Journey of Sociology in Uttar Pradesh
摘要
Sociology has completed 100 years of its journey in India. Despite deep Western hegemonic influences since its inception, the discipline has evolved over the years to focus on India-specific issues, approaches, and methods which is very much evident in the contributions of some of the leading sociologists from India. As the discipline is maturing, the focus is shifting to newer areas of study, not to say that these areas were not at all focused upon earlier. The recent focus on the Sociology of regions has been in trend for the past few years. However, it is more explicit now than ever before. This sudden focus and recognition of the Sociology of regions has motivated sociologists to generate region-specific knowledge to build a Sociology of India. The present paper is an attempt to develop a sociology of Uttar Pradesh, one of the largest and most diverse states of India. The paper builds upon the contributions of the first and second generations of sociologists from this region who have been associated with the institutions of higher education. Using narrative as a method of primary data collection, the paper focuses on the contributions of sociologists from this region who have already made their presence felt strongly on the Indian knowledge landscape mainly through the influential academic pursuits associated with well-recognized intellectual centers of Sociology in Lucknow and Varanasi. Contributions of individual sociologists from Uttar Pradesh have also been presented in the paper.