• Indology dealing with ancient texts and linguistic studies would be more fruitful if supplemented by archaeological, sociological, anthropological, numismatic, and ethnographic evidence, requiring honest and competent fieldwork.
• No single technique can lead to valid conclusions about ancient India; combined empirical operations are necessary (Siddiqi, 1978).
• The Indological approach assumes that Indian society and culture are unique and best understood through texts.
• Indologists use ancient history, epics, religious manuscripts, and texts to study Indian social institutions.
• Texts analyzed by Indologists include Vedas, Puranas, Manu Smriti, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and other classical literature.
• Sociologists also extensively use traditional texts to study Indian society, leading to a “textual view” or textual perspective of social phenomena.
• A noticeable shift in ethnosociology occurred in the late 1970s, moving from the European (Dumont) to the Americantradition of social anthropology.
• Studies during this period focused on subjects like social structure, cultural values, kinship, ideology, and the symbolism of life.
• Key scholars in textual studies include Bernett (1976), David (1973), Fruzzetti and Oslor (1976), Inden and Nicholas (1972), Khare (1975, 1976), Murray (1971, 1973), Marriott (1979), Pocock (1985), Eck (1985), Gill (1985), Das and Nandi (1985), and many others.
• Many of these studies are based on texts from epics, legends, myths, folk traditions, and other symbolic forms of culture, published in Contribution to Indian Sociology (New Series).
• Bernard S. Cohn critiqued the orientalist perspective, which portrayed Indian society as static, timeless, and space-less, without acknowledging regional variation or the relationship between texts and actual behavior.
• Orientalists were often upper-class Britons, trained as scholars, and sought to treat Sanskrit and Persian learningwith respect similar to European learning (Cohn, 1998).
• When field studies in India became difficult, textual analysis of classics or earlier field notes became a fruitful basis for continued research in the 1970s and 1980s (Singh, 1986).
• An Indological and culturological approach has been adopted by several sociologists, emphasizing the role of traditions and groups over individuals in social relations.
• R.N. Saxena (1965) agreed with the Indological basis for studying Indian society, stressing concepts like Dharma, Artha, Kamma, and Moksha.
• Dumont and Pocock (1957) highlighted the intersection of sociology and Indology in the study of India.
• Indology represents behaviors that guide people’s actions in a significant way.
• Early works in Indian sociology and social anthropology, like those of S.V. Ketkar, B.N. Seal, B.K. Sarkar, G.S. Ghurye, Louis Dumont, K.M. Kapadia, P.H. Prabhu, and Irawati Karve, explored Hindu social institutions using religious texts or analysis of contemporary practices.
• Sir William Jones, founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1787, introduced the study of Sanskrit and Indology.
• Sanskrit knowledge is key to understanding India’s rich philosophical and cultural traditions.
• Indological writings on Indian philosophy, art, and culture include works by A.K. Coomaraswamy, Radhakamal Mukerjee, D.P. Mukerji, G.S. Ghurye, and Louis Dumont, enriching the field of Indian sociology.

Radhakamal Mukerjee

• Radhakamal Mukerjee was a pioneer in social ecology, interdisciplinary research, and the social structure of values.
• Born in 1889 in a large Bengali Brahmin family in Berhampur, West Bengal, spent first 16 years of life there.
• His father was a lawyer and scholar, with a strong interest in history.
• Mukerjee’s home was full of books on history, literature, law, and Sanskrit, and the general atmosphere was scholarly.
• Mukerjee’s childhood involved intellectual discussions, rituals, and devotional songs.
• Early memories included witnessing the devastation of famine in Madras and Orissa, and the Bengal famine of 1942-43 in Calcutta.
• His childhood was also marked by experiences of Muharram processions, Durga Puja festivals, etc.
• The socio-cultural and intellectual renaissance in Bengal during the early 20th century, particularly the 1905 Partition of Bengal, shaped his worldview.
• Mukerjee attended Krishnath College in Berhampur and later, Presidency College in Calcutta on an academic scholarship.
• He studied English and History, influenced by scholars like H. M. Percival, M. Ghosh, and Harinath De.
• Mukerjee was influenced by works of Comte, Herbert Spencer, Lester Ward, Hobhouse, and Giddings, among others.
• His early interest was in adult education; he started an Adult Evening School in Mechaubazar, Calcutta, in 1906.
• The school became a Community Centre and even local physicians helped without charge.
• Mukerjee emphasized the importance of social sciences for educating the masses, especially economics, politics, and sociology.
• During this period, he developed a close association with Benoy Kumar Sarkar, a notable sociologist.
• Mukerjee was inspired by Bipin Chandra Pal‘s political speeches but focused on educational reform.
• In 1910, Mukerjee returned to Berhampur as a teacher in Economics and wrote early works like the Foundations of Indian Economics.
• His interest in social ecology and the study of regions began during this period, influenced by his college principal, Rev. E. M. Wheeler.
• Mukerjee’s study of plants and insects led him to recognize the link between ecology and the human community.
• Mukerjee became the editor of the renowned Bengali monthly Upasana, writing regularly and staying connected with the literary developments in Bengali literature.
• He was a voracious reader with a deep interest in literature.
• In 1915, during British Government persecutions, Mukerjee was arrested for a day and his adult schools were liquidated, charged as a “terrorist” for allegedly sympathizing with terrorism under the guise of adult education.
• Thanks to his lawyer brother, Mukerjee was released quickly.
• He was offered a position in Lahore College (Punjab), shifting his focus away from politics.
• Mukerjee returned to the University of Calcutta where he taught Economics, Sociology, and Political Philosophyfrom 1917 for five years under Asutosh Mookerji‘s leadership of the Post-Graduate Council of Arts and Science.
• In 1921, he moved to the University of Lucknow as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Sociology, on the university’s first day.
• At Lucknow University, Mukerjee introduced an integrated approach in Economics, Sociology, and Anthropology for both research and teaching.
• Mukerjee believed in using comparative methods in social sciences to aim for the scientific study of race and cultural origins.
• His intellectual career was deeply influenced by three social thinkers:
  1. Professor Brajendra Nath Seal – Influenced his stress on the comparative method in cultural sciences.
  2. Professor Patrick Geddes – Contributed to Mukerjee’s work on the study of regions, ecology, and population.
  3. Narendra Nath Sen Gupta – Helped spark Mukerjee’s interest in Social Psychology.
• Mukerjee was also influenced by Western social thinkers such as Edward Allsworth Ross, Robert Ezra Park, Mckenzie, and P. Sorokin.
• These Western thinkers focused on topics like region, urban disorganization, human ecology, and social change, which stimulated Mukerjee’s work in the social sciences.
• Mukerjee taught at Lucknow University for nearly 30 years, also becoming the Vice-Chancellor and Director of the J.K. Institute of Sociology and Human Relation.
• He wrote extensively on various issues, with his works reflecting the integration of social sciences.
• Mukerjee’s contributions were influential, and many of his students and associates continued his integrative approachin their own writings.
• Mukerjee passed away in 1968, leaving a profound impact on sociology students.