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Indological perspectives of G.S Ghurye

G.S Ghurye is considered founder of sociology in India. He wrote on broad range of themes including tribes, kinship, family and marriage, culture and civilization and sociology of conflict and integration. One of the major themes that Ghurye worked on was the tribal or aboriginal culture. It was his writings on this subject and his debate with Verrier Elwin first made him known outside sociology and the academic world.

Many British administrator-anthropologists were especially interested in tribes in India and believed them to be primitive people with a distinctive culture far from mainstream Hinduism. They also believed them to be simple people suffering from exploitation and cultural degradation through contact with Hindu culture and society.Ghurye countered this view by saying that these ill effects were not specific to tribal cultures but were common to all the backward and downtrodden sections of the society.