Historical Sociology Papers: An Overview

Based on the two papers by Dhanagare, D.

In his paper1, Dhanagare critically analyses how Indian sociologists have used
history to study sociology.

Basic Terminology
Some basic terminology which will prove useful later:
● Anthropometry: Anthropometry is the science of the systematic
collection and correlation of measurements of the human body with
factors such as race, caste, etc.2
● Indology: Indology is “a discipline that studies Indian – mostly Hindu –
ideology, values, institutions, and cultural norms and practices through
the careful examination of classical sacred texts.” (Max Mueller)

The Work of G.S. Ghurye

G.S. Ghurye, eventually to be associated with the Bombay School of Economics
and Sociology, is regarded as the doyen of historical sociology in India, because
he did pioneering work in this field.3
One of his great works was his doctoral thesis at Cambridge University, which
was a pioneering work on caste and race in India.4 In this work, Ghurye used
two outstanding techniques:
● Anthropometry: Ghurye used anthropometry for the first time in India.
● Indology: Ghurye, fully utilising his knowledge of Sanskrit, placed
reliance of ancient classical texts while doing his research for this work.

1
Dhanagare, D. (2007). Practising Sociology through History: The Indian Experience – I. Economic and Political
Weekly, [online], 42(33), pp. 3414 – 3421. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4419923
2
Britannica.com. Anthropometry | Physical Anthropology | Britannica.com. [online]. Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/science/anthropometry. [Accessed 02 Aug. 2018]
3
Dhanagare, D. (2007). Practising Sociology through History: The Indian Experience – I. Economic and Political
Weekly, [online], 42(33), p. 3416. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4419923
4
ibid, p. 3416.
Hence, Ghurye was one of the first – and definitely the most acclaimed –
Indian sociologist to blend history with sociology, having realised that history
can be a priceless asset in the study of sociology.
This eventually led to the rise of the Bombay School of Economics and
Sociology as the forerunner of historical sociology in India.5

History has been married with sociology to study various things as follows.

Examples of the Use of Indology

The following are some select other examples of the use of history, often
specifically indology, to aid in the study of sociology.
● Altekar: Extensively referred to classical texts such as Arthashastra,
Shukraniti, Jatakas, etc. along with other sources of investigation to
successfully reconstruct village communities in western India.6
● Karve: In Yugant (1991), she presents a different interpretation of the
Mahabharata, which challenges the commonly-held norms of a Hindu
family – especially the standards of the ideal woman (viz. vaginal purity,
unflinching devotion to the husband, etc.)7
● Veena Das: She threw light on the caste Puranas, which were hitherto
ignored by sociologists. She hence made the point that a sociological
study of castes would be incomplete without studying these texts, which
deal with the mythological origin of each caste.8
● T.N. Madan: In his study, Madan has presented a historical account of
the Kashmiri pandits and their society, relying on Rajatarangini, a 12th
century Sanskrit text, as the Indological source. In yet another study, he
has traced the evolution of the relationship between Hindu and Muslim
kings in Kashmir.
● Amit Srinivasan: Made a study of the four myths in Bhagwat Purana,
arguing that they are open to reinterpretation relative to changing
historical and social contexts.

5
ibid, p. 3418.
6
ibid, p. 3417.
7
ibid, p. 3417.
8
ibid, p. 3417.
Limitations of the use of Indology in historical sociology
The use of indology to study sociology suffers from one major limitation.
Indology refers to ancient classical texts. It is a known fact that such ancient
classical texts were not initially written down, they were handed down from
generation to generation by word of mouth. It was only later that they were
written down – in various forms, with variations – by different authors. Such
variations are a natural result of such texts getting handed down by word of
mouth. Quite often, different copies and parts of a text do not agree with each
other.
Whether they should be accepted a viable substitute for the historical method
is itself a matter of debate. Hence, indology on its own is a rather weak
source to rely on in historical sociology. It should be backed up by other,
more authoritative sources of history too.9

The Schools
Bombay School of Economics and Sociology
G.S. Ghurye eventually began associated with the Bombay School of Economics
and Sociology. At this School, under his leadership, students began to use
Indology as a tool to study sociology, and impressed one and all by their
results.10
The Lucknow School
Meanwhile, at the Lucknow School, its stalwarts had always advocated an
interdisciplinary approach to social sciences that combined sociology, history,
economics and political science. However, D.P. Mukherji, one of the founders
of the Lucknow School, was a Marxist sociologist – he strongly believed that
economics should be closer to Marxism as it did not separate these 4 social
sciences.
Quite paradoxically though, history was never formally associated with the
Lucknow School. At its height, the Lucknow School focused on philosophy,
their urge to be associated with nationalist cause and therefore the Indian

9
ibid, p. 3416.
10
ibid, p. 3418.
National Congress, and grassroots level problems. Hence, history never came
into their fold.
However, some students at the Lucknow School did end up using history to
study sociology. The work of T.N. Madan has been referred to earlier, and the
following are below.

Use of history for macro-analysis

Some notable works of historical sociology for macro-analysis produced at the
Lucknow School are:
● P.C. Joshi: Made use of historical sociology, amongst other things, to
explain how land reforms in India, although ideologically radical, failed
during implementation.11
● Yogendra Singh: In Modernisation of Indian Tradition, Singh has
extensively referred to historical evidence to trace the changes in Indian
traditions over time as a result of the influence of Jainism, Buddhism,
Islam, etc. and some other philosophical schools and the bhakti school.

Use of history for rural studies

After the Bombay and Lucknow Schools, the Delhi School of Economics
emerged as the centre of excellence for the teaching of sociology in India.
Having found history indispensable for the purpose of analysing rural social
life, M.N. Srinivas introduced the practice of using history for rural studies.
Some notable works thus are:
● Chakravarti: Made a micro-study of Devisar, a Rajasthani village;
enunciating in elaborate detail the caste structure and feudalism
prevalent there, along with their historical background. In a subsequent
work, he analysed agrian class relations in a canal-irrigated village in the
district of Purnea in northern Bihar.
● Ramkrishna Mukherjee: In The Dynamics of Rural Society, Mukherjee
has argued that the dynamics of a society cannot be understood well
without a careful historical analysis of the development of its basic

11
ibid, p. 3419.
 economic structure. Using this methodology, he has studied agrian
society in Bengal from the pre-British period; and has demonstrated how
the present class structure is similar to that of late medieval Bengal.

Use of history for the study of social movements

● A.R. Desai: Not a fan of Ghurye's indological approach, but extensively
used history in the study of various social movements in India. He has
thus done work on socio-economic transformation in colonial India, and
why most state-sponsored development programmes post-
Independence failed.
● I.P. Desai: Conducted a study on the progress of the Vedchhi Movement.
● M.S.A. Rao: Put together two volumes on studies which systematically
used historical sources to reconstruct and understand social movements
viz. the Naxalite movement, the peasant land grab in Basti, UP, and so
on. He himself conducted two studies on the origin and progress of the
SNDP movement, and the yadava movement.
● T.K. Oommen: Studied the agrian movement which took placed in Kerala
in the 20th century. He has extensively used historical sources to
reconstruct the movement.
● Pushpendra Surana: Studied the origin and progress of the Bijolia
Movement which took place in the princely state of Mewar, in present-
day Rajasthan.
● Hira Singh: Studied changing land relations between the landlords and
the cultivators during princely rule in Rajasthan.
● K.L. Sharma: Studied the feudal structures and peasant movements that
took place in Rajputana. He also studied the origin of the Jharkhand
Movement in Bihar; and the Bijolia Movement too.
● P. Radhakrishnan: Studied how peasant struggles eventually lead to land
reforms in Malabar, Kerala.
● Ramchandra Guha: Studied the historical origin and progress of the
well-known Chipko Movement.
Use of history to study agrian structure
“Some scholars have systematically used the historical method to analyse
changes in agrarian social structure to understand class formation process and
production relations.”
Some examples are:
● Virginus Xaxa: Has traced the entire history and evolution of the agrian
structure and changing class relations in the Jalpaiguri district of West
Bengal from the 1860s.
● M.N. Karna: Historically constructed the landlord-dominated agrian
structure in the Madhubani sub-division of Darbhanga district in North
Bihar from the time of permanent settlement.
● Mukerji & Chattopadhyay: Traced the evolution of the agrian structure
in the Birbhum district of West Bengal.
● Rajendra Singh: Conducted a wonderful study which brought out the
power structure of rural elites and the agrian society in the district of
Basti, UP from 1801 to 1970. Also studied the peasant land grab
movements in the same district.
● C.B. Damle: Studied the changing agrian structure due to land reforms in
Dakshin Kannada district of Karnataka in 1961 and 1974.
● Surinder Jodhka: Traced the history of the pre-colonial jajmani system.
Also studied the change in land arrangement systems during the colonial
period.
● Parvez Abbasi: Study of the changing agrian structure in a
predominantly Muslim village in Meerut.

Use of history in the study of caste and caste movements

● Gail Omvedt: In the early 1970s, she studied the non-Brahmin
nationalist movement in Maharashtra lead by Jotiba Phuley.
● M.S. Gore: Concentrated on the protests of the lower castes against the
pervasive influence of the upper caste Brahmins in Maharashtra. Also
studied the evolution of Ambedkar’s ideology and his involvement in the
nationalist movement.
● Jha: Studied the conflict between upper caste Hindus, Muslim
zamindars, and lower caste peasants. In another study, she studied the
politics between brahmins and kayasthas, two castes responsible for
 major identity politics. She has also studied the abysmal conditions of
the scheduled castes in Jharkhand and Bihar.
● Satish Kumar Sharma: Studied how and why the Arya Samaj was against
the political movements of the untouchables in Punjab.
● Lata Murugkar: Studied the Dalit Panther Movement.
● Jogdand: Studied the changes in the dalit movement before and after
the rise of B.R. Ambedkar; progressing from the former to the latter in
the path of radicalism.

Use of history in the study of urban settings

● Harish Doshi: Conducted one of the first studies in an industrial city, in
which he showed a meaningful relationship between traditional
neighbourhood organisation and the challenges of modern
industrialisation. Also briefly studied the growth of the textile sector in
Ahmedabad.
● Dipankar Gupta: Studied the evolution of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
● Sujata Patel: Traced the evolution of the textile industry in Gujarat,
chiefly Ahmedabad.
● D. Parthasarati: Studied the collective violence which shook Vijayawada,
extensively using the demographic history to explain it.
● Hetukar Jha: Studied the historical significance of Vidyapati’s discourse
on purush (man).

In Conclusion
A few social sciences – including sociology – had traditionally distanced
themselves from taking the assistance of history in their subjects. However,
that view is slowly and surely changing.12
Sociologists have now embraced history, and specifically indology too, as
invaluable assets that may assist them in their purpose. This was but a feeble
summary of the same.

12
ibid, p. 3414.