NK BOSE Introduction and Methodology Sociology YouTube Lecture Handouts

Get unlimited access to the best preparation resource for competitive exams : get questions, notes, tests, video lectures and more- for all subjects of your exam.

NK BOSE Introduction and Methodology Sociology

Introduction

  • Nirmal Kumar Bose
  • 1901 - 1972
  • Born in Kolkata
  • Participated in National Movement
  • Social anthropologist
  • Influenced by M. K. Gandhi
  • Interests – Indian civilization and culture

Books

  • Canous of Orissan Architecture, 1932
  • Hindu Samajer Garan, 1949
  • Studies in Gandhism, 1959
  • Cultural Anthropology, 1961
  • Peasant Life in India, 1961
  • Culture and Society in India, 1967
  • Problems of National Integration, 1967
  • The Structure of Hindu Society, 1975

Civilizational Perspective

  • To understand a particular society from its civilization
  • Study of texts, records, caste, village, unity and diversity, etc.
  • Explain changes in culture and structure of a society
  • Historical-civilizational framework
  • It involves:
    • Listing of cultural traits
    • Identifying cultural process
    • Cultural communication
  • Proponents are N. K. Bose, Surajit Sinha, B. S. Cohn, etc.

Methodology

  • Civilization perspective
  • Methods – Historical and inductive
  • He studied distribution of cultural traits and developed a classification based on Indian textual categories
  • Influenced by Malinowski՚s functional approach
  • He proposed for a twin approach of ethnology and Indology to study Indian Society
  • Emphasized on study of social history
  • To understand Indian civilization
  • He used an amalgam of this approach in his book, The Structure of Hindu Society, 1975
  • The book (based on tribal communities) is divided into 3 parts:
    • Ethnography (fieldwork)
    • Indology
    • Social history

Ethnography

  • Tribal studies
  • Chhota Nagpur and Orissa
  • Simple communities pass through broad stages
  • Two related criteria for classification of tribal communities
  • Anthropological fieldwork among Juangs – left untouched by Brahaminical civilization
  • Juangs practiced Hindu practices, worshipped Hindu Goddess
  • Had rituals of their own too
  • But not accepted as Hindus
  • Developed a pattern of culture

Indology

  • Classical ancient texts and literature
  • Ranking system in communities
  • Division of labour in villages - elaborate
  • Self-sufficient villages
  • Produced for consumption

Social History

  • Exploring the past
  • Economic sphere of society
  • Mode of livelihood is important to classify tribal groups
  • Continuous interaction between tribal and non-tribal

MCQs

Q.1. According to N. K. Bose, tribal communities in India are not of the same nature and they ________

1. Share similar relations with wider society

2. Share no relations with the wider society

3. Are complex communities

4. None of these

Answer: 2

Q.2. Which two criteria did N. K. Bose use to classify tribal communities in India:

(a) Level of technological development

(b) Degree of geographic and social isolation

(c) Level of population

(d) Endogamy

Options:

1. a and d

2. a and b

3. b and d

4. c and a

Answer: 2

Manishika