Sociology is the study of society and India is the second largest populated country in the world with an immense variety in terms of class, caste, culture, language, religion, occupation, tradition and custom which are the chief interests of a sociological inquiry. From a predominantly agrarian society with a feudal outlook, with a population residing mostly in villages pursuing traditional occupations like weaving, pottery , brass smithy, black smithy, fishing, oil pressing, tanning, toddy tapping, butchery, stone cutting, carpentry, masonry, hunting, sheep and goat rearing and other such myriad occupations some of which are considered menial, India progressed into an industrial society with a vast network of industries. In the last 25 years or so the changes have been so rapid that India has progressed from being an industrial economy into a post industrial economy with an emphasis on the services sector.
The stage is now set for another major change with the technological revolution which is overwhelming people across the world into an internet of things. The effect would be very evident in a country like India which is at the cross roads again debating questions of tradition and change, belief and law, democracy and hegemony. Analysis or inquiry into these momentous changes at the microcosmic or the macro cosmic level as they keep happening is the domain of the sociologist and there is no dearth of subjects. The questions of the marginalized, the changing family patterns, the changing gender roles, the rise of the middle classes, the weakening of traditional authority , the shift in the power structure, the destabilization of village industries, the culture of consumption and materialism , the rising trends of violence in society and especially crimes against women, the plight of the farmers are important subjects which need a thorough sociological inquiry and many sociologists would already be in the process of studying these problems and finding answers.
Talcott Parsons , the American sociologist compared human society to the human body. The inter dependency of the organs and the overall functioning of a system depends on the cohesive whole and sociology can be understood with this structural functional model in mind and sociology will come down from the realm of an abstract idea to a real and relevant science.