultural mobility in traditional caste system. According to him Sanskritization is a process, by which a low Hindu caste or tribe or other group try to change their tradition, rituals, ideology or lifestyle in the direction of any high or twice born caste. Generally with the Sanskritizationand a consequence of it, related castes mobilize upward but due to Sanskritization, there is only positional change, ....

Answer : Cognitive structures are the basic mental processes people use to make sense of information. Other names for cognitive structures include mental structures, mental tools, and patterns of thought. Those working in this area use a lens to explore the ideas and schematizations, the symbols, artifacts and meanings, the norms and practices, and the institutions and patterns of interactions by which society is constructed, sustained, and transformed.

Cognition is the process of acquiring know-ledge throught though, experience ....

Answer : The main aim of social reform movements in colonial India was to develop feeling of nationalism in Indians by uniting Indians from social, religious and political angle. To fulfill this aim, different social reform movements made an effort to remove superstition, abuses and other social evils present in Indian society. To some extent, success has been achieved in this. These movements have given sufficient contribution in process of modernization to change traditional Indian society into ....

Answer : Book view approach in sociology was popular in India during pre-independence period where indologists and orientalists used Hindu scriptures and the historical record to study Indian society. This sociological tradition was gradually replaced by the field view of sociologists in post-independence period. The post-independence field study is based on participant observation.This study threw new light on the nature of the village community particularly in relation to caste, gender and political faction. This work is important ....

Answer : Modernity in India, its prospect and retrospect is greatly being discussed by both sociologists and historians. Social change in India has been mostly analysed by sociologists taking modernity as a frame of reference. National scholars like G.S. Ghurye, B.K. Mukherjee, R.N. Sharma, Utpal Dutta advocated that modernity in India has been an effective instrument for the progress and development of Indian society.

They are sceptical of the colonial attempt of modernity that driving people away from ....

Answer : A.R. Desai, being a Marxist, sees any social reality as rooted in material history. Contesting to the cultural and nationalist view of Indian freedom movement, he looks at the freedom struggle from economic and materialistic perspective. For Desai, British rule in India was an introduction of capitalism in a hitherto feudalistic society.

Introduction of railways, roadways, flooding of Indian markets with machine made food and products, new land-tenure systems, new legal system, market economy were all ....

Answer : Yogendra Singh talked of process of modernisation at two levels-cultural and structural. In cultural sphere, the changes came either from the ‘great tradition’ or the ‘little tradition’. It is at the level of great tradition, that Singh talks of hecterogenic changes that ushered in political, economic, social and technological modernity in India. The first of the heterogenic factors that influenced Indian tradition was the introduction of uniform legal code in the country.

Traditionally, there were different ....

Answer : Village studies in Indian Sociology: Village studies in Indian Sociology: Rural sociology is of recent origin having its roots to USA in about 1890s. Later it spread to other countries also. Indian village community was one of the areas studied by British administrators and scholars. Some important works are Charles Metcalf’s ‘Minutes on the Village of Delhi’, H.S. Maine’s ‘Village Communities’ and Baden Powel’s ‘Land System of British India.’ The early phase spans from 1900 ....

Answer : Buddhism arose as a protest movement against the Brahminincal supremacy in Indian society. It had a wide range of impact on the structure and culture of India. First it jolted the power and authority exercised by the Brahmins on the polity and society of India. It also loosened the rigidity of varna system which it came to acquire at that time. Buddhism also caused structural differentiation of Indian society by introducing the foreigners into its ....

Answer : The impact of Islam was felt on Indian society mainly because of its humanistic concepts. These include fraternity of human beings, justices as the governing principle of social ethics, charity towards the 'have nots', rejection of priesthood, simplicity of dogma, monotheism and fulfillment of obligation towards humanity etc. According to prof. Yogendra Singh" Non-ritualism and abstract monotheism as preached by the sufi saint and philosopher was not only appealing to the Hindu masses but also ....

Answer : It is only through the contact of the West that the process of modernisation has been initated into the Indian society. Prof. Yogendra Singh has termed the change resulting due to the contact with the West as "Heterogenetic" process of change. The Britishers brought tremendous change in the social, economic and political life of the men. The structural change in the infrastructure, democratic political system, modern Judiciary, industrialisation, modern education, English language etc. were ....

Answer : The empirical approach refers to the approach which is solely based on the experience and observation of the members of society about the nature and growth of various social phenomena. It does not adopt any methodology, theory and formal means to know about the society. The traditions of the society, rituals, customs folkways etc. provide the sociologists the abundant knowledge about the society. Ghurye, Madan and Majumdar, Verrier Elwin, etc. adopted the empirical approach to ....