like that of Malinowski, Evans Pritchard and countless others were made possible by the fact that the places and people where field work was done were part of colonial empires ruled by the countries from where the Western anthropologists came. However, more than the methodological reasons, village studies were important because they provided Indian sociology with a subject that was of great interest in newly independent India. The government was interested in developing rural India. The national movement and specially Mahatma Gandhi had been actively involved in Activity If you live in a village: Try to describe your village to someone who has never been there.
What would be the main features of your life in the village that you would want to emphasise? You must have seen villages as they are shown in films or on television. What do you think of these villages, and how do they differ from yours? Think also of the cities you have seen which are shown in film or on television: would you want to live in them?
Give reasons for your answer. If you live in a town or a city: Try to describe your neighbourhood to someone who has never been there. What would be the main features of your life in the neighbourhood that you would want to emphasise? How does your neighbourhood differ from (or resemble) city neighbourhoods as shown in film or on television?
You must have seen villages being shown in film or on television: would you want to live in them? Give reasons for your answer. what were called ‘village uplift’ programmes. And even urban educated Indians were very interested in village life because most of them retained some family and recent historical links to villages.
Above all, villages were the places where most Indians lived (and still do). For these reasons village studies became a very important part of Indian sociology, and field work methods were very well suited for studying village society. Some Limitations of Participant Observation You have already seen what participant observation can do — its main strength Different Styles