Matter And Method In Sociology And Ideology

Author(s): D P Chattopadhyaya
Publisher: D P Chattopadhyaya

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“If the determination of the rationality of the human action is left to the "freely” competing forces, the inevitable result would be the domination of the more organised groups over the less organised ones.”
Matter and Method in Sociology & Ideology
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RURAL
AND THE INDIAN PEASANTRY
D. P. CHATTOPADHYAYA
Prefatory . Asked to characterise the culture of India, one often hears “Unity in Diversity”. Whether the pre-1947 India was a Nation or even today it is a Nation is a very controversial question. Politicians, ethnographers, and sociolinguists have often joined this controversy and could clarify till today only few issues. My main purpose here is not to answer the questions like whether, culturally speaking, the proclaimed unity of India is metaphorical, or metaphysical, or a very living reality. My interest lies elsewhere. How is the unity related to the diversity? And what is there in the diversity enabling its subject matters or elements to bring under a unity or class? The first question is methodological and the second one substantive. In the second part of my paper I propose to briefly refer to the identity of the Indian peasantry and the process of transformation it is undergoing. The questions have been discussed in depth by many competent economists, sociologists, and social anthropologists. I would like to correlate some explanatory concepts and hypotheses within a new methodological perspective and without going into details here. The poverty of methodological orientations of the working social scientists in India, with some notable exceptions found particularly among the economists, are indeed very shocking. The lack of interpenetration between theories and factual data has resulted in retarded and distorted growth both in the field of theoretical enterprise and in the processing of empirical data. What is badly needed today is a critical and continuous dialogue between the theoretician and the field worker. If possible, this dialogue should be institutionalised in a more constructive fashion.
Sociology and Methodology
Broadly speaking, there are two ways unifying and organising the sociological facts, nomothetic and ideographic.3 Nomothetic method is