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Annex- I) VCD_2414 of 18-11-2010
Annex - II) Circular No. UG-441 of 2005

 

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai, has the distinction of being the oldest centre of teaching and research in Sociology and Anthropology in India.  In addition, it is the oldest Department in the University of Mumbai.  The Department was set up in 1919 with an eminent British sociologist and town planner Sir Patrick Geddes as the first Professor and Head.  Over the last nine decades the department has made pioneering and significant contributions to teaching and research in Sociology in South Asia.  

The Department has played a pioneering role in the promotion of social science research in general and in the development of sociology and cultural anthropology in particular in four major respects.  Firstly, it initiated an ambitious project of mapping out, independently, the vast and variegated ethnographic landscape of India through systematic field studies.  In the span of over nine decades, more than 250 Ph.D. and M.Phil dissertations have been completed in the Department.  Secondly, it trained a fairly large number of talented students who were drawn from different parts of South Asia and who, in turn, advanced the frontiers of sociological and anthropological research in India.  Some of the leading figures in Indian Sociology and Anthropology had their initial training in the Department.  Mention may be made of M.N. Srinivas (M.A. 1938, Ph.D. 1943), IrawatiKarve (M.A. 1928), I.P. Desai (Ph.D. 1943), Y.B. Damle (Ph.D. 1950), Vilas Sangave (Ph.D. 1950) and M.S.A. Rao (Ph.D. 1953), among several others.  Thirdly, the Department played a leading role in the professionalisation of Sociology and Anthropology in India.  The Indian Sociological Society and its Journal Sociological Bulletin owe their inception to the initiative of Professor Ghurye and his colleagues in the Department.  Professor Ghurye served as the President and Professor K.M. Kapadia and Professor J.V. Ferreira served as secretaries of Indian Sociological Society from its inception in 1952 till 1966.  Fourthly, long before the value of inter-disciplinary research came to be widely acknowledged and emphasised, a number of inter-disciplinary studies relating to the varied dimensions of Indian society were taken up in the Department. 

Professor Sir Patrick Geddes was the Head of the Department from 1919 to 1924. He was imbued with a vision far ahead of his times. His academic endeavours spanned the disciplinary boundaries of Sociology, Town Planning, Geography and Biology. He impressed on his students the importance of field work and practical experience. His work continues to inspire new generations of students not only in Sociology but also in Architecture, Town Planning as well as Sociology of Science.  

Dr. G. S. Ghurye, was appointed Reader and Head of the Department in 1924.  He became professor in 1934 and continued to head the Department until his retirement in 1959.  Ghurye’s initial training was in Sanskrit and Indology. Under the influence of Sir Patrick Geddes, Ghurye pursued higher studies in Anthropology under the distinguished anthropologist W.H.R Rivers at Cambridge and later under A.C. Haddon. His attempt to combine insights from Indology with anthropological perspectives was one of the major contributions of the time. After his retirement he was designated the first Professor Emeritus in the University of Mumbai. 

Professor Ghurye guided 55 students for the Doctorate in Sociology, probably the highest number for any single Sociologist. He trained many eminent sociologists who contributed to building the discipline in India. Among them, mention may be made of the following: IravatiKarve and Y.B. Damle who subsequently moved to University of Pune, M.N. Srinivas who started the Department of Sociology at Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, M.S.A Rao who also went to Delhi School of Economics, A.R. Desai and D. Narain who succeeded Ghurye as Heads of the Department in Mumbai, I.P. Desai who went on to the Centre for Social Studies at Surat, M.S. Gore who went on to head the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and later became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Mumbai, Suma Chitnis who became the Vice Chancellor of SNDT Women’s University and Victor D’Souza who was head of the Department of Sociology at Punjab University.

Professor K.M. Kapadia succeeded Professor Ghurye as Head of the Department in 1960.  His tenure and scholarly career came to a rather abrupt end with his unfortunate death in 1967.  Professor Kapadia will be remembered for his notable contribution to the study of kinship, family and marriage in India. His book Family and Marriage in India became a classic in its genre, a reference book for succeeding generations of students.  

Professor A.R. Desai succeeded Professor Kapadia as Head of the Department in 1967.  Professor Desai made a significant contribution to Sociology through his numerous publications relating to political sociology, rural sociology, peasant struggles and trade union movement.  His books Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Rural Sociology in India,and Peasant Struggles in India are widely used as recommended texts in several universities in India.  Professor Desai retired in 1976.  He was elected President of Indian Sociological Society in 1979. 

Professor J.V. Ferreira assumed the headship of the Department in 1976.  Initially trained in the Department of Sociology, Professor Ferreira subsequently went to Vienna and obtained a doctorate from the University of Vienna.  Professor Ferreira contributed to anthropological theory and methodology through his book Totemism in India (1965) and later through numerous papers and monographs.  He edited the second series of the ICSSR sponsored Survey of Research in Sociology and Social Anthropology in 1985.  During his tenure as Head of the Department Professor of Ferreira also served as Director of Western Regional Centre of ICSSR.  He retired in 1982. 

Professor DhirendraNarain succeeded Professor Ferreira as Head of the Department in 1982.  Professor Narain completed his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of Professor G.S. Ghurye, which was later published as Hindu Character (1957).  He was invited to contribute an article on Ghurye, which was published in the Biographical Supplement of the International Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences in 1979.  He also edited the ICSSR-sponsored volume containing abstracts of M.A. and Ph.D. dissertations completed in the Department of Sociology.  He retired in February 1991. 

Professor A. R. Momin assumed the headship in 1991 after Professor D. Narain.  Professor Momin is a distinguished Cultural Anthropologist.  He has several publications to his credit and he has served on committees of the University Grants Commission, The Indian Council of Social Science Research and Anthropological Survey of India. His term as head expired in April 1999, under the new scheme of rotation of heads in the University Departments. 

Professor S. K. Bhowmik became the head after Professor Momin in 1999. Professor Bhowmik has done pioneering work in the areas of plantation labour, trade union movement, the issues confronting workers in the informal sector and urban poverty. Tea Plantation Labour in India, Street Vendors and the Global Urban Economy (2009), and Industry, Labour and Society (2012) are among his major contributions. Since 2004, Prof. Bhowmik has moved to Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.   

Professor P. G. Jogdand assumed the headship in 2002. Professor Jogdand specialises in Dalit Studies, Sociology of the marginalised communities, Social Movements and Globalization. His publications include Dalit Movement in Maharashtra (1991), Dalit Women: Issues and Perspectives (1995), New Economic Policy and Dalits (2000), and Globalization and Social Movements: Struggle for Humane Society (2003) co-edited with Prof. S.M. Michael. Professor Jogdand is member of the University Management Council as well as Dean of the Arts Faculty.  

Professor Indira Munshi assumed headship of the department in 2005. Professor Indira Munshi has nurtured research in the areas of development, tribal studies, sociology and environment and the sociology of tourism. Her publications include Contradictions in Indian Society (1995), co-edited with Professor ManoramaSavur and Adivasi Life stories (2007).  

Professor Kamala Ganesh became the head of the department in 2007. Professor Kamala Ganesh has worked on the themes related to Feminist Methodologies, interface between gender and kinship, identity and culture, and Indian diaspora. Her publications include, Negotiation and Social Space: A Gendered Analysis of Marriage and Kinship Relations in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (1998) co-edited with Carla Risseeuw, Culture and the Making of Identity in Contemporary India (2005) co-edited with UshaThakkar, and Zero Point Bombay: In and around Horniman Circle (2008), co-edited with UshaThakkar and Gita Chadha.  

Professor P.G. Jogdand assumed headship for a second term in the year 2010.