ABSTRACT
Bombay university was the first to introduce sociology for research and teaching in 1914 (Rao 1974a: XXI). In the University of Calcutta, sociology had begun to be taught as a part of political economy and political philosophy since 1908 (Mukherjee 1977: 29–30). In 1917–18, Mysore University started teaching sociology at the undergraduate level. Then, Lucknow University introduced it under the department of economics in 1921. Before 1950, Osmania University and Poona University also began teaching of sociology (Rao 1974a: XXXII–XXXIII). The universities of Bombay, Lucknow and Calcutta gradually emerged as the chief centres of sociological research in the country before independence. M.S.A. Rao distinguishes three phases of the development of sociology in India: first, ‘exploratory’; second, ‘the phase of development’; and third, ‘the phase of diversification’ (Ibid.: XXII). The exploratory phase mentioned by him (Ibid.: XXII–XXIV) broadly corresponds to that of proto-sociological works (Mukherjee 1977: 22–27), which have been discussed before. The phase of development of sociology in India according to Rao, covers the period from 1914 to around 1950 (1974a: XXX–XXXIII), which is considered by Ramkrishna Mukherjee as the era of the ‘pioneers’ of Indian sociology (1977: 17). A. M. Shah in the first trend report on ‘Historical Sociology’ in India (1974: 438) also distinguished the sociologists and social anthropologists such as D. P. Mukerji, G. S. Ghurye, Radha Kamal Mukerjee, Brajendranath Seal, Benoy Kumar Sarkar, 49L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer, S. C. Roy and K. P. Chattopadhyaya, as ‘pioneers’ of Indian sociology in India before independence. Sociology of ‘pioneers’ has been generally distinguished from that of post-independence era (Damle 1967: 86–87; Singh 1967a: 19). So, an attempt is made here to discuss their (Pioneers’) contributions in brief from the points of view of historical sociology.
