Notes: Indology Special | Sociology Mains Optional for UPSC 2024 PDF Download

 Page 1


 
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Sleepy Classes 
Indology in Contemporary Times 
Indology  
Academic study of the history and cultures, languages and literature of the Indian 
Subcontinent. 
Indian Society and culture are unique. 
Indian social realities could be grasped better through texts rather through western ways of 
studying it.  
 
Indology in Contemporary Times  
Wendy Doniger  
American Indologist  
Book – The Hindus – An Alternative History  
 
DP Mukherjee  
Marxian Perspective on Indology (Marxology)  
Dialects of Indian History  
 
Johannes Bronkhorst  
Concentrated on the history of Indian thought and published on a wide range of topics, 
including  
Indigenous grammer and linguistics  
The interaction between Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism and their philosophical schools 
and religious practices  
Important Book – Greater Magadha (2007)  
 
William Dalrymple  
Award – winning histories of the interaction between the British and the Mughals between the 
eighteenth and mid nineteenth century.  
 
Page 2


 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
https://testseries.sleepyclasses.com/ 
Sleepy Classes 
Indology in Contemporary Times 
Indology  
Academic study of the history and cultures, languages and literature of the Indian 
Subcontinent. 
Indian Society and culture are unique. 
Indian social realities could be grasped better through texts rather through western ways of 
studying it.  
 
Indology in Contemporary Times  
Wendy Doniger  
American Indologist  
Book – The Hindus – An Alternative History  
 
DP Mukherjee  
Marxian Perspective on Indology (Marxology)  
Dialects of Indian History  
 
Johannes Bronkhorst  
Concentrated on the history of Indian thought and published on a wide range of topics, 
including  
Indigenous grammer and linguistics  
The interaction between Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism and their philosophical schools 
and religious practices  
Important Book – Greater Magadha (2007)  
 
William Dalrymple  
Award – winning histories of the interaction between the British and the Mughals between the 
eighteenth and mid nineteenth century.  
 
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
https://testseries.sleepyclasses.com/ 
Sleepy Classes 
Arthur Llewellyn Basham  
Basham was one of the first western historians to critically gauge the impact of Swami 
Vivekananda from a global perspective.  
His well – known comment about Vivekananda that “in centuries to come, he will be 
remembered as one of the main moulders of the modern world, “ is quoted frequently in 
appreciations and tributes of Vivekananda 
Most popular book is The wonder that was India – “most widely used introduction to Indian 
civilization”  
 
Ram Sharan Sharma  
Focused on early Indian social structure, material and economic life, state formation and 
political ideas and the social context of religious ideologies 
Laid stress on the elements of change and continuity  
Methodology rests on a critical evaluation of sources and a correlation between literacy texts 
with archaeology and ethnography  
Unravel the process of class formation, and social implications of the material changes in the 
Vedic period and in the age of the Buddha on the basis of literacy and archaeological sources  
Sharma applied the tool of historical materialism not only to explain social differentiation and 
stages of economic development, but also to the realm of ideology  
His investigations into the “feudal mind” and “economic and social basis of tantrism” are 
thought – provoking, opening up new lines of inquiry 
 
Content Analysis  
Apart from texts Official data, Histories, Mass Media also being analysed  
(Eg. – Analysis of TV Serials – Presents Primacy or Traditional Roles, family)  
Texts from across the languages Monuments Script Deciphered  
 
Issues that can take help from Indology  
History of Caste System  
Joint family as a Value  
Caste – Race Parallel  
Page 3


 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
https://testseries.sleepyclasses.com/ 
Sleepy Classes 
Indology in Contemporary Times 
Indology  
Academic study of the history and cultures, languages and literature of the Indian 
Subcontinent. 
Indian Society and culture are unique. 
Indian social realities could be grasped better through texts rather through western ways of 
studying it.  
 
Indology in Contemporary Times  
Wendy Doniger  
American Indologist  
Book – The Hindus – An Alternative History  
 
DP Mukherjee  
Marxian Perspective on Indology (Marxology)  
Dialects of Indian History  
 
Johannes Bronkhorst  
Concentrated on the history of Indian thought and published on a wide range of topics, 
including  
Indigenous grammer and linguistics  
The interaction between Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism and their philosophical schools 
and religious practices  
Important Book – Greater Magadha (2007)  
 
William Dalrymple  
Award – winning histories of the interaction between the British and the Mughals between the 
eighteenth and mid nineteenth century.  
 
 
www.YouTube.com/SleepyClasses 
https://testseries.sleepyclasses.com/ 
Sleepy Classes 
Arthur Llewellyn Basham  
Basham was one of the first western historians to critically gauge the impact of Swami 
Vivekananda from a global perspective.  
His well – known comment about Vivekananda that “in centuries to come, he will be 
remembered as one of the main moulders of the modern world, “ is quoted frequently in 
appreciations and tributes of Vivekananda 
Most popular book is The wonder that was India – “most widely used introduction to Indian 
civilization”  
 
Ram Sharan Sharma  
Focused on early Indian social structure, material and economic life, state formation and 
political ideas and the social context of religious ideologies 
Laid stress on the elements of change and continuity  
Methodology rests on a critical evaluation of sources and a correlation between literacy texts 
with archaeology and ethnography  
Unravel the process of class formation, and social implications of the material changes in the 
Vedic period and in the age of the Buddha on the basis of literacy and archaeological sources  
Sharma applied the tool of historical materialism not only to explain social differentiation and 
stages of economic development, but also to the realm of ideology  
His investigations into the “feudal mind” and “economic and social basis of tantrism” are 
thought – provoking, opening up new lines of inquiry 
 
Content Analysis  
Apart from texts Official data, Histories, Mass Media also being analysed  
(Eg. – Analysis of TV Serials – Presents Primacy or Traditional Roles, family)  
Texts from across the languages Monuments Script Deciphered  
 
Issues that can take help from Indology  
History of Caste System  
Joint family as a Value  
Caste – Race Parallel  
 
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https://testseries.sleepyclasses.com/ 
Sleepy Classes 
Ayodhya Issue  
Ram Setu  
 
Criticism  
Brahminical Point of view in texts  
Ignores Sub – Altern  
Ignores Tribal History  
Different Indologist give contradictory explanations  
(e.g. Colonial vs Nationalist Indologists)  
Religious Texts Represent a Value (Different from the fact)  
Mainly considers Hindu Culture as Culture of India  
Field studies reflect that Indology doesn’t explain the present day situation