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Shantanu Datta
VADODARA, Dec 2: Old soldiers never die. They just fade away. The proverb may have been coined for an armyman, but it fits M N Srinivas to a T. The doyen of Indian sociology was a soldier, only his frontline was different -- the realm of Indian society. His ammunition -- his empirical field studies.
M.S. University's sociology department, the first of many he helped set up (in 1951), on Thursday paid homage to Srinivas, who died in Bangalore on Tuesday.
Old students who knew the man who made a science out of a still-nascent sociology in India recounted the many facets of Srinivas. Said A G Patel, one of his earliest students at the M S University: ``I was doing CA when I heard in 1957 that a brilliant professor was coming to Baroda.'' Shah took up the subject which, apparently, was still Greek for many in India then. ``From then on, he was like an elder brother,'' said Patel. Patel's own brother, I G Patel, the renowned economist, did the rest -- egged him on to keep his ties with the subject intact even after the master left Vadodara.
Professor B V Shah, another student who had his stint under the doyen at a time when the MSU Sociology department was one of the best in western India, said after the brief meeting that it was the humane aspect of Srinivas' nature that put him one notch higher.
A young Srinivas, who counted the great R K Narayan and R K Laxman as his friends during his salad days in Mysore, came straight to Mumbai from Oxford. He took the Dehradun Express and landed in Vadodara. June 15, 1951. Voila. A department fighting for its place under the sun, had got its father figure.
There was literally nothing, initially, that could go for a department. He had to search for students. Professor A M Shah, then a BA student, was Srinivas' first pupil at the MSU.
A master's worth is known by the students he produces. Look at Srinivas' products, said Prof Shah. ``A M Shah, Baviskar, myself, Andre Beteille (Srinivas' student at the Delhi School of Economics...'' The count could go on.
Incidentally, it was during his stay here that Srinivas formed the concepts of `Sanskritisation' and `Westernisation' -- two concepts that still rule the pendulum of Indian society. By the time he left, he ensured grants for the department building, library, equipment (for fieldwork.) ``We still use some of those equipment,'' said Prof N Rajaram, the present head of the department. ``It was the same in Delhi (School of Economics),'' Rajaram recounted. ``I was a student there then. The DSE building came up in 1971-72, and he left in '72.''
By the time Srinivas left MSU on February 9, 1959, the department had its place under the sun. Its 380-odd present students can thank him for that.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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