Tradition Inspired Perspectives
A perspective critical of westernization mode of studying modernization emerged with the studies conducted by D.P Mukerji and A.K Saran who belonged to Lucknow school of sociology.They arrived at this position through engagement with Marxist materialism and its inadequacies and study of Hindu religion and metaphysics.D.P Mukerji in his address to first meeting of the Indian Sociological Society in 1955 said that the study of Indian traditions is the first and immediate duty of Indian sociologist.He further says that it is not enough for the Indian sociologists to be Indian sociologist.He must be Indian first that is he is to share in the folkways,mores,customs and traditions for the purpose of understanding his social system and what lies beneath it and beyond it.He argued for indigenous modes of analysis because western concepts fail to capture the complex particularity of Indian society which requires a different approach to sociology because of its special traditions,its special symbols and its special pattern of culture and social actions.It is only thereafter that there can be a case for studying change because the thing changing is more real and objective than change per se.According to T N Madan Mukerji viewed modernization as at once an expansion,an elevation,a deepening and a revitalization of traditional values and cultural patterns that is as a kind of self-conscious synthesization of modernity by tradition.
A perspective critical of westernization mode of studying modernization emerged with the studies conducted by D.P Mukerji and A.K Saran who belonged to Lucknow school of sociology.They arrived at this position through engagement with Marxist materialism and its inadequacies and study of Hindu religion and metaphysics.D.P Mukerji in his address to first meeting of the Indian Sociological Society in 1955 said that the study of Indian traditions is the first and immediate duty of Indian sociologist.He further says that it is not enough for the Indian sociologists to be Indian sociologist.He must be Indian first that is he is to share in the folkways,mores,customs and traditions for the purpose of understanding his social system and what lies beneath it and beyond it.He argued for indigenous modes of analysis because western concepts fail to capture the complex particularity of Indian society which requires a different approach to sociology because of its special traditions,its special symbols and its special pattern of culture and social actions.It is only thereafter that there can be a case for studying change because the thing changing is more real and objective than change per se.According to T N Madan Mukerji viewed modernization as at once an expansion,an elevation,a deepening and a revitalization of traditional values and cultural patterns that is as a kind of self-conscious synthesization of modernity by tradition.
A.K Saran moved in the direction of Hindu religion and philosophy with a view to exploring their potential for Indian sociology.But there is a lack of substantial texts where this position is clearly spell out. This broad position defined by the tradition identification,anti-modernism and theoretical indigenism has exerted influence despite its lack of dominance.Many scholars were influenced by this perspective and worked on different aspects.
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