ABSTRACT

This chapter describes certain limitations and problems, as well as advantages, the author have found in using survey research techniques in India. From November, 1956, to March, 1958, the author gathered data in a small village in Uttar Pradesh for his Ph.D. dissertation on industrialism and Hinduism. The interview schedule presented unusual methodological problems. The field team was instructed to explain that the interviews were part of a large attitude study being done in two parts of India. A major drawback of survey research methods is that one loses the clarity of detail and the supplementary interpretive information that one obtains in a case study. The slight trend of differences between the "Twice-Born Castes" and "Scheduled Castes" appears on both tables, but continues not to be statistically significant. Where in North India the most impressive break with tradition appears among the "Twice-Born Castes", in South India the most impressive break appears among the "Scheduled Castes".