• Govind Sadashiv Ghurye (1893-1984) is a prominent figure in Indian sociology, often referred to as the ‘father of Indian sociology’, ‘doyen of Indian sociologists’, and ‘symbol of sociological creativeness’.
• He played a key role in developing the first generation of Indian sociologists in the post-independence period.
• M.N. Srinivas described Ghurye as a giant in the field of sociology.
• Efforts of individuals, regarded as ‘founding fathers’, ‘pioneers’, and ‘first-generation sociologists’, contributed significantly to the growth of Indian sociology.
• Among these individuals, none contributed more to sociology in India than Ghurye.
• Two key aspects of Ghurye’s work:
  • His role in promoting and directing research in diverse fields of Indian society (as a teacher, institution builder, and scholar).
  • His own substantive writings, theoretical postulates, and vision of the role of sociology.

Background

• Ghurye was born on 12th December 1893 in a Saraswat Brahmin family in Malavan, Maharashtra, and died on 28th December 1983 in Bombay at the age of 91.
• Sociology was not a subject in schools or colleges during Ghurye’s student years. He showed a flair for Sanskrit from an early age.
• After passing matriculation, Ghurye enrolled in Elphinstone College, Bombay with Honours.
• He had a brilliant academic career, standing first class second at the BA exam and winning the Bahu Dazi prize for Sanskrit competence.
• He stood first class first at the MA exam in English and Sanskrit in 1918 and was awarded the Chancellor’s Gold Medal.
• Ghurye’s background in Sanskrit influenced his later work in sociology.
• While teaching at Elphinstone College, he submitted an essay to Patrick Geddes on “Bombay as an Urban Centre”, winning a foreign scholarship from the University of Bombay to train in sociology.
• Ghurye studied at the London School of Economics and worked briefly with L.T. Hobhouse, then moved to Cambridge, working with W.H.R. Rivers.
• After Rivers’ death in 1922, Ghurye completed his PhD in 1923 under A.C. Hadden on Caste and Race in India. His work was published by Routledge and Kegan Paul in 1932.
• Ghurye’s reputation was firmly established through his work on caste and race.
• Sociology in Bombay developed under Ghurye’s leadership. He succeeded Patrick Geddes as head of the Department of Sociology at Bombay University in 1924, became a Professor in 1934, and retired in 1959.
• After retirement, he was made an Emeritus Professor, the first in Bombay University.
• He continued to be academically active after retirement, supervising about eighty theses, of which forty were published as books.
• Ghurye was noted for his meticulous lecture preparation and was highly regarded as a research guide.
• He created a ‘sociological awareness’ and mentored the second generation of Indian sociologists, including M.N. Srinivas, K.M. Kapadia, I. Karve, and others.
• Ghurye had a profound impact as an institution-builder, shaping the Department of Sociology at Bombay Universityand producing renowned scholars.
• He was instrumental in the formation of the Indian Sociological Society in 1952 and the publication of its Sociological Bulletin.
• The Indian Journal of Sociology, the first sociological journal in India, was started in 1920 under the editorship of Alban G. Widgery.
• Ghurye was elected the president of the anthropological section of the Indian Science Congress in 1934 and was a nominee to the Royal Asiatic Society until 1948.
• Throughout his life, Ghurye won several top honors and remained active academically.
• He published 16 books out of a total of 31 books during his lifetime, contributing significantly to the field of sociology.
• Ghurye is most remembered for his work Caste and Race in India, later titled Caste and Class in India in subsequent editions.
• His broad interest was in the evolution of culture in different civilizations, particularly Indian (Hindu) civilization.
• Ghurye explored the unifying process of culture in India, analyzing it from the Vedic period to present-day India.

Theoretical Approach and Methodological Application of Ghurye

• Ghurye’s rigor and discipline are legendary in Indian sociological circles.
• However, in the application of theories to empirical exercises and methodologies for data collection, this rigor is not always reflected.
• Ghurye was not dogmatic in the use of theory and methodology.
• He believed in practicing and encouraging disciplined eclecticism in both theory and methodology.
• Despite his training under W.H.R. Rivers at Cambridge and his acceptance of the structural-functional approach, Ghurye did not strictly follow the functionalist tradition when analyzing Indian society and culture.
• The pioneers of Indian sociology were often ‘armchair’ sociologists, but Ghurye conducted village, town, and community studies.
• Ghurye emphasized fieldwork, even though it was said that he himself was an armchair scholar.
• His fieldwork included studies such as the Sex Habits of Middle Class People in Bombay (1930s, published in 1938) and a monograph on the Mahadev Kolis (1963).
• These studies demonstrate that Ghurye was not just an armchair scholar but also an empirical fieldworker.
• Ghurye can be characterized as a practitioner of ‘theoretical pluralism’, focusing on inductive empirical exercisesand depicting Indian social reality using any source material, mainly Indological.
• His theoretical position bordered on laissez-faire.
• In survey-type research involving primary data collection, Ghurye did not always follow established methodological canons.
• He often made generalizations based on scanty and unrepresentative evidence, such as in his work on Social Tensions in India (1968).
• Ghurye’s flexible approach to theory and methodology likely stemmed from his faith in intellectual freedom, which influenced the diverse approaches of his research students.
• He used historical and comparative methods in his studies, which were also adopted by his students.
• Initially influenced by the diffusionist approach of British social anthropology, Ghurye later turned to the study of Indian society from Indological and anthropological perspectives.
• He emphasized the Indological approach in studying social and cultural life in India and elsewhere.
• Literature played a crucial role in his sociological studies, with Ghurye utilizing his profound knowledge of Sanskrit literature.
• He extensively quoted from the Vedas, Shastras, epics, and the works of Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti to shed light on social and cultural life in India.
• Ghurye also used vernacular literature, citing works in Marathi and modern writers like Bankimchandra Chatterjee.