Preface to the Second Edition

I am indeed overwhelmed by the stupendous response to the first edition of this book, necessitating its second edition so soon. In this edition, I have not done any major changes, only redone some paragraphs to make them more intelligible. Meanwhile, its Hindi version has also come out to meet the demand of growing number of students and teachers using Hindi as medium of instruction. I have never been an advocate of a separate Indian Sociology—a theme that was discussed in the 1960s—nor did I encourage superficial distinction between sociology and social anthropology.

The focus of the book has been on pedagogy and research. Unfortunately, most of the textbooks are copies of other established texts or are like lecture notes to clear an examination. There was a distinct need of a textbook for students of India and other countries of South and South-East Asia. My long tenure with UNESCO as its Social Science Adviser for the vast Asia-Pacific region gave me good exposure to the way social sciences are developing in this region, and strengthened my commitment to write a textbook of this kind.

I would like to thank the publisher, Pearson Education, especially Kaushal Jajware and Vipin Kumar for helping me to write this book. Both have done remarkable job and deserve my adulation.

You are welcome to mail me your feedback at [email protected] to make this book better in the coming editions.

Yogesh Atal