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Research Journal of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka- Rohana 12, 2020

with a similar crisis in higher education. Issues of pedagogy, the learning process,
the quality of curriculum, infrastructure, and financial autonomy are entangled with

“what to study” and “how to study”, issues that concern us as sociologists’ (1998:
339). According to her, ‘Paradoxically, these challenges are embedded in the very

institutions that had encouraged sociology’s formation and defined its conceptual
map: the institutions of the nation-state that advocated development, macro level

agendas, and uniform policy implementation’ (Patel 1998: 340). Almost 17 years

after making these remarks, they are equally applicable to the crisis of sociology in
South Asia even today.

Vasavi’s view about Indian sociology and anthropology is that today they have

reached an impasse. She believes that ‘the SOI seems fragmented and diluted,
unable to forge an identity of its own, respond to changing times, and generate new

schools of theory, methods, and perspectives’ (Vasavi 2011: 402). Among the

factors contributing to this situation ‘are the institutional contexts, the politics of
knowledge production, the state of discipline’s syllabi and pedagogies, its limited

methodologies, the entrenchment of some approaches and theories, and the inability
of sociologists to engage with and contribute to public debates either in the vicinity

or at the national level’ (Vasavi 2011: 402). She in turn reviews each of these

factors in some detail.

In her review of the conference proceedings noted above, Patel observed that
‘Sociologists in South Asia are attempting to move beyond the assumed frame that

has always defined the terms of their discussions and research agendas’ (1998: 339).
However, some sociological traditions ‘have not evolved perspectives and theories

to assess their relationship with dominant universalized traditions, although they
have been recognized’ (Patel 2010: 17). The question remains as to what extent a

paradigm shift has occurred in South Asian sociology?

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