• Civilizational perspective refers to understanding a society from its civilization.
• A civilized society is one where relative freedom from the struggle for mere survival allows for more complex cultureand structure.
• Civilization is distinguished from hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies, often labeled as “primitive” by those in civilized societies.
• The civilizing process explains the changes in the structure and culture of a society.
• The civilizational perspective emphasizes the complex structure of great and little traditions, including the study of tribal, rural, and urban culture.
• This perspective views civilization as an organization of specialists in functional relation to folk societies.
• It involves the study of a combination of subjects, including analysis of classical and medieval texts, administrative records, village, caste, and the issue of unity and diversity.
• The perspective analyzes the structural underpinnings of civilization to create a historically framed portrait of religion, caste, village, state formation, land relations, and more.
• Followers of this perspective argue that a social system, nation, or civilization must be understood in a historical-civilizational frame.
• To understand a civilization, the study involves cataloguing cultural traits, identifying cultural essence (underlying processes), and examining cultural communication (enduring elements transmitted within society).
• Scholars like N.K. Bose, Surajit Sinha, and Bernard S. Cohn use this perspective to understand Indian society, focusing on its historicity, continuity, and interlinkages.

Nirmal Kumar Bose

• Nirmal Kumar Bose was born on 22nd January 1901 in Calcutta, Bengal, and passed away on 15th October 1972.
• Bose had a highly productive life, balancing the pursuit of science and service to humanity.
• He received education from schools in Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa.
• He completed his Matriculation in 1917, Intermediate (Science) in 1919, Bachelor of Science (Honours in Geology) in 1921, and Master of Science (Anthropology) in 1924 from the University of Calcutta.
• Initially studied geology and later switched to anthropology at the University of Calcutta, completing his M.Sc. in anthropology in 1923-24.
• Bose had an eclectic career: he taught at the Department of Anthropology and was a Reader in Human Geographyat Calcutta University until 1959.
• He was a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago in 1959, and delivered lectures at the University of Wisconsin and Michigan.
• Bose served as the Director of the Anthropological Survey of India from 1959 to 1964.
• Between 1967 and 1970, he held the position of Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• He was active in the national movement for India’s independence and was imprisoned for his activities.
• In recognition of his contributions to anthropology, Bose received the Annandale Gold Medal from the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1948.
• He was elected as the President of the Anthropology and Archaeology Section of the Indian Science Congress in 1949.
• Bose was elected a fellow of the National Institute of Science of India in 1955.
• A devoted social worker, he served in several philanthropic organizations and received the Padma Shri in 1966.

Influence of Gandhi

• The greatest influence on Bose’s life was his association with Gandhi.
• Bose was deeply interested in Gandhi’s ideas on creating a new society in India and began a detailed study of his writings.
• He became closer to Gandhi and was told that the only way to understand a living man’s ideas was to see him put them into action.
• Bose served as Gandhi’s secretary and was his close companion.
• Bose’s association with Gandhi in Noakhali is well-known.
• What impressed Bose most about Gandhi was his search for truth through experience.
• Gandhi, in Bose’s view, was the quintessential fieldworker, always ready to see, listen, and never draw conclusions without experiencing a human situation first.
• Bose was significantly influenced by Gandhi’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1957).