Social Transformation in India: Essays in Honour of Professor I.P. Desai

Contents: 1. Introduction: I.P. Desai and Social Transformation/Ghanshyam Shah. 2. I.P. Desai and the Sociology of India/Ramkrishna Mukherjee. 3. Social Policy, ‘Development’ and Democracy/Rajni Kothari. 4. Changing Values in India Today/M.N. Srinivas. 5. Social Movements and the Paradigm of Functional Analysis/M.S. Gore. 6. Social Processes and Dimensions of Indian Nationalism/Yogendra Singh. 7. Rural Development and Human Rights of Agrarian Poor in Independent India/A.R. Desai. 8. Usury in Western India: State Policy and Peasant Resistance, 1876-1947/David Hardiman. 9. The Artisanal Origins of Surat’s Contemporary Industrialization, 1870-1950/Douglas E. Haynes. 10. The Future of Caste in India: A Dialogue/D.L. Sheth. 11. The Judicial and the Sociological View of the Other Backward Classes/A.M. Shah. 12. A Town, A Caste, and Two Decades of Capitalist Transformation in South Gujarat/Hein Streefkerk. 13. Caste in Changing Society: A Study of Kolis of South Gujarat/Arjun Patel. 14. Social Change and the Marriage System of the Anavil Brahmans of South Gujarat/Klass W. van der Veen. 15. Sociology of Dalit Autobiography/S.P. Punalekar. 16. Office without de facto Power: A Study of Social Justice Committee in Gujarat/Ghanshyam Shah. 17. Caste, Class and Violence in Rural India/Pravin Sheth. 18. Genesis of Tribal Problem/Vidyut Joshi. 19. Gender Dimension in Family Studies/Neera Desai. 20. Reconstituting Private Life: The Making of the Modern Family in Bengal/Pradip Kumar Bose. 21. Labour Nomads in South Gujarat: Wage Hunters and Gatherers/Jan Breman. 22. Trade Unions and Class Mobilization of Workers: Towards a Theory of Social Polarization and Mobilization/Pravin J. Patel. 23. The Political Economy of Places of Worship/Imtiaz Ahmad. 24. Children of the Same God: A Spiritual Approach to Social Transformation/N.R. Sheth. 25. The Concept of the Desired Type of Society and the Problems of Social Change/I.P. Desai.

Social transformation is not an abstract utopia of social activists. It calls for analyzing social forces in historical and cultural context. There is no unilinear direction for change. It is a complex and multidimensional process. India is passing through a rapid social upheaval. The questions need to ponder over are: 
• On which way we are going? 
• What is the nature of social transformation? 
• Who are the gainers and losers of development? 
• What new socio-economic forces and value systems are emerging in the country? 
• What role social scientists and other intellectuals play in the process of social transformation towards better social order?
Social scientists of different disciplines, viz., sociology, anthropology, political science, history, etc., from India and abroad, discuss these and similar other questions in this volume.

This is a felicitation volume in honour of late Professor I.P. Desai, the Founder-Director of Centre for Social Studies, Surat. Prof. Desai was an eminent sociologist who wrote several books on family, education, social movements, caste and tribe. He was concerned with building ‘desired society’.

In this second edition, a new chapter by I.P. Desai, ‘The Concept of the Desired Type of Society and the Problems of Social Change’ has been included. This is relevant today for social activists as well as academia concerned with sensitizing us towards the prevailing social problems and revive our concern for social change.