Sociology Mains Sample Notes

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Study materials available Political Science, Sociology, General Studies, Essay & CSAT Paper 1& 2
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main road, Shanti Colony Road. Anna Nagar, Chennai-40.
Landmark: Adjacent to Natesan Institute. (Take 2
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RIGHT from police booth).
KARL MARX - HISTORICAL
MATERIALISM
(resented a scientific analysis of human history
(Term coined by Engles) (realistic interpretation of
history), MODE OF PRODUCTION
Historical Materialism is the application of
Marxist science to historical development. The
fundamental proposition of historical materialism can
be summed up in a sentence: "it is not the consciousness
of men that determines their existence, but, on the
contrary, their social existence that determines their
consciousness." (Marx, in the Preface to A Contribution
to the Critique of Political Economy.)
Marx views human society as an interrelated
whole. The social groups, institutions, beliefs and
doctrines within it are integrally related. Thus, he has
studied their interrelations rather than treating them
separately or in isolation. Such aspects as history,
politics, law, religion or for that matter education cannot
be treated as separate spheres.
Dialectics (Thesis+ Antithesis= Synthesis)
was first used by the Greeks to refer to processes of
argument and reasoning. Karl Marx borrowed the
concept of dialectics from Hegel. Marx presented a
scientific analysis of human history through dialectics.
From Feuerbach, from his journalist work and studies of
political economy, and with the help of Friedrich Engels,
Marx developed an approach known as an historical
materialist approach.
Marx views society as inherently mutable, in
which changes are produced largely by internal
contradictions and conflicts. Such changes, if observed
in a large number of instances, according to Marx, show
a sufficient degree of regularity to allow the formulation
of general statements about their causes and
consequences. Both these assumptions relate to the
nature of human society.
Hegel was a philosophical idealist who
believed that we live in a world of appearances, and
true reality is an ideal. Marx accepted this notion of
the dialectic, but rejected Hegel's idealism because
he did not accept that the material world hides from
us the "real" world of the ideal; on the contrary, he
thought that historically and socially specific
ideologies prevented people from seeing the material
conditions of their lives clearly.
According to Marx there is no permanent
persistence of human nature. Human nature is neither
originally evil nor originally good; it is, in origin,
potential. If human nature is what human beings make
history with, then at the same time it is human nature
which they make. And human nature is potentially
revolutionary. Human will is not a passive reflection of
events, but contains the power to rebel against
circumstances in the prevailing limitations of human
nature.
It is not that people produce out of material
greed or the greed to accumulate wealth. But the act of
producing the essentials of life engages people into social
relationships that may be independent of their will. In
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most of human history, according to Marx, these
relationships are class relationships that create class
struggle.
Basic tenets of Historic materialism
1. The productive forces tend to develop throughout
history. (The productive forces are the means
available for transforming nature to satisfy human
wants. Raw materials, tools, labor power,
technological knowledge about how to produce
goods with various inputs, are all examples of
productive forces.)
2. The nature of the productive relations of a given
society is explained by the level of development of its
productive forces (to a far greater extent then the
reverse). (The productive relations are relations
involving people and control of productive forces.
Examples: The capitalist hires workers. The boss
owns the factory. The serfs born on a feudal manor
are required by enforced custom to remain there and
work sometimes for the benefit of the lord of the
manor. As Marx states in the 1859 Preface to the
Critique of Political Economy, The sum total of
these relations of production [in a given society]
constitutes the economic structure of society.
3. The character of the noneconomic institutions of
society, especially its political-legal order, is
explained by the character of its economic
structure (to a far greater degree than the reverse).
4. The development of the productive forces
periodically produces conflict between forces and
relations. At these times the existing productive
relations are fetters on the forcesthe former hinder
the effective utilization and further growth of the
latter. A time of social instability ensues. The
outcome in the long run is that the existing relations
of production adjust to the new forces of production
rather than the other way round.
5. All history is the history of class struggle. The
class that wins the class struggle is the one that in its
time is best able to preside over the productive
forces. That is, the class that wins is the one that is
best able to bring it about that the productive forces
are for the reasonably foreseeable future effectively
utilized and that their further growth is encouraged.
For Marx economic structure of society is made
of its relations of production. The legal and political
superstructure of society is based on relations of
production. Marx says that relations of production
reflect the stage of societys force of means of
production.
The process of socio-political and intellectual life
in general is conditioned by the mode of production of
material life. The development of the productive
forces, as well as contradictory forces that are built
into societys social structures, create stress within these
social and economic structures and lead to class conflict.
When the small quantitative changes accumulate to the
point that a major, qualitative change results, the old
form of organization may be overthrown or end, and a
new form of social and economic organization may
emerge. New developments of productive forces of
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society come in conflict with existing relations of
production. When people become conscious of the state
of conflict, they wish to bring an end to it. It means that
new forces of production take roots and give rise to new
relations of production. This period of history is called
by Marx the period of social revolution. The revolution
brings about resolution of conflict. Thus it is the growth
of new productive forces which outlines the course of
human history. This is the dialectical process. The
productive forces are the powers society uses to produce
material conditions of life. For Marx, human history is
an account of development and consequences of new
forces of material production. This is the reason why
his view of history is known as historical
materialism.
Marx divided human history into stages or
periods, which he called modes of production. These
stages refer to the whole society or social system, how it
is structured, how it holds together, what are the
contradictory forces within it, and how it changes. The
modes of production include both forces of production
(FOP) and relations of production (ROP).
Forces of production (FOP) include the
technological know-how, the types of equipment in use
and goods being produced for instance, tools,
machinery, labour and the levels of technology are all
considered to be the forces of production. Productive
forces have an intrinsic tendency to develop, as
human beings knowledge and mastery over nature
increase. As these forces develop, successive social
relations of production develop and consequently give
way. The means of production are composed of two
parts 1.The objects of labour. 2. The instruments of
labour. For Marx, the objects of labour are the raw
materials on which workers exercise human labour. The
instruments of labour include the tools, machinery,
buildings, equipment, and so on that are part of the
production process.
Relations of production (ROP) refer to the
fundamental property relations. Relation of production is
not merely the ownership of means of production. The
employers relation to the worker is one of
domination and the workers relation with co-
workers is one of cooperation. The relations of
production are relations between people and people
whereas means of production are relations between
people and things. The relations of production can
influence the momentum and direction of the
development of the productive forces.
Forces and relations of production are strongly
interrelated. The development of one leads to a growing
incompatibility or contradiction with the other.
Contradiction or dialectic between the FOP & ROP
(act as the motor of history) leads to class struggle and
change in the form of revolutions thus producing
SOCIAL CHANGE. Any historical mode of
production is an integral unity between the forces of
production and the relations of production. Each mode
of production has its specific relations of production.
These are not developed by chance or by accident. They
are deliberately ordered because they help the property
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owning class extract the surplus from the working
people.
In general, Marx believed that the means of
production change more rapidly than the relations
of production. For Marx this mismatch between
base/infrastructure and superstructure is a major
source of social disruption and conflict. The history of
the means of production, then, is the substructure of
history, and everything else, including ideological
arguments about that history, constitutes a
superstructure.
Marx has described stages of human history in
terms of the four modes of production, namely, the
Asiatic, Ancient, Feudal and Capitalist. The history of
the West according to him, tells us about the ancient,
feudal and capitalist (bourgeois) modes of production.
More than one mode of production may exist within any
particular society at a given point in time. But in all
forms of society there is one determinate kind of
production which assigns rank and influence to all the
others.
Primitive Communism
The primitive communism existed in prehistory, and
was a form of classless society.The basis of primitive
society was gathering and hunting. The only division of
labour was that between men and women for the entirely
natural biological reason that women were burdened
much of the time with young children. They gathered
vegetable foods while the men hunted. The land was
communally owned.
The first great revolution in mankind's history
was the agricultural or neolithic revolution. Grains
were selected and sown, and the ground ploughed up
with draught animals. For the first time a substantial
surplus over and above the subsistence needs of the
toilers came into existence.
Asiatic Mode of Production (AMP)
The AMP refers to the structural elements of a special
type of pre-capitalist societies:
a) Absence of private property of the means of
production,
b) Collective organization (economic, political and
ideological) of the ruling class in a despotic state,
c) Collective organization of the ruled-laboring class in
(village) communities.
As in the case of all pre-capitalist modes of
production, the ruling class had the economic
ownership of the means of production (the land), i.e. it
appropriated the surplus labor, whereas the ruled-
laboring class had not been freed from the means of
production, but it had the direct possession of them,
i.e. the power to put them to work (to cultivate the
land). In societies where the AMP was dominant,
however, surplus labor was (not privately but)
collectively appropriated by the ruling class, whereas
the peasants directly possessed the land only under the
presupposition that they belonged to a village
community. The appropriation of surplus labor by the
ruling class took thus the form of a tribute tax, paid to
the state by all agrarian or town communities.
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The state officials had no heritage rights of
their position, but they were appointed (and
discharged) by a higher state-authority. On the highest
level, state authority was personified to the ruler, who
was regarded as the direct representative of divine
order and right. The state officials appeared as
executive organs of the highest authoritys edicts
(which were, in most cases, written). The communities
shared a certain degree of autonomy from the central
state authorities, as long as they paid the tribute. They
were articulated to the Asiatic social order through the
rule of a local stratum of notables and religious leaders,
who guaranteed the status quo in contact with district
or even, in some cases, central state authorities. Great
Asian Empires, like China, Russia and the Ottoman
Empire at least until late 18th century, or India under
the Mongolian rule were social formations in which the
AMP was dominant.
The main issue in the class struggle down
the ages has been the struggle over the surplus
produced by the toilers. The way this surplus was
appropriated - grabbed - depended on the different
mode of production inaugurated by agriculture. This
change provided the base for the complete
transformation of social life.
The mode of Classical Antiquity (sometimes
referred to as the slave mode) -(Greece and
Rome)
Primary relationship was that between master and
slave.
Production of wealth required military conquest, in
order to capture slaves who could be put to work
for the slave-owners.
In the slave mode the dominant form of struggle
was between slaves and slave-owners, and the
contradictions caused the need for a strong military.
The feudal mode (Western Europe)
Primary relationship was that between lords and
serfs.
Unlike slavery, the lord did not own the serfs, but
the serf was bound to the land by tradition, law, and
custom.
Social relationships were not primarily monetary,
but were personal, hierarchical, and hereditary.
The feudal mode led to the growth of new social classes
and new social relationships (bourgeoisie and proletariat)
that undermined feudalism and created the conditions
for capitalism to develop.
The capitalist mode
Marx was primarily concerned with this mode of
production. The social relationship that characterizes
capitalism is that between capitalists as owners of
property and workers as owners of only their ability to
work. Capitalists as a group form the bourgeoisie, or
capitalist class, and they own and control the means of
production. Their ownership of property is turned into
capital when they hire workers to produce products and
extract surplus labour from the workers. The
subordinate social class which has no property other
than their ability to work formed the workers, or the
proletariat. The primary relations of production in the
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capitalist system then are the capitalist/worker
relationship.
Marx believed that capitalism would inevitably
lead to increasing class polarisation and class conflict.
Through its own inherent processes of development it is
destined to give rise ultimately to its own dissolution: to
a revolution which will result in its own overthrow and
to the creation of a socialist society.
Dictatorship of the proletariat means the rule
of the working class. It is a state of the workers in the
socialist society which follows the capitalist society. It is
the dictatorship of the workers in the socialist society in
the sense there is the dictatorship of the capitalists in the
capitalist society. There capitalists rule the way they
want; now the workers rule in the socialist society the
way the workers want. Nevertheless, Marx makes it clear
that the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the workers
state, is an interim or a transitional arrangement
which functions between the capitalist society and
the communist society. He concluded that a transitory
stage of Proletarian democracy must normally and
inevitably culminate in communism.
The communist mode.
When the proletariat is victorious, it by no means
becomes the absolute side of society, for it is victorious
only by abolishing itself and its opposite. Then the
proletariat disappears as well as the opposite which
determines it, private property.
Once the socialist society is completely
established, the workers state will not be needed (i.e.) it
will wither away (disappear slowly). Lenin insists that the
dictatorship of the proletariat is better than the
bourgeois state, both quantitatively and qualitatively (at it
looks after the interests and welfare of the whole
multitude of the workers rather than handful of
capitalists).The socialist society that follows the capitalist
society after its abolition is a classless society. It is a
classless society in the sense that all are workers
wheresoevers they work, in the office, in the factory or
on the fields: each gets job according to ones ability
(from each according to his abilities to each according
to his work). The communist society which follows the
socialist society will be both the classless society and the
stateless society.
The base-superstructure model is a
theoretical framework that charts the different parts of
society, how the elements interact, and how they form
a coherent social structure. It is a tool that has been
used by Marxists to schematize the shape that society
takes at a particular time (hence it is a historical
model). It has two main elements: the base and the
superstructure.
The base is the economic foundation of
society, what Marx describes as the economic
structure determining the material conditions of
life. Its first level consists of the means of
production. These means of production, according to
Marx, are constrained by the historical context; they
depend first of all on the nature of the actual means
of subsistence [men] find in existence and have to
reproduce.
SUPER STRUCTURE (Law, Philosophy, Government, Religion etc.)
ROP
Social relations
Class structure
Resources Technology
FOP INFRA STRUCTURE / BASE
This process of materially producing the
conditions of existence is, as Marx phrases it, a social
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production of [peoples] life, i.e. in producing material
goods for their economic subsistence, men are not
Robinson Crusoes producing in isolation just for
themselvesthey necessarily relate to each other, i.e.
men enter into definite relations that are
indispensable and independent of their will.
These relations form the relations of production, the
second level of the economic base. These are the
relationships that a worker forms with a co-worker, an
employee with a boss, an employee with a customer, a
worker from this part of the production process (e.g.
the packing of cans with sardines) with another worker
from that part (e.g. the printing of the corporate logo
on the can), etc. Thus, Marx can say, referring to the
economic base, that this mode of production must
not be considered simply as being the production of
the physical existence of the individuals. Rather, it is a
definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite
form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on
their part. The economic base, in other words,
conditions not only the actual goods produced and
how they are produced, but the relations that people
form themselves, which, moreover, does not merely
refer to economic relations.
Above the economic base (above its two
levels) rises a legal and political superstructure,
the first level of the superstructure. As delineated more
specifically by Althusser, this is the political realm
he calls the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA)
(Gramsci calls this political society), which consists
of the particular political system a society adopts, the
form of government, the constitution, the laws, and
government institutions (including the military).
Above the legal and political structuresimply
put, the Statelie all other institutions, i.e. social [. . .]
and intellectual life process in general that determines
the consciousness of men. Here we find what
Althusser calls the Ideological State Apparatuses
(ISAs) (Gramsci calls this civil society). These
include legal institutions other than the government
(e.g. political parties, non-government organizations,
etc.), religions, schools, the family, the media,
cultureinstitutions surrounding men, propounding
certain ideologies, influencing them how to think, i.e.
shaping their consciousness. The superstructure
reflects, protects, organizes and strengthens the
base.
The leap in society begins with the
introduction of qualitatively new productive forces.
The leap is a series of changes wherein one quality is
replaced quantitatively, or stage by stage, by another
quality. Revolution is not simply the overthrow of one
class by another, but rather the disruption and
destruction of the entire society brought about by the
introduction of the new quality. The base begins to
disintegrate, and new relationships struggle to be born.
New groups or new classes are created, unable to exist
in the old productive relations.
The seeming reduction of the role of thought,
of ideas, of notions of truth, is made worse by what
comes to be known as the dominant ideology thesis,
in which Marx is interpreted as suggesting that in a
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given society, there is only one ideology, i.e. one
consciousness, one collective notion of truth. Marx
explains that the class which [controls] the means
of production [i.e. the economic base . . .] has
control at the same time over the means of mental
production [i.e. the superstructure], so that
thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those
who lack the means of mental production are
subject to it. This implies then that there is only one
ideology in society: the ideology of the ruling class that
dominates society.
The presence of ideology is one reason why
the relationship between economic and socio-political
processes becomes complicated. In every epoch, the
ruling classes promote a dominant ideology. This
dominant ideology, or way of seeing the world, tends
to justify the domination of the ruling class and the
existing social order. For example, dominant ideologies
may encourage poor people to believe that they are
poor not because they are exploited by the rich but
because of fate, or because of bad deeds in a previous
life, and so on. This is a false ideology and creates a
false description of reality. It also produces a FALSE
CLASS-CONSCIOUSNESS, which means that
members of both classes hold illusions about their
relationship. Both classes come to believe that there is
a greater.
However, dominant ideologies are not always
successful, and they can also be challenged by
alternative worldviews or rival ideologies. As
consciousness spreads unevenly among classes, how a
class will act in a particular historical situation cannot
be pre-determined. Hence, according to Marx,
economic processes generally tend to generate class
conflicts, though this also depends on political and
social conditions. Given favourable conditions, class
conflicts culminate in revolutions.
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM .vs.
ECONOMIC DETERMINISM
Economic determinism implies the idea that
relations in the economic sphere of human activity
determine the shape and form of all other human
relationships. Marx was well aware of this (especially in
relation to his discussion of class consciousness) and
recognized that the influences upon human behaviour
are many and varied and economic influences and
pressures are but one (albeit very important) influence.
Marx recognised that without culture there can
be no production possible. For him, mode of
production includes social relations of production
which are relations of domination and subordination
into which men and women are born or involuntarily
enter. The reproduction both of life and of the
material means of life cannot be understood without
turning to the culture, norms and the rituals of the
working people over whom the rulers rule. An
understanding of working class culture contributes to
an understanding of the mode of production.
Class is a category that describes people in
relationships over time, and the ways in which they
become conscious of these relationships. It also
describes the ways in which they separate, unite, enter
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into struggle, form institutions and transmit values in
class ways. Class is an economic and also a
cultural formation. It is impossible to reduce class
into a pure economic category.
Significance: -
1. While Marx's model of capitalism was historical and
theoretical, it provides a close description and
explanation of how capitalism in mid nineteenth
century Britain was organized and operated.
Capitalism of this period had the social structures and
dynamics of capitalism that are part of the model of
Marx.
2. Marx introduced entirely new element (i.e) relations
between social classes determined by the mode of
production, to understand the structure of each
society. This feature of historical materialism offered
a more promising starting point for exact and realistic
investigations of the causes of social change.
3. Marxs purpose was to achieve a better understanding
of the conditions of human development. With this
understanding he tried to accelerate the actual process
by which mankind was moving toward an association,
in which the free development of each was the
condition for the free development of all.
4. While capitalism has changed since Marx's day, many
of the social forces and structures that he described
still exist and are important aspects of the further
development of capitalism.
Critical Review
No doubt, theory of historical materialism is a great
contribution of Marx to the modern world. However,
Marxs theory is criticized on the following grounds: -
1. Changes do not occur simply because of the clashes
between the opposing classes. History is indebted to
class cooperation as well for its development.
2. Ignores the non-economic Factors. Material factor,
though important and dominating it may be, is not
the sole factor in explaining the whole complex of
societys intricacies. Indeed, man does not live by
bread alone, but it is also true that he cannot live
without it.
3. Marxism has underestimated the worth and
strength of national/ patriotic sentiments. To say
that the workers have no fatherland of their own, as
Marx used to say, is to make them parentless.
Marxism also underestimated the importance of the
state. To say that the State is a class institution and
therefore, an oppressive and exploitative one is to
oversimplify things.
4. Neglects Asian societies by treating Asiatic mode
of production as static.
5. No society could possibly remain in a state of
socialism for the rest of history Eg. Russia, China.
The Marxian formulations, in practice, have been
really disappointing. Marxism, as a practice, has failed,
whatever be the reasons. One chief reason has been
its centralizing tendency: the dictatorship of the
proletariat becomes the dictatorship of the
communist party, the partys dictatorship becomes,
ultimately, the dictatorship of one man: be that a
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Stalin or a Mao. In the Soviet Union, reform
movement (Glasnost, especially) initiated by Mikhail
Gorbachev marked the beginning of the end of the
communist movement not only in Europe but almost
the world over. The communist China has introduced
numerous liberalization measures in its economy and
polity. The relevance of Marxism as an alternative
ideology before the world is no more unquestioned.
6. Functionalists have criticized Marxs theory of class
struggle on the following grounds: -
Inequality, some degree of class struggle or
stratification system of the society is functional for
the society. David & Moore have argued that the
different people or strata of society have different
qualities or skill to perform; therefore their position
& status in the society should be ranked accordingly.
Functionalists favored the prevalence of class system
while Marx was in favor of a classless society.
7. Weber has argued that the market situation of an
individual determines its class situation, which to
some extent seems reasonable.
8. Christopher Lloyd holds that The materialist
interpretation of history does not explain the decline
of Rome or the outbreak of our recent wars.
A.R. DESAI
Desai was a life-long Marxist and became
involved in Marxist politics during his undergraduate
days at Baroda, though he later resigned his membership
of the Communist Party of India. For most of his career
he was associated with various kinds of non mainstream
Marxist political groups. His doctoral thesis was
published in 1948 as The Social Background of
Indian Nationalism, which is probably his best known
work. In this book, Desai offered a Marxist analysis of
Indian nationalism, which gave prominence to
economic processes and divisions, while taking account
of the specific conditions of British colonialism.
Although it had its critics, this book proved to be very
popular and went through numerous reprints. Among
the other themes that Desai worked on were peasant
movements and rural sociology, modernization, urban
issues, political sociology, forms of the state and human
rights.
Class stratification of Indian society
Under the impact of British rule and its economic
policies, India has been transformed from a feudal to a
capitalist country. The Indian society is now stratified
into new classes like capitalists (commercial, industrial
and financial), professional classes like lawyers, doctors
and others, fairly large sized middle class employees and
an overwhelming section of the urban proletariat living
on wages in urban areas.
In rural areas we find the society regrouped into
classes of agrarian landlords, peasant proprietors, tenants
and agricultural laborers along with strata of ruined
artisans and group of money-lenders and traders, the
marketing of agricultural produce is largely in the hands
of a body of men who as distinguished from government
and co-operatives represent private interests and who
control both the sources of credit and disposal of the
produce. Hence the position of cultivators has been
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relegated to the level of a bargainer to bargain (only if he
can) with the men who commands the money,
commands the credit and commands the market. This
signifies the immense power of the new class of
creditors and traders in an underdeveloped rural
economy which is switching on from production for
subsistence to that of market. As A.R.Desai has stated
the distribution of rural classes as below:-
1. Landowners- 22.2%
2. Tenants- 27.2%
3. Agricultural labourers 30.4%
4. Non-agriculturists- 20.2%
Marginal Cultivators- <2 hectares of land- 60%
Small Cultivators- 2-5 hectares of land-16%
Medium Cultivators-5-10 hectares of land-6%
Big Cultivators- > 10 hectares of land- 18%
The medium cultivators (2/5
th
of the cultivators)
have less than 1/3
rd
of the sown area under him. There is
an even steeper descent when we come to the small
cultivators; his sown area is just a little more than 1/10
th

of the total area sown by the cultivators.
Under privileged in Indian society
The rise of the agrarian proletariat, the existence
of a large section of un-economic holders of land and
the prevalence of an enormous group of ruined artisans
who constitute the bulk of the non-agricultural section
of the rural population reveal the tragic tale of the
miserable economic life lived by the large section of rural
population in the Indian union.
Viewed from the standard of economic
stratification, India contains the following categories of
people whose problems are becoming explosively
urgent:-
Vast groups of Scheduled tribes who are almost
living the life of agrarian serfs or debt slaves.
Agricultural laborers whose grim tale of existence
is portrayed in the studies conducted by agricultural
labor enquiry committee.
The cultivators of uneconomic holdings gripped
in the ever tightening pincer of un-profitable deficit
production, taxation, claims of the money lender and
market fluctuations.
A large majority of artisans and craftsmen who
are progressively being ruined due to the blows of
competitive market economy.
The bulk of the petty producers who just produce
enough in normal times to make both ends meet.
The bulk of rural un-employed or under employed
whose position and horrible helpless mode of
existence is indescribable.
In urban areas the unemployed, the wage
laborers, the bulk of middle class employees,
handicraftsmen and petty shop keepers and traders
constitute the bulk of the population who form the
economically under privileged groups living a
precarious, insecure existence. Along with these
sections it would be proper to mention the group of
displaced refugees whose by far the largest section
still lives a very unstable and economically precarious
life.
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Sociological problems confronting
Governmental policies
Problems of negative character which arise due to
immense deadweight of old social institutions like caste
system, joint family, religious beliefs etc.
Problems of positive character which arise due to
industrialization, commercialization and monetization.

Wealth concentration in Indian society - India is
not merely poor and under-developed but is having a
class stratification wherein a few capitalists (financial,
industrial and commercial), a few money lenders and
traders (many a time fused with either urban capitalist
groups or with landowning sections in the rural India), a
small section of the upper stratum of the professional
groups, a layer of big-landlords, prosperous capitalists
agricultural farmers and the top stratum of the peasant
proprietors, have concentrated wealth and economic
resources among themselves. This peculiar class
configuration is very subtly correlated with the
groups with specific linguistic, caste and educational
stratifications, making the problem of economic, social
and cultural progress of the Indian people as a whole
complex and difficult.
Sociological problems of economic development
The traditional self sufficing village
community of pre British era, which was based on
equilibrium of agriculture and artisan industry, was
replaced by the principle of competition which set into
motion a whirlpool in the social structure. This restricted
new form of insufficient economy prevented the full
blossoming of a new form of social unity and solidarity
(national in character) and a new modern outlook. Every
development in the material, social and ideological
domain, exhibited mainly two characteristics
hybridness and underdevelopment. Such was the
legacy British rule left to the Indians.
Problems of negative character
Monopoly position of castes and groups has
generated peculiar unrest in the modern competitive
social setting. It engenders and keeps alive a bitter
competitive struggle among the privileged groups
themselves as well as between them and the
underprivileged also. This struggle exercises a highly
detrimental effect on the development of a healthy
national economy. Desai observes that caste inheres
in it an underdeveloped but potentially exploitative
class-character. He considers the Indian capitalistic
in its essence and reality, as the state holds economic
power and uses political power for granting or
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denying economic power to the people.
Persistence of backward types of loyalties resulting
into factionalism and division of the Indian people
into groups with petty caste and other group egos to
the detriment of the growth of a highly developed
national consciousness.
The above problems of negative character
obstruct the proper economic development in a number
of ways:-
1. It leads to the practice of nepotism (i.e) in group
loyalty often become the basis of the selection of
personnel. It leads to favoritism and corruption.
2. It results in wrong unproductive investments
patterns and wrong consumption patterns. viz.
Speculation, Hoarding, money lending, landowning
and trading attract capital with far greater temptation
than industrial enterprises. A considerable wealth is
also consumed in conspicuous consumption.
3. It generates distorted attitudes to work, to the
problem of efficiency, to the selection of vocations,
also the allocation of resources and patterns of
production and consumption.
4. It obstructs the growth of those mores and
sanctions which are basic to a developing economy
in modern times, viz. mores and sanctions based on
law, respect for personality, concept of equal
citizenship and also based on contract.
Problems of positive character
Industrialization uproots the old division of
labor, creates new occupational patterns
demanding new training, new discipline, new
routine and a new mode of living.
Commercialization brings about a shift of power
and authority in village. Not the farmers and
producers but owners and administrators are
becoming the ruling groups. The center of
political power of the village shifts from elders
and old gentry to usurers (money lenders),
merchants, landlords, prosperous capitalist
farmers and the group of officials.
Monetization is fraught with sociological
problems such as more uneven distribution of
burdens of fluctuating prices, greater spending
on non-essential items and relative deterioration
of the agriculturalist.
Social changes demanded by the above problems
New property institutions will be required to be
built up
Provision of cultural and social amenities
New forms of co-operative social activities
New forms of secular, egalitarian and democratic
norms and mores
New techniques of overhauling the outlook of
the people
A.R. Desai on the State
The modern capitalist state was one of the significant
themes that interested A.R. Desai. As always, his
approach to this issue was from a Marxist perspective. In
an essay called The myth of the welfare state, Desai
provides a detailed critique of this notion and points to it
many shortcomings. After considering the prominent
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definitions available in the sociological literature, Desai
identifies the following unique features of the welfare
state:
(i) A welfare state is a positive state. This means that,
unlike the laissez faire of classical liberal political
theory, the welfare state does not seek to do only the
minimum necessary to maintain law and order. The
welfare state is an interventionist state and actively
uses its considerable powers to design and implement
social policies for the betterment of society.
(ii) The welfare state is a democratic state.
Democracy was considered an essential condition for
the emergence of the welfare state. Formal democratic
institutions, especially multi-party elections, were
thought to be a defining feature of the welfare state.
This is why liberal thinkers excluded socialist and
communist states from this definition.
(iii) A welfare state involves a mixed economy. A
mixed economy means an economy where both
private capitalist enterprises and state or publicly
owned enterprises co-exist. A welfare state does not
seek to eliminate the capitalist market, nor does it
prevent public investment in industry and other fields.
By and large, the state sector concentrates on basic
goods and social infrastructure, while private industry
dominates the consumer goods sector. Desai then goes
on to suggest some test criteria against which the
performance of the welfare state can be measured.
These are:-
Does the welfare state ensure freedom from
poverty, social discrimination and security for all its
citizens?
Does the welfare state remove inequalities of
income through measures to redistribute income
from the rich to the poor, and by preventing the
concentration of wealth?
Does the welfare state transform the economy in
such a way that the capitalist profit motive is made
subservient to the real needs of the community?
Does the welfare state ensure stable development
free from the cycle of economic booms and
depressions?
Does it provide employment for all?
Using these criteria, Desai examines the performance
of those states that are most often described as welfare
states, such as Britain, the USA and much of Europe,
and finds their claims to be greatly exaggerated.
Thus, most modern capitalist states, even in the most
developed countries, fail to provide minimum levels of
economic and social security to all their citizens. They
are unable to reduce economic inequality and often seem
to encourage it. The so-called welfare states have also
been unsuccessful at enabling stable development free
from market fluctuations. The presence of excess
economic capacity and high levels of unemployment are
yet another failure.
Based on these arguments, Desai concludes that the
notion of the welfare state is something of a myth.
A.R. Desai also wrote on the Marxist theory of the
state. In these writings we can see that Desai does not
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take a one-sided view but openly criticizes the
shortcomings of Communist states. He cites many
Marxist thinkers to emphasize the importance of
democracy even under communism, arguing strongly
that political liberties and the rule of law must be upheld
in all genuinely socialist states.
According to A.R. Desai (1986) a new class
configuration has emerged as a direct consequence of
the conjunction of peasant mobilization and government
measures over the last few decades. It contains the
following categories of rural population:
a. Rich Farmers and Land lords owning 15 acres and
more, possessing 50 per cent of the total land and
constituting 7 per cent of the population.
b. Middle Farmers with 5 to 15 acres of land,
possessing 30 per cent of the total land and
constituting 19 per cent of the population.
c. Poor Farmers owning between 1 and 5 acres,
possessing 17 per cent of the total land and
constituting 30 per cent of rural population.
d. Agricultural Labour without land or owning less
than 1 acre of land, possessing about 2 per cent of
the total land and constituting 44 per cent of the
population.
Desai (1977) observed that the Bastar Tribes were
uprooted from their mode of production in the same
way as were millions of cultivators and artisans living in
the multitude of unmitigated villages of pre-British India
from their self-sufficient, self contained village
community setting. During British period under the
impact of new administrative, political and economic
measures these tribesmen lost their moorings from their
traditional age-old socio cultural settings. A large section
of them became pauper, which ultimately forces them to
live in the status of bonded labour or serfs to the
Zamindars, contractors or moneylenders.
A.R. Desai on the Communalism
Communalism was a consequence of uneven socio-
economic and cultural development of different
communities under British rule. The British rule thrived
on communal divisions in India. They introduced the
institutions of Communal award, Communal
electorate, Communal representation and also
engineered communal troubles and ensured that such
troubles escalated.
Communalism was only the disguised expression of
the struggle between the vested interests belonging to
different faiths who gave a communal form within which
the struggle of the professional classes of different
communities over posts and seats was carried on. One of
the most effective methods to combat communalism
was to unite the lower strata of different communities in
a movement for securing their common and other
interests.
SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN
NATIONALISM [Doctoral Thesis of A.R.Desai]
Social background of Indian nationalism was the
Doctoral Thesis of A.R.Desai. He finds the Marxist
approach quite appropriate and fruitful to analyze the
social background of Indian nationalism.
Class based inequalities and contradictions according
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to Desai determine the nature of social change and
development. The emergence of nationalism in India is
the product of the material conditions created by British
colonialism.
1. Transformation of agriculture: the new land
revenue policies of the colonial rule led to
fragmentation of land holdings and created a form of
private ownership of land. Hence a process of class
polarization went on continuously at increasing pace
among the agrarian population. This created a pre-
requisite for the capitalist development of agriculture.
As the agrarian problems gradually assumed national
character, it mobilized people on a national scale.
2. Ruin of Handicrafts: Measures such as Forcing of
British free trade on India, imposing heavy duties on
Indian Manufactures in England, the export of raw
products from India, transit and custom duties ruined
handicraftsmen who became modern proletariat
(factory and transport workers), tenants and land
laborers.
3. Development of modern Industry: The
establishment of railways and accumulation of
sufficient savings in the hands of the Indian
merchant class to serve as basic capital, made
possible the creation of modern industries in India.
Despite the insufficient and unbalanced character of
modern industrialization, it led to the consolidation
of unified national economy. It brought into
existence modern cities which became the centers of
modern culture and increasing democratic social life
and from which all progressive movements, social,
political and cultural emanated. Industrialization led
to the rise of two classes the bourgeoisie and
proletariat.
4. Development of modern means of transport and
communication: Despite favoring rapid
industarialsiation this led to the emergence of
political consciousness with national color. Following
the establishment of INC several other political
organizations came into existence representing the
nationalist feeling of India.
5. Development of modern education and press
played a notable role in creating class consciousness
and mobilized public opinion to organize political
movements and thus promoted nationalist feeling.
The introduction of the modern system of education
opened the opportunities for the assimilation of the
modern Western ideas with the Indian ideals. As a
result the political consciousness of the west blended
with the Indian political thinking.
6. Working class movements: The Indian working
force which emerged as a credible force during 1920s
began to fight for proper working conditions, wages,
security etc. The various government measures in this
direction were piecemeal in character. The INC
leaders were able to aggregate the seemingly
conflicting interacts of working and bourgeoisie
classes and succeeded in bringing these processes for
nationalist struggle.
7. Rise of new classes: The altering of the economic
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arrangement like introduction of new land relation,
opening of Indian society for exploitation by the
capitalists world, introduction of a new administrative
arrangement, a modem education system and the
establishment of modern industries were the factors
largely responsible for the emergence of the new
social' classes.
The emergence of new classes did not follow
any uniform pattern everywhere and among all the
communities. The new economy causing the rise of
new classes was introduced in the areas, which came
under the British control. The conquest of India was
not achieved in one stroke. It was done in tits and bits.
The part of country coming under British control early
witnessed the early rise of the new classes. Bengal was
the first to usher in the two new classes the Zamindars
and the tenants because British conquest started from
Bengal and it was in Bengal where for the first time the
permanent settlement, which gave birth to the
zamindars and the tenants, was introduced. Even
among the different communities the emergence of
new social classes was not uniform.
The Indian society was thus stratified into new
classes like capitalists (commercial, industrial and
financial), professional classes like lawyers, doctors and
others, fairly large sized middle class employees and an
overwhelming section of the urban proletariat living on
wages in urban areas.
A.R.Desai thus notes that these socio-
political forces by their very nature came into conflict
with British imperialist policies and administrative
system and sparked the fire of Indian nationalism.
1. Transformation of agriculture in colonial
India
With the establishment of private property in land
and the individuals right to its free disposal, there
appeared centrifugal tendencies within the joint
family, the members of which previously jointly held
and cultivated the land assigned to it by the village.
This led to fragmentation of land holdings which
made it very difficult for the agriculturist to carry on
agricultural operations efficiently.
The progressive inability of agriculturist to meet the
increasing revenue claims of the state from his
declining income brought about his subsequent
indebtedness. Due to the expanding indebtedness
of the agriculturists, large-scale transfer of land from
the hands of the peasant proprietors to the
moneylenders took place in the Ryotwari areas and
mass ejection of tenants from land occupied by them
in the Zamindari zones.
Hence a process of class differentiation went on,
continuously at an increasing pace, among the
agricultural population. The number of cultivating
owners and tenants steadily diminished while that of
the non-cultivating landlords grew. There was an
increasing polarization of classes in agrarian areas.
The mass of Indian handicrafts men ruined as a result
of the influx of manufactured machine-goods of
British industries were not absorbed in any
extensively developed indigenous industries. The
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ruined mass of these handicraftsmen took to
agriculture for subsistence. This led to overpressure
on agriculture.
A new class of absentee landlords emerged which had
no interest in land and hence the technical basis of
agriculture remained the same. The development of
Indian agriculture was adjusted to suit the British
capitalist interests. Thus Indian agriculture was lop-
sided in its development.
The British rule over India elevated Indian agriculture
to the status of a national agriculture. The agrarian
problems assumed a national character. It served to
mobilize people on a national scale.
2. Decline of handicrafts
India held a prominent place in the world in the
field of handicraft production. The textiles were the
most important among the Indian industries. Its cotton,
silk and woolen products were sought after all over the
world. Particularly, the muslin of Dacca, carpets of
Lahore, shawls of Kashmir, and the embroidery works
of Banaras were very famous. Ivory goods, wood works
and jewellery were other widely sought after Indian
commodities. Besides textiles, India was also known
widely for its shipping, leather and metal industries.
These entire handicrafts industry indicated a vibrant
economy in India. Despite enjoying such fame in the
world, the Indian handicraft industry had begun to
decline by the beginning of the 18th century due to the
following:-
The policies followed by the English East India
Company proved to be highly detrimental to the
Indian handicrafts industry.
The Indian market was flooded with the cheap
finished goods from Britain. It resulted in a steep
decline in the sale of Indian products both within and
outside of the country.
In 1769, the Company encouraged the cultivation of
raw silk in Bengal while imposing service restrictions
on the sale of its finished products.
In 1813 strategies were devised by the Company to
enhance the consumption of finished goods from
Britain. In this respect the tariff and octroi policies
were suitably modified to suit the British commercial
interests. To cite an example, in 1835 only a minimal
import of British duty of 2.5 per cent was imposed on
the import of British manufactured cotton cloth
whereas a very high 15 per cent export duty was
charged on Indian cotton textiles as per the new
maritime regulations.
The Industrial revolution led to the invention of
new machinery in Europe. Power looms replaced
handlooms. In India also the advent of machines led
to the decline of handicraft as now the machine-made
products were available at cheaper rate and more
goods could be produced in much lesser time.
The new communication and transport facilities
brought about a revolution in public life. The import
of goods from England also increased with the
simultaneous increase in exports of raw materials
from India, leading to massive loss of jobs among
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Indian artisans and craftsman who lost their only
means to livelihood.
Thus, with the rise of British paramountcy in India, the
process of decline in the power and status of Indian
rulers had set in.
3. Development of modern industry
The establishment of railways and accumulation
of sufficient savings in the hands of the Indian merchant
class to serve as basic capital, made possible the creation
of modern industries in India. However there was a
lopsided growth of Indian industries due to the
following:-
The smallness of Indias capital resources
Absence of considerable well-established heavy
metallurgical and machine producing industries
which are vital for a balanced and rapid industrial
development.
Immense poverty of the agricultural population
which constituted about4/5
th
of the Indian people
and who represented a formidable potential market
for industrial goods.
Inadequate technical man power
Despite these shortcomings, this led to the
consolidation of unified national economy. Also it
engendered the rise of two important classes the
bourgeoisie and proletariat, which played a vital role in
the national movement.
4. Development of modern means of
transport and communication
Lord Dalhousie initiated the process of
modernizing the means of transport and communication
through his famous Minutes on Railways. However there
was a lopsided growth of Indian industries due to the
following:-
The establishment of railways accelerated the process
of industrialization.
The economic isolation of the village, the main cause
of its social and cultural stagnation broke down.
Mass migration of people from one part of the
country to another possible.
Travel of Hindu untouchables along with the
Brahmins in the train weakened the adamantine
orthodoxy of the Hindus.
The provincial political unrest, which was limited
within a small area, came in contact with the
nationalist current of the whole India. More than
anything, the growth of railways has unified the
country.
The railways had facilitated the growth of nationalism
more than any other advantages. Moreover the
development of modern postal system and the
introduction of electric telegraph in the post 1850
helped to unify the country. As a result the disjointed
political consciousness came in contact with each
other, which helped for the emergence of a
consciousness with a national color.
The growth of the political organizations like Indian
national congress was the upshot of the national
consciousness of the unified India. Following the
establishment of the Indian National Congress,
several other political organizations came into
existence representing the nationalist feeling of India.
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The organizations like All India Trade Union
Congress, All India Kishan Sabha etc would not have
come into existence unless the growth of efficient
transport and communication.
5. Development of modern education
The introduction of the modern system of education
opened the opportunities for the assimilation of the
modern Western ideas with the Indian ideals. As a
result the political consciousness of the west blended
with the Indian political thinking.
The English intellectuals took a momentous decision
in 1835 to introduce the English education and the
study of Westerns philosophy in India. The English
education was originally aimed for the Indian rulers
in the interest of efficient administration. However
the English education opened to the educated Indians
the gates of the liberal political thoughts of the West.
The liberal and radical thought of the European
writers inculcated the liberal political thought among
the educated intellectuals in India.
The idea of liberty, self-government made them
conscious of the oppression and diplomacy of the
British rulers in India. In this way the sense of Swaraj
and independence developed the nationalist feeling
among the Indians. The newly educated class being
conscious of the citizen rights could form a political
consciousness of their own. They began to make the
common people aware of their rights and duties.
The educated intellectuals being conscious of the
political rights found that the promises contained in
the Charter Act of 1833 had not been fulfilled. This
created a sense of discontent throughout India against
the British Raj. Thus the spread of modern education
inculcating the feeling of political consciousness gave
to the educated intellectuals a common language- a
lingua franca. Through this they can communicate
with one another and can transact theirs conferences
and congresses. In the absence of such lingua franca it
would have been difficult for the people of different
languages to come on a common platform and
organize a movement of anal India character.
6. Role of press in Indian nationalism
The emergence of the modern Press both in English
and the Vernacular was one of the significant reasons for
the growth of nationalism in India in the late nineteenth
and the early twentieth century. It was the Europeans
who set up Printing Presses in India and published
newspaper. Gradually the Vernacular Press came into
existence, which was developed in the pattern of the
English newspapers. Originally the English newspapers
could not express political conditions properly, since
those were entirely controlled by the government. Thus
when the Vernacular press made bare the oppressive and
the repressive policies of the British the Government put
restrictions over its circulations.
Several Acts were passed to stop the circulations of
the vernacular Press. The Indian press had played a
notable role in mobilizing the public opinions,
organizing political movements, fighting over political
controversy and promoting nationalism. The newspapers
like The Indian Mirror, the Bengalee, the Amritabazar
Patrika, Bombay chronicle, the Hindu Patriot, the
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Marhatta, Keshari etc exposed the excesses of British
Indian administration. Moreover these newspapers also
popularized the ideas of representative government,
liberty, democratic institutions, Home rule and
independence etc. Press became the primary medium of
public education and probably played the most
important part in forming the Public opinion. Thus
Press became the mirror of Indian nationalism.
7. Political and administrative unification of
India
British rule brought about the political
unification of the country. Such a unity was unknown in
pre-British era, which was almost chronically divided
into numerous feudal states, frequently struggling among
themselves to extend their boundaries.
The British established a uniform reign of law in
the country. They enacted laws and codified them. The
laws were made applicable to every citizen of the state
and were enforced by a hierarchically graded system of
tribunals which constituted the judicial section of the
state.
They established hierarchically graded public
services which brought about the administrative
unification f the country. Thus were created, imperial,
provincial and subordinate services which formed the
executive section of the centralized state.
It enabled the people to think India as one
nation. The social and religious reform movements also
brought awakening and the people together.
8. Rise of new classes in India
The altering of the economic arrangement like
introduction of new land relation, opening of Indian
society for exploitation by the capitalists world,
introduction of a new administrative arrangement, a
modem education system and the establishment of
modern industries were the factors largely responsible
for the emergence of the new social' classes.
The emergence of new classes did not follow any
uniform pattern everywhere and among all the
communities. The new economy causing the rise of new
classes was introduced in the areas, which came under
the British control. The conquest of India was not
achieved in one stroke. It was done in tits and bits. The
part of country coming under British control early
witnessed the early rise of the new classes. Bengal was
the first to usher in the two new classes the Zamindars
and the tenants because British conquest started from
Bengal and it was in Bengal where for the first time the
permanent settlement, which gave birth to the zamindars
and the tenants, was introduced.
Even the industrial enterprises which gave rise to the
class of industrialists and workers were first set up in
Bengal and Bombay areas. The professional and the
educated middle class also came into being in these areas
much ahead of the other areas. It was because of the
introduction of a new administrative apparatus and the
modem educational system. Gradually the whole country
came under the British control. So the economic system,
the administrative set up and the modem education
system introduced by the British enveloped the whole of
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country. This is how the emergence of the, new classes
became a countrywide phenomenon.
Even among the different communities the
emergence of new social classes was not uniform.
Baniyas and Parsis were first to be drawn to the
commerce and banking so they blossomed into capitalist
class. Similarly the Brahmins were first to take the
modem education introduced by the British. That is why
they largely constituted the class of professionals and the
intelligentsia.
The Muslims witnessed late emergence of the new
classes because they stayed away from the trade and
commerce and looked at the modem system of
education with suspicion and they lived in northern
India, which came under the British subjugation at a
much later stage. Bengal had a very large Muslim
population.
The Indian society was stratified into new classes like
capitalists (commercial, industrial and financial),
professional classes like lawyers, doctors and others,
fairly large sized middle class employees and an
overwhelming section of the urban proletariat living on
wages in urban areas.
Rise of Modern Indian Intelligentsia
In the early decades of the nineteenth century the
number of the educated persons was very small. The
spread of modem education was largely the work of the
British government. But the Christian missionaries and a
large number of enlightened Indians had also established
schools and colleges over the country. Around the
middle of the nineteenth century there emerged a large
section of intelligentsia. They assimilated western
democratic culture and understood the complex
problems of the incipient Indian nationhood. They led
many social and religious reforms movements to
integrate Indian people into a modem nation.
Leaders like Gopal Krishna Gokhle, Dadabhai
Naoroji, M.G. Ranade and others led the moderate
phase of the nationalist movement. In the militant phase
the trio of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and B.C.
Pal together with Aurobindo Ghose were main leaders.
When the freedom struggle acquired a mass base after
the non-cooperation movement of 1919 its leadership
passed into the hands of leaders such as M.K. Gandhi,
Motilal Nehru, Ballabh Bhai Patel, J.L. Nehru, S.C. Bose
and intellectuals with socialist and communist leanings.
All of them were products of the modem education
system. This class was fired with a modem rational,
secular, democratic and nationalist vision they were
imbued with ideas of democracy, equality, liberty and
justice. They realized the negative impacts of the British
rule and could grasp the contradiction between British
interest in India and the Indian interest according to
Bipan Chandra it would be wrong to think that the
nationalist movement was a product of modem
education system launched during the British rule. In
fact Indian nationalism was born out of and sustained by
conflict of interests between India and Britain.
The modem education system helped to understand
the nature of conflict in a better way. This class, which
included scientists, poets, historians, economists and
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philosophers, had a dream of a modem, strong,
prosperous and united India.
The middle class, which comprised of lawyers,
doctors, professors, journalists, government employees,
students and others, was the product of modem
education system. In the second half of the nineteenth
century their number swelled because of the expansion
in the number of schools and colleges. But the growth in
the numbers of educated Indians was not matched with
corresponding increase in number of jobs. The
economic policies followed by the government failed to
create adequate number of jobs that could absorb the
educated persons produced by the academic institutions.
The discontent among the educated unemployed was the
main factor behind the rise and growth of militant
nationalism led by Lala Lajpat Roy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
Bipan Chandra Pal and Aurobindo. This was true also
about the growth of revolutionary terrorist movements.
9. Kishan Sabhas and working class
movements
Kisan sabhas
The Communists made the peasants acquire
class-consciousness and many Kisan Sabhas were
formed. In October 1920 Awadh Kisan Sabha was
constituted which believed in constitutional agitation
rather than non-cooperation with the government. The
Kisan Sabhas agitation grew in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and
Andhra Pradesh. Prof.N.G.Ranga initiated a strong
movement of the ryots or peasants in Andhra. The
Andhra Provincial Ryots association started in 1928. He
made attempts to bring the peasantry of Madras within
the fold of the movement.
Swami Sahajan initiated a strong movement of
the ryots or peasants in Bihar. The krishak and Praja
party of Fazlul Haq in Bengal however could not make a
universal appeal to peasantry.
The young radicals of the congress founded the
All-India congress Socialist Party on May 17, 1934 with
J.P.Narayan as organizing Secretary and Acharya
Narendra Dev as President. The first session of the party
was held at Bombay in October 1934 under the
presidentship of Sampurnanand. In 1935,
Sampurnanand wrote A Tentative Socialist
Program for India. In 1933, the Congress Socialist
Party leader N.G.Ranga started an Indian Peasant
Institute at Nidubrolu to train Kisan cadres. In 1933,
Sahajanand revived the Kisan Sabha in Bihar.
In 1936 the first successful attempt was made to
bring the isolated peasants movement under the fold of
an all India organization. The decision was taken at the
Meerut Conference of the Congress Socialist party to
hold an All-India Kisan Congress at Lucknow. Thus the
first All-India Kisan Sabha was set up on April 11, 1936
to promote the cause of peasants. Swami Sahajananand
Saraswathi presided over the conference. The conference
was attended by the peasant leaders from different
provinces. Jawaharlal Nehru participated in this
conference. In a manifesto published by the conference
the objectives of the All India kisan Sabha were clearly
expressed as below:-
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To free the peasants from all sorts of
political and economic exploitations
To ensure political and economic rights
of the peasantry
Abolition of the Zamindari system
Distribution of lands to the peasants
Cancellation of debts
To improve irrigation facilities for
agriculture
A weekly named Kisan Bulletin that guided
the peasants in building up a strong movement was
published under the editorship of Indulal yajnik. Other
demands of Kisan Sabhas were even more radical like
abolition of landlordism, licensing of money lenders,
minimum wage for agricultural laborers, fair price for
commercial crops etc. The communists efforts to unite
the peasants cannot be undermined and they played a
prominent role in leading various peasant movements.
The All-India Kisan Sabha organized a Bihar Kisan day
on 18-10-1937, against police repression on satyagrahis.
Swami Sahajan a radical element resigned from All-
India Kisan Sabha, accusing the pro-zaminadr inclination
of Congress in 1945.
The working class movements
The Indian Working class had to face two
antagonistic forces an imperialistic political rule and
economic exploitation at the hands of both foreign and
native capitalist classes. Under the circumstances,
inevitably, the Indian working class movements become
intertwined with the political struggle for national
emancipation.
10. Social policies and legislation
Though initially the British interest was limited
to trade and earning profits from economic exploitation
in the mid-19th century the social and religious
movements, launched in India, attracted the attention of
the Companys administration towards the countrys
social evils.
Social Laws Concerning Women
There was no social and economic equality
between a man and woman. During the 19th and 20th
centuries some laws were enacted with the sincere
efforts of social reformers, humanists and some British
administrators to improve the condition of women in
Indian society.
The first effort in this direction was the enactment
of law against the practice of Sati during the
administration of Lord William Bentinck. Bengal
regulation (1829) banned Sati. Regulation of XVII
of 4 December 1829 declared the practice of sati
illegal. Enlightened Indian reformers led by Raja
Ram Mohan Roy encouraged William Bentinck to
enact this legislation. The Regulation was extended
to the Madras and Bombay Presidencies in 1830.
Bentinck took effective steps to prevent Female
Infanticide at Saugar Island in Bengal. He not only
prohibited female infanticide but declared them as
punishable crime. Bengal regulations (XXI of
1795, III of 1804) declared infanticide illegal.
In July 1856, J.P. Grant, a member of the
Governor-Generals Council finally tabled a bill in
support of the widow remarriage, which was passed
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on 13 July 1856 and came to be called the Widow
Remarriage Act, 1856 (Act XV) which legalized
Widow Remarriage. Pt. Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar
(1820-91) Principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta,
deserve a special mention here for his efforts to
pressurize the Government to enact such
legislation.
Native marriage act 1872 popularly known as
Civil Marriage Act- Marriage of boys below 18 years
and Girls below 14 years was forbidden. But this act
had very limited scope as it did not apply to Hindus,
Muslims, and other recognized faiths.
Age of consent act 1891 (Forbade the marriage of
girls below the age of 12) was enacted thanks to the
efforts made by B.M.Malabari a Parsi reformer.
Sharada act 1930 forbade Marriage of boys below
18 years and Girls below 14 years.
1833 - ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
THROUGHOUT THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The common law of England did not recognize
anyone as a slave (although in Scotland, which does not
have the common law, bondage still existed until the late
eighteenth century, when it was abolished by legislation).
Slavery, however, existed in a number of British
In western India, Prof.D.K.Karve (Prof. in Ferguson
College) took up the cause of widow remarriage and
in Madras Veerasalingam Pantulu made Herculean
efforts in the same direction.
Prof.D.K.Karve became the secretary of the Widow
remarriage association. He refused to marry a teenager
and married a Brahmin widow in 1893.
In 1899 Prof.D.K.Karve opened a Widows Home in
Poona. He set up an Indian Womens University at
Bombay in 1916.
EDUCATION OF WOMEN
The Christian missionaries were the first to set up the
Calcutta Female Juvenile Society in 1819.
In 1849 J.E.D.Bethune, President of the council of
education founded a Girls School in Calcutta.
Pt. Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar also did a lot in
popularizing Female education by opening more than
35 schools in Bengal.
In Bombay the students of Elphinstone Institute
became the spearhead of the movement for women
education and founded the Students Literary and
Scientific Society.
Sir Charles Wood Despatch on Education laid a great
stress on the need for female education.
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colonies, principally in the West Indies. The Slavery
Abolition Bill 1833 received the Royal Assent (which
means it became law) on 29 August 1833 and came into
force on 1 August 1834. On that date slavery was
abolished throughout the vast British Empire. The Act
automatically applied as new possessions (principally in
Africa) subsequently became part of the British Empire.
There were a number of exceptions.
First, its application to the Colony of the Cape of
Good Hope (now the Cape Province of the Republic of
South Africa) was delayed for 4 months and its
application to the Colony of Mauritius (now the
Republic of Mauritius) was delayed for 6 months.
Secondly, section 64-excluded Ceylon (now Sri Lanka),
St Helena and the territories in the possession of The
Honorable East India Company, namely in British India,
but the section was subsequently repealed.
A clause was inserted in the Charter Act 1833
requiring the Governor-General-in-Council to abolish
slavery in India as soon as it could be safely and
conveniently carried out. Act V of 1843 declared slavery
illegal.
The provisions of the Indian Penal Code 1860
effectively abolished slavery in India by making the
enslavement of human beings a criminal offence.
The purposes of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 were
described in the preamble to the Bill as:
1. The abolition of slavery throughout the
British colonies;
2. For promoting the industry of the
manumitted slaves; and
3. For compensating the persons hitherto
entitled to the services of such slaves.
The second purpose was achieved by providing
for a period of apprenticeship. The third purpose was
achieved by appropriating 20 million a huge sum in
those days to compensate slave owners.
11. Indian renaissance
The Indian Renaissance in the nineteenth
century was essentially a matter of spirit which produced
striking changes in the realm of religion, society and
culture along with a demand for national regeneration.
There arose a new self-consciousness among the people
of India. The phenomenon of Renaissance stirred the
Indian soul to its very depths and Modern India owes
everything to the Renaissance which was followed by
reformation movements all over India.
Sir Jadu Nath Sarkar observes that "the India
Renaissance was at first an intellectual awakening which
profoundly affected our Literature, education, thought
and art. In the next succeeding generation, it became a
moral force and reformed the Indian society and
religion. In the third generation, it brought about the
economic modernisation of India and ultimately the
political emancipation".
The reform movements of 19
th
century fall in two
categories namely:-
Reformist movements Brahmo Samaj, Prarthan
Samaj, Aligarh Movement.
Revivalist Movements Arya Samaj,
Ramakrishna Mission and the Deoband
Movement.
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Impact of Renaissance on India
National Awakening- It gave rise to national
awakening. Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Swami Dayanand
and Vivedanand and others brought awakening and
pride to Indians for their past. They developed a
sense of patriotism.
Revival of Hinduism- Missionaries misled
many Indians and converted them to Christianity. The
Indian intellectuals brought the real form of
Hinduism to the people and reformed the prevailing
malpractices. Vivekanand preached Hinduism in the
west.
Social Reforms- Renaissance greatly affected
the Hindu society. Raja Ram Mohun Roy opposed
sati and child marriage. Brahmo Samaj and Arya
Samaj and the Ramakrishna Mission helped in
bringing succor to Hindu society. Later M.K. Gandhi
also exerted for the removal of untouchability.
Status of Women- The English gave due
respect to their women. The spread of girls
education, opposition to veil, and promotion of
widow remarriage helped in raising the status of
women.
Logical Outlook- The scientific temperament
created logical outlook. Indians now questioned and
argued every move and accepted it if it was logical. It
helped in removing the superstitions.
Progress of Science- The Indians studied
science and the scientific methodology. Jagdish
Chandra Bose created sensation throughout the world
by his discoveries in the field of Botany. Sir C.V.
Raman was honoured with Nobel Prize for his
discovery of Raman Effect. In other fields also
Indians made remarkable contributions.
Awakening among the Muslims- Muslim
society after the decline of the Mughals developed an
inferiority complex. Muslim reformers Syed Ahmad
Khan, Shaukat Ali, Abul Kalam Azad etc. exerted to
reform and uplift their community. Aligarh Muslim
University, Jamia Millia Islamia etc. were established
to educate the muslims and help them to take their
place in the national main stream.
New Literature- The great literary output in
19th and 20th centuries is an outcome of the
renaissance. It all started with translations, then the
original literature came up. They established norms in
the literary circles. The third generation through their
original path breaking writings impressed the world.
Rabindra Nath Tagore was conferred The Nobel
Prize for his poems in Gitanjali.
Research in Ancient Indian History- The
Europeans worked diligently to discover the past
history. Their efforts and discoveries helped in
bringing back a sense of pride to the Indians. Indian
historians worked hard to develop a systematic
history and to unravel the greatness of Indian
achievements all along.
12. Backward caste movements
A number of circumstances in the 19
th
and 20
th

centuries created class-consciousness among the lower
castes that took upon themselves to struggle for caste
equality. In South India, the lower caste movements
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were a direct revolution against the Brahminical
domination in the Madras Presidency. The lower caste
leaders propagated that the Dravidians were the original
inhabitants of India while the Aryans were the
immigrants into India and they had brought the evil
institution of the caste system with them.
1. JUSTICE PARTY C.N.Mudaliyar, T.M.Nair and
Thiyagaraj Chettiyar started the first Non-Brahminical
organization called South Indian Liberal Federation
(SILF), later known as Justice Party in 1916. It exhibited
its loyalty to the British. In 1937, EVR Periyar was
elected the President of the Justice Party. Periyar was a
crusader for social equality and fought against the evil of
untouchability. He denounced Hinduism as an
instrument of Brahminical domination.
2. SELF-RESPECT MOVEMENT Started in 1925
by E.V.R. Periyar. Periyar published a journal Kudi
Arasu. In 1937, he took charge of Justice Party. In 1944
Justice Party was renamed Dravida Kazhagam (Salem
Conference). In September 1949, the party split under
Annas leadership and hence DMK came into existence.
3. SNDPY (SHRI NARAYANA DHARMA
PARIPALANA YOGAM) (1902) - established by
Shri.Narayana Guru / Nanak Asan also known the Great
Redeemer, the leader of Ezhava Caste. He achieved
considerable success in transforming the untouchable
groups. He said, One Religion, One Caste and One
God for Mankind. Vaikom Satyagraha (Temple Entry
Movement) in 1924 was led by K.D.Keshava Menon.
The Kakinada session of congress passed the Temple
Entry Resolution.
4. SATYA SHADOK SAMAJ TRUTH SEEKING
SOCIETY (1873)- In Western India, Jyotirao Govind
Rao Phule (1827-90) struggled for the lower castes. He
was born at Poona in 1827, in a Mali Caste (Gardener).
Some incidence of Brahminical arrogance changed the
outlook of Jyotiba. In 1873, Jyotiba started the Satya
Shadok Samaj (Truth Seeking Society) with the aim of
securing social justice for the weaker sections of the
society. Phule wrote Ghulamgiri and Sarvajanik
Satyadharma Pustak , Dharma Tritiya Ratiya Ratna
(Exposure of the Puranas), Ishara (A Warning), Life of
Shivaji etc.. He was honored with the title mahatma.
5. BAHISKRIT HITKARNI SABHA (1924)- Started
by B.R. Ambedkar in July 1924, in Bombay, for the
moral and material progress of the untouchables. He
resorted to methods of agitation and launched
Satyagraha to establish the civic rights of the
untouchables to enter the Hindu Temples and draw
water from public wells. Ambedkar founded the Samaj
Samta Sangh in 1927 and the Scheduled Caste
Federation in 1942. He floated Independent Labour
Party in 1937.
6. OTHER MOVEMENTS- Harijan Movement of
Gandhi founded the Harijan Sevak Sangh or the All
India Untouchability league in 1932. He started weekly
Harijan in 1933. The Nagpur session (1920) chalked out
the constructive program of removal of untouchability.
CONCLUSION - These socio-political forces by their
very nature came into conflict with British imperialist
policies and administrative system and sparked the fire
of Indian Nationalism.
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CONCEPT OF EQUALITY
The modern concept of equality is based on
the struggle against the unequal privileges of aristocracy
prevalent in feudalism. The French revolutionaries used
the slogan Liberty, Equality and Fraternity to revolt
against the landed feudal aristocracy and the monarchy.
The demand for equality was also raised during anti-
colonial liberation struggles in Asia and Africa during the
twentieth century. It continues to be raised by struggling
groups such as women or dalits who feel marginalized in
our society. Marx said Equality in its non-political sense
meant a counterpart of liberty.
Bryan Turner in his book Equality has
given a comprehensive meaning of equality, which
includes the following:
1. Fundamental equality of persons
2. Equality of opportunity
3. Equality of condition for relevant groups
4. Equality of outcome
The concept of equality implies that all people, as
human beings, are entitled to the same rights and
opportunities to develop their skills and talents, and to
pursue their goals and ambitions irrespective of race,
caste creed, gender and religion.
No society can treat all its members in
exactly the same way under all conditions. The
smooth functioning of society requires division of work
and functions and people often enjoy different status
and rewards because of it. At times, these differences of
treatment may appear acceptable or even necessary. For
instance, we usually do not feel that giving prime
ministers, or army generals, a special official rank and
status goes against the notion of equality, provided their
privileges are not misused.
The commitment to the ideal of equality does
not imply the elimination of all forms of differences.
It merely suggests that the treatment we receive and the
opportunities we enjoy must not be pre-determined by
birth or social circumstance. It is not the lack of equality
of status, wealth, or privilege that is significant but the
inequalities in peoples access to such basic goods, as
education, health care, safe housing, that make for an
unequal and unjust society. When people are treated
differently just because they are born in a particular
religion, race, caste, or gender, we regard it as an
unacceptable form of inequality.
In a society people may differ with regard to
their choices and preferences. They may also have
different talents and skills, which result in some being
more successful in their chosen careers than others.
Hence human beings may pursue different ambitions
and goals and not all may be equally successful. So long
as they are able to develop the best in themselves, we
would not feel that equality has been undermined.
INEQUALITY
Inequality lies at the root of stratification in
society. Inequality implies an imbalance in ability or
resources to meet a challenge. Inequality in societies in
general is manifest in caste, class, gender and power
relations.
There are two kinds of inequalities:-
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1. Natural inequalities that emerge between people
because of their different capabilities and talents and
choices made by the individual.
2. Social inequalities emerge because of inequalities of
opportunity or the exploitation of some groups in a
society by others.
For example the sex of a child is a natural
phenomenon but that of gender is a socially created
attribute which manifest in the form of gender
discrimination. It is generally assumed that natural
differences cannot be altered. Social inequalities on the
other hand are those created by society.
For example, women were for long described as
the weaker sex, considered timid and of lesser
intelligence than men, needing special protection.
Therefore, it was felt that denying women equal rights
could be justified. Black people in Africa were
considered by their colonial masters to be of lesser
intelligence, child-like, and better at manual work, sports
and music. This belief was used to justify institutions like
slavery. This belief was used to justify institutions like
slavery. All these assessments are now questioned. They
are now seen as distinctions made by society as a result
of the differences of power between people and nations
rather than based on their inborn characteristics.
Some differences which could be considered
natural need no longer be seen as unalterable. For
instance, advances in medical science and technologies
have helped many disabled people to function effectively
in society. Today, computers can help blind people,
wheel chairs and artificial limbs can help in cases of
physical disability, even a persons looks can be changed
with cosmetic surgery. The famous physicist Stephen
Hawking can hardly move or speak but he has made
major contributions to science.
It would seem unjust to most people today if
disabled people are denied necessary help to overcome
the effects of their disability or a fair reward for their
work on the grounds that they are naturally less capable.
The claim for equality is hence a protest against
unjust, underserved and unjustified inequalities. Equality
thus implies fundamentally a leveling process.
Equality in the modern sense is a principle of correcting
the unjust inequalities in society.
DIFFERENCE AND INEQUALITY
People in a society are divided into different
categories based on one or a set of criteria. Social
stratification refers to the division of people into
different categories. These categories may simply reflect
differences between people grouped into them. The
implicit assumption here is that the difference between
categories is important, however, no weightage is given
to the difference between them, i.e., the categories are
not assigned unequal statuses or unequal rewards. The
different categories of people are treated alike and one is
not treated as more significant than the other. This is the
concept of difference in social categories. When unequal
statuses and rewards are attached to social categories and
these are ranked on the basis of one or more defining
factors, they are treated as unequal. According to Gupta
(2004), differences assume importance when ranking
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diversities becomes difficult. Social stratification
incorporates concepts of both difference and inequality.
Social Stratification: Difference and
Inequality
If instead of power or wealth one takes into
account forms of stratification based on difference then
the geological model cannot be easily invoked. For
example, linguistic differences cannot be placed in a
hierarchical order. Looked at closely, neither should
differences between men and women be understood in
terms of inequality. Sadly, however, such differences are
never always allowed to retain their horizontal status.
They usually tend to get hierarchised in popular
consciousness. This is where prejudice takes over. Men
are deemed to be superior to women, certain linguistic
groups are held to be less civilised and cultivated than
others, and religious bigotry prevails, all because most of
us are not conditioned to tolerate difference qua
difference.
The conceptual need to separate these two
orders arises because in the sociology of social
stratification attention is directed to the manner in which
hierarchy and difference relate to each other. If hierarchy
and difference could hold on to their respective terrains
then there would be no real need to study stratification
as a special area of interest. If it is hierarchy alone that is
of interest, then social inequality would be a good
enough rubric within which to organise our study. If, on
the other hand, it is only difference that is of concern
then the tried and tested term social differentiation
should do adequately. The term social stratification,
however, is not a synonym of either social inequality
or of social differentiation.
Bteille (1969) suggests that two aspects of social
inequality deserve mention. The first is the distributive
aspect which refers to the different factors (e.g. income,
wealth, occupation, education, power, skill) that are
distributed in the population. It provides the basis of
inter-personal interactions in society. The second is the
relational aspect which refers to the ways in which the
individuals differentiated by the different factors relate to
each other within a system of groups and categories.
Here the thrust is on interaction of people belonging to
one group or category. He explains that the major forms
of social inequality that have been studied by sociologists
intensively are those that arise out of disparities of
wealth and income; those that have a bearing on unequal
prestige or honour; and those that are born out of
imbalance in the distribution of power.
SOCIAL EXCLUSION
The term social exclusion has its origins in
Lenoir (1974). Lenoir, then Secretaire dEtat `a lAction
Sociale in the Chirac government, referred to the
excluded as consisting not only of the poor but of a wide
variety of people, namely the social misfits.
Social exclusion describes a situation where
certain groups within a society are systematically
disadvantaged because they are discriminated
against. Such groups are often differentiated by race,
ethnicity, age or gender. Social exclusion exists to some
degree in all societies, and can occur across a number of
dimensions: economic, social, political and cultural.
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These different forms of disadvantage form a self-
reinforcing cycle.
Exclusion can be official or unofficial and can
take place in a number of arenas, from the legal, health
and education systems to the household and community.
Processes of exclusion can be highly visible and
deliberate, but can also be hidden and unintentional.
In developing countries, exclusion is often a product of
historical developments, including colonialism.
People may be born into an excluded group (in
the case of ethnicity, caste, or being born with a
disability), or may become excluded either due to
changes in circumstances (such as migration, acute
illness, or disaster) or to chronic processes (such as
long-term unemployment). People may also be excluded
because of where they live (for example, people who
live in remote areas or slums). There is no single
criterion for identifying the socially excluded, nor is it
always agreed who the socially excluded are in a given
society.
Social exclusion is a long-term multidimensional
process that focuses not only on who is being excluded,
but also on the institutions and resources from which
they are denied access.
Multi-dimensional concept
Social exclusion is a multi-dimensional
concept that covers economic, social and political
aspects: it deals with the failure to attain adequate levels
of various functionings that are deemed valuable in the
society. Social exclusion thus:-
is the result of a pattern of acts to exclude
certain individuals or groups on the part of those that
have power
is the process by which certain groups are left
out of decision-making processes
is the act of suppressing the aspirations of
certain groups, denying them legitimate expectations
guaranteed to the majority
is perpetuated by both formal and informal
institutions
is an underlying cause of poverty
entails the absence of social roles and ties,
where individuals are subject to societys arbitrariness
without means to make their voices heard
describes a state where group(s) of individuals
defined by their social identity- have consistently
inferior opportunities economic, social and/or
political
is the platform on which the marginalized
(especially youth) groom hate and violence as a
mode of participation in society
Root causes of social exclusion may include
inequities created through colonialism, slavery, control
over land and resources, ethnic domination, disrespect
for diversity, protection of power domains etc.
Women, the elderly and the young might be
considered to be particularly at risk from exclusion along
some or all of these dimensions. Grounds for exclusion
include specific attributes, such as gender, age, race,
religion, ethnicity, location, occupation, and disease (e.g.,
HIV/AIDS), or the more general attribute of being at
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the lower end of income distribution and social
hierarchy.
1. Relative concept: An individual can be socially
excluded only in comparison with other members of a
society: there is no absolute social exclusion, and
an individual can be declared socially excluded only
with respect to the society it is considered to be a
member of. Social exclusion depends on the extent to
which an individual is able to associate and identify
with others. The exclusion could also manifest itself
in diverse ways in terms of causes and outcomes.
2. Unfavorable inclusion & Unfavorable exclusion:
Amartya Sen drew distinction between the situation
where some people are being kept out (at least left
out), and where some people are being included (may
even be forced to be included) - in deeply unfavorable
terms, and described the two situations as
unfavorable exclusion and unfavorable
inclusion. The unfavorable inclusion, with
unequal treatment may carry the same adverse effects
as unfavorable exclusion.
3. Active & passive exclusion: Sen also differentiated
between active and passive exclusion. Active
exclusion - fostering of exclusion through the
deliberate policy interventions by the government, or
by any other willful agents (to exclude some people
from some opportunity). Passive exclusion - works
through the social process in which there are no
deliberate attempts to exclude, but nevertheless, may
results in exclusion from a set of circumstances.
4. Constitutive relevance & Instrumental relevance:
In constitutive relevance, exclusion or deprivation
has an intrinsic importance of their own. For instance,
not being able to relate to others and to take part in
the life of the community can directly impoverish a
persons life, in addition to the further deprivation it
may generate. In instrumental relevance the
excluded people, as a result of their exclusion, may be
unable to pursue other (non-relational) dimensions of
poverty.
5. Social exclusion is not coterminous with poverty:
It implies that it is possible to be excluded without
being poor. For instance even in urbanized cities
wherein castes are supposed not to be a determining
factor of social class, tribal people who are
economically as well as educationally well placed, are
being excluded socially, owing to their birth in tribal
society.
6. Horizontal vs. Vertical: Vertical exclusion prevents
one from moving up the social ladder, while
horizontal exclusion prevents one from belonging to
a social group or a network consisting of people at
roughly the same level on the vertical ladder. E.g. if an
immigrant is excluded vertically, he can conceivably
compensate for it by being a part of a horizontal
(ethnic or religious community) which has some
collective access to resources. Horizontal and vertical
exclusions can reinforce each other, especially when
horizontal institutions are weak or rigidly defined (e.g.
on the basis of religious orthodoxy or ethnic purity),
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typically for the purpose of eliminating extra
claimants on scarce resources.
7. Intentional vs. Unintentional: Intention in social
exclusion is typically linked to discrimination
although intention to discriminate can be masked by
policy that appears balanced. In extreme cases it may
be necessary for a society to exclude (e.g. terrorist
groups) but more often groups are unrightfully
excluded, such as indigenous and tribal peoples,
ethnic and cultural minorities, non-mainstream
religious groups, immigrant groups etc.
In other cases there is good will to be inclusive
but unintentional exclusion happens when decision-
makers do not assess the impact of their policies and
when group are not considered priority by leaders
(e.g. they may be competing with priority populations
for control of resources or leaders may see little
return on investing in particular groups). Exclusion
can also happen because the dominant society does
not respect certain individual characteristics that do
not fit within the model, e.g. sexual preference etc.
8. Formal vs. Informal: Formally exclusion can be
embedded in institutions and legislation as with the
apartheid regime in South Africa. Informal exclusion,
on the other hand, results from traditional behaviours
and patterns in society, or prejudice or unequal
opportunities. Informal exclusion is more complex
and challenging to confront.
9. Multiple and reinforcing forms of social
exclusion : Various forms of social exclusion can be
experienced at once, for example (in the Nepali case)
a Dalit woman from remote area faces at least 3
forms of social exclusion- first being women, second
being Dalit and third being from disadvantaged
region. While one chose to be more or less included
in societies systems e.g. economic, educational,
political, legal, religious, artistic or scientific activities -
when one is excluded from one system it can lead to a
domino effect reinforcing the exclusion from other
systems (e.g. if kids cant go to school, they are less
likely to find a job, if they are less likely to find a job
they may become sick etc).
10. Social exclusion & deprivation: The relativity
element of social exclusion makes the latter closely
related to the concept of deprivation. Runciman
(1966) formulates the idea that a persons feeling of
deprivation in a society arises out of comparing its
situation with those who are better off: The
magnitude of a relative deprivation is the extent of
the difference between the desired situation and
that of the person desiring it. Processes of exclusion
can be linked to deprivation or impoverishment in a
multi-dimensional and interactional fashion, rather
than in a linear way. On the one hand, the poor are
likely be excluded from wider participation in
society because of their relative material
disadvantage in terms of income. Social exclusion
manifests itself in the persistent lack of an
individuals access to functioning as compared to
other members of society and we model it as being
in a state of deprivation over time.
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Deprivation is viewed as having two basic
determinants: 1. Lack of identification with other
members of society and 2. Aggregate alienation
experienced by an agent with respect to those with
fewer functioning failures. Technological advances in
modes of production may mean that a reserve pool
of labour is no longer required, or, local people may
be excluded from their means of livelihood when land
is commercialized.
11. Social exclusion & relative poverty: Social
exclusion can be strongly linked to notions of
relative poverty as expounded in Amartya Sens
work on entitlements and the vulnerability
approach forwarded by Robert Chambers.
World Bank has adopted the discourse of social
exclusion, explicitly recognising the importance of
sociopolitical factors in causing poverty including
chronic poverty: "Discrimination on the basis of
gender, ethnicity, race, religion, or social status can
lead to social exclusion and lock people into long-
term poverty traps".
12. Political aspects of Social exclusion: Political
aspects of exclusion include the denial of political
rights such as political participation and the right to
organise, and also of personal security, the rule of
law, freedom of expression and equality of
opportunity. More broadly, however, social
exclusion is better understood not as a specifically
political concept, but as an attempt to "ground the
understanding of deprivation firmly in traditions of
social science analyses".
13. Social exclusion and inequality: Unequal
societies in which certain groups are discriminated
against can lead to exclusion. Likewise, social
exclusion fuels inequality. Unlike vertical
inequalities, which focus on individuals, horizontal
inequalities concern inequalities between groups, as
does social exclusion. Both horizontal inequalities
and social exclusion are multidimensional,
encompassing social, economic and political forms
of exclusion. However, horizontal inequalities are
not always severe enough to lead to a situation
defined as social exclusion. Policies and initiatives to
reduce horizontal inequalities and social exclusion
can be quite similar; both take a multidimensional
approach and generally target groups rather than
individuals.
Costs of not confronting social exclusion
Exclusion results in increasing cohorts of
disenfranchised people which can translate to the
underutilization of resources; decreased productivity;
biased (and therefore ineffective) strategies, plans and
programmes; wasteful development assistance that does
not target causes but only treats symptoms and
insufficient use and provision of social services incl. in
education and health.
Social exclusion reinforces inequalities in
power and wealth and as evidenced, inequality negatively
impacts the investment, productivity, innovation and risk
taking capacity that underpins long-term growth.
In Nepal , for example, social exclusion means keeping
Dalits and Janajatis (almost 50% of the total population)
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out of mainstream development (not using their skills
and capabilities- wasting productive potentials). Such
high levels of inequality can also lessen the impact of
economic growth on poverty reduction. Moreover, not
addressing exclusion can exacerbate and/or ignite
conflict and instability, setting back prosperity and
leading to loss of life (such as the Maoist peoples war
in Nepal).
Social exclusion and conflict
Access to power (be it economic, political or
social) is at the heart of exclusion. When attempts are
made to improve the access to power of excluded
groups, resistance will be felt from those who hold
power. In India for example, caste tensions have
resulted from disputes over who is entitled to claims
reservations (e.g. quota privileges). In the longer view,
however, it is argued that addressing social exclusion
makes more sense for conflict prevention than ignoring
social exclusion. This is particularly true where exclusion
exists along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines.
Social exclusion leads to open conflict only when
those who are excluded can organize themselves and
raise their voice. This requires leadership which is often
in the form of clear antagonism to the ruling forces. A
particular danger is noted that unstable societies with
resentful groups can be exploited by (unaccountable)
political players.
Three-quarters of the worlds conflicts have an
ethnic or religious dimension, most often linked to
exclusion from economic or political opportunities
and/or suppression of cultural identity. Inclusive
citizenship policies, open governance and policies
targeting social exclusion are a way to prevent tension
and conflict. More inclusive a society, lower the crime
rate. Societies tolerating a high degree of inequality and
exclusion are facing increasing security problems.
For Example on the Niger-Delta, the poorest
and most excluded indigenous groups have seen the oil
companies and the State steadily grow richer, while
their standards of living have remained the same. They
suffer from a lack of infrastructure, adequate health
facilities, training, and employment opportunities.
Armed youth are rising against both the Government
and the oil companies in reaction to the perceived
injustice of being completely excluded from the riches
brought by oil exploitation. Beyond the Niger-Delta,
widespread inter-ethnic, inter-regional and inter-religious
tension and conflicts can also be attributed to social
exclusion, violent mobilization of identities for
expression of sectional grievances; divergent calls for
self-determination, confederation, true federalism,
dissolution of the Nigerian commonwealth.
Criticism against the concept of social exclusion
1. Emphasizing the residual rather than relational
aspects of poverty, and thus detaching the study of
poverty from a more political understanding of how
power relations within society relate to and cause
poverty.
2. In societies where deprivation and political
exclusion are mass phenomena, there appears to
little value in labeling the majority of the population
as excluded
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3. Social exclusion is too broad a notion of deprivation
and lacks specificity.
4. It is yet another ethnocentric approach to poverty
and development, that has its intellectual and policy
roots in European and more latterly, Anglo-
American debates.
Social exclusion has come to be seen as denial of
capabilities and entitlements.
The given statement essentially reflects Prof. Amartya
Sens view.
Social exclusion and discrimination refer to the
process and outcome of keeping a social group outside
the power centres and resources.
Entitlements refer to rights, (i.e) the command
over goods, using various economic, political and social
opportunities within the legal system. A persons
entitlement set is the full range of goods and services
that he or she can acquire by converting his or her
endowments (assets and resources, including labour
power) through exchange entitlement mappings.
Functioning -A functioning is an achievement of a
person: what she or he manages to do or be. It reflects,
as it were, a part of the state of that person. Achieving a
functioning (e.g. being adequately nourished) with a
given bundle of commodities (e.g. bread or rice) depends
on a range of personal and social factors (e.g. metabolic
rates, body size, age, gender, activity levels, health, access
to medical services, nutritional knowledge and education,
climatic conditions, etc). A functioning therefore refers
to the use a person makes of the commodities at his or
her command.
Capability - A capability reflects a persons ability to
achieve a given functioning (doing or being). For
example, a person may have the ability to avoid hunger,
but may choose to fast or go on hunger strike instead.
Social exclusion as capability deprivation is thus, for
one part, the lack of basic functionings, material such as
being correctly fed, housed, educated, having a decent
job, or immaterial such as having social relations, voting,
etc. It is, for the other part, the lack of effective freedom
to choose and to act in the circumstances where the
person is staying. These two parts are really non
separable. If one of them is absent, the person continues
to suffer from capability deprivation. For, in Sens views,
the ultimate target is to provide the person with
autonomy of development and possibility to reflexivity
and self-responsibility.
Tackling social exclusion
Tackling social exclusion requires a long-term
strategic response on the part of all institutions and
organizations. Social policies can enhance or moderate
group consciousness and can exacerbate or reduce
exclusion. Most states now have legislation to ban overt
discrimination. In some countries, governments have
introduced targeting through various forms of
affirmative action.
Tackling social exclusion at a national level requires
a concerted and long term effort Measures can range
from implementing legal frameworks which assure basic
rights of all groups to access the institutions and
resources of society, to affirmative action policies
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(within, for example, employment, education and
political representation). Governments may even attempt
to identify forms of exclusion at all levels of government
action. Governments must be careful, however, not to
confuse inclusion with cultural assimilation; cultural
inclusion must mean that excluded and minority group
cultures are accorded space and respect by a countrys
dominant national culture.
The historical aspect of social exclusion notifies that a
level playing field alone cannot address social exclusion
but rather past unequal treatment must be redressed
and those left out compensated.

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