Survey of research in sociology and social anthropology

Under this scheme, the entire area of social sciences was divided. into seven major fields, viz., (1) economics, commerce and demography, (2) political science, including international relations, (3) public administration, (4) management, (5) sociology, anthropology, social work and criminology, (6) psychology and (7) economic, human and political geography. For each of these major fields, an Advisory Committee was appointed to plan and implement the programme. Each major field was also divided into a number of subfields, the total number of subfields numbering more than 125. The work of preparing the survey report in each subfield was entrusted to a social scientist selected by the Council on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee. By and large, the focus of the survey was on re search carried out by Indians on Indian problems and each trend report was to be accompanied by a selective bibliography. Subject to this consideration, each Advisory Committee was allowed to decide the content and format of the survey in keeping with the needs of the discipline concerned.

The work on the programme started early in 1970. The first survey reports were received in June 1970 while some of the last are yet to come. When about 8 or 10 reports in a major field were ready, a seminar was convened to discuss them and the authors of the research reports were requested to revise and finalise them in the light of the discussions. It is these revised reports that were finally edited and sent to the press.