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POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY IN INDIA

Surendra K. Gupta

The Beginnings

Political sociology as a specialized field of teaching and research in India is of fairly recent vintage. Though the study of the political aspects of tribal and rural society was an integral part of ethnographic research for a long time, the orientation of such studies was somewhat different. While describing rural and tribal life, scholars also studied factionalism, group dynamics, and leadership to provide a holistic picture of the life of the community. Changes in leadership and power structure became a part of these studies after the introduction of the Community Development Programme and Panchayati Raj. Such studies paved the way for the study of the role of caste and caste ...

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