discuss the nature and scope of sociology with special reference to india
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India is a more complex society. It is a nation made of up of separate kingdoms with separate ways. It has a British influence of course, but Britain did not ‘settle’ (invade depending upon one’s perspective) the nation, so its influence is more subtle. I think in tackling Indian society Sociologically, the student needs an understanding of Indian history - colonial and also pre-colonial. An understanding of the caste system would be crucial and also of the various religions that can be found there. For an outsider, that would necessitate some preparatory study I think. Perhaps for a local much of this information would be imbued in the student already.
Unquestionably, Indian Sociology is a very broad topic of academic and intellectual inquiry. In building the base for that, a multi-disciplinary approach is probably needed so that information of a philosophical and ideological and historical nature can be brought together to be examined Sociologically, in addition to the examples suggested earlier.
I am not sure that I have been quite able to express myself adequately here (off the top of my head, anyway), but hope this will at least give a general starting point for further thought. I don’t know how well the discipline has been ‘developed’ in Indian academia, but I am certain that there is a place for it. I am equally certain Sociological perspectives can be harnessed for the purposes of public policy that seeks to understand Indian society and offer ideas in terms of the way it can be developed and/or improved for future generations of its people. The notion of working toward improvement is sometimes called critical sociology and to me at least, that is the point of the exercise. All human knowledge and endeavour ought to be about trying to improve humanity in some form or other.
The thing that distinguishes humans from other life forms, in my view, (although I understand the relationship between humans and animals is different in India), is that humans are posed a seemingly unanswerable question: ‘what is the meaning and purpose of our existence’? Sociology is but one of a number of disciplines that seeks to assist in this quest.
Unquestionably, Indian Sociology is a very broad topic of academic and intellectual inquiry. In building the base for that, a multi-disciplinary approach is probably needed so that information of a philosophical and ideological and historical nature can be brought together to be examined Sociologically, in addition to the examples suggested earlier.
I am not sure that I have been quite able to express myself adequately here (off the top of my head, anyway), but hope this will at least give a general starting point for further thought. I don’t know how well the discipline has been ‘developed’ in Indian academia, but I am certain that there is a place for it. I am equally certain Sociological perspectives can be harnessed for the purposes of public policy that seeks to understand Indian society and offer ideas in terms of the way it can be developed and/or improved for future generations of its people. The notion of working toward improvement is sometimes called critical sociology and to me at least, that is the point of the exercise. All human knowledge and endeavour ought to be about trying to improve humanity in some form or other.
The thing that distinguishes humans from other life forms, in my view, (although I understand the relationship between humans and animals is different in India), is that humans are posed a seemingly unanswerable question: ‘what is the meaning and purpose of our existence’? Sociology is but one of a number of disciplines that seeks to assist in this quest.
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