Rethinking Social Research in North East India | Dr. G. Kanato Chophy
Channel: Tetso College
Date: 2022-09-21

The Department of Sociology held a seminar titled 'Rethinking Social Research in North East India' with Dr. G. Kanato Chophy, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam as the guest speaker on 12th August 2022.

Concept Note: Research is an essential enterprise in Sociology. Sociologists are interested in understanding the realities of the social world. The scientific study of society, social research, is possible only with the assistance of a research methodology. There are varieties of research methods, each with its merits and demerits; and the researcher’s choice of an appropriate methodology largely determines the outcome of a research project. The application of concept(s) forms part of research methodology. Concepts, in social research, are recognized as formally and logically developed ideas of classes of phenomena which a researcher attempts to study.

The North East region of India is recognized as a virtual gold mine for researchers from almost all disciplines (Bhattacharjee, 2010). Amongst the other research themes that have been explored/yet to be explored vis-a-vis the region, the issues and challenges of doing research in the region is one which requires rigorous and continuous deliberation. Professor Xaxa (2010), an eminent sociologist, observed that researches related to the North East were repetitive and, he thus, called for newer methods of doing research.

The study of North-East India as a geopolitical and cultural zone largely remains discipline-specific, and hitherto a rigorous inter-disciplinary approach has not received its due attention. This also primarily stems from the lack of innovative conceptual and theoretical developments. In this discussion, Dr. G. Kanato Chophy, attempts to locate the North-East within new conceptual categories transcending the disciplinary barriers in the social sciences.

About the Speaker: Dr. G. Kanato Chophy is Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam. His research interests include tribal studies, anthropology of  religion, and North-East India studies. He was a recipient of the New India Fellowship 2017. His most recent work is Christianity and Politics in Tribal India: Baptist Missionaries and Naga Nationalism (2021) published by Permanent Black and State University of New York Press.