The major contributions of sociology after India's independence:

(a) After India's independence the sociologists were engaged actively in planning and development programmes. The Census Organisation, the Central Social Welfare Board, the Office of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, the Tribal Research Institutes, and institutions associated with the Community Development Programmes, needed the expertise sociologists and anthropologists,

(b) During this phase, a number of village studies were undertaken. Several village monographs resulted from them, some of which are still of tremendous value, such as McKim Marriott's edited volume titled Village India (1955), S.C. Dube's study of villages in Hyderabad, called Indian Village (1956) and M. N. Srinivas's edited volume, India's Village (1956). Some other important works were accomplished after India's independence. Kathleen Gough studied a Tanjore village and described the changes that had come in it because of British rule.

(c) In addition, several Indian communities, both tribes and castes, were also intensively studied. Srinivas re-worked the data he had collected on the Coorgs in the 1940s for his later book published in 1952 that proposed the concept of upward mobility in caste system (ie. Sanskritization). Louis Dumont, a French sociologist, studied the Paramalai Kallar of Tamil Nadu and discussed their social organisation, especially their marriage system. TN. Madan studied the nature of kinship and family of Kashmiri Pundits. Sachchidananda carried out intensive studies among certain tribal groups of Bihar and Jharkhand.

(d) Besides contributing to empirical studies of Indian society, Indian sociologists have also arrived at important theoretical insights from their works. We noted earlier that from his study, Srinivas gave the concept of sanskritization. Another work of theoretical significance was of Dumont, who in his book called Homo Hierarchicus, discussed the basic principles and characteristics of the caste system. He also started one of the leading journals in sociology, Contributions to Indian Sociology. Several Indian sociologists examined in theoretical terms as the interaction of the Indian tradition with modernity eg. The analysis is by Singh in his book on Modernization of Indian Tradition.

(e) In the last decade, there has been an increase in the studies dealing with the issues. of ethnicity, gender, violence, development, stratification, etc. With all this, Indian sociology and anthropology have been able to make a mark at the international level.