Noted Sociologist, Public Intellectual Prof T K Oommen Dies At 88
Eminent sociologist and public intellectual Tharailath Koshy Oommen, known as T.K. Oommen died on Thursday at the age of 88. The author, and Professor Emeritus at the Center for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Oommen’s demise marks the end of a notable chapter in Indian sociology.
Oommen was the 12th President of the International Sociological Association (1990–1994). The scholar leaves behind a formidable legacy of scholarship, public engagement, and institutional leadership. His academic career spanned over half a century, and earned a reputation for not just interpreting society but accentuating its truths, inequities, and possibilities.
Oommen belonged to that distinguished generation of scholars who treated the classroom as a civic space and scholarship as a form of public responsibility.
Born on 16 October 1937 as the second son of Saramma and Koshy of the Keerikattu family at Tharailath, Venmony, Alleppey, Travancore, Oommen obtained his BA in Economics from Kerala University, after early schooling in Alappuzha.
Read Also: Music Director S P Venkatesh Dies At 70 In Chennai
Tributes have poured in the demise of Oommen, whose intellectual contributions extended to defining communalism as the political manipulation of religious identity. He identified six dimensions of communalism: assimilationist, welfarist, retreatist, retaliatory, separatist, and secessionist — a framework that remains vital for understanding inter-community conflict.
His work on citizenship, nationhood, ethnicity, and pluralism offered not merely analytical frameworks but an ethical compass for understanding India.
RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha paid tributes stating the sociologist’s legacy will endure in the vocabulary he gave us to think about citizenship in a fractured world. “At a time when societies everywhere are tempted by the comfort of homogeneity, his work shall keep reminding us that pluralism is not a weakness but a moral achievement,” Kumar Jha wrote on X.
The passing of Prof. T. K. Oommen marks the quiet end of a great chapter in Indian sociology. He belonged to that distinguished generation of scholars who treated the classroom as a civic space and scholarship as a form of public responsibility.
**********
His work on… pic.twitter.com/NNwsKyCO5U— Manoj Kumar Jha (@manojkjhadu) February 26, 2026
