The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Research should be kept apart from ideology’

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Saturday, Nov 15, 2008
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‘Research should be kept apart from ideology’

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Sociological research should be kept separate from commitment to an ideology, although it has proved difficult, particularly in India, said well-known sociologist Andre Beteille.

Delivering the ninth M.N. Srinivas Memorial Lecture on “Sociology and Ideology” at the National Institute of Advanced Studies on Friday, Prof. Beteille said that “scholarship and partisanship make uneasy bedfellows”.

This was worthy of reiteration because it was “no longer part of the commonsense of sociology”, he added. He emphasised the need to draw a line between sociological enquiry and social advocacy. “The practice of sociology and social anthropology in India has taught us that keeping an open mind is of the highest importance, and it is this that is threatened by zealous commitment to an ideology,” he said.

Prof. Beteille said that making a distinction between “value judgement” and “judgement of reality” is not easy in social science unlike in natural sciences. Prof. Beteille said that he subscribes to the views of Max Weber, who acknowledged both the necessity and the difficulty of consistently maintaining a separation between facts and values in the interpretation of human action.

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