6 Sociology in India: Colonialism, Anthropology and Sociology

Anurekha Chari Wagh

Introduction: What does ‘doing sociology’ refer to?

Doing sociology starts with some ideas that strike people, and they seek an explanation for why people believe them and maybe end up with a complex theory of how people think and act. Sociology as a discipline asks oneself to question the way human beings interact, the way they behave; so one needs to stand outside commonsense and consider what, why and how people actually act within the larger structure of society and therefore it is not to be confused with common sense.

Sociology as a discipline pushes us to question ‘what is given’; so as to recognize that the ‘natural and givens’ in society are strongly influenced by historical and social forces. Further sociology embodies social knowledge and recognizes the fact that social reality is characterised by multiplicity of co- existing and contending paradigms in the social sciences. Sociology is really a critical awareness of social life. If this is what sociology is all about, then the question is-to what extent does the organization of knowledge in the form of disciplines play an important role in shaping the perspective of the discipline itself?

Since the late nineteenth and twentieth century, European and American scholars have theorized on the societal changes and evolved frameworks and perspectives to understand the shifts within society. One can argue that the theories and methodologies in sociology has crystallized between 1880 and 1945 in encounters with European experiences of dealing with changes in society following the industrial revolution, the development of capitalism, the experience of wars, the process of colonialization and the evolution of modern state (Mukherjee 1973). Crudely it could be argued that sociology is the reflection of ‘modern’ societies. It was during the intellectual revolution, that one refers to as ‘enlightenment’, that change, process and critical thought all combined to lead people to the realization that society, like everything else was ‘man-made’ and therefore changeable and could be analysed. The study, examination and analysis of the ‘modern society’, was then the focus of sociology as an academic discipline (Osborne and Van Loon 2009). Since then, these frameworks and perspectives have been scrutinized, evaluated and interrogated from distinct locations as sociology spread across the world. Patel (2010) argues that this inheritance has been assessed to be dominant and Eurocentric, both over theories and practices- and examined as being uneven in its spread and distribution within nation- states and regions. This module titled Colonialism, Anthropology and Sociology is the first module within the larger topic of Origin, Growth and Development of Sociology in India1. This module focuses

1 The other modules in this topic include Disciplinary Histories and the Discipline in Making, Debate on ‘crisis’ in Sociology in India, Sociology from the Margins, Challenge to Sociology from Gender, Dalit and studies on Muslims and Sociology practiced in professional institutions.

on the introduction of sociology mediated through the process of colonialism and how that mediation had an impact on the manner in which sociology is practiced in India. Further it has been argued that the institutionalisation of sociology into disciplines within academia has been done to legitimize the local frameworks of European and American sociology as ‘universal hegemonic’ frameworks in order to understand and theorize social reality (Patel 2011). This is not to argue that there have been no adaptations of the frameworks to contextual settings or that there is no critique of these dominant universal paradigms. What is important is to realize that in many ways the process of institutionalization of sociology as an academic discipline can erase the critical perspective embedded within sociology.

Uberoi et al., (2000) argue that while it is true that the practices of anthropology and sociology in India have been shaped by the theories and scholars of the west, especially the process of colonialism, local influences of theoretical, institutional and nationalism have played an important role in producing these disciplines. Sundaram (2000) reflecting on the way sociology was introduced within Indian universities states that the ‘location of sociology was within trans-disciplinary identities during the first half of this century (2000:115). So it becomes imperative to initiate a debate on the various distinct ways in which power has shaped and continues to shape the practices of sociological knowledge across the world2. The module will focus on the writings of scholars who have intervened to discuss the institutional history of sociology in India. It will include an analysis of three interlinked issues: a) Debate on social anthropology and sociology, b) The diversity of approaches towards the study of society in India3 and c) What kind of sociology should sociologists in India practice?

The module is structured into four sections followed by a conclusion.

Section 1: Colonialism: Anthropology and Sociology, the contested debate.

Section 2: Similarity between Anthropologyand Sociology.

Section 3: Instutionalisation of Approaches in Sociology and

Section 4: Sociology in Post- Independence period.

Section 1: Colonialism: Anthropology and Sociology – the contested debate…

The major debate structuring the perception towards sociology in India, is the debate of relationship between anthropology and sociology, especially in the context of the nature and stated goal of the disciplines themselves; especially the question of perceiving anthropology and

2 In this context the ISA Handbook of Diverse Sociological Traditions, edited by Sujata Patel (Sage International 2010) is a very important reading that initiates the discussion on how to assess all aspects of the discipline organized and institutionalized around the globe in terms of ideas and theories, scholars and scholarship, practices and traditions, and ruptures and continuities; that examines the relationship between sociological knowledge and power.

3 The specific approaches will be dealt with in the third topic of the approaches to the study of Indian society. In this section major issues will be flagged off.

‘sociology as twin disciplines’. It is important to recognize that the question of relationship between sociology and anthropology is a critical point of discussion within academics that have experienced colonialism. Breman (2000) reflecting on practices of sociology within the non-western world argues that there is a need of meaningful demarcation between sociology and anthropology in terms of conceptual apparatus, theoretical frameworks and research methodologies because earlier demarcations based on dichotomies of ‘modern-traditional’, ‘macro-micro’ and ‘quantitative and qualitative’, have become irrelevant and the challenge for sociologists and anthropologists is to construct new demarcations that would stimulate collaboration.

Scholars analyzing the disciplinary history of sociology in India, content that the trajectory of ‘sociology in India’ has to be analysed through the experience of colonialism. It has been argued and well established that social sciences that were transmitted through the empires of European expansion had the overall effect of colonialism, more significantly on the minds of subject people- especially the power and inevitability of western modernity and its value system (Mukherjee 1973) Scholars4 such as Andre Beteille, Anant Giri, Anjan Ghosh, Carol Upadhaya, D.N Majumdar, D.N Dhanagare, D. Sundaram, J. Pathy, Manorama Savur, Meenakshi Thapan, M.N Panini, M.N Srinivas, M.S.A Rao, Nandini Sundar, Patricia Uberoi P.N Mukherjee R. Mukherjee, Ramachandra Guha, Satish Deshpande, Satish Sabbarwal, Sasheej Hedge, Sharmila Rege, Sujata Patel, S Jodhka, T.K Oommen, Veena Das, Vinay Srivastava, and many more have in different contexts reflected and theorized on the growth, institutionalization, consolidation and challenges of teaching and research of sociology in India. Jodhka (2009) argues that among the many social sciences, sociology in India has been most reflexive about its practices. One finds vast literature on the emergence of sociology, engagement with colonial encounter, relationship with social anthropology and relation with larger social, political and economic macro structures.

This module draws upon the some of the works of the scholars mentioned above and discusses the trajectory of sociology in India, especially the debate of social anthropology and sociology in India. Sociologists in India have generally agreed that sociology has been introduced through colonialism and one needs to understand it within the larger debate of the social anthropology and sociology in India. Among the scholars theorizing on history of sociology in India, there are two groups; one group of sociologists have emphasised the similarity of sociology with social anthropology and other group of sociologists who have problematised this question within the discourse of ‘academic colonialism’ and anthropology as the study of the ‘other’ the East, and sociology as the study of ‘own societies’ the west. The reason has been clearly stated in the words of Andre Beitelle, who argues that though he perceives himself as a sociologist, he is regarded mainly as a anthropologist in the west, as in the west it is assumed and accepted that ‘study of ‘other’ culture is anthropology and study of ‘ourselves’ is sociology’ …Anyone who studies India, Africa or Melanesia is an anthropologist. Whereas to be a sociologist one has to

4 Arranged in alphabetical order be a specialist in western industrial societies (Beteille, 2002: 236 cited in Patel 2010: 281). This disciplinary division relates to a discourse of power institutionalized within European modernity (Patel 2010).

Section 2: Similarity between sociology and social anthropology

The legacy of sociology in India refers to a tradition where it is argued by Indian scholars that there is no difference between the practices of sociology and anthropology. As M.S.A. Rao, a leading sociologist in his overview of the institutionalization of the discipline stated that, ‘It is important to note that a sharp distinction between anthropology and sociology did not emerge’ (Rao 1974: xxvi). Srinivas and Panini (1973) stated that Indian sociologists and social anthropologists are unable in their empirical work to distinguish between the two disciplines. Scholars like G.S Ghurye, Radhakamal Mukherjee, D.N Majumdar, Iravati Karve, N.K Bose, J.H Hutton and David Mandelbaum did not make clear distinctions between sociology and social anthropology.

Rao (1974: xxvi) based on his survey of research in sociology and social anthropology, stated that sociology practiced in the Bombay department included social anthropology and in Calcutta, social anthropology was extended to include sociology. Further Prof G.S Ghurye, according to Rao (1974: xxvii) emphasized that in the Indian social context the distinction between anthropology and sociology was artificial. In similar arguments Srinivas (1952) states that social anthropology is a respected discipline because it gives a very crucial experience of intensive field work. Srinivas further believed that the sociology students in India, would find it more challenging to study one’s own society, than that of the other, and thus they should undergo training in social anthropology for a minimum of two years so as to develop an empirical outlook. For Srinivas ‘the union of social anthropology and sociology is desirable and will be of advantage to sociology (1952: 36). Thus, Rao (1974: xxvii) states that it is important to note that sharp distinctions between anthropology and sociology did not emerge in India. Rao based his analysis on the observation that, G.S Ghurye, K.P Chattopadhya and D.N Majumdar, though they were trained in anthropology, did researches both among tribes and castes (subject of interest for anthropologists) and on rural and urban settings (subject of interest for sociologists).

Patel (2011: xiv) argues that the divisions between sociology and anthropology, were part of a political project of colonialism imbibed in Europe and the west where social science started. The political project, argues Patel, was based on dividing the study of two different societies into two different disciplines: – sociology as the study of ‘us’, the modern western society and anthropology the study of the ‘other’, the non-western societies. Guha (1989) argues that we need to draw a distinction between sociology and anthropology, as sociology is the analysis of ‘macro’ structures and whereas social anthropology is the analysis of ‘micro’ structures (344-345). Such an argument is referred to as a ‘simplistic assertion’ by Thapan (1991), and thus one needs to critically analyse the institutionalization of the disciplines within the colonial encounter.

Patel (2011) states that since the 1960s anthropologists, especially from the North, reflecting on the colonial legacy of their discipline are arguing that the discipline, which it organized and institutionalised, represented the ‘othering’ of the east- have defined anthropology as ‘handmaiden of colonialism’ and a daughter to (an) era of violence’ (quoted in Uberoi et al. 2007: 22). Asad (1973) argues that anthropology is rooted in an unequal power encounter between the West and the ‘Third World’, in which ethnographic and historical knowledge of the colonized domains not only enabled the colonizers to ‘know’ and administer, but also reinforced the inequalities between European and non-European worlds. Thus as Patel (2011: xiv) argues, anthropologists studied the discipline’s history in order to understood how anthropological knowledge was increasingly used as a civilizing mission of the colonial authorities and structured through administrative practices. Patel cites Dirks (2001:8), who has asserted that the ‘colonial conquest was sustained not only by superior arms and military organization nor by political power and economic wealth, but also through cultural technologies of rule. Anthropology and its knowledge, together with its theories and methodologies became part of these processes of rule (2011: xvi) and in the words of Levi Strauss (1966:126) colonised people were treated as mere objects of study (cited in Pathy 1981: 623).

In similar vein Pathy (1976, 1981) argues that the origins of the disciplines of anthropology and sociology in India, emerged within the colonial milieu to meet political and administrative needs and later aided in the expansion and consolidation of colonies. In this context Pathy, cites Evans-Pritchard, ‘if it is the policy of a colonial government to administer a people through their chiefs it is useful to know who the chiefs are and what their functions and authority and privileges and obligations are. Also if it is intended to administer a people according to their own laws and customs one has to first discover what they are’. (1951: 109-110 cited in Pathy 1981: 623). In this way social sciences are used to understand the manner in which people could be understood and regulated and thus as students of sociology we need to understand that knowledge is socially constructed and historically located where macro political economic structures such as colonialism plays an important role in structuring of the discipline.

In this context, Deshpande (2007:8) states ‘to argue that sociology and social anthropology (M.N Srinivas) are to be ‘united’, is to erase the historical context that led to the emergence of research and teaching of these disciplines in India. While sociology emerged in the Post-Enlightenment context of modernity with growing influence of science as a method of knowledge and its application to the study of man, social anthropology grew with the expansion of the colonial empire, and became a part of the technologies of the west over the non-west’.

Engaging with this debate, Beteille (1974:9) initially started with arguing that there is no clarity in the conception and usage of sociology and social anthropology in India. Further it is not possible to have neat definitions, as they have the same approach to the study of social life, that their methods of investigation and analysis are similar (cited Thapan 1991: 1229). This is because the analytical framework (includes concepts, theories and methods) to study of the society and culture in India was influenced by the west. This is reflected in G.S Ghurye, the first professor of sociology in Bombay and K.P Chattapadhya, the first professor of anthropology in Calcutta were trained in Britain. In this context, the arguments of Jodhka (2009:35), are relevant, as he argues that if sociology is the study of ‘self’, that is advanced industrial societies and anthropology the study of ‘other’, non-western/non-industrial societies, then India for ‘sociologists’, is both ‘self’ and ‘the other’. What does it imply for a sociologist to study society in India?

Beiteille’s (2006: 27) arguments in the context of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ are interesting, because when one defines oneself as ‘sociologists’, it raises important questions of intellectual orientation. One needs to appreciate the validity of a multiplicity of viewpoints, to engage with concepts, methods, theories that have their roots in intellectual traditions other than their own, and have to reflect from one’s standpoint. This is important in the context, when the development of social anthropology and sociology has not been uniform or uneven in some centres. And the impact of it is the importance of research on ‘India’ and representation of ‘India’, particularly Indian society, with all its divisions and sub divisions, currents and counter currents, within a single entity, that of India.

Thus scholars analysing the history of sociology in India have argued for locating sociology within the larger colonial encounter. Though sociology as a teaching subject was introduced in 1919 at University of Bombay, one has to trace its trajectory through analyzing the institutionalisation of anthropology within India. Thapan (1991) drawing on Bordieu, argues that ‘the field of power’, is very closely linked to the creation, and establishment of the contemporary intellectual field in India. It is ‘evident in the overall education system that colonial bureaucracy sought to impose on India’. It is argued that anthropology was introduced by the British colonial government in order to classify, categorize and document the people under its rule. Though one perceives sociology as a critical enquiry but its disciplinary location within colonial discourses of governmentality has rendered the discipline a bureaucratic enterprise. Thus Srinivas’ (1987) argument that British power was conducive to the growth of sociology and social anthropology as the Colonial power had organized the entire subcontinent as a single power, needs to be analysed within the larger nexus of knowledge construction and institutionalization of disciplines within the political project of colonialism.

Section 3: Institutionalisation of Approaches in Sociology

If this is the way the discipline of sociology was institutionalised within India, then who were the scholars who through their research and teaching consolidated the discipline, what were the approaches undertaken by them and how did it impact the way sociology was structured within India? The impact was perceived in two ways; one Patel (2011) argues was the usage of ‘methodological nationalism’ and two, institutionalization of ‘upper caste brahmanical patriarchal approach’ to the study of society in India.

Methodological nationalism argues Patel (2011) drawing from works of Urich Beck (2007) is the approach that assumes that the nation is the natural and important representation of modern society. According to Beck, sociology’s visions of culture and politics, law, justice, and history represent that of the nation state (Beck 2007: 287 cited in Patel 2011: xxii). Patel argues that sociology practiced in India, was closely associated with the official discourses and methods of understanding, that the sociology that was institutionalised was a sociology of India, as ‘Indian Sociology’ and equated the ‘Indian society’ with the territory controlled by the Indian state. Thus in this way the approach was to study the groups and cultures as being unitary and organically linked to territories thus reproducing the social world as ‘bounded culturally specific spatial units’ was institutionalised (Patel 2011).

Thapan (1991) argues that there was a diversity of approaches5 that got institutionalised in the study of society in India, and these include a variety of approaches and methods: one, Indological Approach, which dominated the study in India was practiced by G.D Ghurye, I.J Karve, Y.B Damle, D.P Mukherjee, L Dumont; two, Interdisciplinary (Sociology and Economics) Approach: R.K Mukherjee and D.N Majumdar and three, Structural Functionalism-M.N Srinivas.

In this section, using the scholarship and approach of Prof G.S Ghurye, we would anlyse briefly what it implied for doing sociology in India. Further with regard to scholars, who framed the sociological discourse in India, as ‘upper caste Brahmanical and patriarchal’ approach, did not problematise the politics of knowledge construction, categories and methods. Analysing the works of G.S Ghurye6, Upadhya (2007) argues that the frame used by G.S Ghurye, was indological (the study of India through scriptures), which consolidated and hegemonized an upper caste view of social categories such as caste, in India. In this context Upadhya goes on to state that an indological approach, used analyses of cognitive principles that structured Hindu civilization and attempted to describe and collate various customs, practices and rituals associated with Hindu society and presented it as ‘Indian society’. Further Ghurye and his students documented a number of rituals associated with marriage and kinship, within Hindu communities. This documentation, argues Upadhya, was based on ‘naïve empiricism and fact collection’ where there was no engagement with any theoretical framework including structural functionalism, which was highly regarded during his time.

As a result of such an approach institutionalized by G.S Ghurye, the father of Indian sociology, the sociology in India reflected three dominant trends: Sociology in India identified as anthropology, the discipline reflected categories and conceptual frameworks determined by those framed in Europe, and three trend of affirmation of values of ‘Hinduism’ as Indian. As Upadhya (2007) argues that the above ‘cultural nationalist’ perspective made the discipline- sociology not only empiricist, and politically conservative but also brahmanical and savarna (upper caste) in its outlook.

5 Approaches are dealt in detail in topic 2 of the paper Sociology of India.

6 Prof G.S Ghurye’s Indological Approach to the study of society in India, is dealt in a module titled Indological Approach: G.S Ghurye’ in this paper Sociology of India.

Section 4: Sociology in India: Post Independence period

In the post-independence period, the focus of research was mostly conditioned by the Indian state policy of centralized planning, which needed information for designing policies and in this context social sciences especially economics played an important role. Pathy (1981) using the Marxist perspective argues that post-independence analysis of the process of institutionalization of anthropology in India, has to be contextualsied within the United States imperialism, where it invested in funding projects to gather data in the third world for its capitalist expansion. To quote Pathy (1981:624), ‘in fact anthropology is an epiphenomenon of colonialism and its present existence is largely due to neo-colonialism….maintenance and conservation of order.

In the context of sociology, Pathy (1976) argues that it is historically and socially conditioned to meet primarily the needs of capitalist expansion. In neo-colonial/post independence times social science research was much influenced by American sociology. Pathy using examples of two major research trends, the village studies and caste studies argues that these studies are examples of ahistorical, mechanistic and positivistic analysis. In particular, ‘village studies, sought to maintain order in the Indian rural scene by arguing for community development programme as an efficient method of rural transformation and ignoring the class contradiction represented in unequal distribution of land (Pathy 1976:27). Thus sociology in the post-independence period was dominated initially by structural functionalism and then later by the modernization theoretical paradigm, was characterized by a historical analysis- a perspective that does not engage with inequalities and do not question power structures (Pathy 1981: 625).

Why does he argue so? Pathy draws from the arguments of D.N Majumdar, an eminent sociologist, who writes, while discussing the role of sociologists in India, that as ‘studying the principles that govern social life, common living, common sharing of social heritage and the continuity of social structure to guide the course of the country, whose culture is eternal (Majumdar 1961:33 cited in Pathy 1976: 27). Based on such analysis, Pathy (1976) argues that what we have as sociology in India is a profession, which is based on dominant structural functionalism, and has contributed to the growth of middle-class perspective in the universities and academic bodies, with exceptions such as D.P Mukherjee, A.R Desai, D.D Kosambi, Ramakrishna Mukherjee, Kathleen Gough, P.C Joshi, and S.A Dange.

Echoing similarly Mukherjee (1973), analysing stages in the historical development of sociology in India, argues that in the period of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, it is the stage of diagnostic sociology, which is based on identifying vulnerable regions of the social structure through which change in the society can be effected. Thus in the 1950s and 1960s the challenge was to deal with a historical, non-economic approach of the British and American sociology- an ‘imitative of ‘static’ theories of social system and dynamic theories of change drawn from American theories of change. The larger impact of such perspective was a sociology based on superficial, irrelevant theorizing and applied research.

Thapan (1991) argues that sociology in India remained as a ‘soft discipline’, where it did not contribute to theoretical developments in the discipline as a whole and thus remains a ‘limited sociology’ in both substantive content and methods. In similar lines Jodhka (2009: 37) argues that analyzing the practices of sociology in India especially the people who came to occupy positions of power in the university system and the kind of knowledge that they produced about Indian society’. Jodhka argues that as students of sociology we need to ask ourselves, why there was no Muslim, Christian, Dalit or Tribal sociologist with the ‘exception of one upper caste brahmin woman, Iravati karve. The leading sociologists were men belonging to upper caste. So what does this reflect on the kind of ‘sociology’ that was being institutionalised. ‘It is important to understand that ‘Indian Sociology’ framed by these ‘elite sociologists’, or ‘mainstream sociologists’, needs to be located and analysed within this historical/social context (Jodhka 2009:37)

Conclusion

Reading through the arguments dealt in the module reveal that it is important to understand disciplinary history. As mentioned in the above analysis, sociology is commonly understood to focus on the study of modern industrial societies and anthropology in the study of primitive, tribal or pre-modern societies, the ‘other’ culture’s of the Western imaginary (Beattie 1964 cited in Uberoi et al., 2008). The students of sociology should recognize that the history of sociology is linked to the post-enlightenment period of modernity, to the evolution of modern social and political theory and to the development of a scientific approach to the study of man and society.

As Madan (1994) argues, the pre-requisite for building sound disciplinary tradition is ‘informed critique’ and appreciation of the work of the previous generations. Srinivas (1987) argued that colonialism played an important role in the growth of sociology. According to him, the British power was conducive to the growth of sociology and social anthropology as for the first time the entire sub-continent was under the control of a single power. Not only was social sciences used as an ‘instrument of social policy’, but also the increased political consciousness among Indians, the development of self criticality of the Indian customs and way of life and systematic analysis of India’s past, growth of western inspired Indian scholarship and growth of nationalism all contributed to the growth of social sciences in India. In this context one could observe that, sociology and anthropology in India though introduced by the British, also developed its own path.

We need to recognize that colonial legacy had also led to the establishment of certain social and cultural societies nurturing intellectual legacy, thereby drawing our attention to the ‘public culture of sociology in India’. Ghosh (2011) argues that in Bengal, one could observe that intellectual associations played an important role in institutionalising sociology and social anthropology. Ghosh refers to associations such as Asiatic Society of Bengal 1784, Academic Association 1828 (debating club), Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge 1838 (which discussed issues relating to history, geography, language, social conditions) and Tatwa Bodhini Sabha 1839, (discussed social conditions), which he believed were critical to nurturing the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology particularly in Bengal.

Thus as a student of sociology one needs to recognize and critically evaluate the diverse traditions and intellectual practices that make up disciplines. Thus analysis of the inter-linkages of colonialism, social anthropology and sociology gives us a perspective to focus on the intersections between knowledge, practices and institutions in specific geographical locale context. Such a framework helps us to understand the manner in which sociology was institutionalised in India, and reflects on the relationship of sociology and social anthropology as practiced today.

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