Prof. Dipankar Gupta speaks on The Invention of Society at JNU

‪@samimasgoralijnu‬Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University presented CSSS Colloquium where Prof. Dipankar Gupta delivered the lecture on The Invention of Society which is part of his forthcoming book titled The Invention of Sociology. Date & Time: September 4th, 2025 (Thursday), 3.00 pm, Venue: Committee Room SSS-I JNU *Video recorded & edited by me (Samim Asgor Ali, the owner of this YouTube Channel) *Abstract: Society, truly speaking, is not a collective living in proximity but one where individuals interact, across hierarchies and categories, to pursue their interests subject only to the single universal constraint of “what cannot be done.” Earlier thinkers have missed this point and only stressed normative unanimity and acceptance of laid down alternatives. When the emphasis is on “what cannot be done”, it leaves the field wide open to what can be done which is why in societies we have had a phenomenal burst in innovation, technological as well as in terms of human relationships. As this constraint is universal, it is best expressed only in a democracy where citizenship is paramount. This also recognises the truth that ethics of citizenship do not emerge spontaneously, but that they are carefully crafted and need to be guarded zealously. All the major concepts one studies in sociology emerge from this setting for which reason it is incumbent on sociologists to protect the society that democracy has invented. *Prof. Dipankar Gupta studied Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics and has a PhD from CSSS, JNU. He was a faculty member of CSSS from 1980-2009. He was co-editor of Contributions to Indian Sociology for 15 years, Member of the RBI Board, ⁠ Member of the National Security Advisory Board, and founded KPMG’s Business Ethics Practice and led it from 1998-2007. He received the Malcolm Adeseshiah Award (2005) and has been awarded the Chevalier De L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Artes and Letters) by the French Government (2010). He has published over 100 articles in scholarly journals and has authored and edited 22 books. His most recent books are: Checkpoint Sociology: A Cultural Reading of Policies and Politics (2023, Aakar/Routledge), Talking Sociology (2018, OUP), From People to Citizen: Democracy's Must Take Road (2017, Social Science Press/Routledge), QED: India tests Social Theory (2017, OUP), Revolution from Above: India’s Future and the Citizen Elite (2013, Rupa), Justice before Reconciliation: Towards a ‘New Normal’ in Post-Riot Mumbai and Ahmedabad (2011, Routledge), The Caged Phoenix: Can India Fly? (2010, Stanford University Press)⁠. #society #sociology #jnu #secularism #theology #state #theocracy #democracy