Radhakamal Mukerjee: Interrogating the Conventional Notions of Sociology, Democracy and Development

Radhakamal Mukerjee, a pioneer in Indian sociology, was one of the first in India to have suggested the need for sustainable development as well as respect of the humans for ecology. His oeuvre provided a reasoned critique of the individual—centred notion of human beings in Western economics and sociology undergirding the concept of development geared to the depletion of non-renewable resources of the earth system to satisfy the greed of the monopolies and cartels dominating the industrial—commercial world of the West (as also the rest of the globe) and to meet the needs (!) of the present generation of Homo sapiens inhabiting the planet. The way out of the morass lies, according to Mukerjee, in transcending the confines of homo-centric view of life and adopting an ecological outlook engendering respect for nature and cosmos as well as care for the generations unborn.