This article discusses a brief history of ‘modern’ social work in India before 1936. I present how abstract conceptions of scientifically informed and organized social work practice were brewing in colonial India, along with attempts to assemble or organize it. I use these accounts to further present certain nuances on the modalities of imported social work knowledge that dominated social work education in India after 1936.
AgnimitraNJhaMKShahidM (2015) Social work in India: Do we love being at crossroads?Indian Journal of Social Work76(3): 331–350.
2.
AISSC (1924) Report of all India social service conference. AISSC, Mumbai, India, pp. 1–109.
3.
BodhiSR (2020) Tribes and state policy in India: Revisiting governing principles from a decolonial social work perspective. The British Journal of Social Work50(8): 2372–2388.
4.
BrassP (2000) Foucault steals political science. Annual Review of Political Science3(1): 305–330.
5.
ChatterjeeP (1998) Our modernity. In: ChatterjeeP (ed.) The Present History of West Bengal: Essays in Political Criticism. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–260.
6.
DashB (2017) Revisiting eight decades of social work education in India. Asian Social Work and Policy Review11(1): 66–75.
7.
DreyfusHLRabinowP (1982) Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 130–166.
8.
EscobarA (1994) Encountering Development. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
9.
FoucaultM (1975) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books, pp. 10–39.
10.
GiddensA (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 1–109.
11.
GoreM (1966) The cultural perspective in social work in India. International Social Work9(3): 6–16.
12.
GoreMS (1997) A historical perspective of the social work profession. Indian Journal of Social Work58: 442–455.
13.
Indian Social Reformer (ISR) (ed.) (1921) Third All India Social Work Conference. Bombay: Tatva Vivechaka Press.
14.
Indian Social Reformer (ISR) (ed.) (1923a) Bhil Seva Mandal, Dohad. Bombay: Tatva Vivechaka Press.
15.
Indian Social Reformer (ISR) (ed.) (1923b) Miss Addams in Bombay. Bombay: Tatva Vivechaka Press.
16.
Indian Social Reformer (ISR) (1923c) Surat Seva Madal: Social Workers’ Sammelan by Surat Seva Mandal. Bombay: Tatva Vivechaka Press.
17.
Indian Social Reformer (ISR) (1925) The Bombay Social Service Conference. Bombay: Tatva Vivechaka Press, pp. 228–230, 243–244.
18.
Indian Social Reformer (ISR) (ed.) (1928) Editorial. Bombay: Tatva Vivechaka Press, pp. 535–541.
19.
KidambiP (2007) The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920. London: Ashgate, pp. 1–239.
20.
KothariU (2006) From colonialism to development: Continuities and divergences. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics44(1): 118–136.
21.
LugonesM (2008) Coloniality and gender. Tabula rasa9: 73–102.
22.
ManshardtC (1935) Training for Social Work. Bombay: Tatva Vivechaka Press.
23.
MidgleyJ (1981) Professional Imperialism: Social Work in the Third World. London: Heinemann, pp. 1–189.
24.
MignoloWDTlostanovaMV (2006) Theorizing from the borders: Shifting to geo- and body-politics of knowledge. European Journal of Social Theory9(2): 205–221.
25.
MitraD (2019) Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 10–34.
26.
NagpaulH (1988a) Social work education in contemporary India: Need foundations. Journal of International and Comparative Social Welfare4(2): 18–34.
27.
NagpaulH (1988b) The profession of social work in contemporary India. Indian Journal of Social Research29(4): 339–354.
28.
PatelS (2017) Colonial modernity and methodological nationalism: The structuring of sociological traditions of India. Sociological Bulletin66(2): 125–144.
29.
RaghuramarajuA (2010) Modernity in Indian Social Theory. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, pp. 4–26.
30.
ReischM (1998) The sociopolitical context and social work method, 1890–1950. Social Service Review72(2): 161–181.
31.
Servants of India Society (SIS) (1926) Report of work. SIS Newsletter16(1): 12.
32.
SinghSGumzECrawleyB (2011) Predicting India’s future: Does it justify the exportation of US social work education?Social Work Education3(7): 861–873.
33.
TaylorD (2009) Normativity and normalization. Foucault Studies7(1): 45–63.
34.
VeerP (1996) Conversion to Modernities: The Globalization of Christianity. New York: Routledge, pp. 4–26.
35.
WagnerP (2012) Modernity: Understanding the Present. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 8–22.