The Department of Sociology was established
in 1958. It had a modest beginning with only two teachers Mr. R.P.S. Gaur and
Dr. Indra Deo. Professor S.P. Nagendra joined the department as Professor and
Head in 1968. Under his visionary stewardship, the department gradually developed
and earned good reputation for teaching and research in Sociology. Professor Nagendra
guided the destiny of the department, till he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of
Lucknow University. Then, Professor D.P. Saxena took over as Head and continued
for about four years before his retirement. After his superannuation, Professor
G.B. Sahai, Professor P.S. Pandey and Professor K.K. Mishra headed the department
successively. The department, at present, is busy in academic pursuits under the
dynamic leadership of Prof. Gopal Yadav, an academician of international repute.
Needless to mention, since its inception, the department has been continuously
aware of its responsibilities, challenges and limitations. Gorakhpur is located
in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, an industrially underdeveloped and economically
handicapped region. Under these conditions, building up an infrastructure required
missionary zeal and visionary spirits to develop the department into a centre
of excellence. Fortunately, till date all the heads contributed substantially
for its growth.
Some of the distinguished faculty members after serving
this department for sometime, migrated to other universities to hold important
positions. Mr. R.P. Gaur and Prof. Indra Dev migrated to Rajasthan University,
Jaipur, Prof. S.K. Lal to Jodhpur University, Prof. P.N. Rastogi and Prof. Rajendra
Pandey to I.I.T. Kanpur, Prof. S.M. Dubey to Dibrugarh University, Prof. G.S.
Nepali to B.H.U. and Prof. V.K. Pant to Kumaun University, Nainital.
