Jit Singh Uberoi was born in Lahore, 1934, and received his higher education in London, Manchester and Canberra (Ph.D., Australian National University, 1965).
He was professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, 1969-1999, where he taught sociological theory and culture area studies. His doctoral thesis was on the social organization of the Tajiks of Afghanistan. He has written a trilogy on the sociology of science, Science and culture (1978), The other mind of Europe (1984), also translated into German, and The European modernity (2002); a monograph on the sociology of Sikhism, Religion, civil society and the state (1996); and a monograph on political anthropology, Politics of the kula ring (1962).
He received the Hocart prize, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1958, and the Pranavananda Saraswati award, University Grants Commission, New Delhi, 1996. He has been visiting professor in Britain and the U.S., France, Germany and Poland, the West Indies and Australia. He was the proctor, University of Delhi, the director, Delhi School of Economics, and was long active in university reforms and civil liberties.
He was a national fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research, 2002 to 2004.
