By Walter Fernandes
Shillong, September 7, 2019: A Jesuit priest, Prof. Alphonsus D’Souza, who was often known as “Father of Sociology in Nagaland” died on September 6. He was 78.
Father D’Souza, Senior Fellow at North Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati (NESRC) passed away on September 6 morning.
NESRC was founded in 2000 as a center to combine serious intellectual pursuits with involvement with persons and groups active in social change in the North East (India) region.
In Mangalore he founded the Department at St Aloysius College, Mangalore in 1972 and taught there till 1995. In that year he shifted to St Joseph’s College, Jakhama, Nagaland, to found the first Department of Sociology in that State.
As such he is the Father of Sociology in Nagaland. He taught there till 2008 and then shifted to Guwahati as Senior Fellow at NESRC. He was diagnosed with cancer of lung in June this year and died peacefully at 7.05 a.m. (local time).
A funeral mass was held at 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 7 at the Catholic Cathedral, Rukminigaon, Dispur.
His funeral will be held at the Jesuit Novitiate, Mawshohroh, Shillong on Sunday, September 8 at 10 a.m.
He is a Jesuit priest and an eminent sociologist who has written much particularly on Nagaland.