Pathak’s book is a delight to read since, like in his other works, he is anecdotal, poetic and philosophical as he engages with the reader sociologically. In this book, Pathak goes beyond the idea of sociology as fixed methods and formulas to pursue knowledge and sets the ground to engage with a core question—what is being sociological?
Clearly one of the most engaging and powerful sociological writers of our times from South Asia, Pathak sketches out how the positivist and post-positivist ways of seeing developed in sociology, within the context of time and space, which has determined the sociological way of seeing, i.e., methodology. He reflects upon the discipline’s historical trajectory; the politics behind how indigenous, local epistemologies were brushed aside as non-scientific by positivists relying on the epistemology of modern science; how a post-positivist way of seeing engaged with the positivist methodology and challenged it, as did alternative epistemologies from South Asia. Hence, this book is immensely useful for students and teachers of Sociology, as well as all those curious about methodological concerns.