Ncert Class 12 Sociology Essay Example

Ncert Class 12 Sociology Essay Textbook of Sociology for Class XII SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA Textbook of Sociology for Class XII M. N. KARNA CONTENTS 1. Structural Processes of Change 2. Cultural Processes of Change 3. State and Social Change 4. Legislation and Democratic Decentralisation 5. Economic Development and Social Change 6. New Groups, Classes and Globalisation 7. Education and Social Change 8. Mass Media and Cultural Change 9. Dissent and Social Change 10. Social Deviance 1 14 25 36 47 57 69 77 86 99 STRUCTURAL PROCESSES OF CHANGE 1 CHAPTER 1 Structural Process of Change Change is a fact of human life. We may not be aware of it in our day-to-day experience but it continues to affect us in one way or the other. A hundred and thousand years might be a moment in the life of rocks and mountains but in human society changes take place in the course of merely a generation or two. Think of a situation in which your grandmother was living in a village where a large number of family members were staying together in one household. She had to maintain purdah and was not allowed to come out of the four walls of the house till she had become old. Now compare it with the condition of your mother. We will write a custom essay sample on Ncert Class 12 Sociology specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Ncert Class 12 Sociology specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Ncert Class 12 Sociology specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Do you not find a change in the structure of your own family, now when only a few members are staying together ? Your uncle is living in another household with his wife and children. Likewise, your grandfather was an agriculturist but your father might have shifted to the urban area to take up a job in a government office. You will notice several corresponding changes even in the life-style of your own family. These alterations have occurred merely in a generation or two. A close look will reveal changes both in the structure and function of family and in patterns of occupations. It is this dimension of change that we intend to study in the present course. Our focus will be on the nature and extent of social change in contemporary Indian society. The study of social change in India is important for several reasons. It tells us how contemporary Indian society is transforming from a traditional society to a modern developed society. It shows how changes are occurring in our social institutions and what are the factors bringing about such changes. It also indicates our achievements as a nation and identifies problems and setbacks in certain areas of our life. Social change is a process, in the sense that it involves a series of events over a period of time. The idea of continuity is implied in it and shows a sequence of operations that bring about change. Thus, the notion of process indicates two major dimensions of social change—its nature and direction. While the nature of change reveals content of change, the direction speaks about the line in which it is moving. We intend to 2 SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA discuss here both the substance and the factors of change. Sociologists in India have analysed the process of social change under two broad categories—structural processes and cultural processes. Structural processes of change are due to a transformation in the network of social relationships. Caste, kinship, family and occupational groups constitute some of the structural realities. Change in these relationships is a structural change. When the traditional agrarian system based on family labour is transformed into agrarian system based on hired labour with a view to produce for the market, we may call it a structural change. The transfor mation of joint family to nuclear family brings about change in structure and function of family. It is through the process of differentiation of roles that structural change takes place. To put it differently, role of a social institution changes due to specific sequence of events making it more effective in the changed situation. In fact, structural differentiation of roles leads to functional specialisation. Reverting to our earlier example, in addition to procreation and rearing of children, joint family performed numerous roles in traditional society in the fields of education, occupation and social security . But after its transformation into nuclear family most of these functions have been taken over by specialised agencies such as schools, economic organisations, government departments and other institutions. Structural change as a result of role differentiation is noticed in almost all domains of social life. You are already familiar with the factors of social change. Therefore, we shall focus on structural processes of social change namely, industrialisation, Westernisation and modernisation. INDUSTRIALISATION Science is an important element of human heritage that produces a systematic knowledge of nature. Technology, on the other hand, is that element which contains the application of this knowledge. In this sense, technology has a utilitarian goal. It has developed mainly due to a desire to apply it for the advantage of common people. This goal has been realised in almost every sphere—industry, agriculture, transport, communication and such other areas. The rapid changes that we experience in our dayto-day life are related to the development of new techniques, new inventions and new modes of production. The application of modern technology in industry has influenced not only our economic life but also our social and cultural system. Industrialisation is a process of technological advancement from domestic production with simple tools to large-scale factory based production. However, sociologically, the term implies a process of economic and social changes arising out of the change in the structure of industry. Industrialisation involves a broad range of social factors that deeply affect the character of social STRUCTURAL PROCESSES OF CHANGE 3 life. For instance, factories give rise to elaborate division of labour, new work culture, etc. Industrialisation in India A wide network of domestic and cottage industries was existing in India even prior to British colonial rule. But modern large-scale industry came only during the later part of the nineteenth century after the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Between the 1850’s when the first major industries started, and 1914 India had established the world’s largest jute manufacturing industry, the fifth largest cotton textile industry and the third largest railway network. In this manner, India had almost a century of industrial development on the eve of the independence. After independence, the pace of industrialisation was significantly accelerated during the periods of FiveYear Plans. It saw the expansion and diversification of the industrial structure with the establishment of several new units. In 1951, there were only two major units producing iron and steel. The number of such major steel plants increased to six by 1980s with the installed capacity of 80 lakh tonnes. The country has made considerable progress in the field of new industries, agricultural tractors, electronics, fertiliser etc. , which were practically nonexistent in 1951. The textile industry is no longer confined to cotton and jute textiles but to a large number of units producing different types of synthetic fibres. An important feature of industrial growth after independence has been the rapid expansion of the public sector enterprises. These produce diverse products such as steel, coal, heavy and light engineering goods, locomotives, aircraft, petroleum products and fertilizers. A brief sketch of industrial growth in India may give us an idea of the extent of industrialisation that has taken place in the country since attaining independence. Social Consequences of Industrialisation We may now turn our attention to the economic and social consequences of industrialisation. Our economic life has witnessed tremendous structural change in the wake of industrialisation. Production has been brought substantially to the factory. Elaborate division of labour, pecialisation of tasks and the growth of a class of industrial workers have resulted from changes in the industrial system. Similarly, the nature of agricultural production has also changed because of change in agricultural practices. With the alteration in agricultural practices, alterations have also occurred in agrarian relations and the life-styles of farm househo lds. Moreover, industrialisation has changed the family mode of production and women are increasingly found in farms, firms and factories to perform different tasks. The new economic role has placed women in the new 4 SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA nvironment where they experience a changed social status. This new role of women in turn has brought greater participation of women in decision making in the family. These changes have occurred due to occupational diversification that has been brought about by industrialisation. For example, it cannot be expected that all working members of a family will get jobs in similar occupations and professions and will be posted at the same place. One member, for example, may be engaged in the cultivation of family land in Uttar Pradesh and the other may take up an employment as an engineer in Chennai. Under these circumstances, the break-up of a joint family into small nuclear families is natural. Such structural changes are also accompanied by functional distinctive-ness. For example, the traditional joint family as mentioned earlier, was a multifunctional institution. It had innumerable economic, educational, recreational, socialisational and biological functions. Now, except for the biological and socialisational functions of the family, most of the other functions have been taken over by formal economic organisations, associations and the state. Development of transport and communication have resulted in far reaching consequences. Railways, automobiles and marine transportations have not only increased spatial mobility but have also quickened the rate of internal and external migration. A large number of people are migrating from rural to urban areas to take up new occupations. Similarly, both skilled and unskilled women and men are travelling out of the country in search of better careers. Changes are also witnessed in the system of social stratification. Significant changes are observed in the case of caste system, which is an important structural reality of Indian social system. The separation between caste and occupation is a significant change that has taken place. The occupational diversification has made several occupations ‘caste free’. It is, however, more in towns than in villages and even greater in the large industrialised cities. A considerable number of people located earlier at the lower levels of caste hierarchy and engaged in caste-based occupations are now entering into new occupations. Likewise, castes considered higher in the hierarchy are coming forward for occupations not preferred earlier. The members of lower castes dispensed with traditional occupations primarily because they were considered ‘impure’ and were endowed with low status besides being less profitable. On the other hand, members of upper castes such as Brahmin, Rajput and Kayasth in North India were compelled to take up work like manual labourers, peons in offices and such other low status jobs. In addition to modifications in occupational structure and mobility, changes are seen in the inter-caste power structure. We have so far analysed the socio-economic consequences of STRUCTURAL PROCESSES OF CHANGE 5 industrialisation but we should not overlook one basic fact in this regard. The way in which a society responds to the industrial changes depends on its own creative genius and social environment. We, therefore, find a substantial difference between one society and another in the degree to which changes take place as a result of industrialisation. impersonal. The relationship is based on a complex division of labour and is contractual in nature. Urbanisation in India India is a land of villages and will remain so for decades to come. However, it does not mean that cities have been absent from this vast sub-continent. Existence of cities in India can be traced back to as early as third millennium B . C . Archeological excavations reveal older traces of urbanisation. Historians tell us that a truly urban civilisation emerged in the Indus Valley with Mohenjodaro and Harappa as important urban centres. In addition to these two cities, several other urban settlements such as Kalibangan in northern Rajasthan, Lothal in Gujarat and Banwali in Haryana also emerged as the major centres. In the subsequent period, urbanisation was not confined to a particular area. This phase of urbanisation finds mention in the postVedic literature in the north and Sangam literature in the south. The Buddhist texts also mention the existence of the urban centres. Furthermore, urbanisation during the medieval times was spread out from Srinagar in the north to Madurai in the south. This period was marked more by the revival of old cities than the establishment of new cities and towns. These preindustrial cities, however, existed primarily as centres of pilgrimage, as royal capitals and as trading centres. Cities with modern industrial character grew in India only after the URBANISATION Urbanisation is a process by which people instead of living in villages start living in towns and cities. It involves a mode by which agriculture-based habitat is transformed into nonagricultural urban habitat. The growth of urban centres is the result of accelerated industrial and service functions. An increase in the size of towns and cities leading to growth of urban population is the most significant dimension of urbanisation. These centres are essentially non-agricultural in character. Urbanisation as a structural process of change is related to industrialisation but it is not always the result of industrialisation. In certain cases, urbanisation has taken place even without industrialisation. Industrialisation is always connected with economic growth but we cannot say the same about urbanisation. Urban environment produces a particular kind of social life which Lois Wirth, a core member of the Chicago School, calls urbanism. Social life in cities is more formal and 6 SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA contact with the West. The process of urbanisation was accelerated during the British colonial regime. The British Indian administration promoted urbanisation on a large scale. The major port towns of Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai owe their beginning, growth and importance to the colonial efforts. Similarly, regional summer capitals were established in remote mountainous areas like Srinagar, Shillong and Shimla. The princely states did not develop as fast but even they had capital towns. Some of the princely states like Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur and Mysore had population exceeding one lakh. The urban scenario changed remarkably after independence. The proportion of urban population to the total population increased from 17. 6 per cent in 1951 to 25. 7 per cent in 1991. The number of cities with population of one million or more increased from 5 to 23 during the same period. According to the census of 2001 urban population stands at 27. 78 per cent and number of cities having population more than one million has increased to 35. The noteworthy growth of urban population after independence has been largely due to the rapid increase in population, ruralurban migration, city-centred industrialisation and the over all neglect of villages. The emerging trends of urbanisation in India reveal that urban migration is fairly significant. A large number of people from rural areas are shifting not only to big cities but even to medium-sized cities and small towns. Distance is not a barrier. One readily finds villagers moving from farflung areas of north Indian state to the cities in south India. Migrants are mainly employed in manufacturing and service occupations. Besides, the seasonal migration of unskilled labourers, too, has become common. We find labourers from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa working in agricultural farms of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Labourers begin with seasonal migration and later on start settling permanently in areas of their choice. Social Effects of Urbanisation Let us now turn to the social effects of accelerated urbanisation. Urbanisation has altered the structure of joint family as a result of occupational diversification. Consequently, the functions of family and kinship have declined considerably. The traditional family norms are relaxed and interpersonal relationships have become more formal. An urban child now grows within much smaller world. No kinsmen are available in nuclear family to take care of her/ him. The child has to select playmates outside the family. In this manner, the child develops a new type of personality characterised by ideas of freedom and innovation. Such a situation is remarkably different from the environment of dependence found in a joint family. The nature of love and affection in interpersonal relationship has also changed. While children and STRUCTURAL PROCESSES OF CHANGE 7 their mothers receive considerable attention, sentiments and attachment towards other relatives have weakened. Likewise, the division of domestic duties between wife and husband is changing in the urban settings. They both share domestic duties, as there is no other adult member available to share the burden. Thus, social life in urban areas faces isolation due to diminishing kinship obligations. Several ties that formerly bound members of the family to group and community life are now broken. Consequently, the quality of human relationships tends to become more formal and impersonal. Another visible change is in the domain of caste identity. Urban dwellers participate in networks that include persons of several castes. Individual achievement and modern status symbols have become more important than caste identity. Caste norms are not strictly maintained which is manifest in commensal relations, marital alliances and in occupational relations. It is, thus, possible to suggest that urban way of life has made people think more as individuals than as members of a particular caste. The importance of ascription as the basis of social status is declining and the significance of achievement is taking its place. The level of education, nature of occupation and the level of income are now major indicators of one’s achievement in an urban setup. Therefore, people recognise education, occupation and income as prerequisites for higher ocial status. It does not mean that the achieved status has completely replaced ascribed status and class has fully overshadowed caste. It is, however, necessary to clarify that changes brought about by urbanisation have not altogether replaced the traditional patterns of family, kinship and caste. They go through adaptations and their functions are not completely erod ed. Urban Problems We have already seen how urbanisation is proceeding at a considerable pace in India. It has affected different domains of people’s life. The expansion of urban centres has also given rise to a variety of problems. The physical space is dingy, quality of life is poor and urban governance is unimaginative. Overcrowding and pollution, sub-standard housing and slums, crime and delinquency, alcoholism and drug abuse are a few of them. We shall discuss some of them which have far reaching consequences for the country. Urban overcrowding is the result of the massive size of India’s urban population. Its impact is visible in declining services in the areas of housing, water supply, sanitation, transport, power supply and employment opportunity. Increasing number of homeless people, high rate of rent and a scramble for the few available houses are commonly found in most of the cities and towns. The density of urban population in India works out to be around 3, 500 persons 8 SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA per square kilometre in 1991. This is more than the accepted norm of 400 per square kilometre. Thus, urban areas have more people than they can support with the available infrastructure. Related to the problem of housing and overcrowding is the problem of slums. The slum is an area of dingy neglected houses where people live in poverty without minimum civic amenities. The estimates of India’s urban population living in slums vary widely. However, according to an estimate, not less than 45 million people were living in slums in 1995 and as the urban population is increasing fast, their number must have had increased by now. It is said that the Indian population living in slums is more than the total population of about 107 countries of the world. Generally, the larger a city, the more the people live in slums. Naturally, metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata have more slums than the small and medium size towns. In 1991, slum-dwellers formed 45 per cent of the population in Mumbai, 44 per cent in Delhi and 42 per cent in Kolkata. The situation is no better in other metropolises like Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad etc. In reality, the problems of slums are multiplying in the wake of city’s incapacity to meet the rising demands of growing population. Pollution is another major problem of cities. There are several sources of rising pollution. Cities discharge 40 to 60 per cent of their entire sewage and industrial effluents into the adjoining rivers. The smaller towns ump garbage and excreta into the nearest waterways through their open drains. Likewise, urban industries pollute the atmosphere with smoke and gases from their old chimneys. Vehicular emission in Delhi accounts for 64 per cent of its air pollution. In fact, Delhi has the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted cities in the world. The poison that we put in the environment comes back to us through air , water and food. It gradually causes diseases and disorders making life miserable and hazardous. The issue of environmental pollution in urban areas has been recognised and steps have been taken to ease the situation. Even the Supreme Court of India intervened and ordered closure of polluting industrial units in Delhi. Recently, the use of nonpolluting Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has been made mandatory for buses and three-wheelers in Delhi as per the order of the Supreme Court. There are a number of other problems faced by urban centres which are not discussed here for the sake of brevity. Important among them are the problems of urban poverty, urban planning and urban governance. MODERNISATION Modernisation is both an idea and a process. As it is an idea, there is no agreement among social scientists on its meaning and interpretation. In the decades after the Second World War it was believed in industrial capitalist STRUCTURAL PROCESSES OF CHANGE 9 countries such as Britain and the United States that the key to economic development in the Third World was modernisation. The concept of modernisation, thus, emerged as an explanation of how these societies developed through capitalism. By providing such an explanation Western scholars desired to convince the underdeveloped countries like India that economic development was possible under capitalism. According to this approach, modernisation depends primarily on introduction of technology and the knowledge required to make use of it. Besides, several social and political prerequisites have been identified to make modernisation possible. Some of these prerequisites are: 1. increased levels of education, 2. development of mass media, 3. accessible transport and communication, 4. democratic political institutions, 5. more urban and mobile population, 6. nuclear family in place of extended family, 7. complex division of labour, 8. declining public influence of religion, and; 9. eveloped markets for exchange of goods and services in place of traditional ways of meeting such needs. Modernisation is, thus, supposed to be the result of the presence of these prerequisites in the social system. It is clear that the term modernisation has been used here in a very broad sense. We, therefore, find different views about the scope and area to be covered by the concept of modernisation. Some soc iologists limit modernisation to its structural aspect, others emphasise its cultural dimension. A few studies highlight the issue of political modernisation and still others analyse its psychological meaning. Of course, the treatment of the concept in terms of it being a process of social change is found in Learner’s writing. Daniel Lerner in his essay on ‘Modernisation’, included in Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, explains modernisation in these words: â€Å"Modernisation is the current term for an old process — the process of social change whereby less developed societies acquired characteristics common to more developed societies. † He further writes, â€Å"Modernisation, therefore, is the process of social change in which development is the economic component. Obviously this understanding of the term corresponds with the meaning which we have given to the term at the beginning of our discussion. Accordingly, modernisation is a process of change, which takes a country from underdevelopment to development. It produces social environment for economic development. The growth in industrialisation, urbanisation, national income and per capita income are taken as criteria of development. However, while accepting the economic criteria of development, some sociologists have added non-economic 10 SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA riteria to judge development. They argue that rising output alone is not sufficient to assess the level of development. A society has to move from rising output to self-sustaining growth. Therefore, non-economic criteria such as the level of education, function of media, growth of communication and social norms conducive to change have to be taken into consideration. The meaning of modernisation given above incorporates primarily, structural aspects of change. In other words, with modernisation structural transformation takes place in economy, polity and social institutions. It is to be noted here that the concept of modernisation has also been explained in cultural terms. In this sense, modernisation implies change in values and attitudes. Modernity involves values and norms that are universal in nature. Explaining this aspect of moder nisation Yogendra Singh suggests that modernisation implies a rational attitude towards issues and their evaluation from a universal viewpoint. Thus, technological advancement and economic growth are not the sole criterion to judge the level of modernisation of a society. The commitment to scientific world-view and humanistic ideas are equally important. Moreover, the idea of modernisation has also been analysed in terms of the paired concepts of tradition and modernity. It has been argued that modernity stands as opposite of tradition. In this sense, all the underdeveloped societies are characterised as traditional and the developed societies as modern. Modernisation, thus, implies a change from tradition to modernity. Change occurs, according to this view, in predictable direction. In other words, in order to modernise, every society has to follow the same direction and adopt a similar path. All the existing values and structures have to be replaced by the new values and structures. Nonetheless, sociologists from the developing countries are critical of this understanding of modernisation. They maintain that modernisation does not stand as a polar opposite to tradition. Traditional values and institutions are not necessarily discarded while taking up new values in the process of change. Society adopts new values because they are considered more efficient and rewarding. In view of this, these sociologists hold that modernisation would develop typical forms in different societies. Patterns of modernisation, thus, may vary from society to society. The discussion shows that processes of modernisation involve both structural and cultural dimensions. However, given the present context, we shall deal with modernisation primarily as a structural process of change. Modernisation in India Some sociologists make a distinction between social change and modernisation in order to assess the nature of change in the traditional Indian society. Though, social change occurred in traditional India, it was essentially pre-modern in nature. One STRUCTURAL PROCESSES OF CHANGE 11 raditional institution was just replaced by the other and no basic structural change took place in social system and culture. Historically, modernisation in India started from the establishment of the British rule and has continued even after independence. The nature and direction of modernisation during these two phases have been different. Therefore, it is appropriate to examine the processes of moderni sation under two distinct phases — the colonial phase and the post-colonial phase. As has been mentioned earlier, modernisation in India commenced after the arrival of the British rule. The contact with the West brought about far reaching changes in social structure and cultural institutions. Changes were witnessed in almost all important areas of life. The British administration introduced new arrangements in legal, agrarian, educational and administrative domains. Most of these led to structural modernisation. For instance, the bureaucratic system of administration and judiciary introduced by them were based on modern rational norms, which replaced the traditional Indian legal norms, based on the principle of hierarchy and ascription. A similar transformation took place in the system of education and agrarian structure. The Western system of education was introduced towards the middle of the nineteenth century and expanded significantly thereafter. New patter ns of land settlements such as Zamindari, Raiyatwari and Mahalwari covering the whole of British India resulted in systematisation of revenue administration. Some other areas experiencing modernising trends were industrialisation, urbanisation, transport and communication, army and the emergence of industrial working class and so forth. The emergence and growth of a nationalist political leadership was also the result of growing modernisation of Indian society. In fact, the nationalist leadership became so strong towards the early part of the twentieth century that freedom movement itself generated a new culture of modernisation. It is apparent from the above that the colonial phase of modernisation created a wide network of structure and culture which was modern and had an all-India appeal. However, it is important to point out here that during the colonial phase the local regional structures of family, caste and village community remained more or less unaffected by the forces of modernisation. At these levels, the British, by and large, followed a policy of least interference. Consequently, we do not find much change in the structures of family, caste and village. Let us, now, briefly examine the process of modernisation in the postcolonial India. Modernisation process has undergone some fundamental changes after the Independence. Every domain of social system is under the active influence of modernising process. Modernisation has, now, become an integral part of the developmental strategy. 12 SOCIAL CHANGE IN INDIA The political system has assumed a new shape after the adoption of a parliamentary form of government based on adult franchise. Political parties have emerged as powerful organs of the system. Thus, democratic political structure has effectively led to increasing political consciousness among people. The process of politicisation has, further, been accelerated through the Panchayati Raj institutions. The foundations of traditional family structure have come under the influence of legal reforms in marriage and inheritance. The family introduced egalitarian norms in family leading to raised status of women. Similarly, caste has assumed new functional roles. It has acquired an associational character. New consciousness has emerged among dalits. Increasing role of caste in politics is a pointer to this trend. Moreover, land reforms, too, have brought structural transformation in agrarian social structure. However, it is pertinent to call attention to the fact that modernisation in India has not been a uniformly progressive movement. Two crucial issues may be pointed out in this regard. First, in the process of modernisation several traditional institutions and activities have been reinforced. For example, religious pre