Mind and Society: From Indian Studies to General Sociology

A book much needed by India, Indian sociology and the Indian sense of self. This is a strikingly bold volume, diverse in content and yet united by its search for what might be called a truly Indian modernity in the sense of the Gandhian swaraj of mind. A swaraj unfettered by the history of colonialism and the continuing domination of the post-colonial West in both approach and choice of subject matter in Indian academics which continues to define contemporary Indian theory and practice today, both inside and outside the university. This is a work in Indian academics that truly grapples with the concept of Gandhian swaraj in relation to Western thought - its science, philosophy and sociology and its classification of knowledge. It not only analyses the structure of modern Western philosophy and sociology, but also offers some possible solutions to finding our way out of its unavoidable dualisms. It analyses the classification and functioning of the modern university as a social institution. It offers a brilliant analysis of production, reproduction, and obsolescence in post-modern society and then goes on to explore Indian modernity in relation to medievalism and its religions of Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam.

About the Author :
Prof. J.P.S. Uberoi (b. 1934) has held one of the longest professorships at the Department and Centre of Advanced Studies in Sociology, Delhi School of Economics (1969-99) where he established the European Studies Programme. Starting from Tajiks in Afghanistan and Malinowski's Melanesians his social-anthropological investigations have stretched through the study of European science, mind and underground to linguistic pluralism, frontiers, Indian medievalism and modernity. He has done pioneering work on Sikhism, presenting it as an example of successful Indian modernity in its resolution of the relation between religion, civil society and the state. In 2011 he was honoured by the Indian Sociological Society with its Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2018 by the University of Delhi with the Distinguished Service Award for Retired Teachers. Author of innumerable papers he has published a volume on Melanesia (for which he won the Royal Anthropological Institute Award), four works on modern Europe and a book on Sikhism. Khalid Tyabji has been a student of Prof. JPS Uberoi during his MA, M. Phil. and during over a decade of doctoral research on European science between 1977 and 1992 when he decided to devote his full time to the theatre. He mainly performs his own work on stage, street and in special institutions with occasional appearances in film. He has taught theatre in many parts of the world since his student days and been visiting professor of acting at the National School of Drama in Delhi for several decades. Tyabji has published articles on the theatre and is translator and co-editor of Acting with Grotowski, a compilation of the theatre writings of the Polish actor Zbigniew Cynkutis (Routledge 2015). He considers editing this volume to be a repayment of debt to the university he abandoned.