About the Book :

The role of religion in modernization is a controversial issue. Professor Varma unravels the tangles in the interpretation of the basic tenets of Hinduism standing in the way of the modrenisation of India. He further tests his hypotheses about the interrelations of values and development by applying them not only to Indians living in India but also to those who have migrated to the United States. He states, In the end, it is the civilisational values which sustain man wherever he is located. A reappraisal of the findings of the social scientists about Indian society is long overdue. In the short period of four decades after India's independence, scores of foreign and Indian social scientists have done research on Indian polity. However, those who follow the philosophic tradition have created a controversy about the basic differences in the Western and the Eastern religions which impinge on their scientific abilities and those who work with the more mundane tools of social sciences have ignored the civilisational approach to the understanding of Indian society. This book throws light on most of these issues.

About Author :

Baidya Nath Varma, Professor of Sociology at the City College of the City University of New York, received his doctorate in sociology from Columbia University. He specializes in sociological theory and has done research on the modernisation process in the United States and India. Prof. Varma has presented papers at the World Congresses of various social science and philosophic disciplines and has lectured at many Universities in England, Canada, India and the United States. He is the founder-chairman of Columbia University Faculty Seminar on Studies in Contemporary India. A past President of South Asian Sociologists, which is a part of the American Sociological Association, he has been a Visiting Professor at Ranchi and Bombay Universities. He is the author of A New Survey of the Social Sciences, Contemporary India; The New Social Sciences and The Sociology and Politics of Development: A Theoretical Study.