Psychology for India

Durganand Sinha was a visionary who gave psychology in India new directions and identity through his seminal writings and efforts. This is the first book featuring Durganand Sinha’s seminal contributions to psychology. It includes his key articles in the areas of indigenous psychology; self, family and social values; and human and socio-economic development. His life-long endeavour was to develop a psychology for India, and his publications opened up new areas of research. His book Psychology in a Third World Country: The Indian Experience (1986), a SAGE publication, played an important role in shaping contemporary psychological research in India. This volume will inspire researchers in various disciplines of social sciences to pursue research for psycho-socio-economic development of India.

Durganand Sinha (Born: 23 September 1922; Died: 23 March 1998) did his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy (with specialization in Psychology) from Patna University. Subsequently, he went to Cambridge University where he was awarded the M.Sc. degree. On his return to India in 1949, Professor Sinha joined as the faculty of Psychology at Patna University. His research article ‘Behavior in a catastrophic situation: A psychological study of reports and rumors’ published in the British Journal of Psychology showed his scientific creativity and responsiveness to the problems of his immediate surroundings. He left Patna in 1958 and joined the newly established Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.Professor Sinha came to Allahabad University in 1961 as a professor to chair the newly created Department of Psychology. In the mid-1980s, he also served as the Director of the A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna. The present status of the Department of Psychology at Allahabad as a Centre of Advanced Study owes much to his vision and dedication.In a career spanning half a century, Professor Sinha made significant contributions as a researcher in diverse areas. It encompassed the role of socio-cultural factors in perception and cognition; changes in the Indian family and the implications for the socialization process; larger applied social psychological issues such as motivation and rural development, deprivation and poverty; and social change. His books (listed in the section ‘Complete Works of Durganand Sinha’ in this volume) have left his name permanently in the field of psychology of social sciences. In India, he was a central figure of the psychological profession. He served as the President of the Indian Psychological Association, the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology and Psychology Section of the Indian Science Congress. Girishwar Misra is Professor of Psychology and currently Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha. Some of his recent publications are: Psychological Perspectives on Stress and Health (2000), Rethinking Intelligence (with A.K. Srivastava, 2007), Psychology and Societal Development, Foundations of Indian Psychology (with Matthijs R. Cornellison and S. Varma, 2011), Psychology in India: Advances in Research, Handbook of Psychology in India (2011), New Directions in Health Psychology (Ajit Dalal, 2012) and Psychology and Psychoanalysis (2013). He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Psychological Studies. He is currently coordinating the Sixth ICSSR Survey of Psychological Research in India as its Chief Editor. Ajit K Dalal is currently Writer-in Residence at the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra. He has recently retired as a professor of psychology from the University of Allahabad. He was the Head of Psychology Department (2011–2012) and had held several other academic positions at the university. He was the editor of an international journal, Psychology and D