Question

Why the village studies became popular during 1950 and 1960 in India?

Answer 1

Village studies boomed during the 1950’s and 1960’s rejuvenating the discipline of social anthropology. There are significant reasons and consequences of this phenomenon.

During the 1950’s, most of the countries are being decolonalised. The formation of new states influenced the research priorities in social sciences. In the newly formed ‘third world countries’, most of the population are depending on agriculture. So, the governments in those countries had to concentrate on transforming the backward and stagnant agrarian economies along with industrialization. To transform agrarian economies, it’s important to study the agrarian relations. Thus the concept of ‘peasantry’ was discovered giving a fresh lease of life to Social Anthropology.