CLASS: XII SUBJECT: SOCIOLOGY TOPIC: PATTERNS OF SOCIAL

INEQUALITY AND EXCLUSION

For most of us, born and brought up in India, social inequality and exclusion are
facts of life. It does not strike us that as unjust that some children are denied
schooling. Caste discrimination against children in school is also a fact of life.
Similarly, newspaper reports about violence against women and prejudice against
minority groups and differently abled are part of our everyday lives.

If we do sometimes recognize that inequality and exclusion are not inevitable, we

often think of them as being ‘deserved’ or ‘justified’ in some sense. Perhaps the poor
and marginalized are where they are because they are lacking in ability or haven’t
tried hard enough to improve their situation.

Is Social Inequality social in nature ?

 Social inequality and exclusion are social because they are not about
individuals but about groups.
 They are social in the sense that they are not economic, although there is
usually a strong link between social and economic inequality
 They are systematic and structured-there is a definite pattern to social
inequalities.
The valued resources of every society (money, education, health, power) can be
divided into three forms of capital:

1. Economic capital-in the form of material assets and income

2. Cultural capital such as educational qualification and status
3. Social capital in the form of networks of contacts and social associations
Often these three forms of capital overlap and one can be converted into other.

Patterns of unequal access to social resources are commonly called social

inequality.

By and large, social inequality is not the outcome of innate or ‘natural’ differences
between people, but is produce by the society in which they live.

Social Stratification is the term which sociologists use to refer to a system by which
people in a society are ranked in a hierarchy. This hierarchy then shapes people’s
identity and experiences, their relations with others, as well as their access to
resources and opportunities.

Three key principles help explain social stratification:

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 1. Social stratification is a characteristic of society not simply a function of
individual differences. It is a society-wide system that unequally distributes
social resources among categories of people. In more technologies advanced
societies where people produce a surplus over and above their categories
regardless of people’s innate individual abilities.
2. Social stratification persists over generation. It is closely linked to the family
and to the inheritance of social resources from one generation to the next. A
person’s social position is ascribed. The ascribed aspect of social inequality is
reinforced by the practice of endogamy, ruling out the potential for blurring
caste lines through inter-marriage.
3. Social stratification is supported by patterns of belief or ideology. No
system of social stratification is persist over generation unless it is widely
viewed as being fair or inevitable. Eg caste system is justified in terms of the
position of purity and pollution, with the Brahmins designated as the most
superior and the Dalits as the most inferior by virtue of their birth and
occupation.
Social exclusion and discrimination does not pertain to differential economics
resources alone. People often face discrimination and exclusion because of their
gender, religion, ethnicity, language, caste, disability. Thus women from a
privileged background may face sexual harassment in public places.

Prejudice- refers to pre-conceived opinions or attitudes held by members of one

group towards another . a prejudiced person’s preconceived views are often based
on hearsay rather than on direct evidence and are resistant to change even in the
face of new information. It can be both positive and negative.

Stereotypes – Prejudice are often grounded in stereotypes, fixed and inflexible

characterizations of a group of people. They are often applied to ethnic or racial
groups and to women. A lot of them are Colonial creations e.g. some communities
being characterized as ‘martial races’. Stereotypes fix whole groups into single,
homogenous categories; they refuse to recognize the variation across individuals
and across contexts or across time.

Discrimination – If prejudice describes attitudes and opinions, discrimination refers

to actual behavior towards another groups or individual. It is seen in practice that
disqualifies members of one group from opportunities open to others. It can be very
hard to prove because it may not be open or explicitly stated.

Social Exclusion refers to ways in which individuals may become cut off from full
involvement in the wider society. It focuses attention on a broad range of factors

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that prevent individuals or groups having opportunities open to the majority of the
population.

Following are some of its key features:

 It is involuntary. This means that exclusion is practiced regardless of the

wishes of those who are excluded.
 It is not accidental but systemic- it is the result of structural features of a
society.
 Prolonged experience of discriminatory or insulting behavior often produces a
reaction on the part of the excluded who then stop trying for inclision.eg,
‘upper’ caste Hindu communities have often denied entry into temples for the
‘lower caste’s and specially Dalits. After decades of such treatment, the Dalits
may build their own temple or convert to another religion like Buddhism,
Christianity or Islam..
 Manifestation of caste, gender and religion discrimination and exclusive take
the form of protest movement. Yet prejudices remain and new ones emerge.
 In addition to legislation, a constant social campaign to change awareness and
sensitivity is required to break them.

Four group to have suffered from discrimination and exclusion are:

 Dalits (ex-untouchable castes)

 Adivasis or communities referred to as ‘tribal’
 Women
 Differently abled.
The caste System is a distinct Indian social institution that legitimizes and enforces
practices of discrimination against people born into particulars castes. These
practices of discrimination are humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative.

Historically the Caste system functioned in the following ways :

 It classified people by their occupation and status, which essentially meant

that persons born into a particular caste were also ‘born into’ the occupation
associated with their caste-they had no choice.
 Each caste also had a specific place in the hierarchy of social status, so that, not
only were occupational categories ranked by social status, but there could be a
further ranking within each broad occupational categories.
 According to scriptures, social and economic status were supposed to be
sharply separated.eg. the ritually highest cast-the Brahmins-were not
supposed to amass wealth and were subordinated to the to the secular power
of kings and rulers belonging to the kshatriya castes. (somewhat similar to the

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 apartheid system practiced in pre-1994 South Africa). However in actual
historical practice, economic and social status tended to coincide.
 Thus, there wasa fairly close correlation between social (i.e. caste) status and
economic status-the ‘high’ castes were almost invariably of high economic
status, while the ‘low’ castes were almost always of low economic status.
 In modern times, since the 19th century, the link between caste and occupation
has become much less rigid. Moreover compared to 150 years ago, the caste
and economic status is also weaker- rich and poor people are to be found in
every caste.
 Yet, between different socio-economic groupings, the distinctions continue to
be maintained.
Even though there have been major changes brought about by social movements
over more than a century, and despite changed modes of production as well as
concerted attempts by the state to suppress its public role in independent India,
caste continues to affect the life chances of Indians in the 21st century.

Untouchability-is an extreme and particularly vicious aspect of the caste system

that prescribes stringent social sanctions against members of castes located at the
bottom of the purity-pollution scale. They are considered to be so ‘impure’ that their
mere touch severely pollutes members of all other castes, bringing terrible
punishment for the former and forcing the perform elaborate purification rituals.

There are three main dimensions of untouchability:

 Exclusion
 Humiliation-subordination
 Exploitation
➢ Dalits experience forms of exclusion that are unique and not practiced against
other groups, eg being prohibited from sharing drinking water sources or
participating in collective religion worship.
➢ At the same time untouchability may also involve forced inclusion in a
subordination role.
➢ The performance of publicly visible acts of humiliation and subordination is
an important part of the practice of untouchability, eg routine abuse and
humiliation.
➢ It is almost always asscociated with economic exploitation of various
kind,most commonly through imposition of forced, unpaid or underpaid
labour etc.
➢ It is a pan-Indian phenomenon, although its specific forms and intensity vary
considerably across region and socio-historical contexts.

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Attempts by state and non-state initiatives to end discrimination:

➢ Even before independence, in 1935, the colonial govt. had drawn up special
treatment for all the tribes and castes who were part of the ‘scheduled’ list, for
the discrimination they had suffered.
➢ After independence, the same policies towards SCs and STs have been
followed, in addition to extending the special programmes to OBCs too in the
early 1990’s.
➢ The most important state initiative attempting to compensate for past and
present caste discrimination is the one popularly known as ‘reservation’. This
involves the setting aside of some places or ‘seats’ for members of the SCs and
STs in different spheres of public lifeBut for the OBCs, this proportion is
decided differently.
➢ In addition to reservation, there have been a number of laws passed to end,
prohibit and punish caste discrimination, specially untouchability. One of the
earliest such laws was the Caste Disabilities Removal Act of 1850. The most
recent such law was the 93Constitution Amendment act, implemented in 2006.
This law dealt with introducing reservation for OBCs in institution of higher
education, while the 1850 Act was used to allow entry of Dalits to govt.
schools.
➢ In between there have been several laws, prominent among them is the
constitution, passed in 1950, which abolished untouchability (Art17) and
introduced reservation. The other law the scheduled castes and scheduled
castes and scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Articals Act) of 1989, which
revised and strengthened the legal provisions punishing acts of violence or
humiliation against Dalits and Adivasis.
➢ Dalits themselves have been very active on the political, agitational and
cultural fronts. From pre-independence struggles and movement launched by
Jyotibha Phule, Periyar, Ambedkar to contemporary political organization like
the Bahujan Samaj Party in UP or the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti of Karnataka.
➢ Dalits have also made significant contributions to literature in several Indian
languages, specially Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telegu & Hindi.
The Other Backward Castes[OBC] - are neither part of the ‘forward’castes at the
upper end of the status spectrum, nor of the Dalits at the lower end.

➢ These were service and artisanal castes who occupy the lower rungs of the
caste hierarchy. These groups were described as ‘socially and educationally
backward classes’ or OBC.
➢ Since caste has entered all the major Indian religions and is not confined to
Hinduism alone, there are also members of other religion who belong to the

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 backward castes and share the same traditional occupational identification
and similar or worse socio-economic status.
➢ For these reasons, the OBC are a much more diverse group than the Dalits or
Adivasis.
➢ Under Jawaharlal Nehru, the First Backward Classes Commission under Kaka
Kalelkar submitted its report in 1953, but political consideration of that time
did not see it being implemented.
➢ The OBC issue returned to the central level in the late 1970’s, after the
emergency, when Janata Party came to power. The 2nd Backward Classes
Commission headed by B.P. Mandal was appointed at this time. It was in
1990, when the central govt. decided to implement the 10 year old report, that
the OBC issue took centre stage
➢ The politicization of the OBCs allows them to convert their large numbers
(41%) into political influence.
➢ The large disparities between the upper OBCs (who are largely landed castes
and enjoy dominance in rural society in many region of India) and the lower
OBCs( who are very poor and disadvantaged and often not very different
from Dalits in socio-economic terms) make this a difficult political category to
work with. They are severely under-represented in all spheres expect land
holding and political representation (through MPs and MLAs )
Adivasi Struggles- Like the SCs, the Scheduled Tribes are social groups recognized
by the Indian Constitution as specially marked by poverty,powerlessness and social
stigma. The ‘jana’ or the tribes were believed to be ‘people of the forest’ whose
distinctive habitat in the hill and forest areas shaped their economic,social and
political lives. Ecological isolation was never complete, resulting in close association
of the tribes with Hindu society and culture, where the boundaries of caste and
tribe were very porous.

In the case of the Adivasis, the movement of populations from one area to another
further complicates the picture. Barring the North-Easter states, there are no
exclusive adivasi inhabited areas. Since the middle of the 19th century, non-tribals
have moved into the tribal districts of central India, while tribals from the same
districts have migrate to plantations, mines, factories etc. In areas where tribal
populations are concentrated, their economic and social conditions are usually
much worse than those of non-tribals. The impoverishment and the exploitation that
the adivasis suffer from can be traced historically to the pattern of accelerated
resource extraction started by the colonial govt. (Reserved Forests, Timber only
forest) and continued by the govt. of independent India.

The following developments took place after independence:

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  The govt. monopoly over forests continued, the exploitation of the forests
accelerated.
 The policy of capital-intensive industrialization adopted by the Indian govt.
required mineral resources and power generation capacities which were
concentrated in Adivasi areas.
 Adivasi lands were rapidly acquired for new mining and dam projects, as a
result, they were displaced without any appropriate, compensation or
rehabilitation.
 Justified in the name of ‘national development’ and ‘economic growth’ these
policies were also a form of internal colonialism, subjugating adivasis and
alienating the resources upon which they depended.eg. Projects like Sardar
Sarovar Dam on the river Narmada in western India will displace hundreds of
thousands of adivasis, driving them to greater destitution.
 These processes have become even more powerful since 1990s when economic
liberalization policies were officially adopted by the Indian govt. It is now
easier for corporate firms to acquire large areas of land by displacing adivasis.
 In post-independence India, the most significant achievements of Adivasi
movement include the attainment of statehood for Jharkhand and
Chhattisgarh, from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh respectively.

Struggle for women’s Equality and Rigths:

Because of the obvious biological and physical differences between men

women,gender inequality is often treated as natural. However, despite appe
arances,inequality between men and women are social rather than natural.eg. There
are no biological reasons that can explain why so few women are found in position
of public power. If women were biologically unfit to be inheritors and heads of
families,how hid matrilineal societies(eg Nairs of Kerala earlier or Khasis of
Meghalaya today) work for centuries? Therefore instead of biological reasons,
gender is also aform of social inequality and exclusion like caste and class.Women
question arose in modern India as part of the 19th century middle class social
reform movement. Many of these reformers belonged to the emerging western
educated Indian middle class. They were often inspired by the democratic ideals of
the modern west and by a deep pride in their own democratic traditions of the
past.Some egs of these are anti-sati campaign, widow remarriage movement in the

Bombay Presidency, from Jyotibha Phule’s simultaneous attack on caste and gender
oppression, and from the social reform movement in Islam led by Sir Syed Ahmad
Khan.

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CONTRIBUTIONS OF REFORMERS :
1. Raja Rammohun Roy was the pioneer in 19th century social reform
movements. His views were a curious mix of western rationality and an
assertion of Indian tradition, both of which were a result of the effects of
colonialism. He attacked the practice of sati on the basis of both appeals to
humanitarian and natural rights as well as Hindu shastras.
2. M.G.Ranade fought for remarriage of upper caste widows based on Shastric
sanction for remarriage of widows along with quoting various western
scholars on the subject.
3. Jyotibha Phule, who came from a socially exclude caste, directed his attack
against both gender and caste discrimination.
4. A similar trend of drawing upon both modern western ideas as well as sacred
texts characterized Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s efforts to reform Muslim society.
Like Dayanand Saraswati, he also stood for women’ education.
5. Reform for women’ right was not only a male effort nor was the idea itself
alien to women. This is proved by egs of from Maharashtra (Stree Purush
Tulana, Tarabai Shinde) and Bengal (Sultana’s Dream by Rokeya Hossain),
the first questioned the double standards of society in dealing with the two
genders and the second book was in English, more like a science, fiction,
where in a magical country, gender roles are reversed, where men would wear
the purdah confined to home and women would be busy scientists inventing
devices to control the clouds
6. In addition to the feminist visions, there were large no. of women’s
organizations that rose at local and national levels. No wonder the Karachi
session of the INC issued a declaration on the Fundamental Rights of
Citizenship in India whereby it committed itself to equality for women.
THE DECLARATION read as follows:

• All citizens are equal before the law, irrespective of religion, caste, creed or sex.
• No disability attaches to any citizen, by reason of his or her religion, caste,
creed or sex, in regard to public employment, office power or honor, and in
the exercise of any trade or calling.
• The franchise shall be on the basis of universal adult suffrage.
• Women shall have the right to vote, to represent and the right to hold public
offices.
7. Two decades after independence, unlike the pre-independence era, the emphasis
was on modern issues-rape of women in police custody, dowry murders, the
representation of women in popular media and the gendered consequences of
unequal development.
The struggles of the Disabled- The differently abled are not ‘disabled’ only because
they are physically or mentally ‘impaired’ but because society is built in a manner
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that does not cater to their needs. In contrast to the rights of the earlier three groups,
rights of disabled have been recognized only very recently
The common features central to the public perception of ‘disability’ are:
• Disability is understood as a biological given
• Whenever a disabled person is confronted with problems, it is taken for granted
that the problem originate from his/her impairment.
• The disabled person is seen as a victim.
• Disability is supported to be linked with the disabled individual’s self perception.
• The very idea of disability suggests that they are in need of help.
Specific problems faced by the disabled in India:
• Labels such as ‘handicap’, ‘crippled’, ‘blind’, ‘deaf’ are used synonymously, and’
are often hurled at people as insults.
• Labels such as ‘bechara’ accentuate the victim status of the disabled person.
• The roots of such attitudes lie in the cultural conception that views an impaired
body as a result of fate.
• The common perception views disability as retribution for past karma(achieve)
from which there can nt be any reprieve.
 The dominant cultural construction in India therefore looks at disability as
essentially a characteristic of the individual..
The disabled are rendered disabled not because they are biologically disable, but
because society renders them so.

 The social construction of disability has yet another dimension. There is a

close relationship between disability and poverty. Malnutrition, mothers
weakened by frequent child birth, inadequate immunization programmes,
accidents in overcrowded homes-all contribute to an incidence of disability
among poor people that is higher than among people who are more
privileged.
 Furthermore, disability creates and perpetuates poverty by increasing
isolation and economic strain, not just for the individuals but for the entire
family.
 The need of the hour is better integration and more inclusive educational
discourse, so that the historical wrong of the two separate streams- one for the
disabled and one for the others – can be corrected. It is the disable themselves,
who in the recent past have tried to build awareness about their cause and the
govt. has had to respond in a variety of ways through legislation (reservation
of 5% jobs in the govt. for different kinds of disabilities) and infrastructure (by
constructing ramps, disabled friendly buildings, public toilets etc).
QUESTION BANK:
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 1. What are the valued resources?
2. Name the three forms of capital under social resources ?
3. What is the notion of pollution prevalent in South India ?
4. What are the provisions of the 1989 Prevention of Atrocities Act?
5. Who headed the 1 st and 2nd backward classes Commission?
6. How is the Dalit struggle different from the Adivasi struggle?
7. What is the paradox in Kalinganagar?
8. What is another name for social movements and why?
9. Name the person who worked for reformation of Islam ?
10. Which works of Ranade were related to the shastric sanctions for widow
remarriage ?
11. Whose conditions did Jotibha Phule seek to reform?
12. What did Dayanand Saraswati seek to attain through Arya Samaj?
13. What did the book ‘Stree Purush Tulana’ seek to protest and who wrote it?
14. What did the Karachi session of Indian National Congress commit itself to ?
15. What were the issues addressed by 19th century reform movements ?

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 CLASS: XII SUBJECT: SOCIOLOGY TOPIC: THE CHALLENGES OF
CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Diversity- emphasises differences rather than inequalities.

Cultural Diversities can manifest itself in terms of language, religion, sex , race or
caste. The difficulties arise when these cultural identities arouse intense passions are
often able to mobilise large number of people. Things get further complicated when
cultural differences are accompanied by social and economic deprivation. Due to
scarcity of available resources and intense competition among the various groups,
the situation can get further complicated for the government. These can take forms
of communal riots, caste wars, demands for regional autonomy etc.

India’s greatness lies in the fact that in spite of these problem which were there
since independence, not only has she survived as a nation, but is a stronger
nation- state today.

Importance of community identity:

 It is based on birth-Ascriptive. It is who’ we are rather than what we have

become’.It is pre-conditional in nature, it is very hard to shake off and this
makes us emotionally very attached to it. It gets perpetuated and reinforced
by expanding and overlapping circles of community ties. This makes us
emotionally reactive whenever there is a perceived threat to who we are.
 These are Universal. Everyone has a motherland ,a mother tongue, a family
etc. Because of this, conflicts that involve our communities are very hard to
deal with. In the heat of the moment, it is very hard for people on either side
to see that they are constructing matching but reversed mirror images of each
other.
Communities, Nations & Nation-states
 A nation is a sort of large scale community-it is community of communities.
Members of a nation desire to be part of the same political collectivity, and
this aspiration takes the form of the State, which according to Max Weber is ‘a
body that successfully claims monopoly of legitimate force in a particular
territory’.

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  It is hard to come up with any defining features of a nation .Historically they
have been founded on the basis of shared cultural/political identities eg
.language /ethnicity etc, but the very same identities are shared across nations
too.
 No particular kind of community can be guaranteed to form a nation.
 Unlike other kinds of communities, nations are communities that have a state
of their own. That is why the two are joined with a hyphen to form the term
nation-state .
 Two processes are happening at present at the same time .Just as aspiring
nationalities are now more and more likely to work towards forming a nation,
the existing states are also finding it more and more necessary to claim that
they represent a nation.
Methods adopted by states to eliminate cultural diversity:
 Assimilation-It involves outright suppression of the identities of ethnic,
religious or linguistic groups-try to erode the cultural differences between
groups. They are aimed at persuading, encouraging or forcing all citizens to
adopt a uniform set of cultural values or norms, generally of the dominant
social group.
 Integration- They seek to assert a single national identity by attempting to
eliminate ethno-national and cultural differences from the public and political
arena, while allowing them in the private domain. They insist that the public
culture be restricted to a common national pattern, while all non-national
cultures are to be relegated to the private sphere. Here too, the danger of
treating the dominant group’s culture being treated as the ‘national’ culture is
very high.
The Indian state is neither assimilationist nor integrationist in nature.
Challenges facing the Indian nation-state:
 Reinvigorate India’s commitment to practices of pluralism, institutional
accommodation and conflict resolution through democratic means.
 This can be done by recognising the shortcomings of historical nation building
exercises and of eth benefits of multiple and complementary identities.
 Efforts to be made to build the loyalties of all groups in society through
identification, trust and support.

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  Regionalism in India is rooted in India’s diversity of languages, cultures, tribes
and religions. It is also encouraged by the geographical concentration of these
identity markers in particular regions and fuelled by a sense of regional
deprivation. Indian federalism has been a means of accommodating these
regional sentiments.
 Linguistic( Maharashtra, Gujarat) and ethnicity based states( Chhatisgarh,
Jharkhand) have helped strengthen Indian unity and we have avoided the
dangerous consequences of denial of demands related to language groups and
ethnicity that some of our South Asian neighbours have faced.
Minority Rights and Nation Building
In Indian nationalism, the dominant trend was marked by an inclusive and
democratic vision.
Inclusive because it recognised diversity and plurality. Democratic because it
sought to do away with discrimination and exclusion and bring forth a just and
equitable society. The ideas of humanism influenced Indian nationalists. To be
effective, the ideas of inclusive nationalism had to be built the Constitution, since
there is a very strong tendency for the dominant group to assume that their culture
or language or religion is synonymous with the nation state.
Art 29 &30 of the Indian Constitution provide safeguards to religious and cultural
minorities
Communalism-In everyday usage, it means aggressive chauvinism based on
religious identity. It is an aggressive political ideology linked to religion.
Features/Manifestations:
 It is about politics not about religion. A communalist may or may not be a
devout person and devout believers may or may not be communalist.
 Communalists cultivate an aggressive political identity and are prepared to
condemn or attack everyone who does not share their identity.
 It claims that religious identity overrides everything else( occupation, caste ,
political ideology).This impacts in singularisation and homogenisation of
diverse groups, who in reality have very little in common.
 During communal tensions or violence, people become faceless members of
their respective communities, willing to kill, rape and loot members of other
communities in order to redeem their pride.
Secularism(Difference between Western and Indian contexts)

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  In the western context, it means separation of church from state, leading to
secularisation.
 This in turn was related to the arrival of modernity and the rise of science
and rationality as alternatives to religious ways of understanding the
world.
 The Indian meaning of the term, includes the western context, but also
sees a secular state or person who does not favour any religion over others.
 In terms of state -religion relationship, it implies equal respect for all
religions, rather than separation.
 The issue gets complicated as the Indian state is simultaneously committed
to the cause of secularism, while at the same time protecting the interests of
the minorities( seen by many as minority appeasement).Opponents of this
policy sees it in terms of vote bank politics, whereas the supporters argue
that without such special protection, secularism can turn into an excuse for
imposing the majority community’s values and norms on the minorities.
Authoritarian state: Features
 Is opposite of a democratic state.
 They often limit or abolish civil liberties like freedom of speech, press and
political activity
 Also a possibility that state institutions become unable or unwilling to
respond to the needs of the people because of corruption, inefficiency or lack
of resources.

Example from India: Emergency( 1975-77)

1.Parliament was suspended
2.Civil liberties were revoked and a large no. of politically active people were
arrested and jailed without trial
3.Censorship was imposed on the media
4. Govt. officials could be dismissed without normal procedures
5.Lower level officials were coerced to implement programmes and produce
inatany results(the mass forced sterilisation campaign)
Civil Society: Features
It is the name given to the broad arena which lies beyond the private domain of
the family, but outside the domain of both state and market.

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  Non-state, non-market part of public domain, in which individuals get
together voluntarily to create institutions and organisations.
 Sphere of active citizenship where they try to influence the state on their
demands of social issues
 Comprises voluntary associations or institutions formed by groups of citizens
 Can include political parties, media, trade unions, NGOs
Right to Information ( forcing the state to respond to the people)
 The Act came into effect in 2005
 Any person may request information from a public authority within 30 days
 Public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and be
proactive in publishing certain categories of information
 It overrides the Official Secrets Act.

QUESTIONS
1.What are the features of community identity?
2.Define state.
3. What is nation-state?
4.What is the different methods used by states to eliminate cultural diversity/
5. Why is cultural diversity a challenge for a nation-state?
6.Why is regionalism a challenge to Indian democracy/
7.Explain the role played by the SRC.
8.How has the creation of linguistic states helped the cause of Indian democracy?
9. Explain the views expressed by Rabindranath Tagore on exclusive nationalism.
10.What forms can communalism take?

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 CLASS:XII SUBJECT:SOCIOLOGY TOPIC:STRUCTURAL CHANGE

STRUCTURAL CHANGE
Understanding the present generally involves some grasp of it’s past. There is a
need to understand the history of India to understand it’s modern form .Many
modern institutions and ideas reached India through colonialism.
Colonialism simply means the establishment of rule by one country over the other
.Indian history was effected by entry of travellers and conquerors at different points
of time .Ancient Indian economy was based on the Barter system but British
colonialism was based on capitalist system .Our parliamentary and legal system,
police and educational system was based on British model.
Structural change implies changes in the social relationships .e.g the joint family
system is being replaced by nuclear family. Colonialism spread capitalist economics
and the tendency to move from one part of the country to another increased.The
structural changes are difficult to discuss without some mention of the cultural
changes too. The impact of colonial rule is distinguishable from all other earlier
rules because the changes it brought in were far-reaching and deep.

Two main changes were :

A) British colonialism which was based on a capitalist system directly interfered to ensure
greatest profit and benefit to British capitalism. Every policy was geared towards the
strengthening and expansion of British capitalism. For instance it changed the very
laws of the land.
B) It changed not just land ownership laws but decided even what crops ought to be grown
and what ought not to be. It meddled with the manufacturing sector. It altered the way
production and distribution of goods took place. It entered into the forests. It
cleared trees and started tea plantations. It brought in Forest Acts that changed the
lives of pastoralists. They were prevented from entering many forests that had
earlier provided valuable forage for their cattle
C) Colonialism also led to considerable movement of people. It led to movement of people
from one part to another within India. For instance people from present day
Jharkhand moved to Assam to work on the tea plantations. A newly emerging
middle class particularly from the British Presidency regions of Bengal and Madras
moved as government employees and professionals like doctors and lawyers moved
to different parts of the country. People were carted in ships from India to work on
other colonised lands in distant Asia, Africa and Americas.

Colonialism brought into being new political, economic and social structural
changes .Two structural changes are very important. The application of complex
and sophisticated methods to the production of economic goods and services .

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Industrialization : Emergence of machine production based on the use of inanimate
power resources like steam or electricity. It is a process in which production from
the house level reaches the level of large scale factories. The whole process of
production is mechanized .The traditional skills have declined .Nature ,character
and growth of economy has been affected.

Urbanization: urbanization is a process of migration of population from the rural

areas to bigger towns and cities on a larger scale due to social, economic and
political causes.It refers to the growth of cities .It also indicates an enormous
increase in the population of urban areas .It denotes the diffusion of the influence of
urban centres to a rural hinterland.As a result of people have started to move to
industrial areas in search of employment.Due to this the industrial developed into
towns and cities .The growth of cities has resulted in urban concentration and rural
depopulation .
Industrialization and urbanization are directly related to each other. Whenever a
industry develops a city also develops in the adjoining area. In this way social and
cultural changes have taken place due to both processes.
A number of changes to place in India due to colonialism which included basic
changes in administration, development of means of transport and communication.
Spread of capitalism, changes in culture. The British started to establish industry
here which encouraged the process of urbanization leading to the decline of old
cities. Industrialization gained pace after independence. Five year plans were
implemented by government whose main objective was to industrialize India. Social
change has taken place very quickly as a result of industrialization. It has been given
a boost by globalization and liberalization. The magnitude and depth of structural
change as a result of colonialism has been immense.
Capitalism is an economic system of colonial rule. In this, the means of production
are privately owned and organized to accumulate profit within a market system. If
capitalism became the dominant economic system nation states became the
dominant political form. Capitalism is marked by :
 Dynamism
 Potential to grow and expand
 Innovate
 Use technology and labour
 To ensure profit
Unlike Britain where the impact of industrialisation led to more people moving into
urban areas, in India the initial impact of the same British industrialisation led to
more people moving into agriculture. Cities had a key role in the economic system
of empires. Coastal cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai were favoured.
From here primary commodities could be easily exported and manufactured goods
could be cheaply imported. Colonial cities were the prime link between the
economic centre or core in Britain and periphery or margins in colonised India.
Cities in this sense were the concrete expression of global capitalism. In British India
SCM_XII_SOCIOLOGY_2020-21_TERM 1 & 2 Page 17 of 18
for example Bombay was planned and re-developed so that by 1900 over three-
quarters of India’s raw cotton were shipped through the city. Urbanisation in the
colonial period saw the decline of some earlier urban centres and the emergence of
new colonial cities
We all live in nation states and we all have a nationality that may appear natural to
us today. Nation states pertain to a particular type of government that has:
 Sovereign power
 Define territorial area
 Citizenship
 Feeling of nationalism
To facilitate the smooth functioning of its rule, colonialism introduced a wide array
of changes in every sphere, be it legal or cultural or architectural. Some of these
changes were deliberate while some took place in an unintended fashion. For
example we saw how western education was introduced to create Indians who
would manage British colonialism. Instead it led to the growth of a nationalist and
anticolonial consciousness. . Nationalism implied that the people of India have an
equal right to be sovereign. The Indian nationalist leaders declared that Swaraj was
their birth right and they fought for economical and political freedom. These
principles are an important part in the rise of democratic ideas.
TEA PLANTATIONS:
The case of the tea industry in India as an example. The colonial government often
used unfair means to hire and forcibly keep labourers. And clearly acted on behalf
of the British planters. From fictional and other accounts we get a glimpse of what
life was for planters in this industry. Significantly the colonial administrators were
clear that harsh measures were taken against the labourers to make sure they
benefited the planters. They were also fully aware that the laws of a colonised
country did not have to stick to the democratic norms that the British back home
had to follow in Britain.The owners and managers of the industry were British
.There was no direct contact between employers and employees ,their was a
contracter between them for the recruitment process .
Recent years of globalisation have led to enormous expansion and change of cities
in India many villages all over India are becoming increasingly subject to the impact
of urban influences. But the nature of urban impact varies according to the kind of
relations a village has with a city or town .

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