Professor Arvind M. Shah retired from his professorship in the Department of Sociology at the University of Delhi in 1996. He had been a student of M. N. Srinivas in 1952 and became a teacher in sociology at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, in 1958. He moved to the University of Delhi in 1961.[1]
According to Hetukar Jha, Shah wrote the first paper on the sociological history of India.[2] He was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award from the Indian Sociological Society (ISS) in 2009.[3] He had held the office of ISS President in 1992-93 and had been secretary, sometimes jointly, from 1967 to 1972.[4]
Among Shah's publications, his The Household Dimension of the Family in India (1973) is regarded as a landmark study and in 2014 was re-issued in a single volume titled The Writings of A. M. Shah: The Household and Family in India, which included some of his later writings on the subject - The Family in India: Critical Essays (1998) and Essays on the Family and the Elderly.
A festschrift in Shah's honour was published in 2010, entitled Understanding Indian Society: Past and Present (Essays for A M Shah).[5]