This book India and the West – A Cultural Contrast, makes a comparative study of certain cultural features of some western countries particularly USA and UK in comparison to India on the basis of author’s observations made during his stay in USA and UK for one year in each country when he went there for advance studies in sociology in 1965-66 and 1971-72 respectively. There are differences in social living, material prosperity and in their family, economic, political, religious, educational, medicinal and cultural institution etc. as compared to India. Beside the differences in the social living in India and west, the author has thrown light on social and economic development of India in detail particularly after independence on the basis of his researches which he constantly carried out since 1952 in rural and urban areas of the country and organizing social welfare activities for the welfare of the weaker section through voluntary organizations. As far as economic development of India is concerned, the programmes of adult education, family planning and industrialization in rural areas are not being implemented properly in many states due to lack of good leadership as envisaged by Gandhiji and Gunnar Myrdal. To bring modernization in India the changes will have to be brought out in its economic and social structure through land reforms, religious institutions and ways of living as it happened in the west.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR G.R. Madan
Dr. G. R. Madan, M.A. (Econ.), M.A. (Socio.), Dip. In Com., LL.B., Ph.D. (born 1923), had a good academic career. He worked in a research project “Socio-economic Survey of Lucknow City†sponsored by the Research Programmes Committee of the Planning Commission, under Dr. Radhakamal Mukerjee, Director, J.L. Institute of Sociology and Human Relation, Lucknow University, between 1954 and 1956. From 1956 onwards he taught in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Lucknow University till his retirement from the university service in 1984. During 1966-67 he was Post doctoral fellow at the Social Science Research Centre, Mississippi State University (U.S.A.) as well as a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer. He worked there with Dr. Harold F. Kaufman in the field of Rural Sociology. During 1970-71 he went to England under the British Council Commonwealth University Interchange Scheme and worked with Professor S.L. Anderski, at the University of Reading. His work Western Sociologists on Indian Society has been published by the International Library of Sociology, London. In 1973, he was invited to deliver some special lectures on “Social Disorganization and Social Reconstruction in India†at the Karnataka University, Dharwar, and 1976 on “Community Development in India (Some Recent Trends)†at the Bangalore University. He has published several book and articles on India’s social and economic problems. He is associated with a number of social welfare voluntary organizations. Currently he is Visiting Professor of Sociology, Maharaja Surajmal Institute, Janakpuri, New Delhi.
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