INTRODUCTION

The reservations expressed by the young IT lad reflect, in a way, the general feeling about the credentials of sociology. It is because of such doubts, expressed not only by laymen but also academics, that the subject did not gain entry into the academe until very recently. Even today, the discipline is struggling to gain entry into the curricula in many institutions in Asia.

This book is an invitation into the world of Sociology, for the reader to know and understand what it is and what it is not. The reader will be acquainted with the language that sociologists employ, especially commonly used words such as group, family, marriage, caste, class, etc., which are given distinct definitions to standardize their use. The logic of scientific research that governs sociological analysis is followed throughout this book.

We shall attempt to:

1. Define the scope of the subject;
2. Narrate the manner in which scholars from various disciplines felt uncomfortable with the perspectives of their own disciplines and recognized the need to extend their scope of enquiry to cover the social sphere; and
3. Summarize its current stage of development.