Towards Indigenization of an Uncertain Transplant: Hundred Years of Sociology in India

Abstract

This paper examines the problems and prospects of indigenizing sociology in India. It is divided into five parts: Part one introduces the predicament of sociology in the context of countervailing forces of universalization and indigenization; Part two discusses the crisis confronting sociology in India by delineating its transplantation during the colonial rule and its expansion as a mimic social science in the post-independence era; Part three analyses the issues of ontological and epistemological fit in the teaching and research in the subject; Part four examines the alternatives proposed to address these issues; and Part five concludes by reflecting on the prospects of indigenizing sociology in India.