Hindu social organization: a study in social-psychological and ideological foundations

This book has been out of print for some years. The delay in bringing out a second edition was partly due to the author's pre occupation with other things, and partly to certain unforeseen cir cumstances.

The book is an attempt, probably the first one of its kind, to discover the essentials of Hindu social thought and organization from a rather wide variety of sources and to coordinate them into a founda tion frame-work for a systematic Indian sociology and social psycho logy. At the time that the book was first published in 1940, the subject of Indian Sociology as such was not accorded any particular attention in our Universities, excepting in one or two in which serious teaching and studies in the subject had already commenced. the publication of the book, however, the subject has come into its own as a full and independent paper for study in the graduate and Since postgraduate classes in many Universities. While the author does not wish to claim credit for the book for this change in outlook and emphasis in our Universities, the systematic presentation of Hindu social thought as attempted in the book probably has given some impetus to that outlook. At the same time, this placed a certain responsibility on the shoulders of the author which prevented him from issuing a mere reprint of the work, when the first edition went out of print some years back, without carefully revising the work. Such revision was delayed, however, from time to time, owing to the intervention of unforeseen circumstances. And now, even though he has been able to bring out this revision, he is only too conscious of the shortcomings that still exist in the work. The subject is rather vast, and perhaps every chapter of the work could be expanded into a book, and some more aspects and issues also could be included in the treatise.