What is Sociology?
Sociology as a subject originated in Europe and hence the background of its emergence lies in the social thoughts of Europe.
Themes of Sociological Thought in Eurom.
Thinking and Thought
The system of thoughts that are related to human life and its activities are called social thoughts or social thinking. In ancient times, the social thoughts of social thinkers of India, China, Greece, Egypt, etc. fall in this category.
Early social ideas were the product of folk thinking whose expression is seen in folk tales.
We see a change in social thought since the time of Greek social philosophers. Due to the conscious efforts of these thinkers, social thought developed in the form of critical thinking and gradually, due to maturity, social thought took the form of social science. The development of observable facts in place of imaginary facts and science-based methods in place of intuition played an important role in transforming social thoughts into social theories.
Two important events occurred in the middle of the 18th century –
- Industrial Revolution
- French Revolution
As a result of both of these, there were changes in the social system and organization and the need for a new subject to study society was felt.
Saint Simon first created Social Biology for the study of society, later August Comte suggested Social Physics for the study of society and named it Sociology in 1858.
Hence Auguste Comte is called the father of sociology.
The word Sociology is made up of two words Socius and Logus which are words from Latin and Greek languages ​​respectively. The literal meaning of Sociology is the study or science of society. Thus, modern sociology originated in France (Europe) but its study and teaching was first done at Thalys University in America.
Development of Sociology in India / Sociological Thought
In Ancient India
The foundation of social thought in India is very ancient. It is noteworthy that the history of society and social studies in India is about 4 thousand years old. From the Vedic period itself, detailed systems were created by studying social life and human interrelationships – by extensively discussing the Varna system, Ashram system, Purusharth, Sanskar, joint family, rules of karma and reincarnation, etc., success has been achieved in organizing and organizing not only the life of an individual but also the society.
Yagyavalkya, Bhrigu, Manu, Kautilya, etc. are among the ancient social reformers of India.
In Modern India
The development of sociological ideas in modern India is divided into two parts.
- Situation before independence – Modern sociology in India began during the British period. To provide stability to the governance of the British administrators, many studies were conducted during this period, and studies related to the caste system, traditional occupation, religion, social traditions, and castes were conducted.
- The development of Indian sociology took place in the early decades of the 20th century. The study of sociology first started in Bombay University and later it was also taught in Calcutta and Lucknow. Patrick Geddes, GS Ghurye, Radha Kamal Mukherjee, Iravati Karve, etc. contributed to the development of sociology.