The occasion for this book was a request to UNESCO from the Indian National Commission for UNESCO, for the preparation of a guide to sociology which would present sociological concepts, theories and methods in relation to the culture and institutions of Indian society. Such a book, it was thought, would provide a better introduction to the subject for Indian students than the existing textbooks, which deal very largely with the Western societies.
When the Social Sciences Department of UNESCO invited me to write the book I accepted readily. In the first place, I had already a general interest in the under-developed countries and in the social changes accompanying their industrialization; and I was particularly interested in the economic and social development of India. Moreover, I considered that an attempt to set out the principles and methods of sociology in their bearing upon the study of Indian society might be illuminating not only for Indian students, but for others. It would show how far the accepted sociological concepts and categories are adequate and universally valid, and would reveal some of the major difficulties in classification, comparison and generalization. Finally, I have used this opportunity to ‘introduce’ sociology in a way which seems to me most likely to be useful and stimulating for the student. Throughout the book I have aimed to formulate the difficult theoretical problems with which sociology is concerned, and to show how sociologists have tried to reduce the complexity of the problems and to make them amenable to scientific enquiry. As a prelude to this I have discussed in the first part of the book some general difficulties of sociological theory and method.
After the first version of this book had been written I had the opportunity to spend several months in India and to discuss it with Indian scholars. I have benefited greatly from their criticisms and suggestions in re-writing the book. If I do not mention them by name here it is because there are so many who helped me.
T.B.B.