‘Why’ is what drove Prof Singh

Prof Yogendra Singh, who passed away on May 10, lived a full and productive academic life. When JNU started in 1969, it was a tremendous act of foresight on the part of G Parthasarathy, then VC, to invite Professor Singh to JNU. He was one of the original figures behind the establishment of JNU’s School of Social Sciences.

When Professor Singh was setting up the Department of Sociology, it was a tremendous challenge. The question that he was frequently asked was whether this new department could stand up to the much older Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. His reply always was that the two could, and should, collaborate like all good academic endeavours. Delhi School’s Sociology Department was known for its cultural emphasis, but Professor Singh designed JNU’s department to centralise social mobilisation.

Over time, JNU’s Department of Sociology achieved a reputation of its own, and this was, in no small measure, on account of his contribution. He made social theory an important part of the department’s profile and moved away from small-scale village studies or micro empirical presentation of a slum or factory. For him, the smallest unit of society was a part of India, and at the same time, an expression of human striving. This is why theory and fact must intertwine, and the best way to do that is to think universally and ask India-level questions.

When his book, The Modernisation of Indian Tradition appeared in 1973, it was a significant scholarly event. Here we had a complete text which was theoretically rigorous and empirically weighted. It demonstrated in full force that a good theory is always on the lookout for challenging facts. Professor Singh was trained in India and spent almost his entire teaching career in Rajasthan and Delhi, but academically he belonged to the world.

He was always on the lookout for the big question and it drove him in his intellectual pursuits, in the classroom and in his writings. His basic enquiry format was simple, and yet, comprehensive. One should, of course, ask ‘how and what’ questions, but never forget the big one — ‘why’. Not just that, given that society is changing, given also that there is always a role for agency, we should also ponder over what is, and what ought to be, the direction of change.

Cultural issues like caste, family and religion are the stuff of micro-level data in India, but these are all amenable to universal conceptualisation. If one were to do this, our factual knowledge of these phenomena would be heightened, and so would our theoretical sophistication. He was intensely tied to Indian society, he knew it intimately, yet, at the same time, was not a proponent of Indigenising sociology.

Professor Singh won many accolades, nationally and internationally. All of this praise and recognition he wore very lightly. His students, though, will remember him most for the kindness with which he encouraged them, never a harsh word.