Social change is an important subject in a society like ours which is both committed to and is undergoing social change. Though study of this important subject has engaged sociologists and other social scientists for a long time, there has so far been no comprehensive treatment of the subject. M.N. Srinivas is one of the Indian social scientists who have been concerned with the study of social change in Indian society, and he has written extensively on it. Therefore it was but appropriate that he should have been involved in organizing a seminar around the theme of social change of which the present volume is the outcome. This volume is a collection of 26 essays by 27 social scientists, most of whom are sociologists.
These papers were presented at a seminar organized by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, in November 1972. The papers in this volume are divided into eight sections.