Ramkrishna Mukherjee

He was born to a middle-class family in Kolkata, India, his father Satindra Nath being an engineer in the Indian Railways. He obtained MSc degree in 1941 from University of Calcutta and a PhD in 1948 from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. From 1941 to 1944 he was an activist in the Peasant movement. Although he specialized in human genetics, he took lessons in statistics from Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, founder of the ISI.{{cite journal|last1=Munshi|first1=Surendra|title=Social change in India Reconsidering Ramkrishna Mukherjee|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|date=2016|volume=51|issue=39|page=40|url=https://www.academia.edu/28763562}}

In 1948 and 1949 he was Chief Research Officer to His Majesty's Social Survey, London and had been Consultant to Government of Turkey in 1949 and Consultant to the London School of Economics in 1952. He began his career as a Professor at the Institute of Indian Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany from 1953 to 1957. He was adjunct professor at Binghamton University in the United States from 1977 to 1989. He spent most of his professional life with the Indian Statistical Institute from 1944 until his retirement in 1979.{{cite web|title=Ramkrishna Mukherjee|url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n78095765.html|website=Library of Congress Name Authority File}}

Along with DP Mukerji, he established the All India Sociological Conference (AISC).{{cite journal|last1=Patel|first1=S.|title=The Profession and Its Association-Five Decades of the Indian Sociological Society|journal=International Sociology|date=2002|volume=17|issue=2|pages=269–284|url=https://www.academia.edu/323748|doi=10.1177/0268580902017002008|s2cid=143490100}} He worked as adviser for social science institutions and journals in India and abroad. With his work the theme of agrarian social structure and change was to re-appear in Indian Sociology only after a gap of nearly two decades in the late 1960s and 1970s. Among Indian sociologists, he stressed the importance of a dialectic model for the study of Indian society and made systematic as well as empirical studies using this model. This is exemplified by his book Rise and Fall of East India Company (1958) which is a contribution to economic and social history of the institutionalization of colonialism in India .In his later works Ramkrishna Mukherjee had changed from dialectical - historical to a probabilistic nomological approach to the study of social reality He tried to develop an inductive methodology for social sciences.{{cite journal|last1=Bose|first1=Pradip Kumar|title=Problems and Paradoxes of Inductive Social Science- A Critique of Ramkrishna Mukherjee|journal=Sociological Bulletin|date=1997|volume=46|issue=2|pages=153–171|jstor=23619587|doi=10.1177/0038022919970201|s2cid=171179656}} His research interests included genetics, studies in classification of families, rural society, historical sociology, problems of acculturationRamkrishna Mukherjee. The Problem of Uganda. A Study in Acculturation. Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Klasse für Philosophie, Geschichte, Staats-, Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften. Jahrgang 1955 Nr. 2. Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1956. and Social Indicators Research{{cite web|title=Contribution of Ramkrishna Mukherjee to Indian Sociology|url=https://yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/contribution-of-ramkrishna-mukherjee-to-indian-sociology/35055|website=Your Article Library|date=2014-04-11}} besides which he contributed over subjects like family, caste and class, agrarian relations in West Bengal, nationalism in Bangladesh, urbanization and social change and colonial exploitation by the East India Company and in Uganda, and also contributed towards designing of National Sample Surveys. He had a Marxian and historical perspective with which he studied social institutions such as family and caste.{{cite web|last1=Lindberg|first1=Staffan|title=Some Unity in Diversity:Analysing Inequality, Change and Mobility in Rural South India|date=2016|url=https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/files/11495235/Lindberg_some_Unity_in|website=Lund University}}

• Asiatic Society Gold Medal for Anthropology (1981)
• National Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research from 1992 to 1994
• [https://www.ugc.ac.in/page/Honours-and-Awards.aspx%27 Swami Pranavanand Education Award for Sociology] by University Grants Commission| New Delhi,(1985)
• {{cite web|title=Pandit Jawaharla Nehru National Award Social Science|date=1986|url=http://mpcost.gov.in/WriteReadData/UserFiles/file//NATIONAL-SOCIAL%20SCIENCE.pdf}}by Government of Madhya Pradesh
• Member-Executive Committee, International Sociological Association| (ISA) (1976){{cite web|title=ISA Executive Committee Members -1976|url=http://www.isa-sociology.org/uploads/files/isa-bulletin11.pdf|website=ISA Bulletin11}}

Mukherjee married Prabhati Mukherjee, an academician, who died in 2008. They had two daughters, both of whom entered the academic field.

• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee, Trevor, Rao|title=Ancient Inhabitants of Jabel Moya Sudan|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1955|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BDYdC5n28fgC&q=0521134749|isbn=9780521134743}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=The Sociologist and Social Change in India Today|publisher=New Delhi, Prentice Hall|date=1965|oclc=8323616|asin=B000IUNVH6}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Six villages of Bengal|publisher=Popular Prakashan|date=1971|asin=B0006CDL3U}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=The Dynamics of A Rural Society-A study of the Economic Structure of Bengal Villages|publisher=Akademie-verlag- Berlin|date=1957|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jqs30ViYcJMC&q=8171552153&pg=PR4|isbn=9788171552153}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=The Rise and Fall of the East India Company-A Sociological Appraisal|publisher=Popular Prakashan|date=1958|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFEhAAAAMAAJ&q=o865430160|isbn=978-0853453154}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Social Indicators|publisher=Delhi, MacMillan Company|date=1975|oclc=2290516|isbn=978-0333900901}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Family and Planning in India|publisher=Bombay, Orient Longman|date=1976|oclc=3558626}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=What will it be? Explorations in Inductive Sociology|publisher=Carolina Academic Press|date=1978|oclc=5979960|isbn=978-0890890943}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Classification in Social Research|publisher=State University, New York|date=1984|url=https://archive.org/details/classificationin0000mukh|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/classificationin0000mukh/page/55 55]|quote=087395607g.|isbn=9780873956079}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=The Measure of Time in the Appraisal of Social Reality|publisher=Cambridge Scholar Publishing|date=2009|isbn=9781443805766}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Uganda, an historical accident?:Class, Nation and State Formation|publisher=Africa Research and Publications|date=1985|isbn=0865430152}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=The Quality of Life, Valuation in Social Research|publisher=Sage publications |date=1989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHq6AAAAIAAJ&q=865403160|isbn=9780803995871}}{{isbn|0803995873}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Why Unitary Social Science?|publisher=Cambridge Scholar Publishing|date=2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uLMLBwAAQBAJ&q=1443802123|isbn=9781443803076}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Systemic Sociology|publisher=Sage Publications|date=1993|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XktraNwV8K4C&q=8170363527 |isbn=978-8170363521}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=West Bengal Family Structures,1946-1966: An Example of Viability of Joint family|publisher=South Asia Books|date=1977|isbn=9780333901311|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMEJAQAAIAAJ}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Society, Culture, Development|publisher=Sage Publications|date=1991|isbn=0803991029}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Sociology of Indian Sociology|publisher=Bombay Allied|date=1979|oclc=6280302}}

• {{cite book|last =Mukherjee, Mukherjee|title=Methodology in Social Research- Dilemmas and Perspectives-Essays in Honor of Ramkrishna Mukherjee|publisher=Sage Publications|date=2000|isbn=9780761994404}}
• {{cite book|last=Mukherjee, Kar|title=Globalization-Trends and Perspectives - Essays in Honor of Ramkrishna Mukherjee|publisher=Kolkata Directed Initiatives|date=2002|url=http://www.gbv.de/dms/zbw/363641580.pdf |oclc=52929145}}
• {{cite book|last=Bhattacharya, Ghosh, Das|title=Sociology in the Rubric Social Science- Professor Ramkrishna Mukherjee felicitation volume|publisher=Anthropological Survey of India|date=1995|isbn=978-8185579337}}
• {{cite book|last=MukherjeeParthNath|display-authors=etal|title=Understanding Social Dynamics in South Asia: Essays in memory of Ramkrishna Mukherjee|date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-9811303869}}

• {{Cite journal|last=Mukherjee, Mahalnobis, Ghosh|title=A Sample Survey of After-Effects of the Bengal Famine|date=1946|journal=Sankhya|volume=7|issue=4|pages=337–400|jstor=25047881}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Sociologists and Social Change in India Today|journal=Sociological Bulletin|volume=11|issue=1/2|pages=4–13|date=1962|jstor=23618811|doi=10.1177/0038022919620102|s2cid=157545526}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Some observations on diachronic and synchronic aspects of social change|date=1968|journal=Social Science Information|volume=7|pages=31–53|doi=10.1177/053901846800700102|s2cid=145794697}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Social Background of Bangla Desh|date=1972|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=7|issue=5/7|pages=265–274|jstor=4361004}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Empirical social research on contemperory India|journal=Social Science Information|volume=8|issue=6|pages=69–83|date=1969|doi=10.1177/053901846900800605|s2cid=145166890}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Realities of Agrarian Relations in India|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=16|issue=4|pages=109–116|date=1981|jstor=4369463}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=For a Sociology of India-Trends in Indian Sociology|journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology|volume=13|issue=2|pages=319–332|date=1979|doi=10.1177/006996677901300207|s2cid=143637640}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=On the Use of Social Indicators for Planning|journal=Social Indicators Research|volume=9|issue=2|pages=183–195|date=1981|doi=10.1007/BF00286196|s2cid=144470812}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=I P Desai and Sociology of India|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=21|issue=4|pages=164–168|date=1986|jstor=4375254}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Social and Cultural Components of Society and Appraisal of Social Reality|date=1991|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=26|issue=4|pages=PE21–PE36|jstor=4397241}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Social Reality and Culture|date=1998|journal=Current Sociology|volume=46|issue=2|pages=39–50|doi=10.1177/0011392198046002005|s2cid=143726807}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=The Sociologist and The Social Reality|date=1974|journal=Sociological Bulletin|volume=23|issue=2|pages=169–192|jstor=23618941|doi=10.1177/0038022919740202|s2cid=151484377}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Caste in Itself, Caste and Class, or Caste in Class|date=1999|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=34|issue=27|pages=1759–1761|jstor=4408152}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|first=Ramkrishna|title=Study of Social Change and Social Development in Developing Societies|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=5|issue=29/31|pages=1159–1170|date=1970|jstor=4360261}}
• {{cite journal|last=Mukherjee|display-authors=etal|title=Data Inventory on Social Sciences:India:First Phase:1967-68|journal=Sankhya|volume=32|issue=1/2|pages=99–140|date=1970|jstor=25051723}}
• {{cite journal |jstor=23619815|title=Radha Kamal Mukerjee—A Note|journal=Sociological Bulletin|volume=38|issue=2|pages=261–265|last1=Mukherjee|first1=Ramkrishna|year=1989|doi=10.1177/0038022919890207|s2cid=157343186}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal|title= Ramkrishna Mukherjee in conversation with Anjan Ghosh|date=2014|journal=Sociological Bulletin|volume=63|issue=1|pages=113–140|jstor=43854956|last1=Mukherjee|first1=Ramkrishna|last2=Ghosh|first2=Anjan|doi=10.1177/0038022920140107|s2cid=151336707}}
• {{cite journal|title=Red Fifties:Ramkrishna Mukherjee, Frank Girling, Marxist Anthropology and anti-communism|journal= Journal of the Asiatic Society|date=2017|url=https://redthirties.wordpress.com/category/ramkrishna-mukherjee}}

• [https://www.isical.ac.in/Announcement_SRU.pdf Special lectures commemorating Professor Ramkrishna Mukherjee, 28-29 March 2016]
• [https://www.epw.in/journal/2016/10/commentary/ramkrishna-mukherjee.html In Memorium Ramkrishna Mukherjee by TNMadan]

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