EDUCATION, RELIGION AND CREATIVITY

This book is the second of the four-volume Festschrift – Modernization, Globalization and Social Transformation – in honour of one of the stalwarts of sociology in India, Professor Yogendra Singh. As the title Education, Religion and Creativity suggests, it has three sections. The first section on education examines not only the state of higher education in a globalizing India, decline of the university as a public institution, and the trends of youth sexuality but also the challenges for curriculum, issue of sex education in the broader context of tradition and modernity, besides the sociology of textbooks. A case study of a school near the India-Pakistan border also raises the hope of peace in the overall context of civil-military relations.
The second section focusing on religion investigates how religion could be mobilized for dignity and development of a dalit community, and also how a heritage village besides being a sacred place can emerge as a modern, developed village. While one paper argues that Hinduism is inclusivist and not exclusivist, another one shows that how the Jagannath Temple, one of the icons of Hinduism, promotes exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism at the same time.
The papers in the last section on creativity analyse not only the relationship between literature and society but also between time and creativity from sociological perspective. A thorough sociological review of the art of Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay has also been undertaken enriching the sociology of literature. Besides these, music as well as such creative and recreational dimensions of creativity as television, leisure and tourism have also been examined.

Ishwar Modi is President of the Indian Sociological Society, and Director, India International Institute of Social Sciences. He was also the Founder Director, Centre for Leisure and Tourism Studies, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur and a Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Health Management Research. A pioneer of leisure studies in India, he is an Honorary Life Member of the World Leisure Organization and also a Senior Fellow and Founder Member of the World Leisure Academy. He is currently an Executive Committee Member of the International Sociological Association and President of its Research Committee on Sociology of Leisure and a Board Member of the Research Committee on Sociology of Health. He also served as Secretary, Indian Sociological Society (2007-2009) and President, Rajasthan Sociological Association (2005-2009), and is on the Editorial/Editorial Advisory Boards of quite a few national and international journals.