Sociology and Social Anthropology in India

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RURAL AND AGRARIAN STUDIES

Surinder S. Jodhka and Paul D'Souza

Introduction: Historical Background

‘Rural’ society and ‘agrarian change’ have been rather fluid areas of research in Indian social science. Besides sociologists and social anthropologists, valuable studies on rural India have also been produced by economists, historians, public administration specialists and political scientists. Diverse disciplinary orientations and use of different conceptual frameworks and research techniques have enriched the studies on rural India and agrarian change. For example, many of the social anthropologists who carried out ‘village studies’ during the decades of 1950s and 1960s were influenced by the British tradition of social anthropology (Atal ...