| Name of Scholar | Notable Work (Year) | Key Methodology / Theme | Discipline | Legacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sir William Jones | Founded Asiatic Society (1784) | Indological method; text translation | Anthropology | Pioneer of Indology in India |
| H.T. Colebrooke | Essays on Hindu Law and Philosophy (1801) | Textual analysis of ancient law | Anthropology | Laid foundations of legal anthropology |
| R.B. Foote | Discovery of Paleolithic Tools (1863) | Field excavation, typology | Anthropology | Father of Indian Prehistory |
| Herbert Hope Risley | The People of India (1908) | Anthropometry, caste-race correlation | Anthropology | Introduced racial classification (now discredited) |
| S.C. Roy | The Oraon (1915) | Ethnographic monograph, tribal studies | Anthropology | Father of Indian ethnography |
| Verrier Elwin | The Baiga (1939) | Participant observation, humanistic approach | Anthropology | Advocated tribal welfare and autonomy |
| G.S. Ghurye | Caste and Race in India (1932) | Textual and sociological synthesis | Sociology | Founder of Indian sociology |
| M.N. Srinivas | Religion and Society among Coorgs (1952) | Fieldwork, conceptualised Sanskritisation | Sociology | Developed indigenous models of social mobility |
| Irawati Karve | Kinship Organization in India (1953) | Kinship mapping and structural analysis | Anthropology | Pioneer in kinship studies in India |
| Andre Beteille | Caste, Class and Power (1965) | Comparative analysis, class stratification | Sociology | Shaped modern caste-class discourse |
| Emile Durkheim | Suicide (1897) | Positivist approach, statistical method | Sociology | Founder of modern sociology |
| Max Weber | The Protestant Ethic (1905) | Interpretive sociology, ideal types | Sociology | Pioneer in the study of authority and religion |
| Karl Marx | Das Kapital (1867) | Historical materialism | Sociology | Founder of conflict theory |
| Talcott Parsons | The Social System (1951) | Structural-functionalism | Sociology | Built a grand theory of social systems |
| Leela Dube | Women and Kinship (1997) | Feminist ethnography | Sociology | Key figure in gender studies in India |
| Veena Das | Life and Words (2007) | Interpretive ethnography | Sociology | Focused on violence and everyday suffering |
| Patricia Uberoi | Family, Kinship and Marriage in India (1993) | Cultural studies of family | Sociology | Explored gender and family in modern India |
| Yogendra Singh | Modernization of Indian Tradition (1973) | Development theory | Sociology | Explained tradition-modernity interface |
| T.K. Oommen | Nation, Civil Society and Social Movements (2004) | Pluralism, democracy | Sociology | Explored secularism and social movements |
| Anthony Giddens | The Constitution of Society (1984) | Structuration theory | Sociology | Integrated structure and agency |
| Name of Scholar | Notable Work (Year) | Key Methodology / Theme | Discipline | Legacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A.M. Shah | The Household Dimension of the Family in India (1973) | Family demography, structural-functionalism | Sociology | Pioneer in family studies in Indian context |
| N.K. Bose | Culture and Society in India (1975) | Cultural anthropology, Gandhian approach | Anthropology | Promoted cultural continuity studies |
| Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf | The Naked Nagas (1939) | Visual ethnography, tribal filming | Anthropology | Visual documentation of NE tribes |
| D.P. Mukerji | Modern Indian Culture (1942) | Middle class and tradition-modernity | Sociology | Key Indian sociological imagination figure |
| Robert K. Merton | Social Theory and Social Structure (1949) | Functional analysis, deviance theory | Sociology | Refined functionalism and anomie theory |
| Zygmunt Bauman | Liquid Modernity (2000) | Postmodernity, instability of identity | Sociology | Explored cultural and identity transformations |
| T.N. Madan | Non-Renunciation (1987) | Religion and kinship in Kashmir | Sociology | Pioneer in sociology of religion in India |
| B.S. Guha | Racial Elements in Indian Population (1935) | Physical anthropology, racial classification | Anthropology | Founded Anthropological Survey of India |
| D.N. Majumdar | Races and Cultures of India (1944) | Tribe-caste interface, fieldwork | Anthropology | Prominent in early cultural anthropology in India |
| Nadeem Hasnain | Tribal India (2003) | Applied anthropology, tribal development | Anthropology | Contemporary tribal studies expert |
| Judith Butler | Gender Trouble (1990) | Gender performativity, post-structuralism | Sociology | Founded queer theory and gender critique |
| Ram Ahuja | Social Problems in India (1992) | Criminology and social issues | Sociology | Prominent textbook author |
| Surajit Sinha | Tribal Polities and State Systems (1987) | Tribal leadership studies | Anthropology | Connected tribal politics with anthropology |
| K.S. Singh | People of India Project (1992–95) | Pan-India ethnographic survey | Anthropology | Directed ASI’s largest post-independence survey |
| Andre Béteille | Inequality and Social Change (1972) | Empirical caste-class analysis | Sociology | Established comparative sociological frameworks |
| Aiyappan A. | Anthropology in India (1950s) | Tribal studies in Kerala | Anthropology | First Indian museum-based anthropologist |
| L.K. Ananthakrishna Iyer | Cochin Tribes and Castes (1909) | Descriptive ethnography | Anthropology | Regional pioneer in South Indian anthropology |
| R.V. Russell | Tribes and Castes of Central Provinces (1916) | Ethnographic documentation | Anthropology | Key colonial census ethnographer |
| Edgar Thurston | Castes and Tribes of Southern India (1909) | Anthropometric and descriptive ethnology | Anthropology | Director, Madras Museum; large tribal survey |
| T.C. Hodson | The Meitheis (1908) | NE India tribal monograph | Anthropology | Documented Manipuri societies |
| Name of Scholar | Notable Work (Year) | Key Methodology / Theme | Discipline | Legacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J.H. Hutton | The Santal (1921) | Census ethnography, caste and tribes | Anthropology | Advocate for tribal welfare in colonial India |
| Denzil Ibbetson | Report on Punjab Census (1881) | Occupation-based caste study | Anthropology | Challenged Risley’s racial theories |
| H.H. Risley | The People of India (1908) | Nasal index, racial typology | Anthropology | Racial classification (now discredited) |
| W.W. Hunter | Statistical Account of Bengal (1875) | Regional customs and demography | Anthropology | Regional documentation in British India |
| Edward Tuite Dalton | Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal (1865) | Ethnographic survey of Bengal tribes | Anthropology | Early ethnographic compilation |
| R.B. Foote | Stone Age in India (1866) | Prehistoric excavation | Anthropology | Father of Indian Prehistory |
| Colin Mackenzie | Surveys in South India (Early 1800s) | Archaeology and ethnography | Anthropology | First Surveyor General of India |
| Francis Buchanan-Hamilton | Journey through Mysore and Nepal (1807) | Botanical + ethnographic fieldwork | Anthropology | Mixed scientific survey approach |
| H.T. Colebrooke | Hindu Law and Philosophy Essays (1801) | Sanskritic legal analysis | Anthropology | Indological legal anthropology |
| William Jones | Founded Asiatic Society (1784) | Textual translation and Sanskrit grammar | Anthropology | Father of Indology in India |
| Émile Durkheim | The Division of Labour (1893) | Functionalism, social solidarity | Sociology | Laid foundation of functionalist thought |
| Max Weber | Economy and Society (1922) | Typologies of authority | Sociology | Basis for interpretive and political sociology |
| Auguste Comte | Course in Positive Philosophy (1830s) | Positivism, three-stage theory | Sociology | Coined the term “Sociology” |
| Karl Marx | Communist Manifesto (1848), Das Kapital (1867) | Historical materialism | Sociology | Founder of conflict theory |
| Herbert Spencer | Principles of Sociology (1876) | Social Darwinism | Sociology | Evolutionary sociology |
| Georg Simmel | The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903) | Social forms and types | Sociology | Micro-sociology pioneer |
| Ferdinand Tonnies | Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (1887) | Community vs. society | Sociology | Classical distinction in social bonds |
| Erving Goffman | The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) | Dramaturgy, impression management | Sociology | Microsociology, symbolic interactionism |
| Robert K. Merton | Anomie and Deviance (1949) | Role set, latent functions | Sociology | Middle-range theory |
| Harold Garfinkel | Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967) | Indexicality, reflexivity | Sociology | Founder of ethnomethodology |
| Name of Scholar | Notable Work (Year) | Key Methodology / Theme | Discipline | Legacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michel Foucault | Discipline and Punish (1975) | Power-knowledge, genealogy | Sociology | Post-structuralist critique of institutions |
| Pierre Bourdieu | Distinction (1979) | Habitus, capital, field | Sociology | Cultural capital and class reproduction |
| Anthony Giddens | The Constitution of Society (1984) | Structuration theory | Sociology | Integrated agency and structure |
| Zygmunt Bauman | Liquid Modernity (2000) | Postmodern fluidity | Sociology | Identity and modernity studies |
| C. Wright Mills | The Sociological Imagination (1959) | Power elite theory | Sociology | Linked biography and history |
| W.E.B. Du Bois | The Souls of Black Folk (1903) | Double consciousness | Sociology | Race and African-American sociology |
| Harold Garfinkel | Ethnomethodology Studies (1967) | Social practices, indexicality | Sociology | Founder of ethnomethodology |
| Herbert Blumer | Symbolic Interactionism (1937) | Meaning and human interaction | Sociology | Named symbolic interactionism |
| Arjun Appadurai | Modernity at Large (1996) | Global flows and imagination | Sociology | Cultural anthropology of globalization |
| Satish Deshpande | Contemporary India: A Sociological View (2003) | Caste inequalities, sociology of knowledge | Sociology | Studied caste beyond reservation politics |
| Dipankar Gupta | Mistaken Modernity (2000) | Public sphere and urban modernity | Sociology | Rethinking Indian middle class |
| Rajni Kothari | Politics in India (1970) | Caste and democracy | Sociology | Political sociology pioneer |
| Ashis Nandy | The Intimate Enemy (1983) | Political psychology, colonialism | Sociology | Critique of Western domination |
| T.B. Naik | Tribes of Gujarat (1960s) | Ethnographic monographs | Anthropology | Regional tribal documentation |
| A.K. Sinha | Tribal Development in Bihar (1970s) | Applied anthropology | Anthropology | Economic life of tribes |
| K.C. Malhotra | Genetic Studies on Tribes (1980s) | Physical anthropology | Anthropology | Tribal biology and demography |
| B.M. Das | Outline of Physical Anthropology (1970s) | Human evolution | Anthropology | Taught physical anthropology to generations |
| L.P. Vidyarthi | Sacred Complex in Hindu Gaya (1961) | Religious anthropology | Anthropology | Integrated fieldwork and theory |
| P.K. Bhowmick | The Lodhas (1963) | Marginal tribe research | Anthropology | Work on criminal tribes |
| N.K. Das | Development and Exclusion (2000s) | Tribal policy, ethnography | Anthropology | Contemporary tribal policy studies |
| Name of Scholar | Notable Work (Year) | Key Methodology / Theme | Discipline | Legacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T.K. Das | Folk Knowledge Systems (2000s) | Indigenous knowledge, ethnobotany | Anthropology | Cultural ecology |
| S.C. Dube | Indian Village (1955) | Rural development studies | Anthropology | Applied anthropology pioneer |
| Veena Das | Critical Events (1995) | Trauma, suffering, ethnography | Sociology | Violence and state critique |
| Leela Dube | Anthropological Explorations in Gender (2001) | Feminist anthropology | Sociology | Gender and kinship studies |
| Yogesh Atal | Sociology and Social Change (1980s–2000s) | Development sociology | Sociology | UNESCO-linked scholar |
| Nirmala Banerjee | Women in Informal Economy (1990s) | Gender and labour | Sociology | Gendered economics |
| Achin Vanaik | The Furies of Indian Communalism (1997) | Secularism and nationalism | Sociology | Religion and nation critique |
| Manoranjan Mohanty | Revolutionary Violence (1970s) | Civil society and Marxism | Sociology | Political sociology |
| N. Jayaram | The Indian Diaspora (2000s) | Migration, identity | Sociology | Diaspora studies expert |
| Surinder Jodhka | Caste in Contemporary India (2012) | Agrarian sociology | Sociology | Modern caste and rural transformation |
| G.C. Pande | Ancient Indian Culture (1990s) | Civilizational analysis | Sociology | Philosophical anthropology |
| N. Patnaik | History of Anthropology in India (2005) | Institutional history | Anthropology | Chronicler of Indian anthropology |
| A.B. Ota | Tribal Research in Odisha (1990s–2020s) | Applied tribal studies | Anthropology | Institutional tribal research |
| R. Mohanty | Forest Rights and Tribal Women (2000s) | Gendered anthropology | Anthropology | Intersection of policy and gender |
| R.C. Verma | Indian Tribes Through the Ages (1990s) | Educational anthropology | Anthropology | Tribal history educator |
| Kamala Visweswaran | Un/Common Cultures (2010) | Identity, violence, ethnography | Sociology | Feminist ethnographic studies |
| Bishnu Mohapatra | Civil Society Discourses (2000s) | Democratic theory | Sociology | Modern Indian political thought |
| Avijit Pathak | Education and Cultural Crisis (2000s) | Reflexive sociology | Sociology | Popular public sociologist |
| S.K. Chand | Dalits and Development (2000s) | Marginalized caste studies | Sociology | Sociologist of Dalit policy |
| V. Mohan | Linguistic Minorities in India (2000s) | Language and ethnicity | Sociology | Minority cultural rights |