INDIAN SOCIOLOGISTS | Class 11 Sociology Notes

G.S. Ghurye: Founder of Institutionalised Sociology in India

Govind Sadashiv Ghurye (1893-1983) is widely regarded as the founder of institutionalized sociology in India. Born in Malvan, Maharashtra, Ghurye came from a family with a declining trading business. He completed his B.A. with Sanskrit Honours and M.A. in Sanskrit and English at Elphinstone College, Bombay.

In 1919, Ghurye was awarded a scholarship by the University of Bombay to study sociology abroad. He initially studied at the London School of Economics under L.T. Hobhouse, a prominent sociologist, and later at Cambridge under W.H.R. Rivers, whose diffusionist perspective deeply influenced him. He submitted his Ph.D. under A.C. Haddon in 1923 after Rivers' death.

Returning to India in 1924, Ghurye was appointed Reader and Head of the Department of Sociology at Bombay University, a position he held for 35 years. He was instrumental in launching the first Ph.D. program in sociology in India in 1936 and revised the M.A. course to a full-fledged eight-course program by 1945. In 1951, he founded the Indian Sociological Society and became its first President. The society's journal, Sociological Bulletin, was launched in 1952.

Ghurye's academic work was prolific and wide-ranging, covering caste, race, tribes, kinship, family, marriage, culture, civilization, cities, religion, and the sociology of conflict and integration. Despite limited financial and institutional support, he nurtured sociology as an Indian discipline. His department was the first to combine teaching and research actively and to merge social anthropology and sociology into a composite discipline.

Ghurye's intellectual influences included diffusionism, Orientalist scholarship on Hindu religion and thought, nationalism, and cultural aspects of Hindu identity. His work on tribal cultures, especially his debate with Verrier Elwin, brought him recognition beyond academia. He argued that Indian tribes were 'backward Hindus' undergoing assimilation rather than isolated primitive groups, a view aligned with nationalist perspectives.

Ghurye's contributions laid the foundation for Indian sociology as a formal academic discipline and shaped its early development in the context of colonial and post-colonial India.

📊 Diagram: 1919: Selected for a scholarship by the University of Bombay for training abroad in sociology. Initially went to the London School of Economics to study with L.T. Hobhouse, a prominent sociologist of the time.

🧪 Activity: Activity 1: Discuss contemporary debates on tribal identity and development conflicts, such as those leading to the formation of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh states.

🔗 Connection: Leads to a detailed discussion of Ghurye's work on caste and race, a major theme in his scholarship.